As the impact of the contingent workforce continues to evolve in the marketplace, when new research data becomes available we like to share the information to validate our overall strategic direction as a leading contingent workforce MSP.

In early May this year, the Brandon Hall Group issued a press release in which they announced the release of their 2017 Contingent Workforce Study titled " The Emerging Contingent Workforce: Benefits, Challenges, and Opportunities" with many interesting new findings.

Notably, 90% of organizations surveyed are using contingent labor, and many are expected to increase their use of contingent labor over the next year.

The research shows that almost 75% of organizations say their contingent workforce is effective or very effective, and more than 70% believe the use of contingent labor is strategic, to specific business functions, or to the business as a whole.

The 4 key findings of the Brandon Hall Group research with 166 Global responses are as follows:

1. Almost all organizations use contingent labor, but only for a small portion of the workforce

"Overall, contingent labor comprises less than one-fifth of the workforce in 76% of organizations, and one-tenth or less of the workforce in 52% of organizations.

Organizations are most likely to use independent contractors consistently or frequently (51%), followed by paid interns (47%), part-timers (36%), and labor from an agency or staffing firm (34%)"

2. Ownership and management of the contingent workforce depends heavily on the size of the organization

"Overall, HR owns all talent in 40% of organizations, HR and Procurement jointly manage contingent labor in 34% of organizations, and Procurement manages all contingent labor in 26% of organizations. But HR is more than twice as likely to have sole ownership of contingent talent in small and mid-size organizations than in large organizations."

3. Most organizations see contingent labor as effective and strategic and plan to increase spending

"Almost three-quarters of organizations say their contingent workforce is effective or very effective, and more than 70% believe the use of contingent labor is strategic to specific business functions or to the business as a whole. It should come as no surprise, then, that half of organizations overall plan to increase spending in the next year."

4. The greatest challenges for managing contingent labor involve compliance and technology

"Compliance with state and federal regulations related to contract labor tops the list of challenges organizations face, followed by the need to improve talent engagement strategies and poor visibility into talent.

The second- and third-highest ranked obstacles in this research point to another issue altogether – that of insufficient technology. Insights into the contingent labor pool and contingent worker engagement are areas that require specialized software and products.

The use of managed service providers (MSPs), vendor management services, and outsourced contingent management, while low overall, is twice as high at high-performing organizations, who have KPIs demonstrating contingent workforce operational performance improvements, than other organizations (28% vs. 14%)."

Conclusion

While we recommend you check out this research for yourself, we do concur that the contingent workforce will continue to grow, as organizations continue to seek further operational and productivity improvements, and as a younger, more mobile generation comes on stream.

We also encourage organizations to understand how a contingent workforce solutions provider can help optimize their contingent workforce by reducing risks, costs, and complexity and helping them gain better access to talent.