Quickly: name the three things your organization is focused on in regards to managing its contingent workforce program. Need some help?

1. Cost savings, right? Every company, no matter the status of the bottom-line, has prioritized cost reductions or cost savings across all spend categories…not just the complex, indirect or direct areas within the organization. It’s no secret that contingent labor numbers are increasing year-to-year, and with that uptick comes an increase in project costs / expenses, as well as funds spent on contractors, professional services, consultants, etc.

2. Visibility…into everything! One of the interesting caveats of the contingent workforce umbrella is that its “layers” touch many functions across the typical enterprise: procurement, human resources, IT, finance, operations, administration, etc. While this can be a benefit in that each of these units can assist in lending their expertise to such a complex arena, the main detriment is that this also means there’s much, much more data and information to track as part of a CWM program.

3. Quality, effectiveness, etc. Gauging the true effectiveness of temporary workers and contract talent has arisen as a viable challenge in recent years as companies plug in more and more contingent labor into their workforce, especially considering that most organizations don’t understand how to apply quantitative metrics to a qualitative arena.

While the three items above are certainly issues for the average contingent workforce management (CWM) program, there is another aspect that, over the next few years, will become the #1 challenge for every organization: TALENT.

Remember, when the typical enterprise hires a contractor, consultant or freelance worker, “talent” is the top concern. We’re looking for top-tier talent to manage corporate projects that will help our organizations drive more business. This very simple concept is starting to leak into the developmental processes behind contemporary CWM programs. Cost and visibility are always going to be top-of-mind, but talent is truly the differentiator of the future.

With this in mind, organizations are going to build talent management processes and capabilities into their CWM programs. Such competencies could include:

• Specific, consistently-shifting talent pools, which will be comprised of “already-known” talent, such as alumni and retirees, and freelancers / contractors that are linked to their organization through its employee network.
• Social media integration, which can be an effective catalyst in engaging talent that wouldn’t ordinarily be available via traditional means.
• Pure talent-to-project alignment, a capability that (in real-time) can identify top-tier talent within a talent pool or social network for each project in development across the greater organization.

Tagged in: Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, People