Sometimes the barrier to technological improvement isn’t technology-related at all.
That thought occurred to me during a discussion with a provider, PeopleFluent, that has built a robust recruiting solution that also allows management of contingent workers. In other words, if you’re trying to bring in free agents, contractors, or other non-traditional workers, you can do that within the recruiting tools instead of having an entirely separate process.
The provider has had adoption issues and doesn’t have a significant number of clients (at least in the US) that are seeking to implement this portion of the recruiting system. The problem, as many HR pros will tell you, is that we don’t always want to be in charge of the contingent workers. Some of the more common reasons:
- The person isn’t an employee, so procurement needs to handle them.
- I can’t treat them like an employee or we might run into issues with the IRS or Department of Labor.
- With a temp hire the advantage is having the agency handle payroll, etc. We are offloading those tasks for a reason.
You get the picture. There are laws on the books that don’t provide the flexibility for companies to handle this issue without involving some risk. On the other hand, there has traditionally been a silo mentality breaking out contingent hiring from “regular” hiring practices.
The problem won’t be solved today, and there are enough companies making errors with the current laws that we probably won’t see any changes to the legal side of the issue for some time. But HR can work to take ownership of the process and the contingent workforce while still developing safeguards to keep from running afoul of legal requirements.
In the end, the cause for this issue is partly due to the mindset of the HR population, and it’s partly due to the existing legal framework that governs how we employ our staff.
Take this as a reminder that “the way we’ve always done it” might not be the best way to address issues as you move forward. Reevaluate the assumptions you might have about how work gets done. I’m excited to see how the legal environment changes over time to account for increasing work flexibility and a highly mobilized workforce.
How do you handle your contingent workers? Is it with a system like I mention above, or do you shift them off to procurement to manage the process?
–Ben Eubanks, Associate HCM Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@beneubanks
