Menasha had no centralized program management in place until Cathy Penrod stepped in four years ago to launch one from the ground up. Menasha’s contingent labor program, which on any given day comprises thousands of contingent workers, is gaining sophistication as it adds processes that paint its labor story.

“Our program is all about strategy and looking at data to understand the story and bring solutions to the program,” Penrod says. Menasha’s sales team and its dozens of services facilities now have the knowledge and data needed to understand labor, trends and challenges to drive results.

The program will continue examining the overall cost of training and turnover and the impact it has on productivity. This will enable Menasha to make strategic decisions and create innovative retention programs, productivity incentives and further its goal of being workplace of choice.

Before joining Menasha, Penrod spent her career on the staffing side of things in roles ranging from VP and general manager to regional and national sales. Tapping that background in staffing, she avoids RFP processes and instead looks to requests for information and strategy sessions to determine potential suppliers. Menasha’s program also looks at suppliers regionally rather than nationally to better understand their market share.