We’re thrilled to announce that PRO Unlimited’s Wand VMS has been shortlisted in two categories in the 2018 SaaS Awards Program — “Best SaaS Product for Business Intelligence or Analytics” and “Best SaaS Product for HR or Recruitment.” With awards for excellence and innovation in SaaS, the UK-based Software-as-a-Service Awards program accepts entries worldwide. The SaaS Awards program is now in its third year of recognizing and celebrating innovation in software. In addition to being honored for its overall VMS solution, PRO was recognized for Wand Discovery, the business intelligence and data visualisation tool in Wand VMS. Wand Discovery helps clients make sense of the massive amounts of data they are creating and empowers them with actionable analytics to drive significant cost savings, contingent workforce programme efficiencies, and smarter workforce planning decisions. (Read more: “7 Contingent Workforce Question That Wand VMS Can Help You Answer.”) “All entrants demonstrated considerable commitment to innovation in software solutions, and to make the shortlist itself is a huge achievement,” said SaaS Awards and Cloud Awards organizer Larry Johnson. “With such a concentrated level of success in the shortlist, our judges have a significant task ahead of them to arrive at our final award winners.” In naming PRO a two-category finalist, judges recognized Wand innovations such as Total Talent Solutions, a groundbreaking extension of Wand Discovery that provides clients with total visibility into both contingent AND full-time resources across the organization. PRO clients have used it to better see across their entire workforces, understand costs associated with different worker engagement types, and determine where their talent pipelines were best suited to fulfill talent deficits. (Learn more about Total Talent Solutions.) The SaaS Awards are open to large, small, established and start-up organizations from across the entire globe, with an aim to find and celebrate the pioneers who will shape the future of SaaS as we move into 2019 and beyond. More than 300 organizations entered, with international entries coming from North America, Canada, Australia, UK, Europe and the Middle East. (View the full shortlist.) If you’re interested in learning more about how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email us at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of PRO Unlimited and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.

Businesses should not have to choose between driving contingent labor cost savings and preserving talent quality and time to fill. These 4 emergent strategies explain how companies can do both – and do them better. SELF-SOURCED TALENT STRATEGY By leveraging established brand awareness and innovative resource tracking software, hiring managers are empowered to self-source candidates when they need to fill openings quickly and cost effectively. This self-sourcing talent strategy avoids conflicts with staffing interests, and results in 4-8% recurring annual savings, as well as savings of 15-20% with every order because of significant markup rate reduction. With this additional control over the candidate pipeline, managers consistently rate self-sourced workers with higher quality scores than externally sourced workers. REAL-TIME RATE INTELLIGENCE The question of what a company should pay to attract top talent can result in a major missed cost-savings opportunity when the answer is off the mark. Real-time rate intelligence that factors in job-specific skills and location-based premiums has been shown to drive 3-9% savings per order, or 4-6% recurring annual savings. With rate ranges embedded within a sourcing platform like PRO’s Vendor Management Software, Wand, organizations achieve rate standardization and eliminate excessively expensive labor costs. WORKPLACE BEHAVIOR Understanding workplace behavior is key to diagnose hiring process inefficiencies so they can be treated accordingly through best practice training. From manager requests to bill rate negotiation, businesses can save 2-5% per order, and expect to see 1-4% annual savings by promoting cost-effective sourcing behaviors. Dashboards like Wand Discovery provide overtime visualizations to help track which departments and managers are most in need of additional cost-avoidance education, and the use of a VMS to track the hiring process can help organizations reduce bottlenecks. REDEPLOYMENT UTILIZATION Companies can boost contingent labor cost savings even further by reallocating readily available talent with the help of their VMS and MSP. To proactively engage known labor resources and reduce vacancies, executives should utilize a broad-scope VMS with a business intelligence platform, complemented by an MSP that understands hiring nuances. Together, this integrated contingent workforce management model encourages redeployment and results in per-order and annual savings from 2-6%, with workers’ end dates seamlessly transitioning to start dates for similar open roles. Knowing where a business should start driving hard cost savings can be a bumpy road, so letting experts take the wheel can be part of a comprehensive annual total cost reduction strategy. PRO Unlimited’s Strategy, Analytics & Metrics division provides a clear map of over 40 different cost savings methodologies and uses program data analysis to fuel actionable process improvements. To learn more about how to drive cost-savings in your organization, please download this Fact Sheet.   If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or

