1. Case Study
The University of Southern California Makes
the Grade in Managing Contingent Labor
Background
The University of Southern California enjoys a reputation
as one of the world’s leading private research universities.
Located in the heart of Los Angeles, USC educates ap-
proximately 33,500 students each year and employs
18,500 people, including 3,200 full-time faculty members,
6,800 student workers and an additional staff of 8,500.
USC’s contingent labor requirements span across a broad
and diverse set of departments with positions ranging from
high level engineers to custodians. Due to the seasonality
of a higher education institution, their contingent labor
needs swing dramatically from month to month. In De-
cember of 2008, the university was contracting with over
55 staffing firms to meet their contingent labor demands.
Subsequently, the Human Resources Department made a
strategic decision to outsource their contingent labor man-
agement to a third party, thus becoming a pioneer in the
area of contingent labor management. While best-in-class
businesses have been utilizing managed services models
for some time, USC became the first higher education or-
ganization in the United States to do so.
USC engaged Guidant Group, a managed services and
vendor management software provider, to take over the
primary responsibilities of sourcing, managing and invoic-
ing their contingent labor processes while also maintaining
diversity requirements. Guidant Group’s primary goals
were to enable USC to better track their contingent labor
spend and reduce the legal risks associated with engaging
contingent workers.
Solution
Though USC’s needs would present an array of chal-
lenges, the difficulties were not unlike those of Guidant
Group’s existing clients. Guidant Group’s Vendor Man-
agement System (VMS), Staff Enabler, was the primary
software tool for meeting USC’s business objectives. The
technology could capture and track a wide variety of data
including spending, headcount and suppliers. It provided
streamlined invoicing for all suppliers and its reporting ca-
pabilities could provide a new level of insight for every
component of contingent labor management. The most
critical feature of the VMS was the user interface that was
both intuitive and easy to learn. Ultimately, the simplicity of
the VMS was a major key in the successful implementa-
tion and adoption of the program.
To learn more about Guidant Group, visit us at www.guidantgroup.com.
USC’s Contingent Labor Categories
Administrative
Information Technology
Professional Services
Healthcare
Light Industrial

2. Implementation and Adoption
The USC staff was particularly concerned with the adoption
of the program by their long tenured staff. Because of the
highly decentralized nature of a higher education institution
and their affinity towards sticking with what they know,
USC’s procurement group asked Guidant Group to provide
best practices for change management and driving adop-
tion.
Guidant Group worked with USC’s Program Sponsorship to
develop a solution that was consistent with the look and
feel of USC’s existing technology interfaces for communi-
cation and change management. They collaborated exten-
sively with USC’s IT Team to develop the web interface
and branded the Guidant Group program as “Trojan Temps
powered by Guidant Group”. It is accessed by USC end
users through the campus intranet and can be seen
at: http://fbs.usc.edu/depts/purchasing/page/3903/msp-
homepage.
The customization of the VMS appearance provides the
end users with the feel of working with a colleague rather
than an outsourced provider, thus reinforcing program
adoption.
Additionally, the entire Guidant Group account team uses
client hosted corporate email accounts to further their as-
similation into the USC environment.
During the final 30 days of implementation, Guidant Group
held weekly on-campus seminars to provide end users as
well as USC’s Executive Sponsor and Program Initiative
Teams with an orientation to the new system.
Guidant Group successfully implemented the USC program
in just over 60 days. Since the program’s inception, USC
has been able to achieve 100% adoption levels among end
users. That is to say, there has been no maverick spend-
ing outside of the program to date.
Program Results
The success of the managed services program can be
measured in a variety of metrics including: 17% in annual
savings, risk mitigation, visibility into market rates and
greater controls over hiring processes. All of the stake-
holders- Human Resources, Procurement, Hiring Manag-
ers, Legal, Finance and Suppliers- are operating more effi-
ciently and cost effectively.
In April of 2009, USC added two hospitals to its balance
sheet. The managed services program that is currently in
place will easily adapt to meet USC’s evolving contingent
labor needs.
About Guidant Group
Guidant Group is a managed services and consulting com-
pany dedicated to developing comprehensive and inte-
grated talent acquisition programs for our clients. We lever-
age our vast experience in the staffing industry, recruitment
infrastructure, valuable sector knowledge, and proven
methodologies to deliver a holistic approach to improved
talent acquisition.
WWW.GUIDANTGROUP.COM
Results Measured
 17% annual savings
 Successful on-boarding of 95% of USC’s
incumbent suppliers
 Reduced time to fill rate by 37%
 Consolidated invoices reduce Accounts Pay-
ables from several thousand to 52
 Diversity goals met with 75% of spend flow-
ing through Minority and Women Business
Enterprises
 100% satisfaction among USC end users
To learn more about Guidant Group, visit us at www.guidantgroup.com.
“The VMS is very easy to use. You provide won-
derful customer support and have been fantastic
with answering questions very quickly. The tran-
sition of our payrolled temps from Selectstaffing
to ISSI went very smoothly considering the num-
ber of people we have as payrolled employees.”
USC Program Manager