While navigating an economy that is reshaping customer demand, business models, and industries in unpredictable ways, executives are just as concerned about their company’s recovery readiness. Just days before the onset of the pandemic, revealed that four-fifths of CEOs worried about skill gaps, up from half in 2012.

As the marketplace continues to evolve, concern over skill shortages is intensifying. In response, businesses are relying more on contingent talent, comprising 42 percent of the average workforce spend according to . Sometimes, we even hear organizational managers say that their company couldn’t conduct business as usual without the support of independent contractors, freelancers, temporary staff, and service providers.

Despite the importance of external workers, most CEOs and senior leaders do not have fast, easy access to information on them. This reality is not as uncommon as you may think. In fact, this lack of visibility that limits compliance, governance, cost control, and resource optimization prompts many companies to implement solutions. And with the assistance of the offering, our customers are aligning their workforce practices with business needs in real time.

Uncovering Workforce Value Outside the Payroll

Every business wants the best talent – on the payroll or not – that can help see them through times of disruption, uncertainty, and prosperity. They need knowledgeable people who can get the job done efficiently, timely, and with an edge that further differentiates the brand. And most importantly, executives expect high-quality outcomes at a fair price and the ability to quickly identify talent that could be a valuable candidate for an open role or leadership position.

Bringing these expectations to life requires a system of checks and balances when managing workers hired outside the payroll. This capability involves workflow automation that serves as a single point for compliance auditing, assignment administration, communication, and delivery of work items. External workforce information should also be integrated seamlessly with modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to trigger invoicing and payment; cost analysis; and HR processes such as onboarding, badging, security checks, technology access, and laptop distribution.

Our customers find that 51·çÁ÷Fieldglass solutions are well-suited to support such a digital transformation. But to optimize their adoption of the vendor management system, they often want insight-driven, prescriptive, and personalized support to determine goals that complement their business strategies and address talent management disparities.

51·çÁ÷Preferred Success gives the guidance that our customers seek. With a comprehensive portfolio of exclusive success plans and support expertise, organizations can identify opportunities for cost savings, process automation, and adoption of business networks to allow qualified contingent workers to bid against each other. Tailored functional learning, change management, and enhanced support capabilities are also offered to help implement new solutions, establish new processes and refine existing ones, and foster business-wide adoption.

Perhaps as its most critical advantage, 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success offers continuous support throughout our customers’ transformation journey. We give organizations the freedom to fully understand emerging trends and consider how they relate to their business needs, workforce capabilities, and digital strategies. These developments may include recently passed labor regulations, rising demand for new skills, evolving market forces, and shifts in business direction.

Semiannually, 51·çÁ÷Fieldglass solutions are updated to fulfill the changing landscape of external workforce management. However, we also understand that our customers must also strategically choose capabilities based on current requirements and scale the technology as the contingent workforce fluctuates. Access to the latest release notes, solutions road maps, and real-life best practices allows our customers to make informed decisions that meet their unique needs.

Bringing to Life a Connected Ecosystem of the Right Talent

For many of our customers, the experience of evolving their external talent management with 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success brings a new perspective on the value of independent contractors, freelancers, temporary staff, and service providers.

Every workshop, design-thinking session, update release, and process change allows them to make connections between business goals, defined success metrics, and the role of external employees. This level of visibility enables them to look beyond the day-to-day minutia to think about their entire workforce on and off the payroll – opening the door to the talent they need.

Get more real-life insights on 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success through the series, Heading to the Cloud with 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success, and learn how your entire company can accelerate cloud adoption and business outcomes with insight-driven, prescriptive, and personalized guidance and support.

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John Wagner, Jr., is global practice lead for 51·çÁ÷Preferred Success, Intelligent Spend Management, at SAP.
Nick Geiger is director of Customer Adoption, Americas, for 51·çÁ÷Fieldglass.