Society for Human Resource Management (10/02/14) Steve Bates

The growing use of temporary workers is changing the U.S. workforce and the ways in which talent is acquired and managed. Temporary employees, freelancers, contractors, and consultants are becoming more common, and human resource departments are finding new and unique ways to get work done. This has shifted some recruiting and hiring tasks to procurement professionals. Driving this trend is the fact that organizations are learning to manage temporary workforces, employers are looking for ways to cut costs, and employers are having trouble finding the candidates they want for permanent jobs. Leaders in the staffing industry are able to help human resource professionals plan for a future with temporary workers in a consultative way, something that has changed in the last six or seven years.

“There’s much more of a focus on price,” says American Staffing Association president and chief executive officer Richard Wahlquist. But while “that works when purchasing office supplies,” it is not always the best approach to building a competitive workforce, he says.