Editor’s note: Interested in learning more about how the contingent workforce will continue to evolve in the year ahead? Make sure to join us on Tuesday, February 17 at 2pm for a webinar (sponsored by Beeline) that will highlight the necessary best practices for managing this category. Click here to register for the webcast. You won’t want to miss this event!

The typical enterprise often faces a variety of challenges in managing the contemporary contingent workforce, from mismanaging the modern array of talent sources, to lacking specific tools to generate visibility and intelligence, to failing to generate control over newer, more complex forms of non-employee talent.

Ardent’s State of Contingent Workforce Management report found that there are a variety of both traditional and nuanced capabilities that companies are currently leveraging to manage their non-traditional and non-employee workforce (including standardized processes, ongoing compliance training, SOW management, etc.). However, only 25% of enterprises currently have formalized strategic plans for expanding their contingent workforce management (CWM) programs into other global locations and regions.

Why is this concerning? The answer is simple: the pressure is on companies in today’s business environment to navigate through a globalized economy and maintain a competitive edge. “Talent” is one means of gaining that edge, although most companies actively fail to build the best-fit plans for engaging, sourcing, and managing new talent in new regions in a compliant, cost-effective manner.

It’s no secret that the “talent vortex” is forcing organizations to reevaluate their talent management and CWM strategies to account for “work migrating to where it is done best.” For companies that conduct business on a global scale, the top-tier skillsets that can effectively drive success might not be available in the North American region where many enterprises keep headquarters. However, in order to find international talent and engage it in a compliant (and controlled) way, there needs to be a well-thought expansion of CWM operations and capabilities.

As companies begin to think about CWM program expansion, there are several key hurdles that come to light, including:

• A lack of insight into cultural-specific maturity levels.
• Little intelligence regarding country-specific regulations, laws, and guidelines concerning contingent or non-traditional labor.
• Benchmark information concerning rates, supplier performance, etc., and;
• A lack of expertise and automation concerning regional nuances.

By the end of 2017, 45%-to-50% of the entire global workforce will be considered non-traditional or non-employee. This statistic gives much insight into how work will be done in the years ahead; it would be a massive failure on the part of enterprises to not only avoid searching emerging, international talent markets for ideal skill sets, but to also do their “homework” in terms of expanding their CWM programs in the proper way (by, of course, being strategic about where and how to approach new regions).

As enterprises begin to formalize their program expansion plans, it is critical for them to figure out the best means of building a proper talent-engagement strategy that is founded on third-party expertise and automation (i.e., Vendor Management System (VMS)). It should also incude a high level of intelligence on the regulations and nuances in a particular region (for compliance purposes), a true understanding (and the ensuring of) data privacy and worker treatment without having corporate representatives in new regions. Finally, it needs a strategic plan for leveraging the same standardized talent engagement processes that are currently utilized back home.

RELATED ARTICLES

The Implications of 2015’s “Talent Vortex”

Your Guidebook to Contingent Workforce Management, Part III: Expanding the CWM Framework

Three Talent Management Capabilities That Matter

Tracking the Evolution of the VMS Platform

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, People, Process, Solution Providers, Supplier Performance Management, Suppliers