How Pontoon Analytics transformed a financial organisation’s talent strategy

Our customer had been managing their contingent workforce internally for more than 15 years.  

They were using outdated tech, their supply chain was a mess, and they had almost no meaningful data to help them improve things. 

We spent two years evolving the programme.  

Since then, our customer’s been able to bring on new talent quickly and cost-effectively, drive their transformation projects and reinvest savings from our programme into their digital transformation agenda. 

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of visibility in an organisation. And a lack of visibility is exactly what was preventing our customer — one of the 10 largest banks in the US — from working towards their goals. 

The company’s hiring managers had been handling their contingent workforce through an internal programme for over 15 years — an enormous task with over $700M in annual spend.  

Their supply chain had spiralled out of control, and a range of clunky VMS technologies gave them almost no meaningful intelligence.  

The result?  

No intelligence with which to inform the business’s wider contingent talent strategy.  

We were brought on to bring the company’s contingent workforce programme up to date. Our key objectives were to: 

• take over the management of the contingent workforce programme 
• improve visibility and understanding of the workforce 
• bring the programme in line with the company’s strategic objectives 
• introduce an intuitive tech stack that would perform well and provide valuable data 

Some of the key enhancements Pontoon’s team implemented within the contingent program included:

• Built and implemented a data visualisation tool to gain further insights into meaningful data and metrics – program performance, misclassified spend, supply chain performance, etc
• Using this data the team performed a supply chain optimisation exercise across the program
• Took overall MSA’s with the supplier ecosystem and implemented new rules of engagement, scorecards, and a universal rate card for the supply chain
• Implementation of a data-driven supplier distribution and shortlisting strategy
• Addressed misclassified spend from SOW to staff augmentation by creating new service offerings – team in a box, bulk buy and advanced technical screening
• Supplier engagement with the addition of supplier town halls and rewards program

During the transition from an internally managed program to an outsourced program under Pontoon leadership, our team had to manage very closely the change management efforts across the organisation – winning over internal client members and long-standing suppliers who would ultimately be affected by the change in the program.

A key to Pontoon’s change management approach and dialogue was the use of meaningful data and the impact this data had on the decision making of the client. Our teams led with data in our stakeholder conversations which has allowed for an accelerated road map and more powerful results.

“The Pontoon team has been tremendous throughout the whole process. I was really happy with how easy they made everything. This was my first experience bringing on a contractor, and they made it very fast and easy. Kudos!!”
– Hiring manager at client

With the noted enhancements Pontoon’s team has implemented in our client’s contingent labour program the results within a short time frame have been powerful and have led to more strategic decisions in the overall talent strategy of the bank:

• Reduced time to fill by 10 days
• Improved the interview to offer ratio from 24% to 40% – meaning we average less than 3 interviews to fill the client’s toughest I roles
• Improved time to fill to 10.5 days
• Addressed mis-classified spend leading to over $18M in savings to the client in the first six months

With the above results our client has been able to bring on talent quickly and at the right cost to drive their transformation projects while also allowing them to reinvest savings from our program into their digital transformation agenda.

Our research partner — Ardent Partners — found that 37% of best-in-class organisations use analytics and business intelligence tools to make decisions about their future use of contingent labour. 

Key to their success is real-time reporting, agile analytics, and deep-dive functionalities that let them manage their contingent workforce with precision. 

We took this research onboard during the two-year programme evolution for our customer. 

How we helped 

Our team focused on enhancing two main pillars of the contingent workforce programme:  

• Access to, and understanding of, meaningful data 
• An optimised and engaged supply chain 

Data visibility 

Our team built and implemented a data visualisation tool during the two years working on the programme transformation.  

The customer now has access to meaningful data and metrics on their contingent workforce, including: 

• programme and worker performance 
• misclassified spend 
• supply chain performance. 

This data formed the basis of our supply chain optimisation across the programme, and a key part of our change management strategy.  

Supply chain optimisation 

The company’s supply chain was growing uncontrolled, despite being unengaged and low-performing.  

Our team took over all Master Services Agreements in the supplier ecosystem and implemented new rules of engagement, as well as scorecards and a universal rate card for the entire supply chain.  

And because we know supplier-customer relationships are a two-way street, we introduced supplier town halls and a rewards programme to build trust, engagement and loyalty. 

We also implemented a data-driven supplier distribution and shortlisting strategy, which safeguards the quality of the supply chain as a whole.  

Finally, our team addressed misclassified spend between SOW and staff augmentation categories by creating new, user-friendly service offerings: team in a box, bulk buy, and advanced technical screening. 

Change management 

We implemented some pretty huge changes for this customer in a relatively short space of time.  

Our team did a lot of change management work within the organisation, talking to — and winning over — those internal stakeholders and long-term suppliers who would be affected by the programme transformation. 

A key to our change management approach and dialogue was the use of meaningful data and the impact this data had on the decision making of the customer.  

Our teams led with data in our stakeholder conversations which has allowed for an accelerated road map and more powerful results. 

Just two years of work on the contingent workforce programme has had powerful results for our customer.  

They’re now able to make strategic decisions that drive the programme forward in line with the company’s overall talent strategy. 

Some of the key improvements we’ve made: 

• We’ve reduced time to fill by 10 days — it’s now just 10.5 days 
• We’ve improved the interview-to-offer ratio from 24% to 40% 

• It now takes less than three interviews on average to fill even the toughest roles 
• We achieved $18 million in savings in the first six months through reclassifying spend[Text Wrapping Break] 

As a result of our work, the customer has been able to bring on talent quickly and at the right cost to drive their transformation projects forward.  

They have also been able to reinvest the savings from our programme into their digital transformation agenda. 

“The Pontoon team has been tremendous throughout the whole process. I was really happy with how easy they made everything. This was my first experience bringing on a contractor, and they made it very fast and easy. Kudos!” 

– Hiring manager at customer