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Brightfield releases the December 2020 Edition of its Extended Workforce Intelligence Report

By: Carrie Wurzelbacher

Even by the standards of the most passionate holiday enthusiasts, the 2020 holiday season seemed a bit bleak. Layoffs from earlier in the year undoubtedly had an affect on the gift pile under the Christmas tree and the November rise in COVID cases made visiting family and friends difficult. While the challenges posed throughout the year are not lost on us, there are a variety of trends within the extended workforce market that are painting a portrait of a rebound as we enter into 2021.

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With the December release of our Extended Workforce Intelligence Report, we share the following findings and more to help leading companies stay ahead of trends in these important markets. As part of our commitment to leadership in the extended workforce management space, Brightfield continuously monitors and reports on the quickly evolving markets for non-employee labor. To do this, we draw on the world's largest and richest set of contingent work data, housed in Brightfield TDX.

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Aggregating U.S. data through the end of November, we noticed the demand for additional contingent workers was in line with typical seasonality. Even more promising was that the number of customer support roles were unseasonably strong (55% above baseline) and managed to avoid the typical November drop-off. These optimistic trends extend past the IT sector and into both light industrial and non-IT professional roles, which saw a 40% and 37% increase in requisitions over the past six months, respectively. It almost seems as if all varieties of workers needing some extra spending money for the holiday season stood as good of a chance this year of picking up a few extra shift hours as they did in past years.

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Some other promising data in the report shows that not only have IT roles continued to grow for 11 months straight, but companies are taking advantage work-from-anywhere policies to help standardize bill rates, allowing them to cut back on costs while remaining steadfast in their commitment to digital transformation.

To gain full access to this report and our entire content library click here: Brightfield Extended Workforce Intelligence Report December 2020 Edition

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https://www.brightfield.com/post/extended-workforce-intelligence-report-december-2020-edition

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U.S Bank Upgrades Their Talent Base

By: Carrie Wurzelbacher

In a recent Brightfield webinar focused on upgrading his talent base, retired Group CTO of U.S. Bank, Bob Erickson, asked, “How do you know what you don’t know”. Like most F500 leaders he shared responsibility for managing his company’s talent, including full time employees, extended workers, and even interns. He managed costs, sourcing and supplier decisions, but recognized a gap in his company’s knowledge of the changing workforce landscape when he met a young woman named Maria.

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Maria was a sophomore in college who was attending a local hack-a-thon competition that the U.S. Bank team was invited to observe. She was good…very good; the type of talent U.S. Bank was looking for. They approached her team lead about an potential opportunity for Maria to intern at the company, but were quickly informed that Maria already had three other full time offers on the table. Bob and his team were behind and didn’t even know it.

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Bob knew he needed a better way to manage, source and keep up with potential talent. Brightfield provided the tools, expertise, and data necessary to proactively manage costs and make long term, strategic decisions. Leveraging TDX, U.S. Bank implemented a 60-, 90- and 120-day plan to identify and realize quick cost savings. With the click of a button, they had it all:

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• Job taxonomy and rate management

• SOW analysis

• Workforce mix management

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Rather than relying on suppliers to determine the source, price, and location of U.S. Bank managed to remain competitive in the talent space and better weather the pitfalls of 2020 by freeing up spend from misclassified SOWs and better managing the location of their talent.

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Listen to the full webinar hosted by Bob, and Brightfield’s own Jesse Levin (CEO) and Jason Ezratty (Co-founder/Chief Data Scientist) here: Upgrading the Talent Base

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https://www.brightfield.com/post/u-s-bank-upgrades-their-talent-base

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Automating the Realization of Cost Savings for Cisco

By: Carrie Wurzelbacher

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Contractor and consultant cost savings are a paradox. At the same time that the category is rife with inefficiency, it’s also the most stubborn for executing change. Fragmentation of the supply chain and disconnected information systems leave companies without visibility into the most promising cost opportunities.

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In our most recent webinar, Brightfield’s CEO, Jesse Levin, sat down with Cisco’s Senior Director of Contingent Workforce, Kevin Sturge, to discuss how companies are overcoming these challenges, unlocking potential savings and accelerating their critical strategic projects.

