The staffing industry is positive about the contingent work with reports showing that the number of temporary workers in the workforce having increased by 29% during 2009 to 2012 and this is a rapidly growing work force. With the contingent work force segment continuing to grow, organizations are in a frenzy trying to keep up with the management and alignment of these workers alongside their current full time or permanent work force. The role of contingent work force has become important with the changing economy and recovery from Global Recession.
In the past, for procuring the contingent work force companies usually assigned the role to either procurement or the HR department and it was rare when the IT or finance department playing an active role or part. For the most contingent work force managers their job was more a task than a profession. The organizations began to recognize the contingent work force as late as during the end of 2000 when Global Recession was showing its true colors. This resulted in 36% of Contingent Work Force Managers spending their time on contingent work force issues. This was in contrast with 16% in 2003.
The global recession has helped in teaching corporate America the value of contingent work force and the ability to ramp up or down depending upon the organization’s requirements using contingent work force. At present, the role of contingent staff has gained importance and it was found in the study carried out by the Dale Carnegie Training Institute that companies with engaged or contingent employees outperform those without by about 202%. The attitude has changed even among the hiring managers and professional recruiters who do not shy away in carrying business cards with “CW” (Contingent Work) manager in their titles.
Today’s contingent work force solutions have evolved with the rise of the contingent labor and non-traditional workers in terms of flexibility, cost and level of talent that are emerging as the value propositions to contract talent. The outcome that is coming up is that CW managers are collaborating with their MSP (Managed Service Provider), VMS (Vendor Management System), and staffing agencies to be their buyer of choice without having to pay a pricing premium. Thus, it can be said that the role of contingent work force has traveled a long path from the days when the word “contingent” was termed as an alien term.