The market for contingent talent is competitive. That’s great news for in-demand contingent employees and contractors, who can afford to be selective about who they work with. But it’s bad news for talent suppliers and procurement teams, who face pressure to keep worker engagements running smoothly.
At the same time, enterprises are asking suppliers to deliver faster, often with more compliance requirements and involved stakeholders. Global talent shortages add to the challenge. According to ManpowerGroup research, a staggering 74% of employers struggle to find the talent they need.
For procurement teams, these issues represent an incredible opportunity to build competitive advantage by becoming a client of choice for contingent workers. By offering predictable, fair, and efficient engagements, procurement leaders can attract a wider pool of skilled talent. Contingent talent, in turn, benefits from more satisfying engagements. It’s a win-win for all parties.
What “Client of Choice” Means for Contingent Talent
For contingent workers, seeing an organization as a client of choice is a practical consideration. They’re looking to work with companies who remove all the tedious, complex admin from engagements. When working with a client, talent will wonder:
- Is the scope clear?
- Are decisions made quickly?
- Is onboarding predictable?
- Are terms reasonable?
- Will I get paid on time without constant follow-up?
These expectations may sound simple, but meeting them consistently takes discipline. Organizations that build these fundamentals into every engagement reduce uncertainty for candidates and move much closer to becoming a client of choice.
What Procurement Can Do to Attract Contingent Workers
Here are some tried-and-true practices used by best-in-class companies:
1. Embrace Total Talent Management
Contingent talent touches multiple business functions. If the relevant parties don’t align on how to manage talent, the process will be fragmented.
A key contingent workforce strategy, total talent management (TTM), eliminates silos by bringing all types of workers into a single system that handles the entire employee lifecycle. A holistic TTM strategy should cover a long list of tasks, including how people are sourced, classified, onboarded, paid, evaluated, and offboarded. Creating a shared approach is crucial to streamlining engagements and ensuring exceptions are handled quickly and efficiently.
In practice, many enterprises operationalize TTM through managed service providers (MSPs) and vendor management systems (VMSs). These partners and platforms help centralize supplier relationships, standardize processes, and create the visibility that makes TTM work at scale. Procurement is well positioned to lead or co-lead this kind of program, often in close collaboration with HR.
2. Projectize the Work
Some work is better structured as a defined project with clear deliverables. Other work is better suited to staff augmentation. Procurement can help stakeholders choose the right model from the outset.
This matters because the wrong structure creates friction downstream. When expectations and deliverables are clearly defined, talent can contribute more quickly and effectively. It also clarifies responsibilities, helping both parties maintain appropriate boundaries.
3. Redefine Value Beyond Hourly Rate
Yes, cost matters. But it isn’t the only lever to judge value. Instead, consider talent holistically in terms of:
- Quality: The worker’s expertise and ability to solve the problem.
- Service: The results they deliver and how reliably they deliver them.
- Cost: The worker’s rate, plus the time it takes to complete the work and the indirect costs that follow from delays, rework, or heavy oversight.
Understanding value more broadly makes it easier to accurately determine a worker’s value, and to choose the right talent for the right job. It also leads to clearer scoping and terms that fit knowledge work, reducing negotiation friction with workers.
4. Streamline Onboarding and Contracting
Onboarding is where credibility is won or lost. Procurement can drive consistency by standardizing what is required and who is responsible at each step. That includes making it easier to create and approve statements of work, and setting a predictable path for background checks, security access, equipment, and system permissions.
Put more simply, candidates should know what to expect, and procurement teams should be able to explain the process without guessing. For many organizations hiring talent from different jurisdictions, that often means partnering with a contingent worker or independent contractor engagement specialist. These partners bring proven processes, supporting technology, and established best practices for engaging talent at scale.
5. Simplify Vendor Requirements
Many contingent workers avoid projects due to overly burdensome vendor requirements. As a “business of one,” they shouldn’t be required to have the same levels of business insurance or to accept the same payment terms as traditional, large service providers.
6. Reward Strong Performance
Competitive pay matters, but continuity is often an even stronger incentive. Establish a clear path for re-engaging proven contingent talent within program guidelines, whether through known-worker pools or talent communities. This shortens time to fill and strengthens your reputation as a place high performers want to return to.
7. Encourage Referrals
Referrals are still one of the most reliable ways to reach high-quality talent, especially for specialized roles. Encourage teams to share openings with talent already in the system. Consider referral incentives where policy allows.
From a procurement perspective, the key is making referrals easy to act on. That means setting up a clear process so referred talent can be engaged through approved suppliers and the right engagement model.
Dealing With Local Requirements and Compliance Risk
Sourcing the right contingent workers often requires tapping into the global talent market. While necessary, this does introduce risk. Every jurisdiction has its own compliance requirements, covering a long laundry list of areas including engagement terms, worker classification, tax treatment, and worker protections. These vary widely and change over time, meaning that your compliance status can shift if you’re not careful.
When organizations get it wrong, the consequences can be serious. Repeated issues across a large program can lead to hefty fines, reputational damage, and mounting operational strain. Worker misclassification, in particular, can carry significant financial penalties. The burden also extends to the worker, as differing registration steps and documentation requirements can turn a straightforward engagement into a frustrating process.
Local expectations matter as much as legal requirements. Workers often look for terms that reflect regional norms, whether around leave, payment cadence, notice periods, or other market-specific conditions. A one-size-fits-all approach can quickly alienate highly sought-after talent.
Compliance in a contingent workforce program is also a shared responsibility. Procurement typically leads on vendor contracts and supplier oversight, while HR brings expertise in worker classification, employment law, and the worker experience. Getting both perspectives into the program design is what separates resilient programs from reactive ones.
Trusted partners like People2.0 help by providing on-the-ground expertise and the operational support to simplify talent engagement across jurisdictions. This support increases business agility. With a partner doing all the heavy lifting, enterprises can easily scale their workforce up and down depending on project needs.
Take the First Step Toward Improving Talent Engagement
From adopting total talent management to recognizing strong performance, procurement leaders have several tools at their disposal to improve the contingent worker experience and attract stronger talent.
If you’re looking for support building a client-of-choice experience for talent, People2.0 can help streamline engagement while managing compliance and onboarding requirements.
Contact us today to learn how People2.0 can support your talent engagement goals.
FAQ
How can procurement leaders attract better contingent talent?
Procurement leaders can attract better contingent talent by creating a more predictable and efficient engagement experience. Clear scope, faster decision-making, streamlined onboarding, fair terms, and reliable payment all make an organization more appealing to in-demand workers.
What makes a company a client of choice for contingent workers?
A client of choice is an organization that makes it easy for contingent talent to engage and succeed. That usually means reducing administrative friction, setting clear expectations, and creating a process that feels fair, responsive, and well managed.
What is total talent management in a contingent workforce strategy?
Total talent management is an approach that aligns how all types of workers are sourced, engaged, managed, and offboarded. For contingent workforce programs, it helps reduce silos, improve consistency, and create a smoother experience for both workers and internal teams.
How can procurement improve contingent worker onboarding?
Procurement can improve onboarding by standardizing workflows, clarifying responsibilities, and making approval, compliance, and access steps more predictable. A smoother onboarding process helps workers get started faster and strengthens the organization’s reputation.
