For those of you eager for more sourcing, procurement, and technology articles, don’t worry, Andrew has been building a backlog of articles ahead of what he’s calling the “Summer of Sourcing (and CPO stories)“ [Publisher’s note: Copyright :-)] It should be great!
But, since I’m presenting today at the Human Capital Institute’s 2013 Strategic Talent Acquisition Conference, I thought the time was right for another article on one of my favorite topics – managing the contingent workforce. Often, we look at strategies for managing this category’s spend and the suppliers (the procurement view); today, we’ll look at managing the people (the HR view).
There comes a point when any director of human resources (or Chief Human Resources Officer) takes a look around his or her office and sees the numerous contractors and temporary workers, and thinks, “There must be some way to apply our HR principles to the management of these workers.” After all, isn’t HR the expert in handling all aspects worker-related?
It’s an admirable thought, but one that requires much more than just a positive attitude. Bundling both full-time equivalents (FTEs) and contract talent under one, centralized strategic umbrella may seem like a pipe dream to some executives, but, for others, it’s a critical goal for the next few years as they develop ways to revolutionize their enterprise’s global strategy.
So, how can the average company even begin to think about the prospects of total talent management? Well, it’s not so cut-and-dry; in fact, there’s no cure-all solution or an official guidebook on the matter (at least, not yet). The first step is to take a step outside of the job role “box.” There’s no lead role here (at least until an official program is launched, then talk about an official “project manager” can begin), only a mix of the best and brightest minds within the organization. The hit-list begins with:
- The Chief Procurement Officer, who is well-versed in the strategic spend management aspects of contingent workforce management.
- The Chief People Officer (or VP, Human Resources), who, as we mentioned at the very beginning of this article, is the expert on all things related to FTEs.
- The Chief Financial Officer, who must be involved from a purely-financial standpoint, and;
- The Chief Information Officer, who often sees the highest concentration of temporary workers, SOW-based projects or services, and contractors. This role can also assist in bridging the technology gap between HR and contingent workforce systems.
The focal point of any “total talent management” program would ideally revolve around relationships: the relationships between workers and managers, HR and corporate executives, temporary workers/services and their projects, the CPO and the service providers and staffing vendors, the business lines and their contractors, and, most importantly, the relationships between the roles of the four C-level executives listed above.
Considering that tracking or managing all of the above relationships could be very difficult, I’ve developed an argument for each side the total talent management coin – (A) it’s either a complex program that may require many resources and various buy-in from around the enterprise but is totall worth doing, or (B) it’s not feasible due to the many complexities that each side of FTE and contract talent management brings to the organizational table.
Three reasons why total talent management program is a revolutionary concept and very doable:
- The union between HR and procurement. There already exists a mutual respect and collaborative attitude for both HR and procurement in collaboratively managing contingent labor. Adding the CPO’s insights and expertise into managing traditional talent can not only improve HR’s classic outlook, but also pave the way for total talent management.
- We have the technology. The ideal mix of technology for total talent management is Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), workforce management, Managed Service Providers (MSP) and Vendor Management Systems (VMS). An integration between these three systems would revolutionize how the modern organization manages talent and would automate / support all main phases of total talent management: recruitment, talent management, workforce management, day-to-day support for contingent labor, robust analytics and viable intelligence dashboards.
- Relationship management. The undeniable priority of any total talent management program would be on relationships (as discussed earlier), and HR’s expertise in enabling quality in FTEs would presumably spark an uptick in the percentage of temp workers, projects and services that actually hit communicated/pre-defined goals, objectives and milestones.
But, on the other hand, here are three reasons why total talent management program is a an impossible strategy with far too many hurdles to success:
- Independent contractors (ICs) are already a problem for the vast majority of organizations; they will surely be “lost” in the realm of total talent management. We know about the inherent risks in engaging and managing ICs (click here for a refresher), and with even the most advanced organizations struggling to keep up with the internal demand for the top-tier of contractors while simultaneously mitigating risks, shoving management of ICs into a total talent management program may be overfilling the cup – too much, too soon!
- Concerns over data quality. Although modern technology integration often cures data quality and consistency woes, the Chief Procurement Officer (and the CFO) require so much data from a variety of sources that even the slightest error or delay in generating data from talent management, RPO, and VMS systems can cause serious financial or budgetary issues with projects and professional services.
- The “umbrella” has become too complex (particularly within the realm of SOW-based project/service management). As it stands now, the contemporary contingent workforce umbrella is evolving at a rapid pace. ICs generate more and more risk, poor supplier management efforts destroy ground gained on consolidating the glut of staffing vendors, and SOW-based projects and services continue to pop up all around the modern organization. There is no guarantee that a total talent management program will effectively manage all of these attributes both now and in the future.
There is merit in undertaking the processes that comprise a total talent management program such as developing a centralized view of all corporate talent and standardizing all primary relationships. But, there are also valid concerns over whether such an initiative could actually work when faced with the intricacies of both modern contingent labor and traditional enterprise talent. The answer to the question may differ across different enterprises but we think it is an idea worth considering by most. What do you think?
