Last month, we announced the launch of our Talent Community solution. This is TalentWave’s technology-enabled service that enables a client to curate a community of independent workers who are already known to the organization, and that the company would like to engage on a project again. In combination with TalentWave’s comprehensive engagement layer, it creates a powerful end-to-end solution for utilizing non-employee workers that we believe has the power to transform how work gets done within the enterprise.
Given the revolutionary aspect of this new technology-enabled service, we published a Talent Community Manifesto last week. Now it’s time to get a little more practical and cover some of the core principles we have learned about building a successful Talent Community.
Talent Community Core Principles
…A Talent Community is not an open marketplace where unknown and unproven workers can apply for work. Rather, it is a closed community consisting of “known” workers who have either successfully performed work for the client before, or a project sponsor has first-hand knowledge of the worker from a prior company.
…Membership to a Talent Community is by invitation only, and is based on a contractor’s experience, reputation, and proven results.
…Each unique Talent Community consists of contractors that a client has explicitly chosen because they would like to consider them for engagement on a future project.
…It is not a passive database, but rather an actively curated community, managed by a Talent Agent who works on behalf of the client and all the contractors in the Talent Community to match and engage the best contractor for a specific project.
…The Talent Agent is the “glue” that holds a community together. They act as recruiter, curator, matchmaker, and problem-solver. This vital role can be fulfilled by a TalentWave team member, a client’s MSP, or someone from the program office. We are less concerned with who the Talent Agent is, but rather that someone is playing that role.
…The community is worker-classification agnostic. It doesn’t matter if a worker is a qualified Independent Contractor, or needs to be a payrolled employee. All workers are pre-vetted and can quickly be deployed on a project without introducing worker misclassification risk to the client.
…The client company sponsoring the Talent Community should aspire to be known as a “client of choice.” Building a reputation for fair treatment of contractors, an exciting vision, and interesting projects is vital in order to attract and retain the best independent talent in its Talent Community.
…Honesty and transparency are vital. Every contractor has a responsibility for creating and maintaining an accurate profile, which includes their availability to work. Clients are responsible for creating accurate statements-of-work and ensuring that every project posted is real. Talent Agents are responsible for actively communicating with both the client and the contractor throughout a project lifecycle.
Conclusion
These are some of the core principles behind building a successful Talent Community. This innovative engagement solution will prove to be a strategic solution for those organizations who realize they need to attract and retain talent across the workforce spectrum, from full time employees to independent contractors, and everything in between.
To learn more about TalentWave’s unique Talent Community solution visit our solution page, download the Talent Community whitepaper, or feel free to contact us for a personal consultation and demo of Talent Community along with our comprehensive suite of engagement solutions.
