TALENT MANAGEMENT / CONTINGENT WORKERS
Central to good business practice are clear contracts to cover the relationship between the ‘employer’ and the ‘supplier’ of the service (ie individual contractor, an agency or consulting firm, etc). Key provisions include the nature of the service provided, duration, rates, performance standards and termination provisions.
KEEPING THEM CLOSE? BUILDING CONTINGENT WORKER ENGAGEMENT...
Did you know? Baby boomers (born 1946–1964) are the largest segment of ‘free agents’ (i.e. contingent workers), making up 52 per cent of surveyed workers. Gen X (1965–1979), on the other hand, was surprisingly the smallest segment at 9% Source: Kelly Services report, The New Workforce: Insights into the Free Agency Workstyle
Notwithstanding the need to differentiate, there are important reasons to build engagement. Research by Deloitte and Manpower shows the importance of contingent workers yet highlights that organizations could do a lot more to build engagement. A lack of engagement can result in inflated costs, poor productivity, and non-compliance with policy. Furthermore, the flexibility offered by contingent workers is not a one-way street. Contingent worker attrition is costly, both financially and operationally. Building contingent worker engagement starts with understanding what is important for this workforce. If companies measure the engagement of their permanent workforce, and regularly action this feedback, there are opportunities to apply similar techniques to contingent workers. Interestingly, ask yourself whether contingent workers completed your organization’s last employee engagement survey. Based on the commentary above, is this a good thing? A risk averse method to gauge contingent engagementis to assess the leaders who are managing contingent workers. Do leaders on the ground feel they have the right contingent talent in place and are they engaged and motivated? Another approach is to survey the supplier account managers to understand engagement drivers. The drivers of contingent workforce engagement will differ for many reasons, not limited to the type of workforce, skill base (i.e. niche vs transactional), generational factors, national culture, and years of experience. There are, however, key principles of employee engagement that apply, regardless of classification, including effective leadership, interesting work, opportunity and rewards.
A quick win with respect to HR practices and consistency in line management behaviour is to build greater structure in the onboarding process The most important way the business can build greater engagement and productivity is to build the capability of line managers. Line managers need to understand the different types of contingent workers, their role in relation to them, and the risks of noncompliance. Ultimately, contingent workers will want to feel included and part of a productive team. Applying the same company values for employees to contingent workers (i.e. respect, teamwork, accountability, etc.) is an essential starting point. The tools managers use on aday-to-day basis, including regular and open communication, coaching, feedback and delegation, should all be used for contingent workers. Unfortunately, too often supplier arrangements are viewed in binary terms, as ‘us and them’. The nature of a contractual relationship can easily lend itself to this outcome. It doesn’t need to be so. Engagement should not only be viewed operationally, and strong relationships need to be nurtured through the account management tree for both client and vendor (i.e. contract negotiators, account managers, line managers and operational staff on both sides of the contract). A good example of the impact of this relationship management is delivery of regular feedback and annualised feedback. Line managers should look to provide feedback to both the vendor and the contingent worker. Not only does this help course-correct and improve performance but it is also central to the concept of engagement between line manager, vendor account manager and contingent worker.
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