Coming from a background in IT and systems engineering, Doug Powell started with Coca-Cola in 2002 as a project manager, and later, an operations support manager. In 2014, he was brought in to work alongside labor attorney Wendy Person to put guardrails and governance around the fledgling CW space. Today, Powell is the global program manager with a focus on IT and process excellence, overseeing a program that boasts 12,000 contingent workers worldwide.

Powell implemented the Workday human capital management system into the CW program in 2017. However, of the 1,400 managers globally who utilize contingent workers, 1,300 engage just one or two a year, and many remained unfamiliar with Workday. “[User experience] is everything to us,” Powell says. “We can’t do anything unless it’s worthy to talk about.” Determined to improve the Workday experience, Powell implemented a digital assistant in May 2019 designed to automatically collect and input CW information into Workday so managers don’t have to do it manually.

Powell predicts that the workforce will continue to shift toward contingent workers. “Clients, users, and managers all want to use the program,” he says, noting that companies are finding more and more alternative sources for talent beyond traditional staffing. Being proactive in matching worker skills to needed roles will help companies like his maintain a competitive edge.