In the article, Four Facts About the Emerging Contingent Workforce, McKay gives advice detailing how workers today should be ahead of the learning curve in order to stay relevant. McKay discusses how staffing changes in the global workforce will continue to happen more rapidly due to technology. While I agree with the points made in the article, I believe organizations must also change their practices towards staffing their contingent workforce in order to keep all of their employees engaged.
The importance and growth of the “contingent workforce” model seems to continue to be misunderstood in most corporate environments today, especially when it comes to higher level, skilled professionals. What talent management/ HR teams seem to miss the most is the importance of building the same solid, engaged and high performing workplace for both full time and contingent workers. Corporate branding, employee selection, development and alignment should all be considered when bringing a new employee into an organization, whether they are full time or contingent hires. When this is not considered, turnover and employee disengagement for both contingent and full time will occur as the culture suffers.
The current contingent environment is deteriorating into a procurement driven model that looks to achieve the most amount and highest quality of work, for the least amount of money. The effect (short-term and long-term) is essentially how the client organization is perceived in the talent market, and will take a toll on the talent available to that organization.
There is little doubt that engaged workforces lead to high levels of organizational performance. Organizations with high engagement ratings outperform competitors in their market segment, every time. With this in mind, it is the organizations that take the same care hiring their contingent workforce as they do their full time employees that will consistently attract the best contingent talent.
Author: George Albert Opitz, President of Brightwing