The Staffing Industry Analyst’s Contingent Workers Summit Europe 2016 gathered together 500 procurement professionals, HR leaders and industry experts for two days of debate on how to address the rapidly evolving demands of the contingent workforce.

According to Matthew Dickason, global managing director of Hays Talent Solutions, the event brought to light the main trends of the staffing world. He states that the 5 most relevant trends discussed on this year’s summit were the following.

Organizations are turning to statement of work (SOW) to help them achieve their business goals

As they seek increasingly cost-efficient and streamlined workforce strategies more and more companies are using Vendor Management Systems (VMS) and external providers to manage and support the tracking and payment of SOW talent. Use of SOW is projected to increase further over the next 10 years, so if you think you want to incorporate SOW into your program, now is an ideal time to agree what this means for your business, and create business rules and the platform for control and management.

Companies are increasingly seeking benefits across multi-country service solutions that provide visibility and control

We live in a world where the workforce is ever more mobile. As technical developments change how we work and communicate it makes sense, but many organisations are finding navigating the different laws, regulations and cultural divides difficult. This is making their ability to effectively develop and implement these programs without the support of providers with a true global footprint.

How businesses develop the best solution for their workforce needs is evolving

Interdisciplinary groups supported by external MSP and VMS providers are involved earlier than ever in the development of workforce solutions. This roundtable approach sees representatives from all stakeholder groups meeting to discuss the challenges that need to be overcome to create the best fitting model before going to market. This is allowing for a more open minded approach that delivers increasingly innovative solutions to better meet the needs and improve efficiency.

Everyone’s bored of the term big data;what they need is insight

It is about using the data to look holistically at the business and make informed decisions with planned for outcomes. Insights gained from quality, experience and external data streams should ensure an agile solution that adapts to the dynamics of the evolving marketplace.

Companies need to be freelancer ready

Self-employment is growing faster than traditional employment. With this set to grow further organisations need to make sure their business is set up to compliantly engage and manage freelancers.

Source: The Staffing Stream