This paper explores the challenges that face procurement professionals seeking to meet their cross border talent sourcing needs.

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CROSS BORDER TALENT PARTNERSHIPS
Mastering the challenges of implementing a
cross border talent sourcing approach
Ian Tomlin
The Workspend Institute
NOVEMBER 2014
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Contents
Why the historical make-up of the talent industry is at odds with demands for cross border
working ....................................................................................................................................... 5
A new world of regulation and compliance in talent management is making the trading
environment challenging for talent sourcing companies to work cross border ......................... 5
How IT systems play a role in fashioning the ability of talent suppliers to work cross border... 8
Ingredients for success – What to look out for when selecting a talent supplier partner for
cross border working ................................................................................................................ 10
Contact information.................................................................................................................. 11

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Trade agreements, the emergence of larger trade blocs, improved
telecommunications, travel methods, electronic payment processing and
Internet computing have contributed strongly to the globalization of
markets. Like no other time in the history of commerce, smaller companies
today have the opportunity to trade globally. In consequence, a growing
number of organizations now operate cross border; they have pan-regional
organizational structures and require their talent sourcing approach to
follow suit.
But cross border working is at odds with the traditional make-up of the
talent sourcing industry, formed as it is principally of suppliers that rely on
local client relationships and locally-formed talent markets.
This paper explores the challenges that face procurement professionals
seeking to meet their cross border talent sourcing needs.

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Why the historical make-up of the talent industry is at odds with
demands for cross border working
Like all industries, the growth of the talent sourcing industry has grown organically as suppliers
have sought to gain competitive advantage by harnessing their capabilities to serve market
demand as it has emerged. Many talent companies start with a small number of high energy
people that work to build a rapport with buyers for part of their work day, while spending the
rest of their time seeking to find talent to meet these demands. Successful talent sourcing
players find a niche between the local market demand and supply – a key aspect of their
competitive advantage being their local market support. As talent sourcing companies grow,
successful players typically grow by daisy-chaining these local businesses together to for
regional and sometimes pan-regional structures. This evolution does not result in one large
unifying organizational structure, or a common set of behaviors or cultures. Instead, larger
talent sourcing companies are characterized by ‘a shared brand story - and hopefully a set of
common governance rules - that stretches across a community of locally operating silos with
their own eco-systems.
The culture, behaviors and structures of the talent industry are at odds with the ideal operating
framework that businesses seeking a cross border supply chain solution require for a number
of reasons:
 Central to an effective operating model is the existence of a centrally coordinating
talent sourcing function that means demands for talent and the onward support for
talent can be painlessly controlled through a central ‘sorting office’.
 Talent suppliers that find their demand and supply for talent locally miss out on the
vast potential talent pool that exists outside of their locality. As more and more
workers are able and willing to travel cross border for the right role, suppliers with a
myopic focus on local talent miss out on a large addressable talent pool.
 Talent suppliers that serve a locality rarely operate systems and methods designed for
multi-jurisdictional, multi-cultural and multi- lingual environments.
 Talent supplier organizations that are constructed by a daisy-chain of local offices
typically lack the management structures and ethos to manage global account
relationships.
A new world of regulation and compliance in talent management
is making the trading environment challenging for talent sourcing
companies to work cross border
Talent suppliers that wish to operate cross border must be able to meet statutory compliance
obligations; not just for themselves, but also those obligations they inherit when they act on
behalf of their customers. The talent industry has been hardest hit by changes in legislation.
The pace of change in legislation has increased 10-fold in recent years as trade blocs and
individual governments strive to implement fair and reasonable social bills to ensure the
growing well-being of workers is matched by productivity in their economies, and the rights of
individuals are protected.

