Initial Challenges

Before the implementation of a centralized contingent workforce platform, Protective faced significant challenges in managing its temporary and contingent talent. The organization lacked visibility into who was being hired, the duration and scope of their work, and how much was being spent. Hiring managers frequently engaged directly with staffing vendors, bypassing internal recruiting teams and diluted governance.

This lack of oversight introduced compliance risks, inconsistent vendor engagement, and uncontrolled costs. Leaders didn’t fully grasp how much they were investing in temporary talent, and the costs were often hidden in budgets without proper analysis. With no central system in place, vendor relationships were largely informal, inconsistent, and heavily reliant on personal preference rather than performance or fit.

Strategic Shift and Positive Outcomes

Visibility
‍In response to these challenges, Protective partnered with RecruitiFi to implement a new vendor management and contingent workforce platform—what they termed "RecruitiFi 2.0." This move fundamentally transformed the organization’s approach to hiring non-permanent talent. By centralizing all contingent labor management, Protective gained real-time visibility into spend, vendor performance, and workforce distribution across the organization. For the first time, they were able to quantify how many temporary workers were engaged, where they were placed, and what the financial impact was. This transparency was a game changer, enabling leaders to engage in meaningful, data-driven conversations about workforce strategy.

Vendor Management
Protective Life used RecrutiiFi to establish a structured, governance-focused vendor process. All vendors were required to join the RecruitiFi platform and compete equally through open roles—removing favoritism and enabling Protective to evaluate partners based on merit, speed, fit, and cost. This increased the speed to bring on contingent workers, while reducing the overall costs.

For full time direct hires, Protective positioned its talent acquisition team in the “first chair,” ensuring they had the opportunity to source and fill roles before any external vendors were engaged. This realignment empowered internal recruiters, streamlined operations, and reinforced the importance of leveraging in-house expertise to reduce external spend.

Strategic Analysis and Savings
Beyond operational improvements, the RecruitiFi platform delivered measurable financial results. In 2024 alone, Protective saved over $1.2 million in permanent placement fees. At the same time, increased visibility into contingent labor spending, sparked strategic conversations about appropriate talent models for different roles. By improving their systems, processes, and cultural mindset around third party engagement, Protective leaned on RecrutiiFi to turn a fragmented process into a strategic advantage.