The Key to Stronger Returns with Independents: Access

Today’s issue was guest-authored by MBO Partners’ VP of Talent Mobility, Mike Cavaluzzi

Throughout my nearly 14 years at MBO, we have always committed ourselves to helping clients think differently about how they get work done and how they manage organizational agility and return on investment.

A more flexible approach to hiring - leveraging independent professionals – is, of course, a major part of how we help organizations achieve a more balanced and agile workforce. Based on our most recent research , organizations continue to see returns from this approach.

Over this time though, competing models have emerged to facilitate the growth of independent professionals as a larger part of organizations’ talent strategies.

Some organizations now contract with staffing firms to create closed talent pools and then work through recruiters at those firms to identify the best fits. Others believe in the promise of digital marketplaces, where they can search for talent, create a pipeline for the future, and then manage the end-to-end requisition process with talent directly once that future need materializes. Through my experience helping clients with their human capital needs - and working across many of these models, I have come to realize that, regardless of approach, there is one aspect of high-level talent management which is the most consistent harbinger of success: Access.

Tailoring the Approach… and Improving the ROI

In most contingent staffing environments, it is often a mix of staffing companies and corporate HR or Procurement departments that handle creating project requisitions, and identifying, interviewing, and onboarding contingent labor. In many cases, independents, despite their nuanced skillsets and ability to drive strategic change for their clients, are also forced through this model. Usually, this means enduring rounds of screenings or discussions before even getting access to the individuals overseeing a project.

(Making matters worse, job descriptions for independent professionals are often repurposed from full time role descriptions, further masking the objectives of important projects). In some instances, even after onboarding, independent professionals can lack direct access to the company’s managers or decision-makers. If this changes, it is often only after they have invested significant time and effort into their role.

Don’t take my word for it either: MBO introduced a robust “Voice of the Customer” process several years ago and regardless of customer and/or industry, this sentiment remains front and center. So, as organizations continue to adopt independent professionals into their talent strategy, a new paradigm is needed to enable those professionals to live up to their full potential - and provide the greatest ROI for their (and our) clients.

?Let “Change Drivers”...Drive Change

Treating today’s independents like cogs in a machine in the name of “process consistency” often diminishes the real value that they provide. In fact, I am often reminded of a discussion I had over a decade ago with with a prominent talent acquisition executive with one of our life sciences customers (someone I still consider a visionary in this space).

In the early stages of our enterprise expansion, we were looking to implement a more heavy-handed process than may have been necessary for the type of program they were looking to launch. He adamantly stated: “We can’t build process, just for the sake of building process or because it feels really good to have a workflow for something. If that process’ hard and soft benefits can’t show value...let’s just put it on the shelf for a little while.”?

That statement is still a guiding principle of my advice to clients today: True independents, those sometimes expensive ones who really transform businesses, are change drivers. They do their best work when they are given the freedom to strategize during the interview process, not after it. Similarly, if the only time independents are talking to managers is after a requisition has been released...it may be too late for that strategic discussion to happen.?

So, a tailored approach should involve direct engagement with key decision-makers. It should mean being brought “inside,” even if only working with a firm temporarily. The most sought after independent professionals these days expect this and the data even says that they pick projects based on their ability to make an impact and not necessarily by how much the project will pay!?

By offering the same access that a full time team member enjoys, an enterprise is far more likely to achieve positive outcomes from an engagement with that (sometimes pricey) independent professional.

Beyond that, organizations that think this way provide their independent professionals with a better work experience, increasing the likelihood that their top performing independents will work with them again in the future. This is really what the direct sourcing revolution is all about.

It is why I advise my clients to rethink their relationships with independents and how and when they are selected:?

Provide direct access to stakeholders and decision makers. Make your top-performing independents part of the change-driving team.?

To be clear: This doesn’t equate to subverting the process. I don’t think this means revolution inside our client environments. We’re not dumping the VMS or discarding the procurement process. This is more of a tweak around the edges and perhaps a slight reordering of the steps (but not their elimination)...particularly up front when leaders are defining a project’s goals and determining how best to execute on them.

In closing, an increasing number of the world’s top performers are opting to go independent. To access the best talent - and retain that access, it’s time for organizations to rethink their relationship with independent professionals. If your business owners are going to insist on engaging them anyway (and they are), then the benefits are too great to ignore.

Trending Topics

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