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Empowering Contingent Talent: Fostering Ongoing Support and Success
Rebecca Perrault | June 29 2023
At Magnit we are passionate about progressing diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) for contingent talent. One of the steps we’ve taken to better understand the unique needs of this workforce is by partnering with Werklabs and The Mom Project on conducting research focused on extended workers and their priorities.
Our joint report, “What Drives a Diverse Extended Workforce: Fostering Feelings of Inclusion for Diverse Contingent Talent”, shines a light on the differences and disparities across segments in the contingent workforce when it comes to attracting, empowering and engaging extended talent.
In this blog post, we’re going to discuss the various ways organizations can make contingent talent feel supported and successful in their roles. Learn more about the importance of flexibility and competitive pay in empowering contingent talent in our previous post.
Fostering Supportive Environments for Contingent Workers
Contingent workers feel a sense of support from organizations in many different ways, including both tangible and intangible efforts. Receiving actionable feedback during their assignments and opportunities to move up in their careers is especially important to them. The survey showed that companies, leaders and coworkers can affect feelings of support through the following actions:
- Giving workers feedback on ways to improve
- Providing workers feedback on their strengths
- Inviting workers to team building events
- Giving workers opportunities to network
- Offering employee perks
- Having conversations about career goals with workers
- Informing workers of internal jobs
Support is a significant motivator of contingent worker experiences. However, it is important to note the differences each demographic group places on support. The research shows that white contingent workers highly emphasize support (82.7), followed by Hispanic/Latino contingent workers (80.7), with the overall score for all demographics groups being 75. Also, the greatest differences in rating feelings of support was between men and women, with women rating support 11 points higher than men.
Facilitating Success for Contingent Talent
Contingent workers experience feelings of success in their work when they get their contracts renewed, in the case the option to renew is available. If they don’t have the option, getting more responsibility in their role affects their feelings of success within the organization.
It’s no surprise that giving workers extra responsibilities can contribute to feeling accomplished. But our research shows that ongoing increase in responsibilities outside the initial project scope or assignment can make workers feel discouraged, or even like they’re being taken advantage of. One contingent worker even noted that, “The same pay but more and more responsibility after years is discouraging.” Another insight to note from the research revealed that of all the demographic groups we surveyed, women feel success is the most important with a score of 81.5, with the average overall score being 83.8.
Getting diverse contingent talent into your organization is just the first step toward diversifying your workforce. But what matters even more are their experiences within your organization and ensuring they feel valued and that their contributions to the business matter. This work is the only way for us to realize the true benefits of diversity for both organizations and society.
For more insights on what matters most to contingent workers and how your organization can best attract top talent, read our other report created in partnership with the Mom Project and Werklabs.
To see our other work in progressing DE&I for the contingent workforce, check out our 2022 Impact Report.
Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of Magnit and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.