Interview with Kevin Akeroyd, Chief Executive Officer, PRO Unlimited

“The notion of things like the ‘gig economy’ is going to dramatically expand across virtually all categories of the skilled workforce, and in many industries, those leaders will have more contingent workers than full-time employees,” says Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited. 

Kevin Akeroyd replaced Andy Schultz, PRO Unlimited’s Co-founder, as the new CEO in August 2020. In an exclusive interview with HR.com he talks about the challenges and opportunities in the contingent management space, the role of new technologies in this industry and the six key areas he will be focusing on in future.

Excerpts from an interview:

Kevin: It’s incredible what Andy Schultz has built and achieved while at PRO Unlimited. He and his talented executive team have created the largest, most successful global managed services provider, vendor management software, and direct sourcing solutions company in the industry. And, they have done it with an incredibly strong employee, client and diversity and inclusion-based culture. 

So, in all candor, I do not really see the transition as PRO’s new CEO presenting challenges, but rather, unique opportunities. Given our clients, culture, financial strength and the team in place, I’m able to embark on this journey of innovation and transformation from much stronger ground than most incoming CEOs would encounter. 

The biggest challenge will be the marketplace adoption and maturity of the industry as this entire category goes mission-critical and is a top C-level initiative. PRO’s major opportunity is to be the enabling global platform for non-FTE workforce management, the way Workday is for HCM, or Coupa is for Procurement.  

Kevin: The use of ML, AI and other emergent technologies tied to both data analytics and vendor management systems (VMS) is going to be more important than ever. Here are some ways these technologies are enabling stakeholders to execute faster and make smarter decisions when sourcing and managing the non-employee workforce:

Analytics: The best platforms are not only proactively surfacing analytics and related real-time insights, but they are delivering them when and where they are most helpful. Even more exciting, they are enabling users to act immediately on these insights by including one-click and one-touch calls to action alongside the related analytics.

AI and ML: We see an entire world of ML and AI applications coming to the forefront. Leveraging the largest data set in the world of market rates, spend and related behavior, quality, retention and redeployment, PRO’s AI technology will enable not only automated sourcing, but predictive intelligence on the downstream impacts of each sourced individual, project and client. 

PRO’s AI will also enable huge leaps in diversity & inclusion, as well as the overall workforce of the future in contingent. It will surface the right insights to optimize talent acquisition and management while delivering limitless automation, streamlining, speed and efficiency.

For instance, what if you could use a VMS without “using” it? Leading-edge solutions are leveraging AI-powered technology, so managers no longer need to log in to a VMS to engage it. Instead, sophisticated chatbots enable users to interact with the VMS via text, email and other systems and get a response in real time. Depending on the topic, the chatbot may leverage machine learning to offer insights or suggestions. 

Data Visualizations: Not only is data becoming more available, it is becoming more accessible. For example, today’s best-in-class platforms are offering users significantly greater flexibility, allowing them to adjust and combine data filters and see the impact immediately. Furthermore, these leading solutions are serving up this data via colorful graphics and side-by-side comparisons that are easily digestible. Interoperability of data will be huge, too. Not only real-time, compelling, functional visualization inside of PRO’s systems, but integrations into other systems, analytics and BI tools will be mission-critical moving forward.  

Kevin: There are a number of anticipated challenges and opportunities that will influence the contingent workforce management space. These include the continued preference of knowledge, specialized-skilled, white-collared workers across the globe to only be willing to work on a contingent basis, not FTE. 

This will be a career choice for many, which will radically accelerate the complexities of this segment. Companies will need to not only navigate these evolving areas at a rapid pace, but also expertly address localization, globalization, changing regulatory and labor laws, remote work, and D&I, among others. 

The notion of things like the “gig economy” is going to dramatically expand across virtually all categories of the skilled workforce, and in many industries, those leaders will have more contingent workers than FTEs.  

In addition, as the spend under management continues to expand, it will be mission critical for the C-suite to be more involved. Currently, for the most part, the selection and management of outsourcing a company’s contingent workforce management program has been relegated as “tactical” and pushed fairly far down the organization’s org chart. This will change as C-level executives will play a much greater role in the decision to not only outsource the non-employee management function, but also to deploy a technological ecosystem to harness data and intelligence to drive their businesses forward as part of their human capital strategy. 

