The contingent workforce is on the rise. An increasing number of organizations is making the use of contingent labor a key part of their overall business strategies in order to reduce fixed payroll costs, gain valuable skills and experience, and increase workforce flexibility.

However, the more contingent workers you have on staff, the more complex your contingent workforce needs are going to get. Managing them will become more difficult, ensuring optimal productivity and performance is going to be difficult when you have dozens, if not hundreds, of non-permanent workers on staff, keeping costs down is going to be hard without proper visibility, and your risks, like worker misclassification, are going to increase.

If your contingent workforce is critical to your business, and you’re onboarding more and more contingent workers, you need to put contingent workforce solutions into action to streamline your management processes, reduce costs and risks, and optimize performance. To implement contingent workforce solutions into your organization, here are the three steps you need to take.

1. Assess Your Current Situation

To get the most out of contingent workforce solutions, you need to take a critical look at your current situation to better understand your strengths and weaknesses. Understand exactly how many contingent workers you have on staff now and how you expect your workforce to increase in the future. Know what your greatest risks are—perhaps you’ve had workers doing subpar work. Perhaps you’re not well versed in worker classification and may get hit with tax fines and penalties. Maybe you’re spending far more on contingent labor than you expected to. Perhaps you’re having a hard time keeping track of payments.

The better you understand your current situation when it comes to your contingent workforce, the easier it will be to implement the right contingent workforce solutions that you’ll really benefit from.

2. Work with a Managed Services Provider

A managed services provider is an outsourced third-party company that can assume responsibility of many, if not all, of your day-to-day management services. Using a managed services provider is an ideal choice for mid-sized companies that do not have the resources, personnel, or revenue required to effectively manage their contingent workers on their own.

The provider will take over the complex, often repetitive and tedious, and arduous work involved in managing your contingent workforce. You can outsource human resources, compliance, payroll, and other tasks to a managed services provider.

While you’ll still have managerial control and responsibility for the outsourced operations, you won’t have to do the work alone, and you’ll gain the experience and expertise of the third party to ensure that operations are going as smoothly as possible. Working with a managed services provider can drive cost savings, allow for greater accuracy and efficiency, and reduce your contingent workforce risks and liabilities. A managed services provider will build custom contingent workforce solutions based on your unique circumstances in order to better meet your needs.

3. Use Technology

Technology should be an essential part of all contingent workforce solutions. There’s just no need to perform tasks manually anymore. Technology can drive efficiencies, lower costs, reduce the risk of error, and streamline processes.

Contingent labor management software programs can help you monitor, track, manage, and pay your contingent workers in the most efficient way possible. It can help you maximize productivity, put the best workers where they’re needed most, see opportunities that will allow you to reduce costs or gain a competitive advantage, increase visibility in order to reduce spend, and anticipate problems before they arise. You’ll have the data you need to make informed decisions when it comes to your contingent workforce.

To put your contingent workforce solutions into action, analyze your current situation, work with a managed services provider, and use technology to its greatest advantage.