Talent Acquisition for External Talent

What defines External Talent? Commonly, external talent includes freelancers, temps, contractors, interns and seasonal workers. Secretly, we know external talent can make up as much as 30% of an organization, yet the practices to acquire, nurture and reutilize this knowledge base of critical talent often does not receive the focused attention it deserves. Technology alone cannot accomplish what 50+ years of Full Time Talent Acquisition has been seeking to perfect, with a minimum of eight technologies required to attract, recruit, test and on-board talent into an organization. In fact, doing the same thing with the external talent base adds three additional layers that include management, pay and off-boarding.

Our approaches as a proven and reliable outsourcer of workforce solutions take a simple, yet thoughtful approach to incorporating External Talent into an overall talent acquisition strategy.

As a corporation, you own what is on top of the triangle (“Strategy”). The strategy entails definition of the business problem, A client’s desired outcome, and a plan on how your organization will need to achieve this goal. AgileOne influences this strategy by baselining your goals and objectives against your organizational structure, readiness, operational/ technology infrastructure and external benchmarks to help bring this program to life. 

As Talent Acquisition for External Talent gains alignment inside of an organization, this also brings forward the concept of a Total Talent Strategy for the organization. AgileOne has a proprietary Total Workforce Maturity Model to assess current state based upon seven layers that include organizational and functional management; program management; goals; policy and compliance; process; and data and analysis.

We know that in order to do this right, these strategies need to be socialized with management, information technology, and talent acquisition leadership, as well as both legal and finance to determine budgeting, capabilities, alignment and involvement for the next stages of development. This maturity model, combined with A client desired outcomes, helps communicate to each stakeholder the desired A client objective and how all stakeholders will work together to accomplish the intended goals.

Technology

The technology platforms and support solutions used to attract and manage an external talent workforce are broad and diverse, and need to cover attraction through re-engagement. Many of these technologies will remain disparate due to the type of talent they solve for, the proprietary nature of the platform, globalization, privacy, and multiple systems of record. Delivery teams need to be ready to “work” from multiple systems and build integrated practices/programs that leverage these platforms.

Today, much of the external talent technology sits with staffing agencies, however, as companies seek to harmonize their total talent acquisition practices, the technology applications, business processes and how people are leveraged become critically important. The benefit is many of these solutions exist today inside of an organization, yet thrive under multiple owners inside of an organization. Simply, an organization can choose to leverage Freelancer Management platforms and a Vendor Management System (VMS), simultaneously, to drive a more comprehensive solution. However, technology integration, due to the proprietary and differing business practices, may limit how these two systems can talk to each other. Therefore, the STRATEGY and PROGRAMS that govern how multiple systems integrate into an overall business process will be of great importance. 

Choosing and integrating the right technology stack for temporary talent/external talent acquisition can be confusing. We have included the platforms of technologies available today that support external talent acquisition. Our solutions team can guide you through a thoughtful discussion supporting how each of these platforms work in harmony with the processes you wish to deliver back to the organization. (Please refer to the embedded document).

Programs

The final section incorporates the programs, processes and practices that bring a strategy to life, and are powered by the various technology solutions. AgileOne’s team of Workforce Solution experts will design programs with the candidate experience in mind and the ease a business unit wishes to experience when requesting a talent solution. To best prepare for a comprehensive program design, our team will review your strategy, current technology platforms, and desired end state. As part of this discovery process, our experts will explore your culture, stakeholder support, organizational readiness, talent acquisition alignment, and budget scope to create a successful step-by-step evolution of the program. We will also explore your current supplier community, external workforce hiring trends, and full time hiring data to obtain a better view on what type of talent a client organically attracts and the potential gain/impact it would have on your overall supplier strategy.

As an outcome, our teams have the ability to simply enhance your current MSP program, create more of a talent shopping mall that is inclusive of freelancer management, or transform your existing program to a Talent Acquisition program for External Talent. If your goal is leaning more towards transformational solutions, then our program enhancements will be inclusive of a total talent value proposition, aligned employment branding strategies, an enhanced career site that brings visibility to all external work opportunities, and the ability to better incorporate some of the freelancer e-Business solutions available on the market. Some of the outcomes you can expect are harmonized interview practices, a significant increase in conversion hiring by moving this to a top 5 source of hire, a 20% decrease in vacancy rates, increased worker retention, and overall quality ratings. AgileOne’s intent is to drive the ability to find talent faster and create practices that improve the quality needed for your business units to deliver on their commitments.

The key to any of our programs is to design practices, process and technology-enabled solutions that facilitate this transformation with the greatest amount of ease for your organization. Our team of technology specialists will also make you aware of how optimization can be achieved over time in such a way that works best for your organizational readiness, budget and the capabilities that exist within the partnering platforms. 

Our goal is to simplify and help a client navigate through technology, process and programs to help you deliver on your organizational commitment.