Implementing a contingent workforce management program is a complex strategy that requires contingent expertise, business-wide standardization and strategic processes that run across all hiring managers within an organization.
When done properly, the benefits are huge. With an effective contingent workforce management program in place, organizations are able to reduce costs, improve workforce quality, become more agile, and better fulfill their overall workforce and business goals.
However, while contingent workforce staffing is a fantastic resource when managed properly, it can also bring unexpected (and often invisible) risk when managed incorrectly. That’s why a strategic contingent workforce management program is crucial.
To mitigate contingent workforce risks and increase ROI, it’s important to follow some key contingent workforce management best practices. The following best practices will help your business implement an effective contingent workforce management program.
Most organizations hire contingent workers using fragmented processes, with no real strategy in place. Different management have their own tactics and goals, hiring managers all pay different rates to staffing agencies, and there’s no reporting behind how much you're actually spending or how your staffing agencies are performing.
By building a strategic contingent workforce management program that standardizes processes and brings all departments into one centralized program, your organization can ensure all managers are working together to help your company achieve its overall workforce, and business goals.
Once you have a strategic program in place with standardized processes, it’s time to centralize all of that information into one centralized location so that your business can gain complete visibility and control of your contingent workforce.
With the implementation of a vendor management system, your business will be able to centralize and automate all of the processes associated with managing your contingent workers and staffing agencies. The result? You’ll discover new cost savings, improve program efficiencies and ensure you are in compliance with local and national employment regulations.
When we talk about contingent workforce management, we typically fall into the debate of who should manage the program - should it be HR or procurement? In reality, contingent workforce management should be a company-wide initiative that uses the expertise of both of these departments.
HR can use its experience of tracking metrics like engagement and retention to ensure contingent workers are satisfied and willing to return for future projects with your brand, while procurement can track KPIs around the cost and risk of the program. By successfully collaborating together, HR and procurement can help your business achieve the shared goal of better talent acquisition.
Due to the temporary nature of contingent workers, it can be difficult to connect with them on the same level you would with your employees. This can often have a negative impact on contingent workforce engagement and leaves businesses struggling to build strong relationships with their contingent workers.
To improve your contingent workforce management program, building a strong two-way dialogue can help your contingent workers feel more connected with your business, the projects they are working on and your internal employees. This helps improve the quality of their work, and ensures that you are in a position to re-engage those workers again in the future when required.
Planning, building and implementing a contingent workforce management program is highly complex. It requires resources, time and specialist knowledge in how to manage the contingent category and the staffing agencies used to source workers.
If you don’t have the resources and expertise required to build an effective program, it can be highly beneficial to outsource contingent workforce management to a specialist managed services provider (MSP) instead. By doing so, your organization will gain access to a team of experts who can analyze your workforce needs, and then design and build a program that achieves those goals.
A contingent workforce mSP will streamline and improve your contingent workforce management program so that your business realizes optimum ROI from its contingent workers.
Interested in learning more about outsourcing your contingent workforce management program? Book a meeting with Contrax today. Our team of contingent workforce management experts would love to answer any questions that you may have.
