3 Resources for Being Intentional About Contingent Workforce Management | Multiple Resources

Contingent workers—freelance, contract, gig, and temporary—are a vital and growing workforce segment. These workers help organizations enable the “borrow” component of their strategic workforce planning (SWP) and offer several benefits, such as flexibility and fast access to talent and resources as work demand changes. Despite these benefits, SWP processes often focus primarily on internal workers and/or take a reactive approach to contingent workforce practices (e.g., a manager needs help on a project and calls the procurement team to source contingent workers). As organizations take a more deliberate and holistic approach to contingent workforce management, I am resharing three resources that provide ideas. 1) Workforce Ecosystems A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work—a 43-page MIT Sloan Management Review report that provides insights on how firms can adopt an integrated approach to managing their workforce of internal and external contributors. 2) Remote Work Has Opened the Door to a New Approach to Hiring—an HBR article that touches on situations where it makes sense to use external workers (e.g., internal workers cannot be redeployed easily), 3) Talent Disruption: Strategic Workforce Planning in the Age of Labor Shortages — a white paper by HBR Analytics Services on how HR and Procurement can partner to drive aspects of contingent workforce strategy. What are 1-2 actions you can take to integrate CW into your organization’s workforce planning more effectively?