Contingent Workforce Program Governance

What you need to make a CW program a success

Program governance seems like one of the most foundational and simplistic components of any program at any company. You have a group of vested stakeholders, communicate updates, and get feedback in a predictable cadence. You take that feedback back to the program, make updates, rinse, wash, repeat.
 

However, despite program governance being one of the most foundational components of any contingent workforce (CW) program, it still tends to be lackluster or even missing completely from most organizations.

Why Do We Need CW Program Governance?

In my last article on CW participation in company leadership and decision making, I referenced that CW governance is a great way to be able to get in front of company leadership even if you are not included in strategic decision-making that impacts CW programs. Regardless of your program size, having a governance structure in place is crucial for the following reasons:

• Program visibility - Let key stakeholders know what is going on in your program. On the opposite side, it is also an opportunity to know what is happening with your stakeholders' parts of the business and that you are in alignment with company goals and objectives
• Change management - Leveraging your governance model enables change management through awareness, open communication, and program partnerships
• Partnerships - By establishing connections within the organization and understanding who you are working with, trust is established and program partners become advocates and program champions
• Program gaps/improvements and feedback - Obtaining feedback and finding out what is working well, and more importantly, what needs to improve, is a great impact that program governance and active participation from the members can bring to your CW program

Who Should Be Included?

We all know that the work CW programs touch spans across so many verticals of business. There are also key parts of the organization that have influence over the program along with participation in the CW lifecycle. So having a proper forum with the right people involved in governance really accelerates the above reasons why governance is needed. The following groups should be included:

• Procurement/finance
• HR
• Legal
• IT
• High-volume business groups and influential groups in your organization and CW processes

Think about who is your program's biggest critic; who has the best success with the program? Being able to get a diverse point of view from the business will help give you a well-rounded perspective. Some of the best perspectives I have received were from people who did not see value in the program. We know they do not get it, so what is it they need to see the value? They likely have a barrier or issue because things are different than what they want. Through inclusion, respect, hearing them and taking action/educating them, you can win them over and the rest will be much easier.

The amount of people to include is a tough decision. You want to have a fair mix of people/groups involved, but not too many that it is too noisy for productivity. A couple of options exist:
1.    Have a committee made up of only partners that work on and/or touch processes impacted by the CW program.
2.    Have a committee of partners and high-volume business groups

To take it one step further, you can also have 2 levels of governance:
1.    Executive level - C-suite / VP / Director level - Leverage for key decisions and critical program updates
2.    Operating level - Director / Senior manager level - Leverage for processing decisions and actionable outcomes

One additional piece - who is the ultimate sponsor for your program? Who can make the tie-breaking decision or is the highest level of decision-making (within reason) for your organization? Getting them onboard with the program not only serves for this piece, but ALSO having that buy-in from the highest level does wonders for your program. This may take a while to have a person like this as part of the governance team, but little by little, you can work to have them involved.

What Kind of Forum and Communication Works Best? How Frequently?

This is definitely another, "it depends," kind of answer. How do meetings, communications, and decision-making happen with your company? One thing that has helped me work through the, "it depends," piece is understanding what I need from my governance group. Throughout the year there are a variety of items that the governance team should be a part of - but is it worth it for them to be involved? In the eyes of the CW program owner, "Yes! This is the CW program and is the most important thing that can be put in front of you!" So in order to balance it out, it is great to break it down into manageable chunks.

Consider this as a very simple example:
Quarterly - Executive level steering committee: update for program progress and key decisions

Monthly - Operation level action committee: monitor progress and updates, planning for actions based on decisions

Monthly - Newsletter to all members of inflight items, FYIs, and high-level updates for awareness

Again, this is a very simple approach and depending on your company, this should change and be customized to meet your needs.

Consistency

Like most things in life and business, consistency is key. Starting down a path of program governance is another foundation for a successful program. But sticking with it, continuing to build momentum, and learning from mistakes along the way will bring about the best results. Communications, partnerships, and visibility will lead to trust in the program, which is one of the hardest things to earn and the quickest to lose. Build that trust through a well-governed program.

This article first appeared here.

Author Bio

Michael Pelletier is a Contingent Workforce Management expert with 16 years of industry experience. He worked both on the client side with Meta, Zillow, and SAP and on the consulting side with Accenture, Kelly, and Allegis. His focus is helping companies strategize and build leading Contingent Workforce programs that work for them.