The future of workforce management
16 May 2025
Cindi Boudreaux, Commercial Partner at HelloKindred
This May, HelloKindred was excited to attend the ClubVMSA Enterprise Roundtable in Boston, which brought together contingent workforce leaders and procurement professionals in a lively forum. Experts from across industries exchanged ideas for building stronger supplier ecosystems, improving agility in the workforce and making programs more successful.
As contingent workforces keep expanding and competition for dwindling talent intensifies, building a resilient, high-performing supplier network is imperative. At HelloKindred, getting the best performance from our suppliers isn’t just good business, it’s how we help our clients to achieve the agility their workforce needs to give them competitive advantage.
Building strong supplier partnerships
“We are really tough on our suppliers in the production of constructive criticism, but it comes from a place of wanting success.”
A strong partnership translates into mutual benefit – our ability to serve our clients successfully is wholly dependent on the strength of our supplier network. But good relationships require maintenance and balance, not just treating suppliers as transactional vendors.
Some great ways to maintain these relationships include:
- Regular QBRs with performance scorecards
- Continuous feedback loops in real time to clarify candidate requirements, quality and responsiveness
- Recognition programs and incentives to encourage healthy competition
Real-time feedback loops are essential. In today’s fiercely competitive candidate market, the ability to course-correct quickly can mean the difference between a successful placement and a lost opportunity.
Our Supplier of the Month program highlights those suppliers who have delivered candidates of outstanding quality and responsiveness, reinforcing constructive competition and motivating ongoing improvement.
Driving decisions with data
“We provide very specific data to our suppliers so that they can look at it and say, not just how did we do, but how are we doing against everyone else in the program?”
Robust, consistent data analysis can be a key enabler for scalable programs and build resilience. At HelloKindred, we track metrics like placement rates, candidate quality ratios, time to submit, shortlist rates, offer acceptance rates, etc.
Benchmarking performance has been a game-changer, fostering constructive competition and a culture of continuous improvement. While Fieldglass remains a critical VMS tool, aggregating clean, useable data across various modules can be intensely complex. We’ve worked to build customised reporting layers that help us extract insights faster and enable our suppliers to benchmark performance – transparently.
The tangible impact of data shows through:
- Real-time feedback allowing suppliers to self-correct, preventing escalation and improving responsiveness
- Clear visibility provides transparency, enabling you to strengthen trust with client stakeholders
Now more than ever, data is essential for transparency, performance measurement and optimisation.
A tiered supplier strategy drives performance
A dynamic, merit-based supplier structure keeps the whole ecosystem healthy and competitive. Start new suppliers on Tier 2, where they can learn the ropes and gain an understanding of expectations. High performers are elevated to Tier 1, creating clear incentives and pathways to opportunity.
This model ensures that even small or niche suppliers get the chance to grow if they demonstrate strong performance – suppliers ascend to a higher tier not by dint of size or reputation, but through results. It ensures your supply chain remains agile while also holding its component members to consistently high standards and protects your clients from any risks associated with supplier consolidation or over-dependence on any one supplier.
Performance, not scale, is what merits opportunity – supplier agility isn’t just advantageous, it’s essential to remain resilient. One small supplier entered our program at Tier 2 but climbed to Tier 1 within two years despite their small size (and competition from much larger firms) by consistently meeting or exceeding quality benchmarks. This tiered approach ensures that even if circumstances change, you always have a pipeline of proven, capable suppliers ready to step up and keep the momentum going.
Conclusion
The future of workforce management is built on partnership, data and flexibility. After all, solutions don’t happen in isolation – they come about through collaboration, shared learning and a mutual commitment to raising standards in the industry. At HelloKindred, we’re committed to working alongside our clients and supplier partners in building high-performing, agile, data-driven contingent workforce solutions.
you’re looking for a partner who shares your passion for supplier excellence, connect with Cindi on cindi.boudreaux@hellokindred.com or schedule a short strategy meeting
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