In our COVID-adjusted world, businesses across industry sectors are permanently adopting more flexible work arrangements for their staff. Even before the global pandemic, talent strategies were reflecting the scarcity of top talent and how a larger number of experienced professionals were choosing the freelance model over permanent engagement.
These days, ongoing structural changes in the workforce population compel organizations to rely on external talent. Freelancers, contactors, consultants, and temps are now a core part of a company’s workforce, accounting for a more significant proportion of an organization’s total talent pool.
Increasing reliance on external talent
With talent strategies now reliant on both a permanent and external workforce, optimally managing contingent labor as part of a total workforce management strategy is now more important than ever. Rather than seeing contingent workers as a procurement exercise and expense, HR needs visibility and input into the use of contingent labor.
Seizing the opportunity to better manage its growing contingent workforce, PVH Europe brought its Procurement and HR teams together to develop and execute its total workforce vision.
As one of the world’s largest and most admired fashion companies, PVH has built global iconic brands including Calvin Klein and TOMMY HILFIGER by connecting with consumers in more than 40 countries. The company’s 140-year history is built on the strength of its brands, a very large and strong consumer base, a truly global presence, and a rapidly growing digital and multichannel distribution capability.
PVH’s European operations rely on contractors, temporary staff, or freelancers to give it the flexibility and scalability to meet the demands of a rapidly changing business. As many projects require specialized skills for a specific period, external workers provide the expertise when it’s needed to fill workforce gaps.
Connecting to experts who can start quickly
With highly qualified external resources accounting for about 10% of the total workforce at PVH in Europe, the company looked for a software solution to improve visibility and management of this important talent pool. At the time, the company had only limited visibility into its external talent, as the information was siloed by the department that employed the resources.
Taking a holistic view of workforce management and planning required making contingent workers part of its total talent approach. Forming a strong partnership between Procurement and HR, SAP Fieldglass Vendor Management System was selected and implemented by Randstad Sourceright and TalentIn.
This tool helps PVH find, engage, and manage its growing base of external resources by centralizing the management and tracking of its contingent workforce. With streamlined operational processes and standardized contracts with suppliers, the company has strengthened governance and controls around the hiring of external labor, helping it meet complex compliance requirements.
Using the solution, supplier contracts and total contingent workforce spend data is visible to both Procurement and HR teams, and PVH can track the talent it is using – how individual resources performed, what they were paid, and where their skills could potentially be deployed on other projects.
With a deeper view of its external talent pools, PVH is better able to secure top talent in a competitive labor market and ramp up projects more efficiently. For example, the company can field three qualified and available candidates from its contingent labor pool for 90% of its job posting requests. And in terms of agility, it’s taking only 20 days from posting a job request to onboarding the professional resource.
As the competition for top talent intensifies, PVH is now looking to tailor its solution to its operations in other countries and regions. To learn more about how PVH takes a holistic view of its external workforce, helping it access qualified talent and mitigate compliance risk, take a look at the business transformation study,
“PVH: Driving Fashion Forward with Comprehensive Visibility into Its External Workforce Resources."