Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/169755
HROA A large number of organisations are also implementing blended workforce solutions—employing contractors, freelancers, and consultants in a critical capacity as a complement to the permanent workforce. Organisations are working with their service providers to figure out the best model to manage workforce planning, how to use contingent labour effectively, and how to recruit more sensibly. In a few years our directors believe that we may see organisations hiring only the required services on a contract basis. It will not matter whether they are permanent or nonpermanent employees; organisations will just buy their services for the period of time needed. In Malaysia, Indonesia, the Middle East, and Japan, some of these concepts are already gathering hold quickly. The use of contingent workers by organisations has typically been a short-term tactical solution, but now employers are more comfortable having non full-time employees in key roles. At companies like IBM, up to 25 per cent of the workforce is hired on a contract basis. The workforce will shift as well. More and more people are opening up to the idea of joining large organisations as nonpermanent employees. About $80 billion is spent on contingent staffing globally—50 per cent of that amount in the United States alone. America spends more on temporary staff than Europe, where the figure is between 5 and 10 per cent of the total workforce. Looking at contingent staffing as a geographic trend, demand is rising for this kind of model in the Middle East, as a significant percentage of defence work, for example, is moving away from the United Kingdom to the Middle East. Data security restrictions in the U.S. defence industry, and data processing restrictions in the EU are amongst the factors pushing work to the Middle East, a region characterized by a strong economic environment. These trends will re-shape the traditional RPO model both geographically and functionally, as well as other traditional HR practices around succession planning, learning, and compensation. Clearly, we are moving away from a paternalistic employeeemployer relationship to one where each individual is a free agent that sells his or her services. If many organisations start adopting the contract-for-services concept, HR initiatives for employees such as succession planning, career development, and coaching, will become unnecessary. Therefore, we will need to re-think HR systems and the services required. The most important element for efficient implementation of work automation and blended workforces is workforce analytics. If an organisation is effectively leveraging work automation and has a larger portion of contingent labour, it also needs to have a solution around workforce analytics. Analytics can provide a view of the entire workforce, not just based on geographical or functional silos. Organisations need to keep a record of their workforce to add another dimension to the traditional on-site enterprise resource planning (ERP), which is not the most effective way to store data about contingent workers. Taken together, these various related trends—work automation, blended workforces, analytics, and management of contingent labour—will shape very different roles for the traditional HR function. It will also place new demands on HRO providers. HR may be evolving towards what its name implies: a much more strategic talent sourcing function than an employee care-and-feeding service. John Hindle leads outsourcing marketing at Accenture. Contributors • Steve Riley, Accenture • Sally Hunter, Kelly Services • Phil Cooper, Allegis Talent2 • Darren Bartholomew, Selex Galileo • Bill Hart, Oracle • Tim Johnson, ADP • Roger Robbertz, DSM Andrea Schaffell, PA Consulting Seb O'Connell, Randstad Sourceright • • • Steve Walsh, BAE Systems • Gary Madden, BP • Paul Mallinson, Hays • • Howard Nelson, IBM • Margaret Spink, Xchanging Anthony Hesketh, Lancaster University Management School • Sarah Seabury, ISG SUMMER 2013 | www.hroglobal.com [35]