Dear HR, You need me. Respectfully, SAP Fieldglass

[Melissa_Bunn]

I was never an athlete growing up.  My parents tried to encourage sports, but I wasn't ready to embrace fitness and sports until much later in life.  Now, I have a home gym and am dedicated to a fitness routine.  Each evening, I enjoy planning out tomorrow's sessions.  Indeed, I am all in on something that I didn't think I wanted or needed.  The point being that sometimes the things that make our lives better...take time to discover.

We often hear reasons as to why Human Resources (HR) isn't ready for the services that SAP Fieldglass provides.  Let's look at some of the reasons that we hear most often:

1. We aren't responsible for contingent labor. The category of external workers is growing exponentially.  Organizations spend 42% of their total workforce spend on external workers* - nearly HALF of their workforce. Whether driven by the challenges of the pandemic or just the need for change – employees are restless. For example, a trend index shows that 40% of people want to change jobs this year. ¹ Companies are seeing the benefits of tapping into an external workforce.  And this increasing reliance, sharpens the need to manage ALL the workforce - regardless of type - to create future-ready, fully engaged teams. Can HR continue to justify lacking visibility and management over nearly half of their workforce?  We believe the answer is no.  The entire workforce is critical to an organization’s success.  Research shows that the external workforce is critical to organizations meeting key business goals including operating at full capacity/meeting market demands (cited by 74% respondents). So it bears repeating that HR should care about the external workforce, especially anyone responsible for aligning talent strategy to business strategy; typically, the CHRO and Recruiting/Talent Acquisition. HRIS is a strong influencer too.


2. There are existing employee reporting solutions.  These solutions don't include the modern workforce.  Recently we spoke to a large retail customer, with about 325,000 people working for them.  Labor is their single largest category of spend.  There are around 97,000 people and suppliers (roughly 30%) doing work for them that they don’t have visibility into…we call this the invisible external workforce.  They can’t answer; Who is working for you? What are they doing? Where are they located? What facilities are they accessing? How much are you paying them?  This is what SAP Fieldglass solves; we are designed to manage the entire external workforce which is composed of contingent workers (temporary IT, maintenance workers, independent contractors, and freelancers) and service providers (i.e., consulting and marketing firms with massive statements of work worth millions of dollars).  SAP Fieldglass is the only SAP solution designed to handle this global external workforce.


3. We already have an ATS/HR System.  SAP Fieldglass is the platform selected for external workforce spend because we have been the leader for over 20 years, building features and functions unique to the contingent labor market such as complex rate cards, and invoice and tax support that differs by location, especially on a global basis.Also, an ATS/ HR platform offers no support for Services Spend (i.e., Statements of Work, day labor, etc.).  These workers typically make up half, or more, of an organization’s external workforce.
   

   Additionally, SAP Fieldglass is designed for direct user access by suppliers & contractors, supporting all parties in the process.  Finally, it minimizes the risk of co-employment and does not mingle employee and contractor data.  Mingling this data blurs the lines of employment and leaves an organization vulnerable to legal pursuits.  To expand this, if your organization currently uses the SAP SuccessFactors solution, the chart below illustrates where the SAP Fieldglass solution can add value for external workforce management compared to the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Contingent Workforce Management solution:

   
   
   Using integration of these two best-in-class solutions organizations' gain a single source of truth for workforce data so your business can gain visibility into the workforce and optimize planning, staffing, onboarding, development, and pay for full-time employees and contingent labor.

In summary, I hear many messages from my coaches that resonate with me on my fitness journey, but one of my favorites is One Day or Day One?  Will this be day one of your journey to manage your entire global workforce?  The capabilities of SAP Fieldglass will meet you on that journey and give you total visibility into your global external workforce so you can reduce costs, enforce compliance, improve worker and supplier quality, and increase program efficiencies.

*Sources: Services Procurement Insights: The Big Reveal and Contingent Workforce Insights: Expertise in Full Force
¹ Source: Microsoft Work Lab: The Work Trend Index: The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work - Are We Ready?
² https://www.fieldglass.com/resources/research/contingent-workforce-insights-2019