HRO Today March 2021 - 53

Contingent Labor
organizations are implementing new talent solutions to
scale up their operations, with some employers bringing
back laid off or furloughed employees as contingent
workers on short-term temporary assignments.
" As the road to recovery remains uncharted, we're seeing
that companies are cautious to bring on full time and
permanent employees and becoming more reliant on their
contingent workforce, " confirms Lee Baldwin, senior vice
president and global head of financial services and midmarkets
at Pontoon Solutions. " Bringing on contingent
workers throughout last year allowed organizations to
continue towards recovery, reduce downtime in facilities,
and train talent that they plan to bring on as permanent
hires. "
This is particularly true for healthcare organizations that
are contending with lower volume of full-time applicants
and high employee stress as they battle the pandemic.
Maria Luoni, president of RightSourcing, an MSP partner
servicing the healthcare industry, says the demand for
travel nurses and clinical contingent workers has spiked by
more than 40% to 60% in some months.
However, other organizations are entirely shifting the
work that would traditionally be done by contingent labor
to internal employees to avoid laying off staff. " While
some companies increased their need for contingent labor,
others, especially in the travel, hospitality, events, and
higher education space, reduced their use, " Lacey explains.
" In these hard-hit industries, many prioritized preserving
their internal resources, and full-time employees
performed the work typically done by contingent
workers. "
Finding Support Among Uncertainty
Employers across industries have found different ways to
contend with the instability of today's labor market and
many have turned to their MSP partners for support in
developing business continuity and communication plans
as they navigate continued uncertainty.
" Pontoon initiated business continuity plans across all
programs which enabled workforces to move to remote
operations while ensuring real-time visibility of program
operations for key stakeholders and hiring managers, "
says Baldwin. " We tailored communication strategies to
stay in unison with our clients, which helped bring large
contingent populations in line with broader company
policies in the fast-paced and ever-evolving environment
that the pandemic created. "
The crisis has accelerated a desire for both employers and
their MSP partners to innovate and do things differently,
adopting their approaches as the crisis evolves from hour
to hour, day to day, and month to month. Employers and
providers are working together to glean best practices
from the first wave of the pandemic and carry them
forward as the world faces wave two.
Here are some ways MSP partners are helping
organizations confront the challenges of the pandemic.
Plan talent needs. In these unprecedented times,
companies are relying on their MSP partners to offer
valuable data and insights into the labor market,
available talent pools, and the competitive landscape.
" Right now, clients care about continuity, scalability
and resiliency. Many clients are looking for a deeper
understanding and clearer picture of their talent needs
and usage. They're looking for more robust ways to track
diversity metrics and for creative solutions to keep people
at work. They also want to understand the competitive
landscape and what other companies in similar situations
are doing to respond to the pandemic, " says Lacey.
PeopleScout has responded to these needs by developing
communication protocols that allow clients to track the
impact of outbreaks in different facilities and regions
while providing effective emergency contact outreach.
The company also works with its clients to source COVIDspecific
employees needed to keep workers safe and
healthy, such as temperature takers and contact tracers.
" Another major theme was business continuity planning, "
Lacey adds. " When a facility or region was impacted by
an outbreak, there wasn't always a plan for how another
region or facility would adjust as back up support. This was
something we were able to coordinate. "
RightSourcing has also prioritized talent planning, working
with its healthcare clients to forecast needs based on
historical census data. The month-over-month or yearover-year
census data reveals key trends in labor and
delivery, flu seasons, and more that can preemptively
reveal necessary shifts in talent distribution, providing
clues to where organizations may need to pull back
contingent workers or supplement workers in a certain
specialty.
" What we've been doing with our clients during the
MARCH 2021 | www.hrotoday.com
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HRO Today March 2021

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