How to Excel Using Contract Workers

How to Excel Using Contract Workers

How to Excel Using Contract Workers

Contingent workers are vital to the success of many businesses, but managing this freelance workforce presents many challenges for managers and executives.

A Contingent Workforce Is Vital to Success

95% of organizations today perceive their contingent workforce as important and vital to day-to-day operations and ultimate enterprise success and growth.

One-Third of the Workforce Is Contingent

35% of today’s workforce is comprised of non-employee workers, including temps, freelancers, statement-of-work (SOW) workers, independent contractors and others.

Easy Access to Talent

Organizations everywhere can find, source and engage independent talent in real-time through on-demand methods. Here are the top sources: Online labor marketplaces: 66%, Freelancer networks: 62%, Job boards: 61%, In-network talent: 57%, Social networks/social media: 49%

Total Talent Management (TTM) Taking Hold

TTM, the centralized management of all enterprise talent under standardized processes and integrated systems/solutions, is taking hold as companies try to understand and assess enterprisewide talent of all kinds.

Few Companies Know Their Worker Footprint

Although companies want to understand their talent, only 50% have clear visibility into their “worker footprint,” meaning visibility into all talent across the enterprise. The result: an inability to forecast, budget and plan for talent-based needs.

CWM Challenges

Respondents revealed the following challenges to CWM: Lack of intelligence and visibility: 48%, Control and mitigate compliance risk: 46%, Pressure to reduce costs and/or improve savings: 45%, Need to improve the way talent is engaged: 37%

Statement of Work Management Key to CWM

Statement of Work-based projects (SOW) involve supplier on-boarding and off-boarding, supplier evaluations, ongoing performance management, measurement of delivery dates, milestone achievement, and project budget and expense management.

HR Should Support SOW

HR’s support is critical to SOW-based projects because talent forecasting and workforce management can help businesses gain control over complex contingent labor. “SOW is the next frontier,” says the report.

Status of SOW Management

SOW management is not yet a strategic imperative for the respondents’ CWM programs, as the following shows: Strategic component of CWM program: 28%, Initial stages of SOW management program: 25%, Tactical component, not yet strategic: 23%, Not a focus, no plans to address SOW: 17%, Not a focus but plan to address within next 12 months: 7%

Benefits of Total Talent Management

Total talent management includes centralized and standardized management of all types of enterprise talent, both traditional and non-employee. Below are key benefits according to respondents: Enhanced visibility into the total talent pool: 80%, More intelligent decision-making: 64%, Reduction of overall labor spend: 62%, Enhanced alignment between projects and the talent they require: 57%, Seamless processes from requisition to project completion: 54%, Better quality of data regarding all enterprise talent: 50%