Grow Your Top Line Faster in 2024 with Independent Professionals

?Today’s newsletter was guest authored by Steve Berselli , an account director in MBO’s federal practice.

In a new year, regardless of fiscal start dates, many enterprises adhere to the ‘new year, new projects’ mantra. Given today’s human capital shortages (job openings outnumber the unemployed 2:1, per the Federal Reserve), your backlog can hinder both operating revenue and top line growth.

As a former defense technical program manager, I’ve been in your shoes and advise clients on how to win today in the escalating war for talent. More often than not, enterprises, program managers, and even internal recruiters assume they need full-time hires for project labor. While this remains the preferred practice for brand and culture, two modern trends should give you reason to pause and consider other talent acquisition strategies.

First, a growing number of workers want to work independently. Today, 72.1 million Americans or about 45% of the U.S. workforce , are currently pursuing independent work, a total up 89% since 2020! If you’re a program manager, given the rising independent (not full-time) workforce, if you are only looking for FTE’s you are missing the mark on finding that perfect fit.

Second, a more streamlined workforce optimization plan that strategically incorporates directly sourced independent talent has been proven to boost both revenue and margins . When it comes to your backlog, run rate, and pipeline, it’s not a bad idea to deploy more flexible IC’s now and improve your P&L (think competitive differentiator).

If you want to stay ahead of the curve by leveraging an emerging and eager-to-work talent pool, here are some steps you can take:

• Curate a talent pool of vetted ICs or individuals you’ve worked with or already have in procurement. That way, you have a set of reliable talents who can be deployed for a project at any time.
• Recruit and network in a more client-oriented job marketplace, creating your own white-labeled platform to offer a presence as a Client of Choice for independent contractors – akin to what is offered in the MBO marketplace .

In many markets, such as the federal vertical where I specialize, these tactics can prove invaluable. Cleared talent and those with highly specialized skills often don’t personally brand themselves or their defense experiences and skills on open marketplaces like LinkedIn or Indeed, but are generally comfortable with private, client-specific talent clouds such as MBO Marketplace.

Be strategic in 2024 with IC’s – expect stronger end-client delivery, profitability, and growth!

Cheers!

-Steve

Trending Topics:

●????? According to the U.S. Census and WFH Research surveys, the percentage of workers exclusively operating remotely has decreased in most major cities since June 2022 , with many formerly remote workers having transitioned to a hybrid work model.

●????? A new study by Autonomy found that the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into the workforce could lead to a shift to a four-day workweek by 2033. Around 28% of the workforce—35 million in the U.S.—could have their working hours reduced from 40 to 32 hours while current levels of pay and work performance are predicted to remain the same.

●????? Remote and hybrid work schedules are factors that are driving a record-setting holiday travel season leading up to Thanksgiving.

●????? According to Harvard Business School professor Prithwiraj Choudhury, companies of all sizes should make use of "top-down policy with bottom-up experimentation" in creating a return-to-office plan .

●????? Recently, Amazon launched its "AI Ready" program to help workers develop their AI-related knowledge and skills.? This comes amid an ongoing AI talent shortage.

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