Andrea Girke serves as the senior global procurement director of professional services at Mars. Following a global bid, Girke and her team in summer 2021 kicked off an ambitious global contingent workforce program with the awarded partners. The program will provide full visibility to Mars’ contingent worker population, which constitutes about 30% of the organization’s workforce.

Since launching the new resource tracking and first wave of the CW program, Girke and her team have worked to increase data accuracy and drive program adoption to unlock full program benefit. Communication and change management cannot be emphasized enough to ensure program success, Girke notes. “There’s so much change going on across the business that just another email isn’t enough,” she says. “Line managers and suppliers need to be brought on the journey. You need different means to train and engage them, help them understand that the contingent workforce is a big part of our company success.”

While continuing the program rollout, Girke is focused on tackling the new challenges brought about by Covid-19, including unprecedented labor cost, inflation and talent scarcity. She is working with the business and suppliers to create strong yet differentiated value propositions to reaching contingent workers in different countries, markets and roles, making Mars the go-to destination for contingent workers.