Centralized Staffing Process Provides Substantial Savings

THE CHALLENGE

A leading manufacturer of agricultural and construction equipment was using over 30 suppliers to support its engineering staffing requirements at their research and development facility in suburban Chicago. Each hiring manager was responsible for selecting, negotiating and managing various staffing suppliers.

Due to the high number of suppliers involved, bill rates lacked consistency, with discrepancies approaching 100% in some cases. In addition, candidate screening, employee management, time card procedures, reporting, invoicing and contract compliance criteria were not monitored.

THE SOLUTION

In order to remove the supplier management burden from hiring managers and improve the staffing process, the company’s Indirect Purchasing Group made a commitment to implement a managed staffing program. Manpower Engineering Resources was selected as one of five primary suppliers responsible for staffing all of the location’s engineering requirements.

Over a one-month period, the Manpower Engineering Resources team interviewed company managers who were involved in the hiring process to gain a thorough understanding of their existing hiring procedures. Inefficiencies and process gaps were identified and improvement recommendations were made. A neutral rate table was established, regardless of the supplier. Manpower Engineering Resources also established secondary supplier contracts to ensure the company’s current contract engineering professionals remained on their assignments and that there was no disruption to the workplace.

During the program rollout, additional specialty engineering suppliers were added to complement the core capabilities of Manpower and the other primary suppliers.

THE RESULTS

The transition was seamless and the company realized significant cost savings within one year following the implementation of the new centralized staffing process.

By streamlining the flow of data between the hiring managers and the company’s purchasing, finance, engineering, facilities and security departments, the time required to conduct customary “first-day” procedures for new employees has been reduced and each employee is able to begin working hours earlier in the job for which they were contracted. Additional savings resulted by reducing the number of invoices the company receives to a single, consolidated invoice from each of the five primary vendors, regardless of whether or not the employees work for secondary suppliers.

The company now receives a single usage report showing all of their contract staffing spending, by department, which can be used for budgeting and audit purposes. Also, the hiring managers no longer have to spend time handling the administrative tasks of dealing with multiple suppliers, therefore freeing up their time to focus on their core engineering responsibilities.

Due to the effectiveness of the new staffing process in Chicago, Manpower Engineering Resources was retained to implement a similar managed staffing program at the company’s plant in southeastern Iowa.