Rolling Out Talent Marketplaces & Platforms
The decision to add Talent Marketplaces into an existing, and wider, ecosystem is just the start of the adoption process.
The program owner has championed the introduction of the marketplace driven by a need to innovate and extend the capabilities of a contingent workforce program. Now the hard work starts as the agenda changes to educating the teams who are used to working with traditional providers, and to fulfilling the purpose of the new approach and bring in new users to the program.
How do you get started – by answering some key questions and making sure everyone is ready to go. You’ve been patient through the selection and onboarding process so don’t rush things now. Paradoxically a patient, slower start will result in earlier returns on investment and faster rollout. Be the tortoise, albeit a very focused one.
For the program owner, the champion of this initiative, the onus is on you to workout the education process. But you shouldn’t be working alone: the talent marketplace supplier should provide support in terms of identifying buyer types, talent types, and creating shared communications programs across the business.
As an example, the talent marketplace will know that a particular business function has worked directly with a marketplace in similar organisations. Identify similar buyers in your business, and then highlight the talent that is now available through the new marketplace program.
The buy-in of the program office, often run through an external MSP, is critical.The challenge here is again educational. Used to managing a host of staffing providers, it’s vital that these things are understood:
- The marketplace is not replacing existing provision
- The marketplace will behave differently when receiving a talent requirement. This difference, in its most simple terms, relates to there being a network, or pools, of pre-vetted, curated and available talent so the marketplace provider can identify likely matches instantly, and update on liquidity. They will not be starting a search process, and their talent information is comprehensive and up to date.
- The marketplace is likely to cover different categories and as a consequence, some re-routing and prioritization may be needed. To do this, the type of talent must be understood, so that the team can recognize what works for a marketplace in just the same way that they know the specialisms of their existing suppliers.
Next up, the people who want the talent – those ones we identified right at the beginning. Whether you consider them as talent buyers, hiring managers, end users – these generic terms conceal the person who has but one thing on their mind - how to get things done by finding talent fast.
Their frustrations are mostly summarized by speed – whether they are going through TA teams for permanent hires, or are waiting on recruitment processes. And many have already given in to the temptation of the speed and convenience of talent marketplaces. Which is great for them, but less great for central teams who wonder what all those invoices and credit card receipts relate to, and have no real idea of what talent is now floating in the organization.
This is almost the easiest part of the rollout – bringing them the good news that now they have access to the talent they desire, and through a streamlined program. Don’t miss out on some crucial information though:
- Showcase the talent types and discover how they cover the needs. This may also be an education on the extended versus permanent workforce.
- Talk about the different delivery models– there may be overlap/replacement of Statement of Work initiatives here for some managers, now able to get consulting services without a consulting firm.
- Don’t rule anything out – some may still prefer to go direct to the marketplace, so the marketplace must be engaged to loop back into the program to keep the consistency and achieve the centralizing objectives.
- Listen to the frustrations – understanding the challenges of finding talent can only improve the program and the marketplace functionality.
- Educate on scoping and planning. The single biggest frustration from independent talent surveyed on our network is starting a client project without a clear scope, or one that differs from the original requirement. You want to pay to get the job done, not to pay to be told what the job actually is. And if that scoping is hard, then why not make that the project?
- Educate on onboarding. For many managers ,they are not used to working with external talent. Find out how they want to work, from the onboarding, through the communication process and also, how and when they want to exit. And sometimes why they want to stay.
As with so many new initiatives, this is all about communicating change. Consider everything, communicate all of it, and your programs will transform and deliver success sooner than you would have believed.
Find out more by listening to our recent webinar.