Vendor Management System has become a vital tool for companies to handle their resources. Read about how it helps the organizations automate it. As companies become increasingly reliant on third-party labor to supplement their workforce, technology that can efficiently manage their contingent workforce becomes imperative. First introduced in the 1990s, VMS software has emerged as a vital tool for companies that rely heavily on outside sources of labor, including temporary employees, independent contractors, and professional service firms. The primary role of VMS has been to automate the procure-to-pay aspect of the outsourced work – that is, the ability to request talent, track hours, process invoices and pay suppliers. The emphasis on financial functionality stems in large part from the hard savings that companies can achieve by automating and more strictly manage these tasks. This same technology can also be used to manage other contingent labor concerns – from identity verification to tenure management that is no less important to an organization’s long-term success. Though it has a number of distinct benefits, contingent labor can bring its own risks as well. Your organization should ask itself questions such as:

1. Are we confident in our ability to properly identify outsourced workers, including persons who may be on a “do not rehire” list because of past performance issues?
2. What are the consequences of misclassifying a contingent worker? Is there a possibility that suppliers will try to recover overtime pay and benefits through the courts?
3. Are pay rates consistent across our organization for comparable positions? Can we properly assess whether it is worth paying contingent workers a premium versus hiring them to a permanent role?

Furthermore, a Talent Procurement tool also helps meet on/offboarding management challenges by:

• Allowing for the cross-referencing of temps, contractors, and other suppliers to avoid those designated as “do not redeploy” for performance or legal reasons
• Accelerating onboarding by providing a clear record of which documents are required and their status – one that can be easily accessed over mobile devices, by on or off-site personnel with proper clearance
• Providing customizable settings to properly retain or dispose of documents once a project ends.
• Confirming that temporary employees who are converted to permanent status are hired at an appropriate rate of pay.

Mobile Enablement Mobile-enabled VMS or Talent Procurement solutions provide a big advantage. Mobile enablement saves time, improves clarity, and accelerates networking and interaction and inevitably worker retention. “The biggest disruptor in talent acquisition today is experimentation with tech solutions and services. With over 70 percent of TA systems coming from third-party providers, vendors are actively seeking to capitalize on these new technologies. Many of these are evolving toward cognitive capabilities that build on mobile and cloud technologies, as well as social networks such as LinkedIn.” Talent Acquisition: Enter the cognitive recruiter Deloitte Consulting LLP