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The War For Contingent Workers: What’s Needed To Stand Out And Win

Despite big layoffs in tech and worries about a recession, worker shortages are still severe in a number of key industries, especially healthcare and engineering. Every sector is feeling the pressure of the shift to remote work and the desire for schedule flexibility, while employers try to find the balance between an uncertain economic outlook and maintaining staffing levels to meet goals. 

As employers move beyond the days of filling full-time employee counts and toward a strategy of hiring independent workers with specific skills, the opportunities associated with a varied workforce are becoming clear. As a result, the competition to recruit those workers has never been higher. 

Winning in this new war for contingent workers requires technology, strategic analysis, an all-hands-on-deck mentality, and creativity. Based on trends we’ve observed in the last year and our perspective on what’s to come, here’s our advice for gaining a competitive edge to land top talent. 

Assess current and potential networks of talent

Start with proactive and targeted outreach to candidates already in your network. This includes workers who completed a contract and have moved on. Your best sources of candidates are already known to you, and maintaining a large pool of names that can quickly be pulled should be a top priority.  

Given the rise of remote work and flexible work arrangements, full-time or part-time employees aren’t your only options anymore. Expand your candidate list by being open to nontraditional talent pools. Consider retirees who still freelance, gig workers, or overseas contractors. Analyze your talent data regularly to identify where the best talent comes from, and double down on those efforts. 

Expand your tech to add enhanced recruitment marketing tactics.

Targeted microsites and landing pages are just the start when it comes to attracting and retaining the most and best contingent workers. Develop marketing personas with key insights that will help define what you’re looking for in the most sought-after roles. Targeted emails and other personalized digital marketing tactics reach candidates in new ways.  

Make good use of third-party sites to drive candidates to your ATS or CRM by tapping into job engines and other sites where job seekers gather. AI continues to evolve, and new tools are launched regularly to streamline processes, so prioritize efficiency. Let your tech team and recruiters know that you’re always open to their ideas for new processes and tools to work smarter. 

Empower your employees and leadership to attract talent. 

Social media posts featuring employees in the roles you’re looking to fill, talking about the impact they are able to make and the fulfillment they feel in their jobs, are powerful. The C-suite can be critical here, in showing (through LinkedIn posts and other earned media opportunities) why your organization is a preferred place to work and why the work you do is important. Your organization’s leadership can and should be empowered to help tell the story of the work ahead and the kinds of opportunities available for the workforce. 

Sweeten the pot for employee referrals. 

Employee referrals, a tried-and-true way to bring in talent, is still a reliable source of good leads. This strategy has been difficult in recent years because employee turnover during the pandemic was high, but the post-pandemic workforce is settling in and they can easily connect you to a strong candidate pool. Incentivize the process the best you can and follow up after a successful placement to boost retention. 

Bring in expertise in other areas so your team can focus on recruitment 

People2.0 is the world’s largest global employer of record and agent of record services platform, which means we can step in to take over administrative tasks that will free up your team to focus on recruitment. We’re experts at managing payroll and employment taxes and we do it all compliantly regardless of where in the world your company has workers.  

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