Fieldglass Workflow Explained: Job Posting to Worker Onboarding
It seems simple enough to hire contingent workers, but it is not. A hiring manager needs a contractor by next week, procurement wants the proper pricing, suppliers offer profiles in every format imaginable, and compliance wants everything documented. Finance wants to know what it’s all going to cost, and the new worker just wants to know where to check in on day one. Meanwhile,
SAP Fieldglass was designed to bring order to this chaos. It is a vendor management system (VMS) that takes care of the entire process of an external worker, from the first “I need someone” until the first productive day on the job. A well-configured Fieldglass workflow accelerates the flow of requests, keeps costs visible, allows suppliers to compete on a level playing field and makes compliance part of the process, not an afterthought.
In this tutorial, we'll take you through that contingent workforce management journey stage by stage. You'll see what happens at each phase, who's responsible and what little decisions make the biggest effect. Whether you’re a recruiting manager, a procurement professional, or a supplier, this should offer you a clear image of how the pieces fit.
Creating and Posting a Job Posting
Every engagement begins with a Job Post. Consider it your formal, orderly petition to the supplier network. It tells vendors what you need, where you need it, for how long, and at what cost. A good job posting will save you days of back and forth later, so this is the stage to slow down for.
- First, the hiring manager makes the request. Within SAP Fieldglass, the manager selects a job posting template that suits the type of job, whether it’s an IT consultant, a marketing contractor or a project analyst. Templates already include the typical data, regulations and approval procedures of your firm, so no one has to start from a blank page.
- Fill in basic details. This is where you enter the title, description, work location, projected start and end dates, number of roles, and cost centre. Get specific. A vague description will attract vague candidates; a clear description will attract people who can actually accomplish the job.
- Supporting information is given. This can include the department, the manager you will report to, your expected working hours, whether you will work remotely or onsite, and any security or travel requirements. Little things like this prevent surprises once the worker has begun.
- The posting is sent for internal approval. It is reviewed by the proper people inside your organisation before it goes out to any provider. This protects headcount and budgets, and guarantees that the request is both legal and funded.
- Once approved it is passed on to suppliers. Fieldglass sends the posting to the suppliers you select or to your whole approved pool. Everyone sees the same opportunity at the same time, which maintains the process fair and competitive.
Job Requirement Definition and Rate Details
Here is where a posting becomes truly powerful, not just detailed. You will have less friction later the more clearly you know what you want and what you will pay.
| Element | What to Define | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|
| Skills and qualifications | Must-have skills listed separately from nice-to-have skills | Suppliers filter their talent properly instead of sending anyone who loosely fits |
| Experience level | Junior, mid-level, or senior expectations, plus years of relevant experience | Keeps submissions aligned with the seniority and rate you actually budgeted for |
| Rate structure | Hourly, daily, or fixed pricing with minimum and maximum limits | Avoids awkward negotiations after you have already liked a candidate |
| Rate cards | Pre-agreed supplier rates applied automatically | Protects the savings you negotiated and reduces manual checking |
| Duration | Start date, end date, and whether extensions are possible | Gives suppliers and candidates a realistic picture of the engagement |
| Budget | Total approved spend for the entire engagement | Gives finance clarity and prevents surprise overruns |
| Location and work model | Onsite, hybrid, or remote, along with the city or site | Narrows the candidate pool to people who can truly work the way you need |
Handling Candidate Submissions and Selection
And when the posting is live, the suppliers are in the limelight. Their goal is to sift through their talent pool and find the best folks to fit your criteria. Your job changes from being a reporter to being a judge, and that’s when Fieldglass truly pays off for supplier management.
- Suppliers provide candidate profiles. Contributions are submitted using the platform, using a standard format. You are comparing apples to apples and you don’t have to deal with a dozen different resume formats supplied via scattered emails.
- Rates travel with profile. You see the proposed rate next to the candidate’s experience, making value comparisons simple and apparent.
- Submissions are monitored by their status. Tags are applied to each profile (new, under review, interview requested, rejected, selected). Nothing is lost and nobody needs to ask "did you see the profile I sent?"
- Managers see the shortlist with no fluff. No more sifting through inboxes, it's everything in one organised spot. You can spend your time judging individuals, not seeking documentation.
- The performance of the supplier becomes apparent. Over time you will see which providers send you relevant, good quality profiles on a timely basis and which vendors bombard you with poor matches. That knowledge helps you decide where to put future posts.
- Speed is everything. Good applicants usually don't wait around, therefore your ability to respond quickly to an application can frequently determine if you get the candidate you want.
Review of Supplier Submissions and Interviews
Structured evaluation is the most effective. The following table illustrates the normal flow of a review and the value added by each step.
| Step | What Happens | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Screening | Profiles are checked against the skills and experience you listed | Quick, objective shortlisting based on facts rather than impressions |
| Shortlisting | The strongest profiles are selected for the next round | Saves interview time and keeps the process focused |
| Interview request | The manager asks for an interview through the platform | No chasing calendars across scattered emails |
| Interview coordination | The supplier arranges the candidate's availability and logistics | Smoother scheduling for everyone involved |
| Interview evaluation | Interviewers assess technical skills, communication, and fit | Decisions are based on evidence, not gut feeling alone |
| Decision and feedback | The candidate is moved forward or declined, often with comments | Suppliers learn what you want and improve future submissions |
| Audit trail | Every action and status change is logged | Supports compliance and demonstrates a fair, consistent process |
Never underestimate the power of feedback. You tell a supplier why you passed on a candidate. Their following submissions are crisper. Now a few honest phrases can save you hours of screening later.
