According to Randstad’s 2019 Talent Trends report, more than a quarter of companies plan to use contingent staffing for roles that were traditionally handled in-house. This percentage is expected to continue growing as companies strive to make their workforces more agile in response to rapidly changing market conditions.
The sudden chaos caused by COVID-19 further emphasized the importance of maintaining lean staffing levels and maximizing the productivity of your full-time employees. Companies never fully went back to the pre-COVID model. Instead, they've started doubling down on flexible hiring and complex workforces.
To achieve these goals, a strategic approach to managing the contingent workforce that emphasizes agility and performance is essential.
Here are our top tips for managing a contingent workforce.
1. Create a Comprehensive Scope of Work
Unlike internal employees, who can stay engaged by working on various projects within their role, contingent workers usually can only focus on tasks directly assigned to them because they lack the necessary information and authority. Therefore, how you manage your contingent workforce is vital to success.
Since they often miss out on internal meetings, they may not be aware of what needs to be done. Even if they spot projects they could work on, they might not grasp the subtle details needed to proactively complete them.
To ensure your contingent workers stay productive, provide them with a clear scope of work that includes:
- An overview of the broader goal that their work contributes to. Knowing the end goal will help them make better decisions
- The specific results you expect them to achieve and the deadline
- Do you have any preferences for how they should proceed as they complete the work?
Keep in mind that details that may be obvious to you, such as using certain procedures or meeting specific criteria, likely won’t be evident to contingent workers who aren’t as familiar with your business. Effective contingent workforce management requires providing as much detail as possible to empower them to complete the work correctly the first time.
Learn more: Get our top tips for building a future-ready workforc
2. Assign Responsibility for the Contingent Workforce Relationship
A study from the University of Texas at Austin found that one of the biggest challenges faced by agency-based contingent workers is receiving conflicting information from their managers and the clients they support. This problem arises when the two sides of management fail to communicate effectively and pass mixed messages to workers.
When contingent workers get conflicting instructions, it can significantly slow progress because they might follow the wrong directions or waste time waiting for clarification on who is correct.
To prevent this problem, assign someone on your team to be responsible for all aspects of managing your contingent workforce, including:
- Continuously monitoring results and resetting expectations when necessary
- Establishing best practices that enable both sides to work more effectively together
- Identifying new projects that your team can offload to the contingent workers so they can focus on more strategic tasks
Having someone manage your contingent workers like they would an in-house business unit ensures that they meet performance goals and generate an ROI.
Looking to utilize contingent workers but lacking the time to oversee them? Discover how our managed service model offers administrative, sales, and operational support, all without the complications.
3. Close Communication Gaps
One of the biggest challenges in managing a contingent workforce is making sure they stay informed about conversations that impact their work.
Excluding your contingent workforce from distribution lists and other communication channels due to privacy concerns is often justified. However, the more restrictions you place on their access to internal communications, the more effort you need to put into proactively providing them with the information they require.
The internal manager responsible for your contingent workforce must take responsibility for ensuring that the workers have access to essential information, including:
- Project updates from your employees
- Changes to project goals and deadlines
- New policies that your contingent workforce has to follow
- Feedback on project progress
And any other information that your contingent workforce needs to be successful. To help prevent messages from slipping through the cracks, host syncs at least once a week to connect on work in progress and what’s next.
Learn more: Top communication tips for remote teams
4. Foster Long-Term Relationships
Most businesses opt for contingent workforces to save on costs and reduce hiring commitments. While contingent workers are a flexible and cost-effective labor option, it’s beneficial to develop long-term relationships with those you enjoy working with.
Even if you only need a service temporarily, you never know when you'll need help with the same type of work again. If a tangible project needs updating or your need for a service arises again, it’s much easier to work with someone who already understands your business than to start with a new person.
We have many clients who have discontinued our virtual assistant services during their business challenges and returned when they needed our help again. Since we understand their business, we can provide value much faster than a new provider could.
Investing extra time to find outsourcing providers who understand your needs and align with your values will reduce the amount of time you have to spend managing your contingent workforce and ensure that you have access to high-quality support whenever you need it.
5. Seek Out Managed Services
Contingent workforce management is time-consuming. In addition to the steps above, you also need to prepare for many other factors that can cause productivity barriers and pose business risks.
For example, what happens when the person you’re working with can’t handle fluctuations in your business, or they need to take time off for personal reasons? Their work may not get completed, or someone on your team will have to cover for them. Both situations can unexpectedly hurt your team’s productivity and diminish some of the advantages of using contingent workers.
The easiest way to leverage a contingent workforce is to hire a managed service that takes full responsibility for the workers supporting you.
At Prialto, our managed virtual assistant services have a variety of support systems in place, including:
- An Engagement Manager who helps you smoothly offload new projects
- A back-up VA who is trained on our clients’ processes, so they never go a day without support
- Internal management that handles training, incentives, and performance coaching
- Strict IT security policies, including monitoring software
These people and systems enable our clients to quickly delegate projects without concern for the logistics needed to ensure their VA’s productivity.
To learn more about how our managed service model can support your business, download our free guide.
Interested in hiring a virtual asssistant? We'd love to talk it through!
