Why the time to prepare your external workforce strategy is now

You may not hear it yet, but the clock is ticking – and it’s about to get louder.

It’s the countdown to that point where achieving business goals with your existing team is simply unviable.

It’s when you feel like you’re working two jobs and still can’t get projects off the ground successfully. Increasing your personal productivity is great, but it should never come at the expense of your sanity.

A perceived lack of time, cost concerns and wariness around change can all get in the way of acquiring the talent you need. These kinds of challenges are ever-present, but so is the reality that great talent is always in short supply.

This means that failing to make talent a priority can have negative consequences. Consider what many organizations experienced just a few years ago. In 2022, three out of four employers reported difficulty in finding the talent they needed.

As a result: reactive recruitment strategies hit the bottom line. In fact, the number of organizations giving more than a three percent salary increase was 13% higher in 2023 over the preceding six years. It wasn’t uncommon to see quality candidates off the market within 24 hours as they chose familiar opportunities and organizations.

The truth is that great talent is always in short supply, and preparing for challenges now is essential to any business. According to market research firm Gartner Inc., 26% of CEOs cite a talent shortage as the most damaging risk to their organization.

Fortunately, technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and innovative models that combine it with a white glove-style service make it possible to develop a proactive  strategy. In doing so, you’ll ensure your organization is better prepared this time around, regardless of how the labor market evolves.

It’s time to reevaluate your current approach to recruitment, particularly for flexible talent, recognizing that many of the most critical skill areas are becoming increasingly niche and specialized. Then you can start building a competitive edge no matter what the market holds.

‍
Reconnect with your MVPs

Successful businesses get laser-focused on customer retention because they know it costs more time, effort and dollars to find new customers. The same thinking applies to talent, especially with whose past performance hints at the future value they could offer.

If you aren’t already, begin a regular review of the talent you bring on for each project, paying particular attention to those with standout skills, work ethic and results. These people often leave with deep expertise about your organization, including your culture and processes, which can make them highly valuable. 

Think of this as an internal roster of MVPs, which in this case stands for the “most valuable professionals” you would bring back instead of looking for new talent from scratch.

Nurturing these relationships after the project ends can be as simple as capturing contact details and providing an occasional check-in to gauge availability and interest should you have an opportunity. Re-engaging with your MVPs when the time is right can help you avoid a lot of challenges associated with net-new hires in terms of onboarding. 

‍

Develop pools of critical skills

Marketers often divide their customer list into segments based on their current spending, their interests and propensity to grow their share of wallet. Segmentation is effective because it allows brands to be more targeted in how they connect with customers. Developing talent pools follows this logic but from the perspective of aligning your external workforce with your current and future business needs.

Start by reviewing the current technical environment and identifying the skills you’ve prioritized with your external workforce to meet your organizational objectives to date. Then, do some longer-term scenario planning based on what kinds of initiatives or projects may be added to your agenda. These could include:

Digital transformation 

This is a broad area that can cover many different technologies and channels, which is why the work is far from over in many organizations. In fact, 40% of business leaders say a lack of the right skills is their biggest digital transformation challenge.

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Generative AI has proven adept at everything from creating content to summarizing it, but these systems can’t be trusted to run on their own> That’s why 55% of business leaders say AI will create a greater need for analytical and critical thinking skills.   

Modernization

Innovations like AI won’t be effective if they run on outdated platforms and infrastructure. This is why investments in software-as-a-service (SaaS) for systems like ERPs are forecast across 75% of businesses in 2024. This will require a lot of skilled expertise, too.

Developing talent pools is a way of identifying both current and future skill gaps, which is an important element of developing better informed and aligned recruitment efforts.

‍

Leverage an established talent platform to optimize your external workforce

It’s not just a matter of finding good people with the right skills, but having a streamlined process for doing so that reduces unnecessary layers and simplifies your overall approach.

A purpose-built talent platform can facilitate direct connection to pre-assembled pools of people who have been vetted. These are people who are either ready to return or represent high-quality new faces. This reduces recruitment times, eliminates intermediaries that may have competing priorities and significantly reduces costs.

At Curasion, for example, we have found clients who use our platform can save an average of $20,000 per year per contractor in recruitment fees. Hiring or replacing four contractors through Curasion could potentially offset the need to exit an existing full time employee (FTE).

Of course, taking the next step often requires a conversation among multiple stakeholders, all of whom might have reasons to say no. With that in mind, we’ve developed the following battlecard to help guide those discussions, addressing the most common objections and offering a rationale for prioritizing talent.

Use this resource to take the talent conversation from “Why not” to “Why now.”
‍

‍

Ready to learn more? We’re ready to provide insight and assistance in tackling them, too. Connect with us to learn more about what the right talent platform can do.