Total Talent Management and the Contingent Workforce

The COVID-19 crisis has transformed the human resources business, and new strategies are required to adapt to the new world we find ourselves in.

One area in which contingent staffing really needs to get its act together is when it comes to engagement with the talent it is responsible for. Procurement officers need to find better ways to engage with contingent talent before, during, and after the role they were acquired for. Demand for talent is only going to increase as we see more large businesses encroach into more of the country and snap up the best and brightest.

Total talent management can provide a method for achieving the kind of engagement we’re searching for and bring all arms of human resources together with one aligned goal in mind.

Total Talent Management

Total talent management is a human resources philosophy which take a holistic perspective on employee engagement. Rather than treating full time and contingent workers as two separate entities and keeping them siloed from one another, total talent management seek to bring them together as a single workforce with a connected approach.

Broadly speaking, total talent management can be broken down into two major components – attraction and management – and for the strategy to be successful will require a deeper understanding of the workforce needs of your organization.

Total talent management is growing in popularity as well with 58% of organizations planning to implement it. Total talent management can help businesses control labor costs, better measure and assess various talent types, and better manage skill shortages and risk. However, there are a lot of steps to go through before it can be effectively implemented.

"To implement a total talent strategy, you need to understand your current workforce landscape," said vendor management solutions provider, VectorVMS in a blog post. "How many permanent employees does your company have? Does your company utilize independent contractors, SOW, freelancers, or temps? How much of your workforce is composed of each of these types? Once you have your workforce analyzed, you can begin to devise a strategy for managing your total workforce."

Contingent Staffing

With an increasing number of businesses relying on an increasing number of contingent staff – especially since the pandemic – bringing this section of the workforce and your full-time employees together is an easy win.

Your contingent workers will feel more like they are part of the organization – rather than just a contractor brought in for a job – and will have an increased likelihood of being retained for further opportunities. Keeping these employees engaged will also benefit the business as a whole with more highly engaged companies seeing a 21% boost in profitability and a 41% decrease in absenteeism.

Engagement isn’t easy to implement however, and it will take hard work and innovative thinking to bring it up to a level where it begins showing tangible results. Independent consulting services can assist your brand and make the transition from low engagement to high a far simpler affair. Contingent workforce technology and employee engagement platforms are also available to make engagement far simpler.

Through these technologies, procurement officers can provide contingent and full-time staff easy and convenient methods of staying connected and providing feedback to the organization as a whole. Some platforms even gamify these features, providing awards and leaderboards for completing surveys, training, etc.

Other steps are far easier to implement. Having a proper onboarding process for contingent staff, like you would for a full timer, can help them feel more welcome and engaged. Greet them properly and introduce them to the people they’ll be working alongside. Make sure everything they need for their role is in place and ready to go. This is the point of total talent management – to break down barriers between the different elements of your workforce and get them working together as a single unit for the benefit of the entire organization.

At the other end of the contract, exit surveys are a terrific way to get an idea of the experience people have working within your organization. Not only will this help you get a better idea of whether a contingent worker may be a good fit for another contract with you but could also provide an opportunity for a full-time hire. At the very least it will give you some ideas of if and where you can improve your total talent management strategy.

Final Thoughts

Total talent management is a fantastic way to stop siloing your workforce and bring everyone together with a single goal in mind. Not only will this make talent engagement and management easier for your HR teams but will also benefit the business through increased profitability and reduced absences.

Total talent management is set to be a hot topic at ProcureCon Contingent Staffing 2022, taking place in March at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown, AZ.

Download the agenda today for more information and insights.