Total Talent Management: in a workforce market well shy of supply meeting demand, a total talent solution is something organisations will need to shift to, so they can maintain productivity and output.
But what is a Total Talent Solution? As we have noted previously:
It’s a workforce management strategy where a business-wide, holistic approach is taken to the management of an organisation’s people.
With engagement of contingent workers on the rise, and organisations reaping the many benefits contingent talent offer, the old-fashioned approach to talent management, is rapidly becoming redundant. That is, the model whereby HR are responsible for permanent hires, and Procurement for temporary and contingent hires.
In this new era of Total Talent Management, organisations can break down the management silos of permanent vs non-permanent talent. The result is thus not focused on engaging people by category of worker (i.e. perm or non-perm), but critically, by focusing on the right worker for the job or project at hand.
Today, we’re going to discuss the total talent solution, where both contingent and permanent staff are engaged and managed in an integrated ecosystem. We’ll look at the hurdles you may face, and also, how total talent management benefits the organisation.
Total Talent Management: How Does it Work?
Total talent workforce solutions are emerging more rapidly in the era of COVID. Integrating permanent (RPO) and contingent talent (MSP) allows the organisation to establish an all-inclusive, holistic approach to workforce management. And with many workers still operating offsite, a one-stop talent management solution
By integrating the management of your entire workforce and having a comprehensive lens on your talent ecosystem, your business will be able to:
- Attain complete visibility of your extended workforce.
- Make informed, strategic workforce decisions and be able act upon them
- Access critical data via one platform including:
- Skills availability
- Headcount
- Job type
- Job title
- Location of skills
- Workforce costs by job, classification, hierarchy
- Quality of output
- Support talent reassignments and redeployments through one system, ensuring critical expertise remains in-house
- Execute more efficient and accurate workforce planning
- Establish an agile workforce
- Have greater assurance and visibility on your workforce compliance
- A better, cross-functional operation between HR, Procurement, Finance and IT
- Make better data-driven talent decisions
- Reduce the cost of talent engagement, management, deployment, and analysis
There are other benefits too. A seamless, centralised, organised talent management approach improves the worker experience with your business. This in turn, helps to boost your employer brand and market reputation.
The Obstacles to a Total Talent Solution
There’s a historical element in organisational talent operations, that empirically prevents a successful total talent solution from being realised.
This is largely attributed to the delineation of responsibility between HR and Procurement: where the former is responsible for the hiring and management of permanent hires, and the latter, contingent workers.
The major hurdle presented by this traditional model is this: they typically engage separate outsourced providers (HR will look to Recruitment Process Outsourcing, or an RPO for permanent hires, and Procurement will look to a Managed Service Provider or MSP for contingent hires): so without a whole-of-business approach, organisations don’t actually know if they’re appointing the best person for the job. They’re just focused on ‘filling a vacancy’ (be that vacancy permanent or contingent).
Also, the HR/RPO and Procurement/MSP dynamic, typically work on separate technology platforms. The former, on the company HRIS. The latter, a VMS. A visual here is probably worthwhile:
The result? Vast investments in partnerships, technology and time are frequently not optimised.
Inefficiencies in the hiring process: a ‘left-hand doesn’t know what right-hand is doing’ scenario.
Potentially missed hiring opportunities: a perfect candidate may be passed up based on a technical hiring criterion (such as the worker only wants to work contract).
Total Talent Solution: A CXC Case Study
The Situation
While not initially looking to replace their current Vendor Management System, our client was seeking a total talent management solution, where permanent and contingent workers were engaged through a consistent, integrated RPO and MSP provider. One of their biggest historical inhibitors in driving a total talent strategy was the different technology systems in place and managing the split of data between permanent employees (HRIS) and contingent talent (VMS).
CXC’s Solution
In 2022, this company went to market to seek consistency and solution enhancement across their contingent hiring and payrolling processes. Partnering with RPO Korn Ferry, CXC recommended Oracle as a consistent technology solution for the sourcing of both contingent and permanent workers. This would enable us to support reassignments and redeployments through our MyExchange system, ensuring they maintain critical expertise.
The Results
CXC and Korn Ferry were successful in the bid process, chosen for our combined ability to offer a seamless partnership. We are now in the process of implementing our technology solution. Phase One is using the existing processes and systems, while we undertake design sessions for transitioning to the new technology. Phase Two will focus on transitioning away from the Fieldglass system and into the Oracle System while implementing improved business processes. This will provide consistent reporting across all types of worker and cost savings with the removal of the current Vendor Management System.
And Finally…
By adopting a company-wide, total talent approach, your business will be able to break down traditional barriers between the management and engagement of your permanent and contingent workers. Complete workforce engagement is just one outcome. And in today’s talent short market, streamlining your resourcing efforts is only going to place you at a competitive advantage.
To ensure your total talent success, it’s critical to partner with an experienced industry expert (such as CXC). We can help you source, manage and engage workers and optimise your entire workforce strategy.
As one of the world’s leading providers of contingent worker management solutions, CXC is well positioned to optimise all elements of your contingent workforce strategy. With operations in more than 50 countries across five continents and decades of experience, we can assist with every aspect of your program.
If you are interested in discussing total talent solutions for your business and would like to find out more about how we can work together, please contact us.
