Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/73199
MSP Contractor Control A telecom company outlines a blueprint for change. By Debbie Bolla The reasons for Telefónica to restructure its contingent labour program seemed endless: a host of suppliers, lack of visibility in spend leading to overspend, no management approval process, hiring responsibility on line managers, limited performance management of contractors. The largest employer in Spain with a global footprint across Ireland, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia had a decentralized approach with five operating businesses across HR. It was time for a change. Louise Parsons, Telefónica's resourcing relationship manager, says that before the company could reconsider its hiring practices it had to reorganize its approach to HR. "We made the decision to make one HR team across Europe. We took a lot of time to define and design strategy," she recalls. That strategy included housing all HR functions under one umbrella with assistance from seven centres of excellence (COE) and in-country HR business partners to support local businesses. Parsons' responsibility was to resource COE, and one of her main initiatives was to overhaul the company's resourcing model. She explains that it was swamped by a deluge of problems: each country had a different model, different technology, and various levels of sophistication. While talent resourcing was divided into three levels—executive; managerial/specialist; and retail store/call centres—Telefónica decided to outsource only one tier: managerial and specialist, via an RPO and managed service program (MSP), respectively. For the contingent side, contractors were a large part Telefónica's labour pool, with at least 800 temp workers on its roster. But as noted before, the management of contingent labour was inconsistent. Parsons says it was previously owned by procurement, but line managers often took it upon themselves to bring in a contractor to fill the position. Without any management around it, Telefónica ended up using multiple suppliers and having zero visibility on spend. The organisation recognised it needed to bring more than just efficiency to the process. "Execution makes a difference between two companies—it will differentiate us in the marketplace," explains Parsons. "HR is about talent and building the right company for the future, and that applies to our contractors and equally to full-time employees. We try to envision what the workforce will look like in the future." And contingent labour played a big role in what Telefónica pictured when they laid out a blueprint for strategic workforce planning. Building a Business Case Telefónica's first step was to research the different options for transforming contingent labour management into a fluid, consistent process. Parsons says they did a massive data dive, leveraging their network of contacts as well as learning from case studies. "In building the business case, the four critical measures we were looking at included quality, experience, cost, and efficiency," she says. "And the only ways to drive cost savings, efficiency, quality, and experience are visibility and total control." Lack of visibility was public enemy number one for the organisation. Parsons recalls the company couldn't pinpoint the exact number of contractors in-house at any one time, because the operating model was designed with five decentralized hubs. A business solution that could deliver management of information and provide a picture of Telefónica's workforce was critical—instituting an MSP became a clear solution. MSP needed to deliver on specific areas of improvement: Technology. A unified platform was needed to measure and manage information and deliver visibility of that information. [28] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SPRING 2012