As contingent staffing programs evolve, the bar is moving higher and higher on the insights they are expected to derive. The systems that support the acquisition of contingent staff through the suppliers (vendor management systems) are often solely configured to measure activities like the speed to hire, fulfilment rates, diverse hiring targets, a variety of cost savings ventures and even the accuracy of presented candidate shortlists.

However, considering the growing trend of organisations seeking a more flexible and project based workforce, and jobseekers being more open to contract assignments, one area that needs to be further addressed is how we measure contingent staff performance.

This includes how an organisation measures the effectiveness of a daily resource, justifies spend versus return and ensures contractors receive suitable feedback.

With contractors engaged through third party labour hire firms and the likelihood that larger contingent programs will be serviced by a Managed Service Program (MSP), a more purposeful performance management program needs to be utilised.

Capturing feedback

The regular opportunity to capture feedback from a hiring manager during the course of a contingent staff project, such as through a Vendor Management System (VMS), should be grabbed with both hands. Project specific outcomes which are met or not met and positive feedback on key tasks or areas for improvement should be captured at key date milestones. These are then presented by the MSP or host organisation to the relevant labour hire firm to trigger direct contingent feedback sessions.

This information will provide a level of transparency that will serve to empower all parties, irrespective of the nature of the feedback. They can drive contractor engagement and performance in cases of highly satisfactory or exemplary performance. They can also allow the labour hire firm to address under achievement, either with that particular resource through coaching or training or, depending on the nature of the feedback, the introduction of a more relevant contractor.

Such project check-ins can also be utilised by a host organisation, MSP or labour hire firm when determining if other suitable roles exist beyond current projects.

The culmination of these scores can surpass current indicators of contractor success, which lean mostly on simple contract completion reports, or in other words, the overall percentage of a contract that was completed by the contractor. Such reports fail to showcase a contractor’s level of achievement and return on investment; instead, they only indicate whether performance was satisfactory enough to not warrant intervention.

The holistic performance of the entire contingent workforce, when combined with metrics like speed to hire, compliance and cost saving, can also provide a more rounded indication of how well a contingent staffing program is meeting an organisation’s goals – which is the perfect dashboard for senior management and HR to inject change if needed.

AUTHOR

Michael Gauci
Senior Client Services Manager, Australia, Hays Talent Solutions
Michael has over 12 years of program management experience, consulting to a vast array of organisations across multiple industries within APAC.

Having managed a variety of outsourcing models (RPO, Master Vendor, MSP), his passion and focus is centred on stakeholder engagement, people leadership, operational delivery and providing consistent, result driven programs which are strategically aligned to his client’s needs.