One of the (many) perceptions of contingent labor over the years has been the gray area between true talent and indirect spend category / commodity. The phrase, “people aren’t pencils,” has been uttered by many a Chief Procurement Officer in dealing with this complex arena. “Talent can’t be sourced in the same way that materials can be,” procurement departments have said. And it’s the truth: there’s no “add to cart” simplicity for purchasing contractors or temporary workers, and the “deep” connection between an enterprise and its contingent workforce traverses beyond that of product materials.
Although contract talent has many layers, the fact of the matter is that it’s been commoditized for years. Freelance workers, independent contractors and temporary workers (sourced via staffing suppliers) are all “bought” with the premise that they are commodities that serve a limited (i.e. engaged for a specific length of time) purpose.
(quick interlude)
A decade ago, after I received my undergraduate degree, I, like many of my peers, found myself some time away from employment in my desired field. And, similar to many of fellow newcomers to the “real world,” I turned to staffing agencies for temporary employment to leverage what little expertise I had into some form of a steady paycheck. I met with a (now-defunct) Boston-based staffing agency, and the representative “handling” me, after discussing my talents (writing, editing, etc.), asked if I would be willing to make a few phone calls as a way to generate information for reports for a large manufacturer of construction equipment. You can imagine my dismay to learn that I was sold into a call center, where I was expected to make not a “few” calls per day, but at least 200.
(end of quick interlude)
Now, the above story wasn’t just meant as a way for me to vent about my pre-analyst days. No, the story is a perfect example of how contingent workers are sometimes handled and managed as commodities. I wasn’t viewed as “talent,” which, a feeling that I’m sure many contingent workers share as they travel from project-to-project and organization-to-organization.
There’s been a strategic revolution within the contingent workforce management industry with the arrival of the contingent workforce umbrella, however, this has not affected the perception of contract talent as commodities. But…there’s been a shift recently, one that’s helping to de-commoditize contingent labor. And that shift revolves around the notion of TALENT. Organizations are beginning to realize the benefits of approaching contingent labor as talent and not commodities.
While there will always be inherent value in hiring temporary workers to fill basic, short-term corporate needs, for enterprises to truly drive more value out of the contingent workforce, they must view their contract talent, as, well, talent instead of commodities that can be bought (which are only useful for a short period of time). Commodities and materials are purchased, but talent is engaged. In the “war for talent,” companies are going to extend their strategies into the social stratosphere and begin to put the same amount of effort into engaging contingent workers as they do finding traditional talent.
While contract labor commoditization is a disheartening aspect to this otherwise-evolving market, there is some exciting news regarding the perception of this category. Ardent’s State of Contingent Workforce Management research report found that 43% of enterprises across the globe expect the future of contingent workforce management to include a more “talent-focused” approach instead of a commodity-focused one. This speaks to the fact that talent is truly the future of this space.
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