Kelly Coleman last year was named director, talent acquisition operations and contingent labor, at The Home Depot. However, his influence on the company’s workforce program goes back to 2005 when he first joined the company.

Coleman initially focused on the non-IC space of what was then a very decentralized contingent labor program at the home improvement big-box retailer. He oversaw vendor consolidation for the first couple of years and implemented IQNavigator for the vendor management system.

When a 2014 data breach directed focus to data security, Coleman laid out a strategy to develop an internal contingent workforce program with Beeline as its new VMS. ( In 2017 IQN merged with Beeline.) He then took on a couple of different projects to support an applicant tracking system for full-time headcount. In late 2017, he implemented a “ranch” model of services procurement, which utilizes a smaller, skills-based subset of suppliers that the company can tap to support specific projects.

Services procurement was fully implemented in early 2018, when he assumed responsibility for the overall program.

Coleman touts the importance of executive support as well as building a strong team with similar out-of-the-box thinking.  “You’ve got to build a strong program and you’ve got to believe in the support that you have,” he says, “because if you don’t, and they don’t believe in you, you’re not going to be successful at all.”