When heading up project management, product development or if you are going to be an executive recruiter, it is helpful to understand what vendor management is. A well functioning vendor management system is a web based application that assists companies in finding and managing staffing services. These staffing services or recruiting firms are usually temporary placements but can, at times, be permanent employment positions as well. Generally, a vendor management system will include order distribution, billing and other features regarding reports and processes. Recruiting services can be contacted manually by a company but having a vendor management system in place to do the work for you is much easier because once you have put in what you are looking for, the system uses an algorithm to find a good match. This saves you the time and money that you would have to invest in order to weed out weak candidates.
With the amount of vendor management systems that are available today, it’s hard to know which one will be the right fit for your business and actually help you. So, how to choose? The following list should make it easier for you to determine which system will be best.
- Take a good look at the types of outsourced labor that you need. How many you would use, what skills they need and how they’re used, are all important questions to ask to help you narrow down the types of employees you need in your business. You should also determine how long you will need each contingent engagement and if it will be temporary or permanent.
- Write a list of your priorities. Determine where you weak points are and what would help you to strengthen those areas. Don’t go crazy here, you don’t need a huge list, that can get overwhelming. Just stick to the highest priorities for now. Once those are solved you can begin on the small things.
- Look short term as well as semi long term. Short term would be, what are you goals for today? Semi long term would be considering goals for the next three to five years. Decide what resources you would need in order to meet those goals, efficiently and effectively.
- Think about your company’s culture. Is this something that you want to blow up and get big or would you rather stay intimate and family like? How would adding more people to the team affect the current culture and moral of the business? Maybe you want to change the culture, but if not, consider getting your staff’s input of the situation.
- Before you even begin to look, you should know what you are looking for. You can develop something called a request for proposal but be careful not to put out too many requests or you could be overwhelmed with results that are hundreds of pages long. This will waste a lot of time as you go through each one.
- Once you have narrowed down the systems to a few different ones, do the research and make sure you understand how it is used and find out the pros and cons of each system. Word of mouth referrals from other business associates is always helpful. Real life reviews can also help you determine if one system is better than another.
- Once all of this is complete, you may still have several systems that you cannot seem to choose between. This is when you can look at price. Check out their bundles and deals. Be sure to find out any hidden costs and if there will be an influx in rate at any point. You will also want to find out if each system offers training, updates, support as well as other features that your research may bring up.
Being knowledgeable before you begin is the very first step of any kind of business endeavor. You should know at least a little bit about what you are doing and what is involved that you are not blindsided by anything. You should be able to recognize when something doesn’t seem quite right. This will avoid a lot of wasted time and money on the company’s behalf. VMS technology is always advancing so make sure your priorities match the strengths of the system.