Furthermore, emergent technologies will need to provide stakeholders with the ability to enhance sourcing, managing and tracking of the non-employee workforce by region and around the world. To this end, integration will be critical. The ability to span across silos where vendors have lived for the past 30 years is going to be a more integral part of a much larger technology stack and services ecosystem. Being the platform that seamlessly interoperates with ERP, HCM, HRIS, P2P and data and analytics systems will be paramount.

Kevin: The contingent workforce management industry is incredibly important right now. As the marketplace has evolved in recent years, contingent labor has emerged as the “workforce of the future.” 

Empowered knowledge workers have more employment choices than ever, with many taking advantage of and pursuing contingent work opportunities. According to the Intuit 2020 report, “Over the next decade, the number of contingent employees will increase worldwide. In the U.S. alone this segment will exceed 40 percent of the workforce in 2020.” At the same time, organizations worldwide are exploring new avenues for leveraging the advantages a contingent workforce offers, such as access to talent, greater flexibility, innovation, cost reduction and protection against financial risk. 
 
Additionally, it is becoming a large spend category and is now an enterprise valuation driver. So it is front and center with the CFO. This has not always been the case. The industry has transformed from a small temp-staffing niche to a C-suite strategic priority over the past 30 years. This transformation not only includes change within talent and procurement programs, but also highlights an explosion of innovation and new technology platforms. These platforms, including the technology stack, are going to evolve, and more importantly need to evolve. 

The established procurement/spend management and HCM platforms do not currently address the full contingent workforce management lifecycle. Furthermore, they are not capable of managing its complexity, or harnessing the data to provide analytics and intelligence on companies’ contingent workforce segments that executives demand. 
 
PRO Unlimited is uniquely positioned to become the holistic platform for the industry. This company is well-positioned in terms of technology, data/analytics, managed services and, most importantly, its people. That is one of the main reasons I decided to not only make the jump to the contingent workforce management industry, but also to join PRO specifically. 
 
In order to position PRO as the technology platform for the contingent workforce industry, there are six key areas that I’ll focus on, including:  
 
First, I’ve led companies where they went from only offering point solutions to an evolution into holistic platforms. At PRO, we will continue to evolve our managed services program (MSP), data/analytics, integration ecosystem and vendor management software (VMS) offerings toward an even more comprehensive contingent workforce management platform. This approach will continue to drive our clients’ program success as the marketplace shifts. 
 
Second, the “scale player” is going to win in this industry. The need for scale is critical, and that means scaling both organically and through M&A. I have run a number of large businesses that have gone through this explosive growth. I am looking to apply many of these tenets and lessons learned to PRO as we look to widen the scale gap versus our competitors in the industry. 
 
Third, there is a global need for our software, data, analytics and services platform. Providers need to become more global as this industry expands and the use of contingent labor grows with both Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies. I will draw upon my deep expertise in globalization to continue to expand and extend PRO’s global reach. 
 
Fourth, I have been through several industry transformations, and the contingent workforce management industry is about to embark on its own transformation. As stated earlier, PRO is uniquely positioned to become the holistic platform for the industry by not only providing our solutions to customers, but leading them up the maturity curve as they go through their own FTE to contingent transformations inside their companies. 
 
Fifth, the importance of diversity and inclusion (D&I) needs to grow at scale worldwide inside of both large Fortune 500 and Global 2000 organizations. The platform we provide will continue to support moving D&I front and center at companies, as well as investing heavily in our own company on this mission-critical front. I have spent the last decade driving large-scale D&I and social/corporate responsibility programs, and I am excited to do that at PRO.
 
Sixth, the importance of developing a holistic partnership ecosystem is critical to how PRO will grow and transform the industry. This ecosystem will be comprised of analytics, data, service and advisory, and technology partnerships.
 
Beyond these focus areas, I also intend to exploit PRO’s competitive differentiators both strategically and operationally. First and foremost, the strengths of PRO reside in its people and talent. For 30 years, PRO has always had the best talent within the industry. Moving forward, we are going to continue evolving from the trusted advisor that has delivered program management, service delivery and flawless execution to a strategic advisory, intelligence and business decisioning partner leveraging our world-class best practices, insights, data and analytics.