On-Demand Talent and the Rise of Work Market and the FMS Platform

By now, the industry knows the impact of the contingent workforce. A quick recap:

• Nearly a third (32%) of today’s total workforce is comprised of non-traditional and non-employee labor and talent.
• By the end of 2017, anywhere from 45%-to-50% of the world’s total workforce will be comprised of workers from this segment.
• 92% of enterprises cite non-traditional talent as a moderate-to-vital aspect of their overall corporate strategy.
• To boot, nearly 60% of all contingent labor is unaccounted for in financial planning, forecasting, and budgeting within the average company.

The above stats represent a few major items, including growth, visibility, and ultimate influence over the future of how companies will address their needs in new and varied markets. However, there’s another wrinkle to these notions that is actively transforming the way enterprises conduct business: the rise of “on-demand talent” and the burgeoning Freelancer Management Systems (FMS) that are dynamically altering the way executives source, manage, track, and pay for the flexible skill sets that are now available 24/7 to any organization with an internet connection.

Social media and social networks seemed to be the first wave of this concept of on-demand talent, with the “age of socially-sourced talent” coming into full bloom to assist business professionals in finding the right skill sets for their project-based needs. Although online labor and freelancer marketplaces have been in the mix for some time, it is only in today’s on-demand world that enterprises across the world have truly realized the value of these outlets in finding top-tier talent (in fact, Ardent Partners’ recent State of Contingent Workforce Management research study found that utilization of these marketplaces and freelancer networks will grow by 96% over the next two years).

A question remains deep in the discussion of on-demand talent: how can companies leverage both the positive aspects of this new, flexible workforce while also maintaining some measure of control and compliance? While standardization and robust capabilities may help to alleviate the challenges of today’s on-demand talent world, automation is often a critical cog in addressing this new normal. In fact, Freelancer Management System (FMS) solutions have become a contemporary go-to platform for those enterprises seeking enhanced control, visibility and access to and over their freelance and independent talent.

During a briefing with FMS provider Work Market, newly-appointed CEO Stephen DeWitt outlined his vision for this industry and how the Work Market solution plans on revolutionizing how enterprises across the globe not only find, source, identify, and verify independent talent, but also manage the cost, control, and compliance attributes that are often overlooked when leveraging freelancers.

“The non-W2 workforce [non-employee workforce] is growing rapidly, and companies are now faced with a variety of choices, sources, and options for finding the talent they need that best fits their requirements,” said DeWitt. “We believe that, with the Work Market platform, we’re able to provide those organizations with a solution that helps them not only manage that workforce from a talent-led perspective, but also help them maintain a level of cost control and compliance, as well.”

Work Market’s automated FMS platform centralizes management of freelance and independent talent via:

• Automated background checks and full vetting of requirements and licenses
• “Grouping” of freelance talent by requirement, talent / skillset level or project demands
• Full calendar of current work performed, status of projects, quality of workers / talent and customized tracking requirements
• Support for compliance and identity management (automated 1099 compliance, drug / background testing, etc.)
• Holistic and mobile-enabled invoicing and payment, and;
• Agile analytical capabilities that can drill-down into any avenue of information held within the system (including utilization of talent, project status, regional-specific talent pools, etc.).

Ardent Partners research has found that nearly 40% of organizations expect to adopt a Freelancer Management System over the next 12-to-16 months (second only to mobile applications in the “solutions on the rise” category of contingent workforce management technology), proving that, in a constantly-shifting and evolving world of on-demand talent, enterprises must think beyond traditional means and solutions for maximizing the value out of the non-employee workforce.

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