How do you combine outcome-based service delivery with contingent resource?
Customers familiar with using contingent labour often question how an outcome-based service delivery model will fit into their existing way of working.
The beauty of outcome-based delivery is that, by design, the model is complementary to contingent resource rather than a replacement for it.
It’s not a case of having one or the other. It’s about being able to have both, concurrently, depending on the requirements of your project and/or programme.
Sometimes you can define what skills you need to undertake a piece of work, but you cannot define a specific outcome for that piece of work. This is when you should hire skills on time-and-materials contracts (aka contingent labour) because you can define what their work is in real time as the project/programme progresses and develops.
However, typically, there will be an element of any programme of work where an outcome can be defined and so using outcome-based delivery works better.
The key message here is that it is not a matter of either/or.
In fact, increasingly more organisations recognise that using the two models in parallel works really well.
For example:
If you have elements of a project or programme that are clearly defined, with tangible outputs, that must be delivered by a specific date and time, then aligning those to an outcome makes perfect sense, because you are more likely to achieve those things using an outcome-based relationship.
Within that same project or programme, however, there might be other elements of work that need to get done but you can’t define an exact outcome for them. You might also know that you have a skills gap and temporarily need more people to perform certain tasks, but you can’t clearly define or come to an agreement on what those specific tasks are. Nor can you clearly define how long you will need that particularly resource for. In this scenario, using contingent labour works better.
So as you can see, the two easily and effortlessly go hand in hand, rather than it being about finding a way to combine the two.
Instead of asking yourself “how can I combine the two models”, a better question to ask might be “what am I trying to achieve”.
Historically organisations have hired contingent labour for all elements of a project/programme of work being undertaken.
Today, more organisations are asking themselves: Which elements of the programme can be clearly defined? Which elements of the programme can be linked to an outcome? Which elements of the programme can we hold someone accountable for?
When those questions have been addressed, using outcome-based service delivery in conjunction with contingent labour can really add value.
Then what?
Once you’ve established that you can use both models simultaneously and that one complements the other, rather than replaces it, your job is to find a provider that can either do both or to find two different types of providers.
At Rullion, we can offer both models to our customers thanks to our 40+ year contingent recruitment heritage and having spent 20+ years building change teams for our customers.
So instead of having to go to multiple providers, we provide a one-stop shop for your outcome-based projects/programmes and your contingent labour needs.