The “employee lifecycle” has come full circle; no longer are professionals beholden to traditional employment structures. On top of record-low unemployment rates, more and more businesses are finding that there is a real “war for talent” occurring and they must be prepared to fight it. The reality today is that more individuals have an ability to do what they want from a career orientation. This places more emphasis on the “talent experience,” an amalgamation of the employee experience and overall candidate engagement that strengthens the day-to-day ways that all types of talent work within their respective organizations (or on their respective projects). Since talent is a major competitive differentiator, worker experience is paramount to how businesses continue to attract the best available talent and derive the most from it.
Many human capital and HR leaders are familiar with the concept of the employee experience, a term used to describe the actual perceptions by workers from their workplace environments, culture, day-to-day tasks, and work-life balance. The employee experience also blends into its mix ideas related to the “candidate experience,” in itself a talent-centric form of the customer experience, in which job candidates perceive positive notions about the overall company brand and how it operates its recruitment operations.
So, what does this have to do with the contingent workforce and the Future of Work?
Today’s non-employee workforce comprises 43% of the average company’s total talent, another year of growth heading into a new decade. The continued evolution of the contingent workforce, the agile workforce, is a critical component of the Future of Work (as discussed here and here). Shouldn’t this crucial segment of the overall workforce require the same level of rigor and attention in regard to “experience,” especially considering its size, scope, and overall impact?
There are obvious lines that separate processes, attitudes, and operations in how both “sides” of talent should be managed, of course (keeping in mind compliance measures). However, in an age when the best-fit and best-aligned talent isn’t always found in an enterprise’s own backyard (or within its FTE pool), the concepts related to the employee experience should be extended to all for all forms of talent…hence the “talent experience” becoming a critical piece of the Future of Work. Improving the overall talent experience includes concepts such as:
- Providing freelancers and contractors with access to the necessary systems, managers/executives, and tools to effectively get the job done.
- Extending access to information related to project status (i.e. project deliverables, timelines, milestones, etc.).
- Paying non-employees more quickly (less than 30 days, which is sometimes dictated by regional law).
- Providing frequent opportunities for learning and development of new or enhanced skills, and;
- Embracing external workers and partners as critical to the enterprise’s overall success.
The talent experience may seem like yet another crucial piece of the Future of Work puzzle that businesses must manage effectively, however, this is a concept with one goal in mind: ensure that all talent, no matter its source, has a positive and engaging experience. The age of the agile workforce is here, and the workers that have had excellent experiences will be the ones that will happily reengage with companies when the need for their skillsets arises.
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