Talent industry experienced a massive transformation after the pandemic. Many companies tested the waters with contingent workers and eventually adopted this new model. The U.S Independent Report 2020 released by Upwork, also suggests that there has been a massive upsurge in the independent labor economy in the last year.

• Freelancing contributed nearly $1.2 trillion to the economy. It remains a significant part of the economy and an important component for adapting to difficult economic times.
• Amid a tough job market for recent college graduates, half of the Gen Z workforce (age 18-22) has freelanced in the past year, and of those, more than a third (36%) started since the onset of Covid-19.

Amid this rise, smooth management of the contingent workforce has emerged as a challenge for companies. Fewer than 30% believe they can efficiently manage freelancers. Companies are looking for better management alternatives that ease their already tight workforce situation.

Total Talent Management here makes a statement by providing organizations with an enterprise-wide talent solution that offers an agile and 360-degree approach to managing the workforce.

Total Talent Management (TTM)

At present, the procurement department oversees the complete contingent workforce and HR regulates the permanent workforce. Bizarrely, these two operate in a siloed structure and therefore do not interfere in each other’s work.

Total talent management model breaks these silos and taps on the comprehensive power of the talent. It encompasses a comprehensive approach to sourcing talent by combining permanent, temporary, freelancers, contractors, SOW workers, part-timers under a single ambit.

In place of compartmentalizing the resources, the TTM model follows a flexible allocation of resources across the projects. It analyzes the most suitable workforce structure amongst the available permanent and temporary talent options. Factors including spend, resource utilization, skills, and compliance are considered while finalizing the allocation.

With TTM, the goal is to add agility to the process. And source the right kind of talent at the right time.

Benefits of TTM Model

1.   Quick Talent Placement

40% of employers globally are having difficulty filling positions. And with the expanding demand and supply talent gap and slow talent sourcing methods, getting hold of the right talent has become further demanding.

The TTM model addresses this slow talent hiring process by presenting a broader range of staffing options such as contingent workforce, SoW workers, payroll workers, or more.

In place of sticking to one hiring methodology to fill a vacant position, companies can pick from the list that best aligns with the project timelines and talent needs. This approach takes into consideration a lot of factors before employing resources such as cost, length of the project, resource availability, project deadlines, and more.

Besides, TTM provides the leaders with a bird’s eye view of the organization-wide resource allocation. This means companies can relocate the resources internally in place of scrounging for it externally every time the demand arises.

2.   Cost-saving

By strategically deploying and re-deploying talent through a variety of projects, you can cut down the talent search and deployment cost dramatically.

Moreover, TTM vendors offer a complete talent solution that encompasses temporary and permanent workforce needs. You no longer have to invest in multiple vendors for your varied talent requirements.

Here, a single vendor can manage both the staffing aspects without doubling your cost or effort.

The best part of this approach is that it tries to strike an ideal balance between, skill and cost keeping talent quality paramount. Research shows that 69% of human capital leaders are planning to adopt a total talent approach as a way to better control their labor costs.

3.   Improved Talent Visibility

Because of siloed talent processes, getting visibility into the complete workforce is not easy. Leaders have a tough time understanding and integrating data from all the departments. Making it way more difficult to acquire the complete picture and polish workforce strategies.

The TTM model addresses this issue aptly. To allocate the resources wisely among the organization, leaders need to have constant access to the workforce arrangement. And for this reason, TTM equips users with an analytics platform that consistently displays the current workforce composition.

With visibility into the labor data, workforce constitution, and resource requirement, leaders can improve their workforce productivity and gain a comprehensive view of the scattered workforce.

Hurdles with Total Talent Approach

While talks around the total talent management approach have started to gain pace, fewer companies have started acting on these lines. Going by Manpower Group research, just 27% of respondents have taken firm steps towards achieving Total Talent Management, where 16% are still at the researching stage.

Majority of the HRs don’t deny the importance of total talent management, but researches have shown that factors like below have been a hurdle in the road to total talent management adoption.

1. Other priority talent management issues
2. Leadership support
3. Restricted Budget
4. Lack of technology
5. Lack of internal resources

Road Ahead

Implementing this solution demands management efforts and commitment to progress. Even as you continue to take steps in this direction, there will be hurdles to pull you back. In such a situation, you must

1. Assess current talent acquisition process and shortcoming
2. Consider the inability to react to dynamic workforce challenges
3. Impact your current workforce constitution has on productivity
4. Evaluate complete talent acquisition cost

Conclusion

Road to total talent management is a promising journey that is sure to steer your workplace in the direction of flexibility, productivity, and profitability. Not only that, but it is also the future of talent management that draws on technology, and innovation. It is high time that you start holding conversations around the total talent approach and concentrate on the skills and instead of the worker type.