A look at how three organizations gained a competitive advantage by tapping analytics in the battle for talent In the contingent workforce management industry, HR executives can use “big data” to make strategic choices about hiring and worker allocation — this can determine if a company will succeed in the competitive talent acquisition landscape. Below, read the stories of three companies that elevated their contingent labor practices through making data work for them. 1) BENEFITS OF LEVERAGING DATA A utilities company drilled into their labor data to answer when and where to hire contingent workers. By unlocking key business insights previously unseen in internal databases, the company’s leadership quickly determined how to reallocate existing talent resources. Bypassing additional recruiting channels saved the business time and money. 2) TOTAL TALENT SOLUTIONS Sometimes diagnosing the pain points in the workforce ecosystem requires a broader perspective. With the help of a purely vendor-neutral and integrated VMS and MSP, a leader in global technology married FTE and non-employee data to achieve total visibility into their requisition lifecycle. This Total Talent Solution led to workforce-wide key wins, such as a dynamic “pricing curve” to guide managers’ hiring decisions. The increased visibility into macro-level trends touts the benefits of a centralized metrics platform when looking to optimize business strategy. 3) WINNING THE GLOBAL TALENT WAR For a pharmaceutical giant struggling to attract and retain quality talent in one of the U.S.’s tightest labor markets, data analysis of internal and external sources gave the company a competitive edge in understanding the contingent worker experience. This approach to collecting non-employee feedback allowed the pharma leader to address why talent was staying or leaving. Reinforced by a new brand-awareness campaign, the company shortly saw an uptick in retention and improved candidate quality. It is not enough for big data to merely be available, rather is must also be useful and yield actionable intelligence. Businesses must identify the appropriate internal and external partners to help them to harness the power of data, or else get left behind in race for top talent. To learn more, download our Fact Sheet here.   If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of PRO Unlimited and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.  

Attending ProcureCon Contingent Staffing in a few days? Don’t miss the following sessions while at the conference — PRO has been invited to moderate three of them!  For more information on any of the session topics, check out the following panels below.  And if you are not attending the show, but would like to speak about any of these topics in greater detail, please let us know. We would be happy to discuss further! Key Note Panel: Making An Impact: Elevating Your Contingent Workforce Strategy – Day 1, July 30, 8:50 AM This panel of experts will engage you with tricks, trends and perspectives to evaluate the ‘big picture’ of your contingent staffing program and helping you win the war for the best talent. Regardless of your program’s maturity, size, or focus, you won’t want to miss this engaging session that will provide key takeaways and trends to freshen up your program.  You’ll understand their perspectives on: 2018 trends in Contingent Staffing How to plan and execute a contingent workforce strategy that works for your organization Incorporating your contingent workforce strategy into Total Talent Management Reassessing involvement of MSP (Full MSP, Hybrid, In-House) – Is the traditional MSP model dead? Determining how and why to make a course correction Techniques to manage stakeholder resistance Fireside Chat: A Talent Acquisition Leader’s Perspective on The Value Of Contingent Workers – Day 1, July 30, 9:30 AM With contingent labor being comprised of more mission-critical and intelligent workers than ever before, it’s becoming more critical to incorporate contingent staff within your overall workforce strategy. This engaging fireside chat will take you through Monsanto’s  journey and give you takeaways and perspective that you won’t get anywhere else.  Some key topics include: Right way (and wrong way) to engage Talent leadership within your organization Breaking through organizational inertia/pre-conceived notions of contingent staff Tactics to set your program up for initial and continued success Talent Management Strategies – Setting Yourself Up For Success – Day 1, July 30, 11:40 AM In today’s tight labor market,  having a well defined and thought out strategy to acquire talent is critical to the success of your program.  Often times total talent management is seen as the all encompassing strategy to implement.  However, without a set definition or standard total talent management can be seen as a cloud in the sky that people can’t grasp.  This session will take you back down to earth to discuss: How leading firms are defining Total Talent Management within your own organization What are the goals of their Total Talent Management (and other) talent management strategies Actionable steps to address Total Talent Management within your own organization.   If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or

