[Today we have our fourth installment of our series focused on The State of Contingent Workforce Management, Ardent Partners’ landmark new research study. In this series, report author and Ardent Partners’ Research Director, Christopher J. Dwyer, will highlight key findings from his report and outline just how much this space has evolved. If you are interested, copies of the report can be found here, here, and here.]

One of the more interesting attributes of contemporary contingent workforce management is that, from enterprise to enterprise, the specifics of programs often vary based on the size and scope of contract talent that is utilized. Some companies may only wade in the traditional temporary labor pool, while others will leverage the full scope of talent within the Contingent Workforce Management Framework.

The State of Contingent Workforce Management research study includes, amongst other fresh takes on this industry, a deep discussion of how top-performing (Best-in-Class) enterprises are currently managing contingent labor and the programmatic developments they enjoy to consistently drive value from their heavy utilization of contract talent. The foundation of the Best-in-Class perspective is their clear advantage across the most critical of the CWM’s industry’s key metrics, including a higher Quality Index Score than all other companies, higher year-over-year cost savings, a greater percentage of contingent labor that is accounted for and budgeted in greater financial planning, and superior instances of compliance in regards to independent contractors and federal / regularly / state labor laws.

The Best-in-Class contingent workforce management program relies on a balance of capabilities across multiple areas within contemporary CWM, including:

• Identity management. Best-in-Class enterprises understand the importance of controlling on-site contract talent, and are actively leveraging identity management capabilities, such as pre-employment screening, background checks, and proper onboarding and offboarding processes. With contractors and other forms of contingent labor having regular access to both company hardware and software (including enterprise systems, such as ERP), it is critical in today’s climate to effectively control contract talent to protect, amongst other things, intellectual property and sensitive information.
• Independent contractor engagement and management. Representing one of the three key categories of the Contingent Workforce Management Framework, independent contractors are widely-utilized to full project-based needs that require highly-specialized skillsets. Best-in-Class enterprises are leveraging a series of capabilities to offset the risks of this category, including consistent compliance reviews to avoid misclassification, ongoing compliance training across the enterprise (to educate all units who may utilize ICs), and active maintenance of a defensible compliance file (which can be utilized in the event of an audit or other legal case).
• Business intelligence and analytics. It’s no surprise to see Big Data traverse into the contingent workforce world; as utilization of this workforce grows, so will the importance of having data and intelligence to measure performance, track project management attributes (expenses, delivery against milestones, etc.). Best-in-Class enterprises are making use of analytical capabilities, such as “agile” analytics, deep-dive functionalities and the ability to view contingent labor spending in real-time against corporate budgets, to drive superior intelligence into CWM and improve overall contingent workforce planning and execution.

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