Welcome to this issue of The Contingent Compass. Each week, I send two essays to help you navigate the complex world of the Contingent Workforce. If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.
Here’s a truth that makes a lot of CEOs uncomfortable: in most companies, somewhere between 30 - 50 % of the workforce is contingent. Contractors, consultants, temps, freelancers, SOW partners - all doing critical work.
And yet, in the boardroom? Silence. The topic rarely shows up on the agenda. At best, it’s a side note in an HR update or a cost line in a Procurement slide.
That’s the blindspot. And like any blindspot, it’s not dangerous until it is - then it can wreck everything.
Delegated, Not Owned
Here’s how it usually plays out.
HR manages a piece of it. Procurement manages another. Business units do their own thing. Everybody assumes someone else is watching the whole picture.
But when something is everybody’s job, it’s nobody’s priority.
So instead of being seen as a lever for growth, risk protection, and shareholder value, contingent workforce strategy gets treated like a compliance box to tick or a cost to squeeze. CEOs assume it’s tactical. It isn’t. It’s strategic.
The Real Stakes
Think about it this way.
If you lose control of contingent workforce strategy, you’re not just risking a few inefficiencies. You’re exposing three pillars of your business:
Profit: hidden costs buried in supplier contracts and misaligned commercial models.
Risk: fines, lawsuits, and brand damage from misclassification, data leaks, or supply chain failures.
Growth: product launches delayed, new markets missed, innovation bottlenecked because the right people weren’t in the right place at the right time.
💡 Reflection time: If half of your workforce is invisible in your board pack, how complete is your growth and risk strategy, really?
Why CEOs Tune Out
Let’s be fair. It’s not that CEOs don’t care. It’s that no one has told the story in their language.
They see scattered data instead of consolidated insight.
They’re given procurement KPIs (bill rates, time-to-fill) instead of CEO KPIs (EBITDA, customer impact, market share).
And they hear vendor pitches that sound like product demos, not board-level strategy.
No wonder it doesn’t stick.
What Gets Attention
Here’s what actually moves the needle in the boardroom:
EBITDA impact - show the profit gains or losses from workforce agility.
Risk-adjusted profitability - highlight how governance prevents million-dollar penalties.
Speed-to-market - prove how faster talent deployment accelerates launches.
Investor confidence - draw the line between workforce visibility and shareholder trust.
Take two companies in the same market.
Company A slashed contractor rates to “save costs.” Delivery slowed, customers left, and a competitor beat them to launch. Share price dipped.
Company B elevated contingent strategy to the board, invested in supplier partnerships, and launched on time. They won $100M in market share and boosted investor confidence.
Both had contingent workers. Only one had a strategy.
The Risks Boards Overlook
This isn’t just about profit. It’s about exposure.
Europe is tightening worker protections.
APAC laws shift country to country - what’s compliant in Singapore might get you sued in China.
US states are waging legal battles over worker classification.
Boards talk about geopolitical risk constantly. But without contingent workforce in the mix, they’re missing half the story.
The Digital Transformation Tie-In
Here’s another blindspot. Boards love talking about digital transformation and AI. But none of those projects happen without the right people in place.
Cloud engineers, cybersecurity contractors, data scientists - they’re nearly all contingent. Ignore the strategy and your “digital roadmap” becomes an expensive deck that never gets delivered.
The Wake-Up Call
CEOs don’t need to know which vendor filled which requisition last week. That’s not their job.
But they do need to know this: how workforce agility is driving profit, how governance is protecting value, and how contingent labor is fueling (or stalling) growth.
Until contingent workforce strategy makes it into the boardroom, companies will keep leaving millions - sometimes billions - on the table.
💡 Final reflection: If your contingent strategy disappeared tomorrow, what would it cost you in revenue, risk exposure, and shareholder confidence? If you don’t know, neither does your CEO. And that should worry everyone.
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If you need support on your journey, upgrade to a paid subscription where you’ll instantly be able to interact with the community through group chat, live Q&A’s, gain access practical program tools and useful how-to guides.