World’s largest direct selling company

The challenge

As a manufacturer and distributor of nutrition, beauty, personal care, and home products sold in 100 countries, our client relies on a contingent workforce to respond quickly to fluctuations in demand.

A challenging assignment in the best of times, this was heightened in 2020 by the global coronavirus pandemic. Suddenly, it was necessary not only to keep manufacturing and distribution operations up and running in the face of absenteeism and illness, but to shift activities among different locations, based on local health and safety requirements. It also meant that most managerial, administrative, and professional services activities had to be performed remotely, by a combination of full-time and contingent staff.

The resilience of the company’s contingent workforce program was put to the test, in ways not previously anticipated.

The solution

With sizable manufacturing operations in China, the client quickly exercised contingency plans to move some production to other locations when required by local lockdowns. Then, in a relatively short time, the client faced the prospect of government-mandated lockdowns around the globe, including their major manufacturing and distribution centers in the U.S. Through all this, they worked closely with Beeline, their MSP, and their staffing supply chain to ensure that their most critical labor needs could be met.

Adding complexity to the process was the need to adopt remote working procedures wherever possible. Operating remotely, the professional services and temporary labor program team established new dashboards and created new reports to keep stakeholders informed. At the same time, they worked with contractors to manage costs for services, such as custodial and cafeteria work, that had been either eliminated or substantially reduced.

Through its response to the emergency, the client has proved that remote work can be performed and managed with a high level of effectiveness. With the level of flexibility this has allowed, it is unlikely that on-premise work ever will go back to the same level that existed before the pandemic.

The dispersed workforce provides access to talent pools that the client had not considered previously, both for full-time and contingent work. As a result, the client is studying how, from a systems and policy standpoint, to maximize its ability to use freelance talent or contractors located in areas where it had not sourced talent before.