PRO Unlimited
Navigating the Complex Landscape of Contingent Workforce Management

Non-employees, collectively referred to as the contingent workforce—including contractors, freelancers and temporary workers—account for almost 40 percent of today’s global workforce. This proliferating influx of contingent workers presents a whole new set of labour-management challenges for organizations, which demands extra focus from executives at an organizational level. Yet, a majority of contingent labour programs operate in silos, and organizations often lack visibility, resulting in rogue spend and a lack in compliance among other challenges. As a result, leading organizations are choosing to collaborate with companies likes PRO Unlimited to help source, manage and track these workers.

Since 1991, PRO has been helping large organizations around the world address the costs, risks and quality issues associated with managing a contingent workforce through its purely vendor-neutral and integrated Managed Services Program (MSP) and Vendor Management Software (VMS) model, as well as third-party payrolling services and SOW management. PRO provides this model for its clients across 90-plus countries and 26 languages. What are the benefits of a purely-vendor neutral model? Pure vendor neutrality exists only when the MSP and VMS provider have no staffing capability whatsoever; PRO possesses no financial affiliation with a staffing provider. That results in the best talent provided at the most market-competitive rates. It requires suppliers to compete for each requisition on a level-playing field, which drives the maximum value for an organization. Those organizations that partner with PRO also gain an upper hand by implementing best practices as well as innovative strategies for sourcing of their contingent labor, resulting in substantial cost reduction coupled with increased visibility into their non-employee workforce.

“Our clients will tell you that the purely vendor-neutral approach consistently delivers the highest quality talent at market-driven competitive rates,” says Andrew Popler, executive vice president at PRO Unlimited. “Suppliers embrace the purely vendor-neutral MSP model and are never hesitant to present their best candidates for consideration.

On the technology side, PRO’s cutting-edge VMS, Wand, has been rated by both Gartner and Forrester as one of the industry’s leading platforms. Wand caters to all the stakeholders in a contingent labour ecosystem, promising comprehensive management from sourcing, onboarding and offboarding of non-employees to timecards, expenses, data analytics and more. The platform delivers a true omnichannel experience through highly intuitive and easy-to-use mobile apps that enable users to manage their entire contingent workforce lifecycle, from anywhere and at any time. Additionally, PRO also offers real-time analytics to assist users in making smarter decisions with regard to sourcing and requisition processes. Besides PRO's technological arsenal, PRO goes the extra mile by helping strengthen client and supplier relationships through proper training, open dialogue and proactive education on leading tax and labour legislation practices to mitigate risks.

Bolstered by its continued investment in technological innovation and hiring the best personnel, PRO has a proven client retention record that provides a foundation for continued growth while saving millions for organizations. For example, in the first 18 months of using PRO’s technology and services to optimize its contingent workforce program, a client from the automotive retail industry was able to save $6.9 million. As a global provider of IT and marketing solutions, the client was struggling with staffing agency markups, isolated hiring practices, and cumbersome technology. A partnership with PRO helped it gain control over its contingent workforce program through enhanced labour quality, streamlined operational processes and phenomenal cost savings.

As the use of contingent workers continues to grow in popularity, PRO’s advanced VMS technology and expertly delivered MSP services are uniquely positioned to help clients manage their non-employees, safely engage talent and proactively mitigate associated risks.