The situation: A global pharma and medtech business with around 2,000 managers running active external worker assignments across EMEA. An internal audit flagged compliance risk. Managers were going round the programme — and nobody had the visibility to know how widespread it was.
What we did: We started by listening. A group of high-volume managers told us what they actually needed. We built a four-module training programme around those conversations — practical, country-aware, and built to stick. It launches in April 2026.
What’s changing: Before a single module goes live, the programme has already been reviewed and approved by key supplier partners and procurement leaders. The Programme Owner called it ready for production. That doesn’t happen by accident.
When an internal audit flags compliance risk across your extended workforce, the instinct is to fix the training. Add a module. Remind people of the rules. Tick the box.
That’s not what we did. And it’s not why this is working.
A global pharma and medtech business came to us with a problem that looked, on the surface, like a training problem. Managers were bypassing the programme. Workers were being engaged outside approved channels. Spend was invisible. Assignment data was incomplete. Programme leaders couldn’t track what was happening, let alone govern it.
The audit had made the risk visible. But the risk had been there for a long time.
The real problem wasn’t knowledge. It was friction.
Before we designed a single slide, we did something that most training projects skip: we talked to the managers.
Not a survey. Not a focus group with pre-set answers. We engaged a group of high-volume managers — and those with the most diverse needs — and asked them what was actually getting in the way. What they found confusing. What they didn’t know. How they wanted to learn. What they needed on day one versus what they needed six months in.
What we heard was consistent. Managers weren’t going round the programme because they didn’t care about compliance. They were going round it because they didn’t know where the front door was. They didn’t understand why external labour was managed differently from permanent headcount. And when they needed a worker quickly, the path of least resistance won.
That’s not a training problem. That’s an orientation problem. A clarity problem. A “nobody ever explained the basics” problem.
So that’s where we started.
Four modules. One clear journey.
The programme we built has four parts, each designed for a specific moment in a manager’s journey with external workers.
Orientation rolls out to every new manager as they join the business — around 150 people a month. It covers what the external workforce programme does, why it exists, and how to engage from the start. The goal is simple: managers know where the front door is before they ever need it. They can find an approved supplier, understand the process, and engage compliantly from day one — without having to figure it out under pressure.
Risk Management Basics is available to all managers across all EMEA countries at point of need. It covers the compliance landscape in plain language: tenure risk, co-employment, pay parity, misclassification. Critically, it covers the nuances between countries — because a manager in Germany is operating under different rules from one in the Netherlands or the UK. It also covers worker definitions, because how you classify a worker determines how you engage them, and how you manage them. Most managers have never been taught this. Most assume it’s someone else’s job to know.
Acquiring the Worker covers best practice in how to engage different worker types: skills-based hiring, what to expect from suppliers, and what good onboarding looks like. This is the module that bridges the gap between “I know I need someone” and “I know how to bring them in properly.”
Managing the Worker covers the assignment itself — how to manage compliantly and inclusively, what to watch for as an assignment progresses, and how to offboard well. Because compliance doesn’t end at onboarding. It runs the length of the assignment, and managers are on the front line of that every day.
Built with managers, not just for them.
The managers who gave us their time in the early stages became our test group as we developed the content. They reviewed drafts. They told us what landed and what didn’t. They shaped the format — how content is delivered, how long each module runs, what works in a classroom versus what works remotely.
Their feedback throughout was strong. And when the finished modules went to key supplier partners and procurement leaders for review, they were approved without significant change.
The Programme Owner’s response when the modules landed for final sign-off:
“I have gone through and I am very happy with the content and how it is presented — well done! I am happy if you move ahead into production.”
That’s not a rubber stamp. That’s a programme that was built right.
What happens next matters as much as the launch.
The four modules go live in April 2026. Orientation begins rolling out to new managers immediately — 150 a month, every month. The remaining three modules are deployed at point of need, reaching the 2,000 managers with active assignments across EMEA.
Alongside the rollout, we’re setting up a change champion network — people embedded in the business who help bring the benefits of this education to the wider stakeholder group. Not just compliance awareness, but a genuine shift in how managers think about external workers: as a strategic part of how work gets done, not a category to be managed at arm’s length.
We’re also putting monitoring and reporting in place from the start. Adoption rates will be tracked. That data will feed back into the programme. If something isn’t landing, we’ll know quickly and adjust.
This is the part most training programmes miss. You can build the best content in the world. If nobody measures whether people actually use it — and change what isn’t working — you’re back to ticking a box.
We’re not here to tick boxes.
Compliance was the trigger. But the real opportunity here is a permanent shift in how 2,000 managers across EMEA think about the extended workforce — why it matters, how to use it well, and what their role is in making it work. That’s not a training project. That’s a capability transformation.
Small things, big impact.
We’ll update this story with adoption data once monitoring is in place post-April.
If manager capability is on your radar, we’d love an informal conversation about what you’re trying to achieve.
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RedWizard — Operating at the heart of the workforce ecosystem.
Written by:
Strategic Operations Director
I joined my twin sister Jools at RedWizard in 2017 — and if you know Jools, you’ll understand why someone with a head for detail and an eye for the practical was probably needed.
I came to RedWizard from teaching, where I spent years watching people navigate change with very little support. Academy restructures, new leadership, shifting priorities — and almost no thought given to how the people in the middle of it all were supposed to feel, adapt, or succeed. That experience stayed with me. It’s probably why I instinctively look at any workforce transformation through the eyes of the person it’s happening to, not just the organisation driving it.
That human lens shapes everything I do at RedWizard. I lead on operations and service development, making sure that what we promise actually works in practice — and that clients build real capability, not just compliance. I’m also passionate about education as a tool for change. When people understand why something matters and how to navigate it, everything shifts. That’s the thinking behind Educate 2 Enable, our growing library of training content and resources for workforce professionals.
People growing into their potential — whether that’s a manager learning to lead a blended team or an organisation finding its feet with extended workforce governance — that’s what gets me up in the morning.