Today, we’re excited to announce the release of the groundbreaking Wand Mobile Supplier App, the first mobile app designed specifically for suppliers. In short, it enables account managers, recruiters, sourcers and billing specialists to manage items throughout the contingent workforce lifecycle, all without ever touching their desktops or laptops. (Read the press release.) Breaking the Mold As the world’s largest purely vendor-neutral MSP/VMS solution, we strongly value our partnership with suppliers. Knowing that there hasn’t previously been a mobile VMS solution designed with a supplier’s needs and workflows in mind, we set out to create a world-class app to help users at staffing organizations respond faster and accomplish more when they’re on the go. During the development process, we performed extensive research and end user testing, working with our supplier partners to identify the most common and critical mobile use cases. The result is an innovative mobile app that guides users to key tasks and provides a frictionless way to move items forward. With the Wand Mobile Supplier App, users can utilize their iPhones to tackle tasks such as: 1) Scheduling Interviews on the Go Coordinating interview timing between candidates and hiring managers is a challenging task, with availability changing by the minute. With the Wand Mobile Supplier App, recruiters and sourcers can easily schedule, manage and confirm candidate interviews from anywhere, increasing efficiency. Interview times can be sent to candidates via email or SMS, and they can accept or decline without ever having to log into Wand. 2) Tracking Requests Anytime, Anywhere Job requests may arrive when account managers are traveling to or from work, during lunch or an off-site meeting, and after hours. The Wand Mobile Supplier App helps ensure users are always in position to respond to new requests, increasing the odds of filling these requisitions. Users can view new requests at a glance, drill down into engagement details, and forward these requests to recruiters or candidates. 3) Reviewing and Confirming Expenses Finding the time to review expenses can be a challenge for even the most efficient of billing specialists. But what if you could take advantage of a few minutes “here and there” to view engagement expenses on your iPhone? With the Wand Mobile Supplier App, it’s easy to view submitted expenses, drill down into details, and confirm the expenses right from a mobile device. 4) Managing Candidates Job and candidate availability can change fast, so the Wand Mobile Supplier App makes it easy to view candidates, reschedule/cancel interviews, contact candidates, and even withdraw candidates from consideration – all with a few quick taps and swipes. Delivering a Better User Experience As a native mobile application, the Wand Mobile Supplier App leverages the full capabilities of the iPhone device, delivering an intuitive, streamlined and ultimately rewarding user experience. (An Android version will release later this year.) Push notifications alert users of new action items requiring their attention, and the quick, at-a-glance view of new action items from the app homepage drives greater efficiency. Boasting a range

In a recent Forbes piece, PRO Unlimited’s Ted Sergott, EVP of Product Development, talks about the top contingent labor concerns companies can address by leveraging a Vendor Management System (VMS) such as Wand. As mentioned in the article, “More than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced daily. In 2017, some predicted that more data would be created than in the previous 5,000 years. This data offers possibilities, but also has the potential to overwhelm executives. Seventy-five percent of business executives identify talent analytics as an important issue, but only 8% believe their organizations are strong in this area. This data influx is reflected in the contingent workforce management arena, where managers, gig workers, suppliers and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) combine to create millions of data points. It begs the question: If workforce data contains the answers to critical questions, how can businesses unlock them? One answer could be a top-tier VMS to manage all aspects of the contingent labor program. A VMS enables a transition from program-wide data to line item-level information. When combined with an MSP, it empowers stakeholders to understand what’s happening, identify key trends/drivers and take action. Here are the seven questions stakeholders can ask of a VMS to better understand their company’s contingent workforce ecosystem and fuel actionable decisions moving forward:” Where are my workers located? Are we paying competitive, market rates? Are there opportunities to reduce overtime? What parts of the requisition process can we tweak to speed time-to-fill? Why do we have turnover? Do I need to pay top dollar for a statement of work (SOW) worker to get top-level quality? What sourcing method results in the best talent quality at the best cost? To see how a leading VMS can answer all of these questions, check out the full Forbes article here. Also, to read about PRO’s unique approach in addressing these questions, request a copy of our whitepaper.   If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of PRO Unlimited and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.