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Few talent sourcing companies have the skills-set or centralized operational capability to adopt
and administer coherent policies to ensure that compliance obligations are being met across
their businesses.
Regulation that impacts on talent suppliers exists in three main areas:
1. Balancing the needs and obligations of commerce with an agile workforce to
produce a highly productivity economy.
Around the world, Governments are enacting legislation to encourage more appropriate and
advantageous talent market behaviors. In Europe particularly, governments have been
influenced either directly or indirectly by the European Social Charter. Governments today
generally acknowledge the value of an agile workforce, with greater freedom of movement and
freedom to choose the type of work they seek, contracted in a way that suits their life-style.
But it is not easy to balance the needs of commerce with the aspirations of a work-force and in
many countries there is an uncomfortable disparity between the rights and privileges of
permanent workers and those of a contingent workforce. The weight of legislation is falling on
the operation of contingent workforces; to ensure temporary-contracted workers receive a
level of parity in their employment terms with permanently contracted colleagues that perform
the same role. For talent sourcing companies this means that their operating procedures and
IT systems in one region may need to adopt very different capabilities and behaviors than in
another.
For example, in the United Kingdom it is relatively simple for any agency to offer temporary
workers under contract to third party companies. In Ireland however, temporary worker
agencies must be certified with the relevant governmental agency and company owners must
undergo a stringent examination of their personal and business credentials before they are
legally permitted to begin trading as an employment agency. Regulation is even more rigorous
in regions like Belgium, Germany and Switzerland that demand employment agencies have a
legal entity employing physical company
2. Complying with governmental and industry specific regulation.
Businesses must achieve compliance with an array of jurisdictional1
and industry specific2
statutes. Many of these regulatory frameworks have aspects that influence policy around
workforce employment and administration. Talent sourcing companies that perform the role
of outsourcer on behalf of their clients of administrative tasks, and potentially the role of the
employer of record for workers, must be knowledgeable of the legislative framework that
underpins how their processes must work in any given territory and industry where they
operate.
1
An example of jurisdictionally specific regulations are the statutes published by trade bloc
financial regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the United
Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA) that shape policy on how business transaction with
consumers and markets.
2
An example of an industry regulation is BASEL III in the financial services industry, which at its
most basic level requires banks to post an 8 per cent capital adequacy ratio, was formulated in
the wake of the financial crisis in 2009 and has introduced a host of new risk weighting
measures., In the United States, the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in the early 2000’s
to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices

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in the enterprise, as well as improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures. The act was a
legislative reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals, including those
affecting Enron, WorldCom and Tyco International. These scandals cost investors billions of
dollars when the share prices of affected companies collapsed and shook public confidence in
the US securities markets. SOX is administered by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) which sets deadlines for compliance and publishes rules on requirements.
3. Managing data governance, particularly personally identifiable data and
documents that have a potential role in legal disputes.
Data protection has become a key priority for governments as Internet companies flex their
commercial strengths to act across borders. Under the proposed General Data Protection
Regulation (GDPR) legislation, if a company suffers a breach of personal data it may incur fines
of up to €100 million or 5% annual turnover.
Key articles to consider:
Key topics include right of consent, ensuring that individuals give permission for their content
to be used in a particular way, and regional coherency of data subject content, ensuring that
data remains within the legal territory of the data subject. Articles to review include:
 ISO/IEC 27002 is an information security standard published by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) and by the International Electrotechnical
Commission (IEC), titled Information technology – Security techniques – Code of
practice for information security management.
 USA - Federal Trade Commission Act
 EU-US "safe harbour" agreement
 EU - Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC
 EU - General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
 China - People's Republic of China - Article 7.
 Data Protection Act 1998 (UK)

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How IT systems play a role in fashioning the ability of talent
suppliers to work cross border
Installing policy governance through centralized compliance
IT systems play a crucial role in ensuring talent sourcing and administrating processes are
discharged as they are intended. This is particularly important when policies are driven by
regulatory compliance. IT systems contribute to the effective translation of policies into actions
in the following ways:
 Timely and accurate data entry – Applications can encourage the most appropriate
behaviors in data entry by using simple mechanisms like pre-established drop-down
choice fields and table selections to enforce how data is entered. Making applications
accessible through the use of mobile applications can allow data to be added remotely
(i.e. at point of activity). This means for example, data can be entered and documents
captured from candidates more easily and in a structured way so that candidates are
obliged to complete an ‘acceptance of use’ clause before submitting their materials.
 Automated recording and logging of activities – When appropriately designed, all
events that occur within an IT system can be logged to provide a full audit trail of
activities. This is less possible to achieve when multiple systems are employed.
 Automated alerts and scheduled events – IT systems can produce alerts and
notifications when key tasks are performed to alert those roles that are contributing
or should be informed. Good systems can schedule activities to occur at a given time
in the future; either based on an elapse time from a previous event, a specific time or
as the result of a folder activity (such as a record appearing in a database).
Streamlining administrative tasks
 Integration with incumbent administrative systems – IT systems based on modern
standards can integrate seamlessly with incumbent IT systems that are employed to
manage financial accounting, human resources management and project
management. Through integration, the inputs and outputs of processes discharged by
the talent supplier from all territories of operation can be fed or gathered from existing
systems to provide a centralized and unifying operating approach. For example, data
records of timesheets paid in different regions can be automatically uploaded to
financial systems for analysis by code center code.
 Integrating with Project Management systems for statement of works contracting –
Mature talent supply-chain systems provide special functionality to support pan-
regional project-based statement of work contracts. The costs and contributions of
contingent workers operating in different territories can be forensically analysed by
project portfolio, project, milestone, activity and assignment.

