Thanks for taking the time to open and read my points of view, I’m extremely passionate about all the topics I blog about and even if you take one thing from this let me know.
I can’t emphasise enough how important selecting the right deployment approach is, you and your teams will spend a huge amount of time and money defining your needs and how you will demonstrate value in your plans. If you don’t overly the value you expect with the right deployment approach for your business, and for your buyers if you are a provider, then you will not get the impact you expect.
My experience in the extended workforce industry as taught me, and teams I have worked with, some difficult lessons throughout the years. I have seen businesses push to deploy a big bang approach when they should have been more mindful to phase, and likewise seen a phased approached mean that making change and pivoting was too much of a challenge. You also need to be mindful that whatever approach you take sufficient business buy-in must be obtained, as if you don’t have stakeholders and key user groups aligned then someone will be further down the road with a huge stop sign that derails your best efforts.
It goes without saying that deploying an extended workforce program requires careful planning and consideration. Within this article I will summarise my personal views and experience on deployment approaches.
So, what are those high-level, common, approaches that we see?
Two common deployment approaches are the “Big Bang” and phased deployment methods.
Big Bang Deployment:
The Big Bang deployment approach involves implementing your extended workforce program all at once, across the entire business. Taking this approach needs serious consideration, especially if you are a complex organisation with a high volume of countries, multiple systems used for invoicing or have acquired businesses that may operate very differently from other areas of your business. I’m not saying that this approach will not work, but the risk is higher than one that is single country and of a small to mid-size.
I have read several articles, and listened to professionals, over my time that say a big bang approach will be more cost effective, find that return on investment is quicker and be able to deploy in a more rapid approach.
I can’t say that I disagree in some instances, but feel these advantages are more commonly seen when the business using this method is of a less complex and is small to mid in size. Going all at once will for sure ensure that there is immediate impact across your full business, and you can manage any change in a single effort ensuring that your user population gets the same evolution. Albeit, managing that change will be a much bigger effort.
It can also ensure you keep project costs to a fixed shorter time than maybe a phased approach, but even then when you look to implement in one go you are likely to have an initial longer project timeline than what you would from the first few phases of a different approach. If you are also under pressure to implement a solution that is targeted on solving a specific business problem, for example if your business must urgently remove a provider, or an internal team is disbanded and external service support is needed to enable business continuity, then the big bang approach is the potential viable solution.
It has its merits, but there are critical elements that need extra attention and require to be done correctly:
I can tell you from experience that the project will not be easy, swift or a walk in the park, you are deploying a project over such a critical area of your business and transforming your approach to the talent you need to run your business. However, the sheer joy of being a part of a big bang deployment is never forgotten!
Phased Deployment:
My personal preference to be considered is a phased deployment, which involves implementing your extended workforce program in stages within a method that suits your needs.
Taking this approach allows for a more controlled and gradual rollout, reducing the risk of disruption to the whole business at one given time. The ways to phase and group your deployment will depend on the complexities of your business, but my experience has shown me that the below are solid groups to consider. Whichever way you are looking to phase I believe it’s important to look at the one that has the biggest impact whilst thinking about the longer-term rollout and health or your program.
From my experiences these are the more common methods, but as mentioned before your business might find other ways that will be more effective. I have also seen businesses deploy by type of labour (Statement of work verse temporary worker), by time zone and by level of process and role complexity (call centre workers verses specialised niece skilled workers). I am sure we will continue to evolve ways of deploying as businesses continue to mature in their management of their extended workforce, but phasing does open more options that will provide the impact you need for your business.
How do you decide the most suitable approach?
Choosing the best approach should always be decided during the scoping phase. Ideally your initial thoughts brought together before the selection of your providers, but then fully aligned with providers and internal stakeholders before starting any requirements phase of a project. It seems obvious to do this, but when you are under pressure to get a solution live it can be overlooked as an activity that will come once requirements are gathered. I would strongly suggest you stay well away from this, however as you go through implementation phases should continue to evaluate if the approach you selected still works based on how requirements are going. For example, you may have agreed that a phased approach, by country, is the agreed method, but during the project you discover that getting worker and supplier data for specific countries is a challenge. This could be due to one specific business unit not being able to provide data on workers/suppliers in the countries they engage extended workforce. A decision might be made to continue with a phased approach but do this by business unit rather than country.
Once you have defined the needs, and the value you expect to deliver, this will give you solid ground to decide which way to deploy. For me, you need to analyse the value you expect to gain and rank by priority, complexity to implement and potential impact to business. My best successes have come from asking those stakeholders, and influential employees, engaged to individually run through this exercise then pull all results together to recommend the best approach.
At EW Scope, I utilise a standard deployment matrix that is then tailored to meet a business’s needs. It considers the above and provides recommendations to which options will give the most value. If you would like to discuss how EW Scope can help you then get in touch.
In conclusion, no standard option is the right option, you must analyse and decide what approach best fits your needs. My personal experiences tell me that a well-structured phased approach will work best if you are a large complex organisation that has the time, resources, and cost to do so. If you are under pressures to implement change quickly across your whole organisation then naturally the big bang would have to take priority. When it comes to less complex, small to mid-sized, business then the big bang is a more viable option.
Your best approach is to speak with EW Scope to help you define what will work for you and how you can get on the right path to success.
If you want to discuss How EW Scope can ensure you choose the right apporach, please get in touch.
EW Scope is here to support the success of your extended workforce solutions.
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