Two years of disruption, instigated by a global pandemic, has had workers all over the world reevaluating their relationship with work.
As a result, attrition and turnover are at an all-time high. A report by McKinsey states that a record 19 million workers left behind their jobs from April to September 2021, and 40 percent of employers are considering leaving their positions, citing reasons like pursuing remote and hybrid work and work-life balance.
Worker engagement is at an all-time low. For this and other reasons, industry leaders plan to strategically utilize contingent workers from outside the organization as a source of competitive advantage.
Companies that do are likely to access the best talent, increase agility, and move faster than their competitors. The Wall Street Journal reports a sharp rise in high-end freelance consultancy work as salaried workers leave their positions in droves to benefit from increased pay, flexible lifestyles, and more choice over the projects and companies they work with.
It’s a win-win-win opportunity for organizations. Non-employee workers get more autonomy over their work, teams get access to the best talent, and the output of their work could put businesses in a hugely beneficial market position.
The concept of the extended workforce is not new. Historically, the workforce consisted of a wholly permanent workforce comprising full-time and part-time workers that would fill roles required for the long-term success and support of an organization. Now, times are changing. Organizations that are taking the steps to remain more agile and work on a project-by-project basis are seeing remarkable results. And now, the makeup of the workforce is following suit.
The extended workforce consists of strategically important workers that are not part of your permanent, full-time labor force. This includes freelancers, consultants, contractors, temporary workers, and anyone who carries out work on your behalf but doesn’t feature on the regular payroll.
Engaged to bring in specific skills and know-how to specific projects, the extended workforce’s specialist skills and insight lets companies achieve goals faster while being more flexible and swift. It also enables teams to bring in talent as and when they need it, making it the more cost-effective option (if managed well).
The rise of remote and hybrid working could be the pandemic’s single most impactful and long-lasting legacy concerning how we work.
This means organizations can cast their nets much wider, tapping into international talent markets to engage exceptional talent in markets with better expertise, or less competitive rates.
You can achieve all this and more with Beeline’s Direct Sourcing feature, which gives you direct access to private and public talent pools from the platform’s dashboard—visible alongside hiring requirements, budget, and more.
In this new age of work, it's not about 'how' and 'where' teams work. It's now about 'who'. With a new and broader talent pool comes the ability to bring in specific insight and expertise where it's most needed.
Organizations that take a talent-first approach may be best placed to maximize opportunities. External expertise in the right roles may help you one-up your competitors, move faster and, crucially, serve your customers better.
As the extended workforce grows, so does the administrative burden placed on hirers. The time supervisors spend chasing and gaining approval for new contracts, timesheets, expenses, and other project costs will continue to grow as organizations expand their extended workforce. This does not have to be the case.
Tools that support the extended workforce, while enabling hirers to quickly and efficiently onboard workers and ensure compliance with external regulations and internal policies, can make the process even more seamless.
And that’s not just great news for companies but also for teams. Beeline allows contingent workers to supplement your internal teams—and apply their innovative ideas and expertise to your organization’s challenges.
More Fortune 500 companies now engage the extended workforce to help them navigate the great attrition with high-performing contingent teams.
And Fortune 500 companies rely on Beeline to ensure their contingent program is efficient, cost-effective, and future-proof.
Beeline is the world’s first Extended Workforce Platform. It’s built to empower teams to requisition, select, onboard and offboard contingent workers, without compromise. It ensures internal policy, onboarding, compliance measures and complex worker classification issues are automated where possible. It means you can access the talent you need, move quickly and maximize opportunity when you see it.
Could Beeline do the same for you? Contact us or request a demo to find out.