Finding the Right Vendor Can Make or Break Your Talent Retention Strategy

Today’s issue was guest-authored by MBO Partners’ Cori McKee, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions

As corporations remain cautious about adding full time headcount and as the older cohort of workers are declining in the workforce, the number of and demand for independents has skyrocketed. Independents tend to be younger, highly educated, and proficient in the use of emerging technologies and artificial solutions. This cohort of workers are also comprised of retirement-aged individuals who possess great knowledge and are not yet ready to fully exit the workforce.

Due to these qualities, enterprises have increased their reliance on them to fill both strategic and senior-level positions.

This uptick in demand makes the use of vendors like managed service providers (MSPs) a necessity to make the recruitment, onboarding, and management of independent talent more convenient for enterprises. MSPs or internally run talent PMOs are crucial for continued improvement of processes to the hiring processes of organizations.

While this relationship may seem simple, enterprises have to keep in mind the importance of choosing the right vendor or right internal talent to run their program.

Finding the Right Match

Picture this: Your organization thrives on innovation and encourages creative, outside-the-box thinking. Now, consider bringing on a provider that works best with and encourages adherence to strict processes and rigid structures. Would that kind of dynamic work? Probably not… because there’s a mismatch between the enterprise’s drivers and values and the vendor or team it chose to work with. Remember: Vendor or team mismatch can and will affect how an enterprise interfaces with independents and talent in general. Take onboarding for example: If the vendor isn't a good fit, the hiring process may take longer than usual and in extreme cases, can result in talent not being onboarded or someone who doesn’t meet the company’s needs to be brought on.

So instead of lessening the time it takes to get the right people onboard at a much faster pace, the opposite happens.

There’s also a talent management aspect to this issue. A mismatch or non-onboarding of talent could lead to a significantly more difficult work experience for independents, impacting engagement and retention. These days, work experience is a primary consideration among today’s Gen Z and Millennial workers—a cohort that makes up a large part of the independent workforce.

In this situation, it’s the MSP that regularly interfaces with independents. If the vendor’s management style isn’t in sync with its client’s, this could lead to poor work experiences for workers, extremely reducing an enterprise’s ability to attract and retain talent. This leads me to another aspect of talent engagement and management: Worker Experience

Work Experience Matters

It’s evident in the data we’ve seen that Gen Zs and Millennials comprise a big part of the independent workforce. These cohorts of workers are driven primarily by the projects they’re working on and not the companies they’re working with. They are professionals who want to feel like they’re part of something even though they’re working independently. This means they’re going to look for opportunities that can keep them fully engaged with their work. Simply said, Gen Zs and Millennials are much more likely to look for companies that provide a better working experience, even if these firms are smaller in scale.

This isn’t surprising as the pandemic, and the economically tumultuous years that followed it, have left people more alienated from the work they’re doing.

Cultivating and Retaining Talent Pool

We’ve had conversations with our clients about this particular issue. Solving this primarily boils down to the effective cultivation and retention of talent pools. In our discussions, we’ve emphasized the importance of not just building job boards of people in a talent pool; it’s also very crucial for independents to be involved in continued education on what is happening to the client and what other projects they can lend their expertise to. This way, independents feel there are more roles and projects available to them to work and continue to be engaged in. More importantly, organizations are given the ability to continually pull talent from a vetted and experienced group of independents. Additionally, another important step enterprises must take also involves communicating project outcomes to every member of a talent pool. This added step is particularly useful in cultivating engagement because it lets independents know their efforts led to positive results. We’ve advised clients to take on these crucial steps because talent these days aren’t only after compensation. The main driver for these professionals is a positive work experience with projects that are interesting and helpful for their careers.

An enterprise that fails to cultivate talent pools the right way will negatively impact its brand when attracting independent workers… and this might cause talent to go to competitors instead, an outcome businesses must avoid in today’s talent-starved job market.

If your organization wants to stay ahead of the curve, it’s important that you not only pay attention to the fit of the MSP you’re working with, but also the culture and experience you are giving to independents.

Trending Topics

• An anonymous survey created by Amazon employees found that the average satisfaction related to the company’s recent RTO mandate was 1.4 out of 5 (with 1 meaning “strongly dissatisfied” and 5 representing “strongly satisfied.” This comes in the wake of the company’s decision to require employees to report on-site five days a week.
• Amazon’s latest return-to-office mandate is a sign that employers in the tech sector have regained some leverage over workers, according to an Axios correspondent.
• On the other hand, a CNN senior writer suggests that Amazon’s RTO push and Jamie Dimon’s recent comments on remote work aren’t enough to “signal a broader demise of remote work benefits.” This is due to the fact that flexible work options are too popular to get rid of.
• A new report from Workday, a cloud-based software company found that there were 137 million job applications sent out in the first six months of 2024—a 31% increase from last year.
• Ninety-two percent (92%) of the U.S.-based CEOs who participated in the KPMG CEO Outlook Survey plan to increase their workforce in the next three (3) years. This comes despite a decline in executive confidence about the global economy’s direction and prospects.
• In the same KPMG survey, it was also found that 86% of CEOs said they were much more willing to reward employees who work on-site with promotions, favorable assignments, or raises.
• Disney recently announced that it would cut approximately 300 employees in its corporate operations as part of its “cost-saving initiative.”?