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Work orders and approvals issued
After you choose your candidate, the offer is a work order. This is the formal contract detailing what the worker will do and for how long and at what price. This is the paper that transforms a conversation into a binding engagement.
| Stage | Description | Who Is Involved |
|---|---|---|
| Work order creation | Built from the selected submission, with details flowing over automatically from the posting and profile | Hiring manager |
| Terms confirmation | Start date, end date, rate, location, working hours, and special conditions captured in one place | Hiring manager and procurement |
| Internal approval | The work order moves through the approval chain based on your routing rules | Approvers, finance, department head |
| Supplier acceptance | The supplier reviews and accepts the terms | Supplier |
| Engagement becomes official | The worker is cleared to move on to credentials and onboarding | All parties |
This is far less manual typing and much less inaccuracy because information is transmitted from earlier stages. That alone avoids many arguments over prices and dates that would otherwise crop up weeks later.
Set Up Approval Routeing Rules
Approvals are many processes’ silent slowdown point, thus it’s worth designing them carefully in your approval workflow.
- Route by value or by level. Larger engagements go to a department head or finance, but smaller ones could merely require the recruiting manager’s approval. This keeps modest requests going, and allows for adequate consideration of big commitments.
- By cost centre or by location. You can have your own approvers for each business unit, so it works the way your organisation works, and not as a single bottleneck.
- Define backup approvers. Put alternates in place so that if someone is out or travelling, a work order doesn’t remain idle because someone is unavailable.
- Add escalations and reminders. If an approval sits too long, there are automatic nudges and escalation to a senior person to make sure things don’t stagnate.
- Read the rules frequently. Organisations change through restructures, new departments, and changing finances. Old routeing = Silent Delays. A quarterly check is a good practice.
How to Check Submission Status and Timelines
One of the biggest features of the platform is visibility and leveraging it correctly can improve your hiring pace.
- Use status icons. Fieldglass lets you know where each posting, submission and work order is today, so nothing goes into a black hole.
- Keep an eye on the clock. Look at how long it takes suppliers to reply and how long approvals sit pending. These data will show you exactly where your bottlenecks are.
- Follow up with inbuilt notifications. Automated notifications send the right individuals the correct information at the right time, which is significantly more dependable than manually remembering to chase.
- Fairly compare suppliers. Response time, submission quality and acceptance rates show you who the reliable partners are and who is not.
- Study reports. Timeline data shows you the steps that slow you down so you may enhance the process instead of work around it.
Set up Worker Credentials and Compliance Checks
You want to be confident that the contractors are who they say they are and that they’re up to your standards before they touch anything in your surroundings. Compliance is not paper labour for its own sake. It safeguards your data your reputation and your legal status.
| Check | Purpose | Good Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Background and identity verification | Confirms the worker's identity and relevant history | Complete it before the start date, following your company policy |
| Certifications and licenses | Confirms the required professional qualifications | Collect and store the documents in the worker's record |
| Security and compliance training | Ensures the worker understands your rules and data handling expectations | Assign it as a mandatory task before access is granted |
| Signed agreements | Covers confidentiality, intellectual property, and conduct expectations | Capture signatures digitally so nothing is lost |
| Worker classification | Protects against legal and tax risk from misclassification | Verify that the classification matches the real working arrangement |
| Expiry tracking | Flags credentials that are nearing expiration | Act early instead of scrambling at the last minute |
A common mistake is treating compliance as something to finish after the worker has started. Doing it upfront is far safer, and because the tasks live in the same platform, there is no reason to postpone it.
Completing Worker Onboarding Tasks
Onboarding is where all the earlier work turns into a real person ready to contribute. A good worker onboarding process is organized, clear about who owns each task, and visible to everyone involved.
| Task Type | Typical Owner | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Paperwork and agreements | Worker and supplier | Signed confidentiality agreement |
| Orientation and training | Hiring manager or HR | Team introduction and process overview |
| Compliance documents | Supplier | Uploaded certifications and verification proof |
| System and access requests | IT team | Account creation and permission setup |
| Equipment and asset requests | Facilities or IT | Laptop, badge, and workspace allocation |
| Final verification | Coordinator | Confirming that every task is marked complete |
Seeing who owns what addresses the traditional “I thought you were doing that” dilemma. Managers and coordinators may see completion from one view and step in if something is falling behind, instead of finding out on the worker’s first morning.
Check Access, Assets and Start Date
It’s this final leg that can make or break the worker’s first day of smooth sailing or a stressful exercise. A bit of care here provides a good first impression.
- Check access to the system. Ensure logins, email and required applications are set up with permissions only as necessary per the position. Too much access is dangerous, too little access is idle workers.
- Organise assets. Laptops, access badges, phones and any equipment should be ready to go for the worker’s arrival. Record each item so that it may be retrieved at the conclusion of the engagement.
- Check the starting date. Make sure the date on the work order is what the worker, the supplier and the manager all expect. A discrepancy here confuses and occasionally creates billing conflicts.
- Final conformity check. Verify that no credentials, training, or agreements are pending.
- Get the crew ready. Tell those who will be working with the incoming contractor what they will be doing and who will be helping them settle in.
- Welcome the worker. A little introduction and some clear instructions on day one go a long way in getting a contractor working fast and feeling like part of the team.
Mistakes to avoid. You can have a great platform but a few behaviours can ruin your Fieldglass workflow. Beware of these:
- Making the job post faster. Bad submissions, wasted interviews result from vague guidelines.
- Rate limits circumvented. “Bypassing budget guardrails only leads to overruns and awkward negotiations.
- Failing to manage approvals. Requests can linger for days without reminders and backups.
- Deferment of compliance. Credential verification after the start date presents an undue risk.
- Not giving feedback to suppliers. Without it, you just keep getting the same mismatched profiles.
- Forgetting off-boarding. 4. End of engagement strategy, and recovery of access and assets.
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