The UK Staffing market is facing one of its biggest challenges of recent times if the Government is successful in implementing changes to IR35 in the private sector, similar to those implemented in 2017 within the public sector. To find out more, we are hosting a complimentary breakfast seminar to discuss, debate and provide a balanced view on the potential rule changes. Furthermore, you can expect to take away key learnings and practical guidance on what you can do now to get your organization ready. Here are the details if you want to attend: When: July 16th from 08.30am – 10.30am Where: The Gherkin, 30 St Mary Axe, London, EC3A 8EP What you can expect to learn: Chris Hughes, Director of Global Services with PRO Unlimited, will be discussing the following: What is IR35, historical perspective and context? Summary of the public sector changes. How will IR35 impact the Private Sector? Potential compliance and liability risk companies will face if using Personal Service Company (PSC) contractors under IR35. Recommendations and insight on what your company can do now to prepare for the potential change. Places are limited and are on a first come, first serve basis.  Please R.S.V.P. to book your place via information@prounlimited.co.uk or call +44 (0)203 633 3912.   Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of PRO Unlimited and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.

We’re thrilled to announce that PRO Unlimited’s Wand Vendor Management System (VMS) has been honored as a Gold Winner in the 2018 CEO World Awards® in the “Products, Upgrades and Innovation of the Year – 500-2,499” category. It’s the latest in a string of third-party recognition that PRO has earned, including accolades from the 2018 Stevie Awards, 2018 Big Data Excellence Awards and 2018 World Procurement Awards. The coveted annual CEO World Awards program encompasses the world’s best in leadership, innovation, new products and services, and organizational performance from every major industry in the world. More than 80 judges from a broad spectrum of global industry voices participated, and their average scores determined the 2018 CEO World Award winners. The judges recognized Wand’s innovation in areas ranging from its consumerized design and seamless omnichannel access to its powerful self-sourcing capabilities and total resource visibility. For clients, these award-winning attributes translate into benefits such as: On-the-go accessibility: Boasting true native apps on iPhone and Android devices, Apple iPad and even the Apple Watch, Wand Mobile allows users to manage the full contingent workforce lifecycle from anywhere. The latest addition to the group is the Wand Mobile Supplier App, the industry’s first mobile app designed specifically for suppliers. (Read more: “5 Ways Mobile Improves the Contingent Workforce Management Experience.”) Enhanced business agility and productivity: Built by PRO’s Silicon Valley-based development team, Wand went through exhaustive end-user research and use case study to deliver a product that’s actionable and intuitive. Significant cost savings: Wand’s Talent Network module allows clients to create their own private, self-sourced candidate pool. Furthermore, Wand uses industry-first resume-parsing and Candidate Matching technologies to automatically match and suggest candidates to managers based on a robust, proprietary algorithm. (Learn more: “Using Candidate Matching to Find the Best Contingent Worker for the Job.”) Improved speed of execution: Wand’s contextual interface showcases the key items managers need to address directly on their home screen. By bubbling up the new action items required to manage their contingent workforce, Wand Mobile helps managers review action items faster. Increased talent quality and retention: Powered by Wand Discovery, Total Talent Solutions provides clients with total resource visibility into both contingent and full-time resources across the entire organization to drive cost savings, program effectiveness and worker quality. (Learn more: “Unleashing the Power of Holistic Workplace Visibility.” For more on the 2018 CEO World Awards and PRO’s Wand VMS technology, please check out PRO’s official press release and “Wand VMS, the Most Robust Omnichannel VMS Solution on the Market” data sheet. If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or email at info@prounlimited.com. Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of PRO Unlimited and is not to be construed

