Alex de Jager, GM CP contingent workforce at Shell, has nearly 30 years’ experience with multidiscipline global contracting and procurement teams leveraging strategy, benchmarking and optimization of project management. After stints at AT&T and BT, he joined Shell in 2005; he was tapped in late 2017 to lead its in-house MSP.

Until then, Shell’s contractor network of more than 25,000 spanning 75 countries had been managed by many different parts of the organization. The onboarding of contractors and suppliers in the existing VMS system could have been seen as “mission impossible,” de Jager says, but strong C-suite support and close collaboration with HR helped unlock the potential of total workforce management. Now, full end-to-end supply chain management has opened up huge cost reduction opportunities. “We are providing the business with more validated data on our contingent workforce than ever before; we have built credibility and confidence and set the foundation for sustainable delivery and total workforce management,” de Jager says.

The program required hard work with a dedicated team, high discipline in execution “cadence meetings” and usage of effective data, enabling decision making. Strong attention was given to LEAN methodologies and continuous improvements, leading to high performing teams.

De Jager has been able to motivate his own team and guide the broader Shell organization and business partners through change/growth in the CW program with achieving concrete challenging deliverables.