White Papers
MyBizOffice White Papers
Freelance Workers: Individual and Corporate Perspectives
Non-traditional,
or "contingent," workers currently represent a substantial portion of
the U.S. workforce. These workers—commonly known as freelancers,
independent professionals, temporary contract workers, or
consultants—provide valuable services in project-based work assignments
that are understood not to be "permanent" positions. This has led to
the emergence of careers that are "skills-based" rather than
"company-based." Armed with an understanding that extreme market
competitiveness and fickle economic conditions often limit companies'
loyalty to employees, individuals are now more likely than ever to
build careers around their abilities instead of around their employers.
This paper discusses the seeds of this emergence by looking at today's
evolving state of career independence from the perspective of large
businesses and the individual contract workers they engage.
Human Capital Institute White Papers
The following are white papers developed by the Human Capital Institute to reflect the content of presentations delivered as part of the MyBizOffice-sponsored "Contingent Workforce Management" learning track.
What is a VMS? The Role of Vendor Management Systems in Contingent Workforce
A
Vendor Management System, or VMS, is a software technology that
automates the requisition, solicitation, evaluation, engagement,
management, and payment for contingent workforce services. How does
this fit with your organization's needs, and what do you need to know
when selecting a VMS? Join experts from leading VMS providers
Fieldglass, Provade, Beeline, and Peopleclick for this enlightening
paper, and give yourself a stronger knowledge foundation for managing
contingent talent!
The Talent Shift: Align Your Business with the Future, Now
The
workforce is rapidly transforming, with free, flexible, and talented
independent consultants rising to the forefront. Smart entrepreneurs
are increasingly wielding the concept of the "personal business," and
along the way, they are bringing new agility and competitive edge to
the businesses that can engage them. In this paper, meet an interesting
cast of independent consultants. Learn what makes them tick, and pick
up the tools you need to work with them. Your business needs the power
of independent talent to stay agile and competitive. Also in this
paper, learn about the foundations of this workforce transformation,
and hear from experts about safely and quickly engaging contract talent.
Best of the Best 2006: Vendor Management Standards
Contingent
talent is the fastest growing segment of the workforce. In a business
climate of rapid growth where little or no standardization exists, the
Human Capital Institute has petitioned industry experts to form a
coalition to address this dilemma. For this final paper of 2006, we
celebrate the best of the best practices in Contingent Workforce
Management for 2006. The Human Capital Institute and seven of the most
experienced companies in managing vendors and contract labor have
joined together to launch a Standards Committee for Vendor Management
and Managed Services. This paper celebrates the first time a coalition
of such esteemed industry competitors have come together to contribute
ideas, standards, and best practices for simplifying how clients,
vendors, and contract talent work together.
Assessing and Managing Risk in Contract Workforce Management
Nearly
every business, large and small, uses "contingent" labor: workers who
perform services for a company despite not being on the company's
employee payroll. Contingent labor takes many forms and exists on every
level of the corporate hierarchy, from traditional services to
strategic knowledge workers. As rich as the potential rewards are for
successfully engaging and deploying a stable of contract talent, there
are risks associated with turning over a significant portion of the
work that a company does to individuals who don't, technically, "work
for the company." Some of these risks are business risks; for example,
what are the implications on ownership of intellectual property? Some
of the risks are financial: how does the process of dealing with the
IRS change? Other potential risks are related to compliance. In this
paper, we will look at how the best companies are managing these risks,
starting with how to determine potential exposure points then moving
into the various methods companies use to mitigate them.
Curtailing "Brain Drain": Keeping Older Workers in the CWM Mix
With
almost 75 million members of the Baby Boomer Generation nearing
retirement age, the implications for the American labor market are
huge. Aside from the physical numbers of workers that will need to be
replaced, the intellectual property those individuals will take with
them could create a "brain drain" the likes of which the United States
has never seen. Many companies are hoping to lessen this impact by
finding creative ways to keep all that knowledge in their orbit. In
this paper featuring Deborah Russell, Director of Economic Security at
AARP, we'll learn about new tools that allow organizations to attract
valuable aging talent without conflicting with the rules and culture of
the full-time workforce.
The Current State of the Contingent Workforce - One Size Doesn't Fit All
In
the newly unfolding knowledge economy, the employment landscape has
changed tremendously from what it looked even 20 years ago. The
workforce today comprises a diverse mix of individuals connected to
their organizations in myriad ways: from contract employment, to hourly
work, to short-term engagements to consulting relationships. Full time
employees, of course, are still a key part of the equation but if
existing trends are anything to go by, companies that fail to
incorporate the burgeoning numbers of contract-based workers are at a
competitive disadvantage. Moreover, for companies making the transition
to a contingent workforce, tweaking existing workforce systems and
processes to facilitate better management is inevitable. In this paper,
a panel of experts with disparate views discuss the evolving landscape
if the contingent workforce.