Spreadsheets, pages of insurance jargon, emails galore and better things to do – many of the (good) reasons enterprises have a hard time keeping up with insurance compliance management for their talent supply chain. As companies start to expand their talent supply outside of the traditional channels (i.e. W-2), there are many risks associated with falling behind the compliance eight ball.
The Challenge
When nextSource, a contingent workforce solutions provider, launched a new service solution for independent contractor compliance, their vision was to deliver the highest level of worker compliance expertise, backed by best in class automation technology. “A critical component of the solution we envisioned hinged on our ability to provide 100% assurance to our customers that their independent contractors’ certificates of insurance would not expire while on assignment,” recalls Cheryl Tracz, Vice President of Service Excellence at nextSource.
“By inspecting our data, an average of 10% of an enterprise’s supplier-base will expire every month,”
However, with insurance coverages expiring almost constantly, it can be incredibly challenging to keep a constantly shifting workforce compliant. “By inspecting our data, an average of 10% of an enterprise’s supplier-base will expire every month,” explains Kevin Kiser, Head of Client Solutions at Bunker. “So, if you have 100 suppliers or independent contractors, 10 of them have some coverage expiring every month – that’s a lot of continual communication needed to bring them back into compliance.” This is complicated by confusing insurance jargon and inconsistent standards, which make it difficult for contractors to understand what’s required of them in the first place.
Bunker’s Solution
When nextSource launched their partnership with Bunker, they were managing insurance requirements and certificates for over 430 supplier relationships across 23 enterprise clients. That would mean about 43 insurance policies expired every month. To ease the headaches brought on by this process, nextSource’s Supplier Partnerships team was set up with a Bunker account, where they could build insurance requirements into the Bunker site, and easily share them with contractors and suppliers, eliminating confusion over what’s required. On the site, suppliers had the option to purchase the exact coverage required, or upload a compliant Certificate of Insurance (COI) if they bought insurance elsewhere. Bunker notified nextSource when the process was complete, and provided a Compliance Dashboard where they could track the ongoing insurance coverage of every engagement.
“When you add it all up, it’s not only about the man hours saved, it’s about the innovation and expertise that adds credibility to our solution.”
“Not only did Bunker help us digitize our requirements and provide a free system to store certificates, but their insurance advisors freed our team from the excessive process of working with suppliers to solve insurance questions and renew expiring coverages,” cites Andrea DeFreeuw, a Documentation Specialist at nextSource. “When you add it all up, it’s not only about the man hours saved, it’s about the innovation and expertise that adds credibility to our solution.”
Results
By digitizing requirements and proactively monitoring compliance through Bunker, nextSource not only launched its independent contractor compliance solution, but also enhanced the level of risk management in its MSP solution. In their MSP programs, nextSource works with enterprises to manage their large supplier bases by conducting regular audits, digitizing their requirements, and automating renewal notices through Bunker. In doing so, nextSource proactively mitigated countless situations of supplier noncompliance, allowing clients to achieve much needed supplier optimization. “Bunker’s software offered more robust tracking and notification features than any other platform on the market,” explained Tracz. “Moreover, we realized there was an additional opportunity to leverage Bunker’s technology with our existing MSP solution for tracking the licenses and insurance certificates of the staffing companies in our programs.” Through greater utilization of their base of compliant suppliers, nextSource was able to expedite their clients’ requisitions and shorten fulfillment times by 20%.
Increased overall compliance by 40%
Shortened fulfillment times by 20%
The Future of Work
Liability insurance is a fundamental component in (almost) every business contract and will continue to be so, which makes it a constant challenge to stay ahead. No matter what industry a company operates in, or how diverse its talent supply chain, ensuring compliance is a necessary part of risk management practices. Partnering with Bunker allowed nextSource to elevate its compliance management best practices and reduce its clients’ exposure/risk, while increasing supplier engagement speed and freeing their team from management complexities. NextSource now has an enterprise service delivery offering that they can use with future clients, to ensure that the future of work is efficient and risk free for everyone involved.
About Bunker
Bunker is a software-as-a-service for enterprises to manage business insurance compliance for their partners, suppliers and contingent workforce. Within Bunker, enterprises create insurance requirements for various engagements and share them with suppliers and independent contractors. By knowing exactly what insurance is required for each engagement, Bunker provides the appropriate level of insurance to the supplier/contractor and automatically notifies the enterprise of compliance approval.
About Nextsource
For over 15 years, nextSource has forged meaningful connections between companies and the workers they need to drive business forward. Our goal is to exceed your expectations by providing superior talent, operational efficiency, and bottom-line cost savings.
As a leading provider of effective workforce best practices, nextSource provides organizations with integrated talent acquisition solutions such as managed services programs (MSP), employment of record services (EOR), services procurement, and compliance services. With a host of creative and strategic solutions, we believe we’re uniquely qualified to be your nextSource for talent.