Why Your Diversity and Inclusion Efforts Need to Include Contingent Workers

Nowadays, more and more companies work on improving their diversity and inclusion strategies. The main reason is that a diverse workforce tends to be more effective, productive and they perform better overall.

With a diverse workforce, you're tapping into a vast talent pool that can provide you with the skills, experience and expertise you need to drive your business towards success. 

However, a lot of people are a part of the contingent workforce, which means they need to be included in such strategies as well. 

When creating an ideal diversity and inclusion plan, you simply cannot ignore contingent workers just because they're not or won't be part of your full-time workforce. With that in mind, here are a few reasons why your diversity and inclusion efforts need to include contingent workers. 

There are more contingent workers than you know

The number of contingent workers continues to grow across the world. For example, in the US alone, contingent workers make up 40% of the workforce. The rest of the world is experiencing a similar situation. 

In Australia and New Zealand, for instance, contingent workers more than a third of the total workforce are contingent workers, while 26% of the workforce in Asia is made up of contingent workers. This is especially true now that the global pandemic has forced a lot of companies to rely on remote work. 

Moreover, a lot of people lost their full-time job due to the pandemic and are now part of the contingent workforce. 

Therefore, if you're planning on finding ideal diverse employees to help improve inclusion in your company, you will have to consider contingent workers as well because they provide one of the most diverse talent pools in the world.

Diverse effectiveness

A lot of companies focus on diversity because various people with different ethnic, sexual, religious, racial and other backgrounds have unique talents that are valuable to companies. 

Having a diverse workforce helps companies expand to foreign markets, target specific demographics and engage with different audiences across various marketing channels more efficiently. 

For example, companies offering contractor workforce solutions in Asia have helped numerous foreign and local businesses to find ideal contingent workers for their projects. Some of those projects included expanding to the Asian market. 

Contingent workers may be freelancers and independent contractors but their diverse effectiveness can be a great asset to any company in the world. The collaborative effect of diverse employees' helps companies create new strategies and new approaches that will allow them to expand and grow further. 

The need for contingent workers

Now that we're slowly entering the post-pandemic period, it's safe to say that a lot of companies will resume relying on remote work. The main reason is that companies are still concerned about overall health and safety issues. 

However, what's interesting is that companies have realized just how important and effective remote work really is. Not only that but a lot of people have grown to like remote work a lot. 

According to statistics, around 75% of people would willingly give up on some of the job benefits, such as cash bonuses, healthcare plans and paid leave in exchange for workplace flexibility. It seems that the future of work is moving towards a hybrid solution between office and remote work. 

Therefore, the need for contingent workers will most likely increase as well. That said, if you plan on improving inclusion in your company where everyone is seen and heard equally, as well as where everyone has an equal opportunity to grow, you'll have to consider the needs of your contingent workers. 

Improving your diversity and inclusion strategies will have to include contingent workers sooner or later. This highly-diverse workforce has numerous talents to offer. Although they may not be your full-time employees, that doesn't undermine their value to your company. Providing them with equal opportunities and listening to what they have to say can help your company in more ways than one.