Insights

Temporary workers have long been integral to keeping essential services running, absorbing peaks in demand and maintaining operational continuity. Increasingly, leading organisations are recognising that a flexible workforce can deliver much more than short-term cover. When managed strategically, contingent labour becomes a powerful lever for workforce planning, service quality and organisational resilience.

In this article we explore how organisations can move beyond viewing temporary staffing as an operational necessity to instead see it as part of their human capital strategy – with structured management, data visibility and supplier governance turning contingent labour into a genuine source of long-term value.

Why contingent labour deserves strategic attention
Temporary workers often sit alongside, rather than within, traditional workforce planning. Yet managing it as a distinct but strategically connected element of the workforce is increasingly essential to maintaining visibility, cost control and resilience.

The scale of the UK’s temporary workforce highlights just how important this has become:

• With more than 1.5 million people in temporary roles across the UK, this workforce segment represents a significant part of national capability – equivalent to around 5.2% of all employees.
• Spending in the public sector on temporary staff is large and growing: the UK civil service spent approximately £7.38 billion in 2022-23 on temporary staff across departments.

Workforce planning guidance emphasises the importance of supply, capability, cost and scenario modelling – and that applies just as much to the non-permanent workforce as it does to the permanent one.

Recognising contingent labour as part of human capital management
The concept of human capital management (HCM) is typically applied to permanent employees: recruiting, developing and retaining talent to drive organisational success. Yet in many sectors, a large share of service delivery relies on temporary, agency or bank staff. When those workers are essential to day-to-day operations, they are not simply an external resource; they are part of the organisation’s collective capability.

Integrating temporary workers into a broader HCM approach doesn’t mean blurring contractual boundaries. It means recognising their contribution to organisational performance and managing them through the same strategic lenses: skills, engagement, performance, cost and risk. Doing so enables organisations to:

• Improve workforce visibility – Understanding the full picture of who is delivering work across the organisation allows for better planning, forecasting and compliance.
• Enhance capability and service quality – By engaging and developing reliable temporary staff, organisations can improve consistency and reduce errors associated with churn.
• Control cost and reduce waste – Strategic oversight helps identify inefficiencies such as over-reliance on premium shift rates or duplicated agency supply.
• Build resilience – Maintaining a flexible, well-managed labour pool enables faster response to spikes in demand, absences or operational changes.

Recognising temporary labour as part of human capital management reframes it from a reactive process to a managed asset. This mindset shift provides the foundation for more strategic decisions around planning, service delivery and resilience – the areas where effective temporary workforce management delivers the greatest return.

Strategic levers

Workforce planning
Effective workforce planning depends on understanding total labour capacity – both permanent and temporary. For organisations with large temporary staffing requirements, mapping that workforce against demand peaks, shift patterns and geography is essential. Moving beyond “filling tomorrow’s shift” to analysing long-term trends and supplier performance enables a closer alignment between supply and service demand.

Service delivery
When temporary workers are engaged through consistent onboarding, communication and cultural alignment, they can deliver higher performance and stability. Managing temporary labour as part of the wider workforce – not as an ad-hoc fix – reduces inefficiency and maintains quality during periods of high demand.

Organisational resilience
A structured temporary workforce strategy enhances agility and risk management. Organisations with clear governance, compliance processes and reliable supplier partnerships can scale capacity quickly, maintain standards and mitigate disruption from shortages or surges in demand.

Putting strategy into action
The healthcare sector provides a strong example of how temporary labour can be integrated into a broader human capital ecosystem, with many providers now prioritising the use of their own staff banks over external agency supply. By applying human capital management principles, they’ve been able to:

• Build direct relationships with experienced temporary workers (or bank staff), increasing loyalty and shift uptake.
• Reduce reliance on agency intermediaries, lowering costs and improving fill rates for critical shifts.
• Improve continuity of care, as returning staff already understand systems, culture and patient needs.
• Use workforce data to forecast demand and plan training for in-demand clinical roles, improving resilience over time.

These lessons are transferable across sectors: when organisations see temporary labour as a renewable, investable part of their human capital, rather than a short-term expense, they create a more reliable and cost-effective workforce.

To make that shift, organisations can take the following practical steps:

• Map your total workforce – Quantify the scale, cost and distribution of temporary labour across the organisation.
• Integrate temporary labour into total workforce planning – Include demand modelling, skills mapping and cost forecasting for non-permanent roles.
• Standardise onboarding and engagement – Create consistent processes so temporary workers are onboarded effectively and understand organisational culture and expectations.
• Consolidate visibility and reporting – Use centralised dashboards to track spend, supplier performance and fulfilment rates.
• Embed compliance and governance – Ensure robust processes for vetting, classification and worker rights.
• Measure outcomes, not just inputs – Track metrics such as cost per shift filled, service quality, continuity and coverage reliability.
• Foster long-term relationships – Recognise and re-engage high-performing temporary workers to build a dependable talent pool and reduce agency dependency.

When human capital management principles are applied to temporary staffing in this way, the workforce becomes an adaptable, data-informed, and strategically managed resource.

How structured supply management supports the process
As temporary labour becomes more strategically important, a neutral vendor model can support this shift by providing:

• Visibility and analytics – Centralised data on temporary labour use, spend, fulfilment rates and agency performance to inform decision-making.
• Standardisation and compliance – Consistent onboarding processes, vetting and governance processes that maintain standards across sites and suppliers.
• Supplier optimisation – Rationalising the supply base to ensure the right balance of cost, quality and responsiveness.
• Workforce insight – Integrating temporary labour data with HR analytics, enabling organisations to understand the real cost and capability of their total workforce.

This is not about outsourcing responsibility — it’s about creating the infrastructure to manage contingent labour strategically, with the same level of insight, consistency and accountability applied to the permanent workforce. When organisations apply human capital management principles to their temporary staff, supported by a neutral vendor model, they transform contingent labour into a strategic resource that strengthens efficiency, resilience and long-term performance.

About Neuven
Neuven is a UK leader in contingent workforce management, supporting organisations across public and private sectors to gain visibility, control and confidence in their temporary staffing. Through its neutral vendor model along with technology platforms Venneu® and Venta®, Neuven delivers transparent supply-chain management, streamlined compliance, improved cost efficiency and stronger workforce resilience.