Welcome to the first article of two articles that will take a “crystal ball” approach to the year ahead in contingent workforce management. In this series of articles, we’ll take outline how this industry will change from process, strategy and technological perspectives, and offer some guidance as to which areas organizations can anticipate the greatest growth and evolution.

The State of Contingent Workforce Management research study found that, over the next three years, the average contingent workforce will grow by nearly 30%. That is a significant figure, and one that represents a continuing focus on this increasingly complex type of alternative workforce. And, with the lines being blurred between so many different categories of contingent labor (services, consultants, SOW, traditional temporary labor, independent contractors, etc.), the modern organization will have to take a multifaceted approach in 2014 in order to effectively maintain a sharp balance between spend, talent and performance management within their contingent workforce.

With that said, let’s take a look at a few items that will be significant trend-setters in the year ahead within the realm of contingent workforce management:

• It will all be a “blur.” As mentioned above, the current scope of contingent labor isn’t aligned to a simple set of staffing suppliers or agencies; the contemporary contingent workforce blurs several talent lines, including SOW-based labor (i.e. consultancies), traditional temporary labor (i.e. “temps” for administrative leaves or vacations), independent contractors, and professional and non-professional services. And, even those categories will continue to evolve in 2014, as categories such as enterprise-workforce-as-a-service (eWaaS) and online labor marketplaces comprise what will be a truly complex non-traditional workforce.
• Collaboration will be an ideal strategy for technologies and solutions, not just departmental units. Out of all the modern business technology spaces, contingent workforce management represents the arena in which (perhaps) the most solutions and offerings regularly work together (via partnerships and integration) to offer a slew of services and functionality for managing all facets of contract talent. VMS will work closely with RPO to fuel total talent management strategies, while MSP solutions will work with greater contingent workforce technology to improve management of complex contingent labor. Online labor marketplaces will become an area that will most solutions will hone in to capture all aspects of modern contract talent.
• CWM programs will expand…out of necessity. The merger between online labor / freelance marketplace giants Elance and oDesk signals a growing trend in the CWM industry: non-traditional labor is all around us, and organizations that find value in contract labor will exhaust all means for finding the highest-level, ideal and supreme-quality talent. The average CWM program is not yet equipped to handle the many aspects of the Contingent Workforce Management Framework, let alone attempt to capture other, newer means of sourcing contract talent. Expect companies across the globe to implement new processes and strategies for tracking, monitoring and capturing the spend, quality and performance attributes of freelancers and other non-traditional workers.

Stay tuned for Part II of our look at CWM in the year ahead, publishing soon here at CPO Rising.

And, join me and Andrew Bartolini as we present a webinar where we will discuss the big trends and predictions that will shape procurement in 2014 on January 23rd at 2 pm. Click here to register.

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Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, Predictions