HR Wants In

Power centers are shifting! Procurement departments are playing a bigger and bigger role in supplier selection, increasingly taking over the overall responsibility for a corporation's contingent workforce program. But human resource whiz kids don't think this is a good way to go. A common HR refrain: Managing people is HR's job. The idea of HR only knowing about the full time equivalent, when 40 percent of the workforce are contingents is ridiculous. How can they possibly do the job senior management expects of them if they only know about 60 percent of the workforce? They have a point. So what's HR's answer to the problem? Have more human resource professionals trained to handle contracts. If HR can hire for full time, it's not that difficult to acquire temporary workers. Move over procurement professionals!