Maria Rancel-Lopez became a credible leader in contingent workforce management very quickly. The 20-plus year procurement veteran stepped into contingent workforce management a mere two years ago when she set out to develop the program at Nationwide Building Society, the largest building society worldwide with 17 million members.

Under Rancel-Lopez’s leadership, NBS’s program expanded to include all contractors, administration centers and statement-of-work, which combine for a total of about 5,000 people and more than £400 million.

In August, she was promoted to head of procurement for people and operations, expanding her total talent responsibilities to also include all facilities, back-office processing, contact centers, printing and marketing at NBS.

Rancel-Lopez worked closely with colleagues in resourcing — in the HR function — to ensure that strategies align. Her team also modernized supply chains; in the past 18 months, they have successfully changed MSPs and implemented a Beeline VMS system.

The changes have delivered “substantial” cost savings to the organization and ensured cost transparency. Risks have also declined, with added clarity as to who is in NBS’s building and utilizing its system. Onboarding and offboarding improved, and there is now clarity regarding the actual number of contingent workers on a project compared to initial plans.