When Covid-19 hit, it turned the world upside down for the industry and workforce solutions ecosystems including for contingent workforce managers as governments’ response to the pandemic shut down much of the economy and left people holed up inside their homes.
Typically, contingent workers are often among the first to be furloughed or laid off when the economy sours. And this time was no different. The pandemic has taken things to a whole new level for many people including contingent workforce managers.
Working from home brought other concerns also: security and risk to data privacy. Some large staffing client companies, particularly financial organizations, were hesitant about allowing people to work outside their buildings amid these security concerns.
Amid all the changes, this week’s Staffing Word of the Week is “contingent workforce management.” SIA’s lexicon defines it as: “The strategic approach to managing an organization’s contingent workforce in a way that it reduces the company’s cost in the management of contingent employees and mitigates the company’s risk in employing them while providing a more consistent supplier and user experience.”
SIA’s full Lexicon is available online and contains numerous other terms from the workforce ecosystem.