An interview with George Reed, Assoc. Director, IT, Application Support and Development for Covance a leader in prescription drugs industry. An experienced Project Manager and IT Executive with a number of certifications and Industry honors, George has lived both sides of the Vendor-Client relationship in staffing. Today, he is driving the modernization programs at Covance Central Laboratory Services.
Gauldine:
Why do you think temporary employment is on the rise nationally; and how does Indiana fit into this growth?
Reed:
Since 1999 the country has had a few bumps and slides. When something really bad happens, whether it’s man made or in business, the economy and corporations’ first reaction is stop expansion, non-essential projects and institute layoffs. Now things are improving, their customers are placing orders and the company all of a sudden must ramp up or fall behind the market. So they go get capital to build up again, but then realize it takes so much time to fill a chair. Indiana is turning around, bringing in factories, building stuff not tearing it down, and we are going to have to have people to support all of this growth. Since we do not have them today, we have to go get them. Contingent staffing through the right selection of vendors can make this possible. To be successful, contingent staffing companies need to understand the hiring manager’s work, leadership and communications style. In my department, 60% of my staff is contingent – which includes temporary flexible staff and project specific staff.
Gauldine:
How important is a flexible workforce to a company like Covance?
Reed:
It is essential to bring the right talent to the right place at the right time. If you do not, opportunity gets lost. We need to be nimble in order to deliver capability to our customers. Our customers are going to give their business to the company that can solve their problems quickly. How are we going to solve our customer’s problem NOW? What does done look like? How much of done do we have to have to solve the customer’s problem? Being able to scale our staffing up and down is a weapon in a tool kit. If we have a plan, we can staff up very quickly.
Gauldine:
Where does the slow jobs recovery fit into this scenario?
Reed:
The slow jobs recovery is certainly a reason for the contingent labor growth. The ability to spend money to do work is recovering faster than the company’s organizational ability to figure out how to do the work. You need to develop a flexible staffing model to solve this talent need. Contingent staffing tends to evolve through an MSP or vendor pool that is resourceful and can provide good, quality candidates for an immediate need. When a company finds a highly skilled contingent staff and it works out well, the company, in a controlled fashion, can convert these contingent staff members to a FTE. The capital budget still probably exceeds what the company can deliver at this point. We may be two years away from contingent staffing flatting out. It will continue to spike for the next twelve months.
Gauldine:
Being nimble and agile are hot topics in big and small companies today. We need to be able to respond rapidly to change. Corporations have customers with immediate demands and those customers have customers with needs. Agility can be maintained by taking advantage of flexible human resources. The Harvard Business Review projects that flexible staffing will grow to 25% of the global workforce by 2020. A flexible workforce gives a company the ability to adjust and take advantage of emerging opportunities quickly.
LEAD Management Consulting, LLC provides process improvement, project management resources and change management services to mid to large corporations and the State of Indiana. LEAD has earned its trusted reputation by delivering extraordinary industry knowledge and expertise, producing results that make a difference.
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K C Gauldine is an accomplished leader with thirty years of C-level experience in business, social enterprise, entrepreneurial and nonprofit enterprises.