Over the past several years, the workforce has dramatically evolved in parallel with the technologies that support both a mobile and connected workforce. Today’s “mobile workforce” is growing exponentially, and the rise in mobility demands that enterprise applications not only have a comprehensive mobile strategy, but also offer fully featured omni-channel experiences.
Like many other industries, mobility is penetrating the contingent workforce management space; specifically, Vendor Management Systems (VMS). It’s important that VMS software is designed for an omni-channel experience. Why? The concept of an omni-channel VMS experience is simple, effective, and required for the evolving workforce. Users can access and utilize all major functions of the VMS from any device (Web, Mobile, Tablet, etc.). They can quickly review and approve timecards, expenses, statement-of-work (SOW) billing, among various other notifications and requests. Ultimately, an omni-channel experience delivers the following the benefits: faster execution, faster decision-making, and faster adoption.
Empowering users with the ability to access their account from anywhere is more than just convenient – it drives the right behaviors and efficiencies, and contributes to the overall effectiveness of the program. Managers are increasingly on the go; traveling to meet clients and prospects. Tethering management of contingent workers to one channel—namely, their desktop or laptop—is inhibiting. For example, consider a vice president of IT who requires a unique and hard-to-find position. However, while in a meeting, she receives a notification for a candidate interview. Rather than wait until she returns to her desk to review the candidate’s resume, she can schedule the interview with merely a swipe, tap, and click, all in a matter of seconds.
Faster execution is also important for many workers. A worker’s ability to easily access their VMS application to submit a timecard is critical. Through an omni-channel VMS platform, like PRO Unlimited’s Wand, which is comprised of the desktop, mobile, wearable device (e.g. Apple watch) and a tablet, boasting not only a web application, but also native applications for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and Apple watch. These applications and others are built to take full advantage of each device and help organizations better manage their contingent workforce anytime, anywhere. Now, add the ability to push notifications to a workers’ iPhone or Apple Watch that informs them they have outstanding timecards. This capability influences workers’ to submit them on time. Mobility removes the friction around these traditional processes and increases the speed of execution.
These examples represent a number of benefits to both the manager and workers. Faster execution can mean the difference between identifying, interviewing, and securing a highly sought-after candidate or losing her or him to the competition. Faster decision-making is also important for many managers as it expedites processes. Lastly, the freedom to perform tasks from a device results in the faster adoption of an omni-channel platform. Mobility enables on-the-go managers to better manage their contingent workforce and workers to optimize their tasks. In today’s contingent workforce space, these benefits represent the difference between winning or losing. Which side do you want to be on?
Brad Martin,
Senior Director of Product Marketing, PRO Unlimited
