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Field Nation report says 70% expect contingent workforce growth in next year

December 09, 2015

Nearly 35% of today’s total workforce is comprised of non-employee workers — including temps, freelancers and independent contractors — according to the annual “State of Contingent Workforce Management” research study released by Field Nation and Ardent Partners. In addition, 70% of enterprises expect the contingent workforce to grow steadily in the next 12 months.

“The optimization of a total workforce cannot occur without the proper visibility,” said Christopher Dwyer, research director at Ardent Partners. “In today’s market, only 18% of organizations cite ‘strong’ visibility into their worker footprint, which is defined as visibility into all talent across the entire enterprise, including both traditional full-time employees and non-employee workers, freelancers and independent talent.”

The majority of talent in 2015, 54%, is primarily concentrated in traditional workers and full-time employees, according to the report; however, that percentage is expected to decrease to 41% in 2017 while the share of talent primarily concentrated in the contingent workforce is expected to rise from 20% to 25%. Organizations with an even concentration of talent will increase from 26% in 2015 to 34% in 2017, the research found.

Survey respondents reported the top “impactful” sources of non-employee talent were:

  • Online labor marketplaces: 6%
  • Freelancer networks: 62%
  • Job boards: 61%
  • “In-network” talent: 57%
  • Social networks/social media: 49%

The research represents web-based survey responses from 210 business professionals and includes interviews from several procurement, HR and talent management executives.