Kevin Sturge, who is responsible for managing more than three billion dollars in spend and more than 55,000 contingent workers spread across 20+ countries, began noticing a surprising distribution within his extended workforce. With more than two thirds composed of managed services or SOW work rather than contingent labor, he calculated that more than 50% of his spend may have been misclassified, potentially costing Cisco millions.

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Realizing his first step needed to be focused around gaining a stronger understanding of his category managers’ processes, Kevin began asking coworkers to identify their pain points, how they were utilizing contingent labor, and how they were choosing talent. Once connected as a team, they started looking at different solutions to help better manage their workforce. Kevin stated:

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“We looked at a number of solutions, we chose Brightfield, and then used them to go back to the executive team with data. And there's a huge power in saying this is the right market data, this is from industry experts”

Leveraging Brightfield’s $400 billion in real-time transactional data to compare market rates against what they were currently spending on their workforce, Kevin found multiple areas where he was paying between 15-20% over market. Even better, he was able to establish processes to identify exactly what work required a statement of work, what work should only require contingent labor, and what suppliers should be used to source it.

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To learn more about how Brightfield supported Cisco in better managing their extended workforce and supplier base to save millions and reduce risk, listen to the full webinar here: Automating the Realization of Cost Savings

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https://www.brightfield.com/post/automating-the-realization-of-cost-savings-for-cisco

The Importance of Feedback

By: Carrie Wurzelbacher

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I spent some time today reflecting on my career path and chuckling on the many twists and turns it seems to have taken already. I have found myself in early childhood education, social services and nonprofit industries, sales, and data and analytics. To say I have learned a lot about different industries and the workforce is an understatement. In every career change that I have made, one thing that has helped me become a more prosperous and versatile employee in my new environment has been asking for feedback.

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A coworker once told me that feedback is a gift people give you to help you become a more aware person. However, asking for feedback from someone willing to give it (negative and positive) is frightening. As Karen Wright stated:

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"Criticism is by definition something no one wants to hear. At best, it's annoying; at worst, it may seem to threaten our identity, even our very survival." (wright, 2011)

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This was exactly how I initially felt when I first thought about asking for feedback. After all, if no one had anything negative to say, why specifically seek it out. However, I noticed how many people in my workplace at the time, were talking about each other while failing to give or receive feedback directly to each other. This atmosphere created feelings of anxiety and negativity, and I decided that it would be less painful to seek out constructive feedback than to wait to hear through the grapevine how my work performance was being evaluated.

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  I started with my manager at the time, taking advantage of our regular check-ins by ending them asking what I could be doing better and what would they would like to see from me in the future. To my relief, this was met with both a lot of positive feedback and a lot of kindness and appreciation for my willingness to become more aware of areas in need of growth and development. I discovered that the more I asked for feedback, the less uneasy it made me, and the more I learned about myself, my perception, and how to better serve in my role. Also, acknowledging my weaknesses seemed to put me in an excellent position for consideration for other roles and fostered a positive relationship with my manager. However, all that being said, receiving feedback most helped me in:

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  1. Identifying my blind spots or areas I needed to work on that, I would not have even been aware of. 

  2. Allowing for a smoother career transition even from opportunities ranging from nonprofit to sales, or sales to data analytics. Asking for feedback invited honest conversations about where I was at, where I was going, and what it would take to bridge the gap.     

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For those of you just beginning to get comfortable with feedback, I have a few recommendations for you. Let your manager or whomever you are soliciting guidance from know what you are trying to do. For example, you might share something like "in the interest of becoming a high performing employee, I would like feedback on where I am performing well and areas I could improve". Also, remember that you do not have to take the feedback given! If you disagree with feedback given to you, you can still thank the person for their offering and move on with your day. Finally, as uncomfortable as it can be to solicit feedback, remember that whether it is given to you, or not, the fact remains that people notice certain things (good and bad) about your performance. Therefore, wouldn't you rather know what people are seeing?

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I would encourage you to check out this video on feedback featured by the organization Tedx Talks to dig deeper into why feedback is essential to solicit and how it can make you a better person and employee (Hirsch, 2018).

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https://youtu.be/h4zNEl7XgXI

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APA Sources

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