Capturing the data connected to a contingent labor program is one thing, but often businesses struggle to translate this workforce data into actionable intelligence. As a result, opportunities are missed to reduce cost, improve worker quality, mitigate risk and increase efficiency. Here are three ways that a powerful business intelligence tool can help managers and organization leaders make smarter decisions about future workforce strategy: 1) Uncovering Billing Trends Powerful reporting and analytics tools can help you better understand spend trends and drive significant cost savings. For example, is your business unnecessarily incurring premium charges for overtime? Are you overpaying for workers? Conversely, are your employees leaving for financial reasons? Naturally, some overtime is normal and an expected part of a flexible workforce model. Gaining visibility into variables across departments and disciplines can help businesses understand whether these premium charges are necessary. Similarly, underpaying for workers can result in increased turnover and a loss of talent that can have significant negative business impact. However, many organizations lack the reporting and analytics tools and know-how to understand if they are overpaying or underpaying for different types of contingent labor — and what to do about it. Learn more: “Using Reporting and Analytics to Improve Contingent Workforce Management” 2) Improving Time to Fill “How can we speed up time to fill?” With the war for talent at full throttle and cost savings and talent quality on the line, it’s a common question for businesses. However, improving in this area is easier said than done, since time to fill is filled with many sequential processes, some of which can’t start until others are completed. To make matters more complex, capturing specific processes within a company’s requisition fulfillment process is beyond the scope (or interest) of most VMS technologies. However, a leading-edge VMS like PRO Unlimited’s Wand can provide new levels of visibility and drive actionable intelligence for reducing time to fill. In short, the ability to drill into specific areas in the requisition process can help inform a more nuanced approach to improving time to fill. Learn more: “7 Contingent Workforce Questions a Leading-Edge VMS Can Help You Answer” 3) Gaining a Holistic View of Your Workforce Obtaining visibility into both contingent AND full-time resources across the entire organization can fuel smarter decision-making in numerous areas. For example, perhaps your company is looking at opening a new call center and you want to get a feel for your contingent and full-time workforces in these areas, so you can better determine if this is the right place to build out a certain skill set. On a different note, maybe your organization has a large number of “knowledge workers” under SOW, and you’re wondering whether engaging self-sourced, staffing-sourced or full-time employees for these roles might help you drive cost savings without a decrease in quality. By importing specific types of “sanitized” full-time data and viewing it right next to contingent data, managers can determine the best way to engage resources across categories from a cost, quality

This latest article in HR.com is a must read for procurement professionals.  Jack Schink, a former director of procurement at a pharmaceutical giant, discusses why he made the switch from a staffing aligned Managed Service Provider (MSP) to a Purely Vendor-Neutral contingent workforce management model.  Jack begins the piece by saying that he and his team embarked on a project to improve the sourcing of contingent labor. It had been a problem area for some time and Jack knew they needed to think a little bit differently especially when it came to their MSP at the time. Basically, Jack and his team across the company discovered significant gaps while using this staffing agency in the capacity of an MSP. They needed a change and required their new provider focus on the following goals: Improve satisfaction levels among internal hiring managers Mitigate the risks associated with co-employment Manage a pool of qualified suppliers to deliver the best talent possible Accumulate, analyze and interpret data to drive positive business outcomes They ended up selecting PRO Unlimited because we are a vendor-neutral and integrated MSP and Vendor Management System (VMS)  solution, which helped (and continues to help to this day) to do all of these things stated above and more. What’s so unique about our model versus the previous one in place? Let’s take a look… What is a Purely Vendor-Neutral Model? Pure vendor neutrality only exists when the MSP or VMS provider has no affiliation whatsoever with a staffing agency. When no one staffing firm is unfairly prioritized, true supplier optimization is possible, giving the business the best cost and highest-performing talent. Creating a competitive environment for sourcing labor, while ensuring a level playing field, enables rather than impedes the use of lower cost, direct sourcing options such as independent contractors and freelancers. Finally, pure vendor neutrality means the solution provider is beholden to no one other than the client, which is the never case when the MSP can compete to fill requisitions. Here are the high level areas that Jack and his team realized after implementation: Cost Savings: The company controlled spend and increased program adoption, which helped them consistently deliver around 8% year-over-year savings. Supplier Management: The vendor-neutral model and solution provider’s industry experience resulted in optimized supplier management, obtaining the best candidates at the best price. Co-Employment Risk: The company built a new set of business rules into the VMS regarding length of stay policies and installed a pricing model with the suppliers. Rate Cards: The provider utilized its analytics team to develop regionally based rate cards for each of the roles within the program. In summary, Jack explains how PRO’s vendor-neutral solution can help drive out savings, reduce maverick spend, improve supplier management, and reduce risk. To learn more about this transition and the benefits realized, read the full article here.   If you or a member of your team would benefit from a further discussion on how PRO is helping companies implement winning contingent workforce management programs globally, please contact a PRO representative at 800.291.1099 or