Welcome to the weekly news roundup! Below are the top stories we’ve read or shared this week affecting our industry.

Monday: HP chooses Fieldglass’ VMS. (SIA Daily News)

Tuesday: The contingent workforce will double by 2020. Yes, DOUBLE. In only 8 years. (Perfect Labor Storm)

Wednesday: The Randstad Workforce360 Study findings have just been released. Two out of three companies now use contingent labor. (Atlanta Business Journal)

Thursday: Are staffing firms taking the best advantage of the “avoidant economy”? This blog post takes aim at the greatest opportunity the staffing industry has seen in more than 30 years. (The Staffing Stream)

Today: While the current UK labor market is considered fairly flexible and among the best, they are potentially taking more steps to further reduce the red tape around employment laws. (SIA Daily News)

Did we miss anything? Let us know in comments. Have a great weekend, everyone. For those of you attending Staffing Industry Analysts’ CWS Summit, we look forward to seeing you next week!

Welcome to the weekly news roundup! Below are the top stories we’ve read or shared this week affecting our industry.

Monday: Ever heard of the term “gigging”? Learn all about being an independent contractor in today’s workforce. (FOX Business)

Monday: The Reserve Bank of Australia reports half of ALL new jobs in the country could be in mining. (Australian Mining)

Wednesday: We unveiled our new website! Introducing the brand new www.fieldglass.com!

Wednesday: Jai Shekhawat has again been named a finalist for “Entrepreneur of the Year” and “Executive of the Year”. Read our full announcement. (Fieldglass.com)

Thursday: The WSJ introduced AtWork, a new blog covering life on the job – from getting ahead to finding passion & purpose in the office. (Wall Street Journal)

For those of you who are curious about the panels, presentations and sessions from this week’s CWS Summit in London, search #cws12 on Twitter. You can also check out our blog post.

Did we miss anything? Let us know in comments. Have a great weekend everyone.

Welcome to our weekly news roundup!

Monday: Five key lessons learned from Staffing Industry Analysts’ CWS Summit. #4: Pricing is not the most important factor. (ATR International)

Monday: Is the workforce turning temp… for good? Analysts are divided. (The Tennessean)

Tuesday: In “The Total Workforce” read how today’s overall worker landscape has changed, both in the US and globally. (HRO Today)

Wednesday: Uncovering the temp labor landscape in Austria. “62% of employers said that agency temporary employment protects permanent jobs and one in two believes that agency employment prevents Austrian companies from relocating to other countries.” (Staffing Industry Analysts)

Wednesday: Hmmm… Are there too many staffing agencies? (ERE.net)

Thursday: Yet another article examining if a larger temporary workforce is the new norm. They make quite a case for it, though: “Since the end of the recession, 54 percent of new jobs created have been temp work.” (US News & World Report)

Today: How can a high school dropout make $200,000 a year? Check out this article to explore Australia’s expanding mining sector. (Wall Street Journal)

Have we missed anything? Please share in comments.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Welcome to our weekly news roundup! There’s a lot of news this week, so have at it.

Monday: For our local readers, a new article talks about the state of Illinois business. Did you know that the state is home to 31 companies in the Fortune 500? (Crain’s Chicago Business)

Monday: Are you interested in learning more about the role of ICs, temps & other “independents” in today’s workforce? SIG is holding a webinar next Tuesday, Oct. 25, featuring Jay Lash of MBO Partners. (Sourcing Interests Group)

Tuesday: A new report by Ciett and the Boston Consulting Group says companies are increasingly looking to temporary staffing to meet their human resource requirements. (The Economic Times)

Wednesday: UK companies are managing economic uncertainty with long-term use of contingent labor ‘cloud’ via new REC report. (SIA Daily News)

Wednesday: In case you missed it… Chris Dede recapped the Global panel session from the CWS Summit, featuring execs from Bank of America and Dell. (From the Field)

Thursday: “The recession has taught corporate America the value of a temporary workforce.” Subadhra Sriram discusses how contingent workforce managers have come of age. (CWS 30)

Today: In this brief video, Adecco’s Tig Gilliam shares analysis on the most recent jobs report, discussing employer trends, advice for job seekers and more. (Adecco’s website)

Today: Facebook, the U.S. Department of Labor and other organizations announced a joint effort to help jobless individuals gain employment through the use of social networks. (SIA Daily News)

That should do it. Chicago Illinois Technology Association members: don’t forget to sign up for the TechCrawl happening next Thursday. Last stop is Fieldglass’ headquarters! (Illinois Technology Association)

Have we missed anything? Please share in comments.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Now back from Vegas and into the swing of things again, I wanted to share some information from a panel discussion I participated in on the first day of the CWS Summit. Joining me on the panel were Bank of America’s Clay Lewis and Dell’s Margie Durham. We discussed best practices for implementing a global services procurement program.

When making the decision to take a program global, there are lots of considerations – various management models, complex tax laws, and change management challenges, just to name a few. Each will affect a company’s services procurement program’s success. While the panel discussed all these issues at length, I wanted to share three main conclusions drawn from our experiences.

Properly Plan and Sequence a Global Deployment

Margie stressed the importance of taking the time to evaluate your program to determine where it makes sense to “go global”, focusing on areas where your company will recognize the largest impact from a global deployment. Considerations during this evaluation would include things like number of contractors, spend categories, and program management (MSPs). Another important step Fieldglass recommends is to group like businesses, as many global regions behave in a similar manner (and have similar labor and tax laws). Based on how a company defines and interprets regional differences, deploying like businesses at the same time can dramatically impact the time-to-value. Lastly, assess a region’s readiness during the planning stage and develop a roll out strategy accordingly.

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