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Reaching out to a global talent pool thanks to centralized administration
Technology lends a hand by providing a centralized ‘on ramp’ for new requirements that can
be fed out to all regions to source talent. This enables the best-fit talent to be sourced
irrespective of where that talent might be located. Whilst the concept of a centralized
administrative function appeals to strategists owing to its potential to share a pooled resource
across different regions, the need to apply wage rules and other territory specific terms to
processes means that technology performs an important role in assigning ‘rules’ to ‘workers’
based on the region where they are employed.
Facilitating remote working and 24x7 team collaboration
For talent suppliers with operations around the world, it is now possible to act on new talent
opportunities 24x7 by transitioning recruiting activities from one time-zone to another. Whilst
this sounds idea, because it means placements can normally be filled quicker, it relies on
effective communication between teams operating in different time-zones. Technology plays
a key role in providing a 24x7 workspace to share client requirements and coordinate resources
across dispersed teams working remotely.
Managing multi-jurisdictional, multi-lingual and multi-currency administration
Systems that employ as their core repository architecture a relational database ideally need to
be designed from the outset to accommodate best-fit data relationships and workflows that
cross border operations demand. For example, wage rules vary from territory to territory, as
do language requirements. IT systems should have the ability therefore to be easily configured
to support the allocation of wage rules and languages by region but most systems today do not.
Whilst the adoption of IT systems designed with cross border working in mind would be ideal,
the harsh reality is that there are very few Vendor Management Systems (VMS) capable of
serving these needs ‘out-of-the-box’. This is partly due to the fact that most VMS systems
originated in the USA (over the last decade) where demand for third party sourcing of
contingent workforce proved strongest and corporate policies have worked towards the
Managed Service Provider (MSP) outsourcing model calling for IT systems capable to managing
the underpinning processes that outsourcing agencies require.
Changing database structures and processes once a software application has been deployed is
far harder to do because existing stakeholders will often resist chance and software developers
can fall foul of platform version incompatibility issues – risking the breaking one feature while
trying to improve another.
Maintaining compliance with data protection regulation by ensuring that data
protection is designed into the development of business processes
The new mantra surrounding financial regulation and data management regulation is that
businesses should design policy requirements INTO their systems and processes from the
outset rather than attempting to ‘adapt systems later’ to comply with policies. This ground up
thinking benefits from technology that can be easily adapted to changing needs and that offers
a well-planned master data architecture model that allows for high levels of ‘configuration’
without calling for severe software programming changes to be made.

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Ingredients for success – What to look out for when selecting a
talent supplier partner for cross border working
For procurement professionals seeking to invest in a cross border talent partnership, the
Workspend Institute recommends the following considerations are adopted to reduce risk in
the selection process and improve the likelihood of short-listing the most appropriate partner
candidates:
Capability - The ability to demonstrate a track-record of pan-regional delivery of
talent sourcing contracts
Vendors should demonstrate a well evidenced track-record in discharging cross border
projects, ideally servicing the needs of organizations of a similar size and scale, and operating
in a similar industry within the target territories.
Compliance Credentials - Quality assurance and legislative qualifications, the ability
to demonstrate an understanding of the legislative frameworks; particularly of the
industry and territory where talent needs to be sourced.
The weight of importance attributed to compliance means that it is no longer sensible to base
procurement decisions on the evidence of certification. Suppliers should be able and willing to
give evidence of their ability to turn policies into day-to-day activities that ensure actions are
modelled on documented policies. Any such evidence should demonstrate the abilities of the
vendor to industry and territory specific regulation.
Organizational design – A well-established organizational foot-print within the
designated operating territories supported by a centralized management,
compliance and administrative function.
There is a big cultural difference between operating locally (perhaps in more than one locality)
and fulfilling truly pan-regional talent sourcing projects that call for centralized management,
administration and IT systems. To avoid confusing ‘pan-regional brand stories’ with true pan-
regional delivery capability, the Workspend Institute recommends that procurement
professionals seek evidence of the roles and functions of the centralized operational capability,
request examples of how technology underpins operational effectiveness and validate the
track-record of delivery in the specific territories and industry disciplines.
IT Systems – Adopting IT systems that have been designed from the ground up with
cross border working in mind.
Suppliers should be invited to evidence how the systems they use support cross border
working; demonstrating at the very least support for multi-jurisdictional wage law, multi-
currency transactions and languages.

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Contact information
About the Author
Ian Tomlin is a Director of The Workspend Institute, the consulting division of Workspend Inc.,
the talent Managed Service Provider (MSP). He regularly writes, speaks and presents on topics
of organizational design, workforce management, human capital value management, vendor
supply chain management and workforce re-engineering.
The Workspend Institute
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