Last week saw another successful Consol Thought Leadership Forum. I shared some of the details about what happened in the first half of the day in my previous post. Today I’m going to talk about the remaining presentations. Optimizing Program Scope After lunch, Tom Kaminsky, Managing Director at Crescendo Consulting, faced the challenge of holding our postprandial attention, and I’d say he did a stellar job. As with all the presentations, I would do it an injustice if I attempted to summarize the whole thing, so let me just provide … Read more →
On Tuesday I was fortunate enough to attend this year’s annual Consol Thought Leadership Forum, a gathering of the top industry analysts, practitioners and providers to discuss the most prevalent and pressing topics. We gathered at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City and spent a full and productive day listening and sharing. Here’s a quick summary of how we spent the first half of the day: Contingent Labor Trends Barry Asin, President of Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) started the day off with a presentation about trends in contingent labor and … Read more →
“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Customer Service has posed a challenge to businesses ever since the fabled “rotten figs” incident in ancient Babylon, when Jeff the fig vendor refused to refund Gladys the five shekels she paid for some allegedly rotten figs. And I’m sure you can guess what happened next. That’s right. Babylon was invaded by Persia, and the city now lies in ruins. … Read more →
By and large, we learn by doing. Teachers and instruction manuals certainly help, but there’s no substitute for practice. Some may enter this world with the advantage of natural talent, but it’s not enough on its own. Walking, talking, writing, riding a bike, acting, playing a musical instrument, throwing a baseball, typing faster than sixteen words a minute, and eating a cheesesteak without getting grease all over your face, sleeves and neighbors: to be any good at these things, you just have to do them. Some of us who pursued … Read more →
When organizations think about the success of a program, they often think about a balance between the needs of the users (hiring managers, procurement, finance) and the needs of the program itself. Companies implement software because they want greater visibility, compliance, cost savings and the potential to secure higher-quality labor in a short timeframe. Users adopt that software when it’s easy to use and reduces overall job stress. Without user adoption, organizations don’t gain visibility or compliance, and they most likely end up paying more for contingent workers. Ergo, a … Read more →
More than two thousand years ago, the Library of Alexandria held the greatest collection of information in the ancient world. Its stacks overflowed with historical data as well as the newest works in math and science. Tasked with the collection of all the knowledge of the world, the library established a policy, supported by a royal mandate, of collecting books from every ship that came to Alexandria’s thriving seaport and making copies. No known index of the library has survived since its destruction during the 3rd century AD, so no … Read more →
In the mid-‘90s, vendor management systems revolutionized the way companies managed contingent labor, delivering the triple benefit of lower costs, higher quality employees, and risk mitigation. A competitive bid structure ensured the best candidate at the best rate, and often at significantly reduced turnaround. Add to that the ability to manage timecards and export to billing software, and companies gained complete req-to-check functionality. Fast-forward to a suite of reporting tools, standard with nearly every VMS, allowing insight into compliance and performance. The modern VMS has augmented reporting functionality with ad-hoc … Read more →
It’s important for companies to say that the voice of their customers shapes everything from vision to specific product/service features, but what makes a company confident that it’s actually heard the customer? What makes a customer feel that his or her voice has been heard? Everyone who’s worked in retail or food service probably knows the cautionary tale of the unhappy customer who didn’t speak up but never came back. You don’t want to ever assume that things are just fine with a customer who doesn’t say anything, goes the … Read more →
‘The whole point of this country is if you want to eat garbage, balloon up to 600 pounds and die of a heart attack at 43, you can! You are free to do so. To me, that’s beautiful.’ – Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation Everyone’s favorite TV libertarian makes a great case for freedom. It’s your money. As a private citizen you can spend it however you want. Put it in the bank, get another bad haircut, go on a cruise, or remodel the kitchen: it doesn’t matter. Do whatever you … Read more →
It’s a big election year here in the US, and it’s hard to escape discussions of politics on or off the TV and Web. Tuesday night in particular marked a significant milestone on the campaign trail: the Iowa Caucus. Every news outlet and would-be pundit is weighing in today on what the results mean, and if we can glean any indication of what the future holds in store. Who’s likely to take the eventual nomination? Unfortunately, Iowa is a poor predictor of the presidential nominee. Bill Clinton, George H.W Bush, … Read more →
