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Talent Management Joining Pieces of the Talent Puzzle Three providers shed light on overcoming resistance to a blended workforce approach. By Katie Kuehner-Hebert Globalisation, sputtering economies, and other changes in workplace dynamics have driven the need for corporate leaders to balance permanent workers with contingent labour through blended workforce solutions. This approach to talent management combines the strategies of recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed service providers (MSP). Randstad Sourceright, Advantage xPO, and Capita explained how organisations are developing blended workforce solutions to maintain a competitive edge, and how they can mitigate current challenges to make the solutions work for their particular culture in a recent webinar hosted by the Human Resources Outsourcing Association (HROA). Blended workforce models are not static because organisational needs can change rapidly due to evolving business goals, locations, required skills sets of teams, and other workforce factors, noted Paula Parfitt, sales and marketing director of Randstad Sourceright. "Models are fluid and they have to be. Part of the solution is definitely to make sure there is source visibility across all of the talent space," Parfitt said. "One of the key benefits is that we're [18] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | AUTUMN 2013 able to identify maverick spend and any exposure to risk, and that really helps us effectively manage that on the client's behalf. Visibility also helps to identify trends which feeds back into continuous improvement." Traditionally, RPO is led by an organisation's human resources team and MSP is procurement-led, but the blended model is—no surprise—a blend of both. HR takes the lead with really strong procurement support Parfitt said. Developing an effective blended workforce solution entails a sound analysis of the availability of required skills sets in each type of worker category and how that fits together holistically, said Karen Browne, president of Advantage xPO. Organisations will have to account for every worker and every position. Such an analysis requires the provider's role to transition to becoming more of a workforce consultant. "What organisations are really looking for us to deliver…comes down to talent availability, keeping the company compliant and managing risk, and driving cost savings," Browne said. Not all organisations are thinking strategically about how a