Industry News

The Rise of The Contingent Workforce

By Rob Balfour, VP Enterprise Sales, AllWork 

There’s a dramatic global shift taking place in the in the makeup of a company’s internal workforce. The shift reflects not just the dynamics of the new economy, but also the increasingly popular employment trend of hiring a pool of contingent workers.

This shift does not come without its challenges. Some of the biggest shifts are taking place in consumer-facing roles such as retail and all the brands supporting their retail partners.

What are the challenges?

Let’s outline some of the challenges in creating a hybrid workforce:

  • Limited technology to support the size and bureaucratic complexity of the hiring processes
  • Increasingly stricter government regulatory restrictions
  • Limited tracking, monitoring, reporting and analysis of workforce data
  • Increasing legal, HR, financial and public relations risks

Hiring outsourced labor is gaining momentum as it’s primarily driven by a shortage of skilled workers and the need for flexibility and responsiveness. This creates a pressing corporate need for a high-quality, on-demand contingent workforce.

Companies of all sizes are beginning to realize that the only chance of managing successful growth and organizational expansion is by engaging a quality contingent workforce.

What is a contingent workforce exactly?

Look at it as you would look at Uber. It is a flexible and on-demand workforce. A contingent workforce first and foremost gives you the ability to acquire the best available talent with a specific set of skills. It enables quick adaptation to major market changes (expansion and contraction), rapid scalability, skill development, and expertise sharing. These are all some of the reasons why adopting a contingent workforce is becoming the most powerful employment strategy today.

It’s a daunting task considering how to implement a contingent workforce. Partnering with the right technology platform is critical to hire, train, manage, administer payroll/benefits, and increase sales to maximize your talent spend.

Want to learn more about how to efficiently manage your contingent workforce? For more information, or to see a full demo of the AllWork platform, contact us at info@allworknow.com or schedule a demo here.

Laura Dutile

Director of Marketing at AllWork

Recent Posts

Inside an Enterprise Field Program Overhaul: Lessons for Managing Flexible Workers at Scale

When we asked attendees at the start of our September webinar about their biggest challenge…

4 days ago

California Sick Leave, Leaves of Absence, & Workers’ Comp: A Manager’s Guide

"I really need you for an event this weekend, so I cannot approve your sick…

6 days ago

AllWork Named to Human Cloud’s 2026 Market Map for Flexible Workforce Solutions

Human Cloud has released its 2026 Market Map—a one-page guide to the flexible workforce industry—and…

7 days ago

HR Best Practices for Managing Contingent Talent in California

California, the largest labor market in the U.S., is widely considered the most protective of…

2 weeks ago

The Case for Technology-First Contingent Workforce Management

For full-time staff, most organizations would probably say they have pretty solid software for payroll,…

2 months ago

Contingent Workforce Compliance: Trust, But Verify

As your contingent workforce grows, so does your compliance risk. In our recent webinar, "Beyond Staffing and…

3 months ago