The conversation around diversity in talent acquisition is in danger of becoming at best uniform, at worst – banal. Uniformity or banality, it’s not a great outcome either way. It’s become too easy to say and do the right things around DE&I, without thinking differently about meaningful strategic goals. It’s become too easy to add some platitudes to the corporate narrative. However, this also leads to a missed opportunity to build a diversity-driven talent acquisition strategy – one that includes the contingent workforce and forms the foundation for a high-performance culture.
The contingent workforce
One area where organisations can better align talent acquisition with diversity goals is through their contingent workforce. It’s a strategic opportunity that is often overlooked. Many large organisations view contingent workers as specialised assets, brought in for specific tasks or projects. These workers are often on short, fixed-term contracts with minimal integration into the wider team. Expecting them to understand company values or feel a sense of belonging can seem unrealistic. As a result, businesses adopt a revolving door approach to contingent talent. They focus more on process than on attraction, engagement, or loyalty.
This attitude will need to change – and change quickly. The market for contingent workers is shifting dramatically. More employers now recognise the value of flexible, highly skilled workers available on demand. As the talent market tightens, competition for contingent talent is rising. Organisations are exploring innovative ways to attract, engage, and retain these workers. They seek building talent pools and investing in long-term, agile relationships – not one-off transactions.
Skills shortages
Another key factor shaping contingent workforce strategy is the shortage of skills in critical areas. Many hard-to-fill roles require specialised expertise that’s increasingly hard to source through permanent hires.
As a result, organisations are using contingent workers to access in-demand talent where permanent pipelines fall short.
In a market where competition for contingent talent is already growing, skills shortages are adding even more pressure on some organisations. When it is difficult to plan for growth, the pressure on talent acquisition teams grows too. Resource plans change quickly, TA teams need to source talent urgently, and there is no easy solution that can be implemented at pace.
The growth of Direct-To-Talent
But implementing a DE&I strategy to support the growth of your contingent workforce is easier said, than done:
- Contract opportunities can appear at short notice: but building your credentials as a diverse employer takes time.
- It can be difficult to find diverse candidates for highly specialised roles: how do you reach out beyond the usual channels to find a different type of candidate?
- Finding diverse candidates doesn’t mean that you are finding high performers: how do you adapt your recruitment process to help you include a more diverse range of candidates and also identify the true high performers.
For many organisations, the answer lies in building a strong, integrated direct-to-talent channel as part of their contingent workforce solution. At the heart of the direct-to-talent approach is a commitment to building direct relationships with talent, by:
- Extending your employer brand so that it speaks more clearly to contingent workers.
- Using programmatic recruitment marketing across social media platforms to build awareness of your brand, target new audiences and reach diverse candidates.
- Utilising talent pooling technology so that you can maintain engagement and build knowledge of your organisation.
- Communicating more about your culture, values and vision to build a sense of connection.
- Integrating candidates seamlessly into the process to manage compliance, maintain recruiting standards of excellence and ensure a great onboarding experience.
An effective direct-to-talent channel, integrated into a wider contingent workforce solution, provides the foundation for identifying diverse talent pools, building a sense of engagement and understanding, and also maintaining consistency throughout the process so that the right level of talent is brought in. Recruiting contingent workers may move quickly, but the hiring process still needs to be fair, transparent and open – whether that means tackling unconscious bias, introducing more diverse interview panels or thinking differently about how skills are assessed.
Building an integrated, inclusive contingent workforce
Now, more than ever, there is an opportunity for organisations to build modern contingent workforce solutions that meet the needs of candidates in a changing labour market. Contingent workers are increasingly looking for the best of both worlds – a flexible way of working with the sense of purpose, professional growth and meaning that is usually associated with a permanent role.
Building a diverse talent pool for your contingent workforce, and building a high-quality attraction, recruitment and onboarding process, as part of your direct-to-talent strategy, means that organisations can bring in diverse contingent workers with different ideas, new ways of working and highly specialised skills – which can be just what an organisation needs. Yet at the same time, those diverse contingent workers can feel part of a more inclusive, integrated workforce.
Conclusion
Organisations will talk about diversity. But the growth of the contingent workforce is forcing many of them to confront the challenge of what a truly integrated, inclusive and diverse workforce really looks like. What are the skills that this workforce will need in the future? How are the roles an organisation has going to change as new technology has an impact? What will set the high performers apart? Where will you have to go to find, attract and recruit the best talent, regardless of whether they are permanent or contingent, fixed-term or full-time, zero-hours or project-based?
Inevitably, the conversation is going to change. Inevitably, it won’t be enough to simply talk about diversity any more – organisations should start to think now about how they embed best practice in DE&I into every aspect of their talent solution.
