Welcome to this issue of The Contingent Compass. Each week, I send two essays to help you navigate the complex world of the Contingent Workforce. If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.
Let’s be honest - most global contingent workforce strategies weren’t built for the real world. They were built for slide decks.
Uniform policies. Centralized control. One supplier to rule them all. It all looked brilliant in the boardroom. But out in the field?
Chaos.
The Wake-Up Call You Already Got
If you're reading this, chances are you’ve already accepted the hard truth:
Global MSPs don’t scale the way you thought they would.
You tried the one-size-fits-all model. You watched it buckle under regional realities. You’ve seen it erode trust, tank adoption, and create more chaos than clarity.
You’ve felt the pain.
So the question now is: What do you build instead?
The Real Cost of Copy-Paste
Here’s what happens when headquarters designs a workforce model in a vacuum: Argentina gets handed a contract written for Texas. Germany is asked to comply with tenure limits based on U.S. norms. Hiring managers in Tokyo are told to use a workflow that makes no cultural sense.
Meanwhile, local suppliers quietly walk away. Great contractors decline offers. And regional leaders, the ones who actually know what they’re doing, stop engaging altogether.
Because what’s the point?
You gave them a system that doesn’t fit their market, their laws, or their people. And now you’re wondering why adoption is low and results are lagging.
This isn’t a “local resistance” problem. It’s a global design flaw.
I remember the moment our Tokyo team pushed back on a global onboarding policy. What seemed like a minor tweak in New York would have caused delays, confusion, and reputational risk in Japan. That’s when I stopped defending “global consistency” and started listening. We didn’t just fix the issue, we rebuilt trust.
🪞 Reflection Point: If you were a regional hiring manager in Chile or Poland, would you adopt your current model or work around it?
Why Uniformity Feels Safe and Fails Anyway
I get it. Standardization feels efficient. It gives the illusion of control. And when executives demand global visibility, the instinct is to build something tight, centralized, and rigid.
But here’s what experience has taught me, from managing global contingent labor programs at Accenture, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup, to advising Fortune 500s across Europe, LATAM, and APAC:
Uniformity is not strength. Adaptability is.
You don’t build a resilient global program by treating Brazil, Belgium, and Bangkok the same. You build it by respecting the unique DNA of each region while connecting them through a shared vision.
The goal isn’t sameness. The goal is impact.
🪞 Reflection Point: Is your global program truly adaptable or just tightly controlled?
From Control to Coordination: The Model That Actually Works
Let’s flip the narrative. Instead of trying to control every process from the top, what if your role was to coordinate outcomes across regions?
This is where the best global leaders shine. They don’t impose, they enable. They create frameworks that offer guidance, not handcuffs. They define what good looks like globally, then trust local teams to bring it to life with precision and context.
This is what I call coordinated enablement and it’s the only model I’ve seen succeed long-term.
It means building:
Modular policies that flex by country
Onboarding flows that respect cultural expectations
Supplier partnerships that reflect local reality, not just global logos
Compliance rules that are enforceable and locally legal
Dashboards that reflect what’s really happening, not what HQ wishes was happening
If your program isn’t designed to do this, it’s not designed to scale. In fact, you’ve designed it to stall.
🧨 Three Global Expansion Traps to Avoid:
Reusing US compliance frameworks in civil law countries
Forcing all hiring through a single supplier not approved in local markets
Assuming time-to-fill data means the same thing in every region
One European-headquartered client adopted a coordinated enablement model across APAC and LATAM. Within six months, they saw a 20% increase in supplier responsiveness, a 30% faster time-to-fill, and regional leaders started voluntarily contributing to program innovation, something they hadn’t done in years.
🪞 Reflection Point: What would happen if you stopped pushing uniformity and started inviting ownership?
The 3 Cs of Global Program Success: Context, Coordination, and Credibility
These are the pillars I’ve seen separate the average programs from the exceptional ones:
Context: Regional teams need policies that reflect their actual market. Anything else breeds workarounds.
Coordination: Global leaders must orchestrate, not dictate. Make it easier for regions to align, not harder.
Credibility: If you want buy-in, show up with lived experience, not just PowerPoint. Earn trust by listening, not lecturing.
If you build on these 3 Cs, you won’t just have a strategy - you’ll have a system that works.
🪞 Reflection Point: Where is your program losing credibility and how might you rebuild it?
So How Do You Make It Work?
You start by getting real about your blind spots.
Are you assuming your VMS workflows will translate across five continents?
Are you confident your global supplier actually delivers in emerging markets?
Have you built playbooks or just policies?
And most importantly: Have you asked regional leaders what they actually need to succeed?
Because here’s the truth - the further your program expands, the more your success depends on people you’ve never met doing things you’ll never see. The only way that works is if they’re bought in, not boxed in.
🌍 Why This Matters Right Now:
With the EU AI Act, IR35 reforms, and LATAM compliance crackdowns reshaping how talent is engaged across borders, a regionally intelligent strategy isn’t just smart - it’s survival.
Don’t Just Look Global - Lead Global
I’ve been in the room when global rollout plans got torn apart by local reality. I’ve helped teams rebuild from the ground up when copy-paste failed. I’ve worked with executives who finally realized they weren’t losing control, they were gaining alignment.
If you want to be that kind of leader, ask yourself:
Are we building for optics or for outcomes?
Are we chasing global consistency or enabling regional performance?
Are we holding the pen or are we actually writing something worth reading?
Because anyone can roll out a “global” program.
Very few can design one that works.
Final Word: Your Role in the Next Chapter
You don’t need more templates. You need better thinking.
More empathy.
More partnership.
More truth.
This isn’t about letting every region do what they want. It’s about letting them do what they need, with you as the strategic force that connects it all.
That’s what comes after “one size fits no one.”
And if you’re serious about building it, you’re going to need more than a playbook.
Whether you’re overhauling a legacy MSP model or building a global program from the ground up, I’m here to help. Let’s explore what a regionally intelligent, globally aligned strategy could look like and how we can make it real. 👋
💡 This essay is the final part of a global series on contingent workforce realities. If this essay resonated, be sure to explore parts 1,2 and 3 that deep dive into Europe, APAC & LATAM.
If you enjoyed this read, the best compliment I could receive would be if you shared it with one person or restacked it.
If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.