Tony Holly, Senior Director at Magnet's Strategic Advisory Team, joins the podcast to reveal the massive blind spot in most organisations' talent intelligence: contingent labour. Tony's team touches 600,000–800,000 contingent workers every single week across 600+ Fortune 500 clients. Despite this enormous scale, contingent workforce data remains largely invisible to strategic workforce planning—a gap that's costing organisations millions.

What We Cover

The Contingent Workforce at Scale - Large organisations manage 2,000–4,000 contingent workers weekly through 100+ staffing agencies. One pharmaceutical client had billions in professional services spend with no way to connect costs to quality outcomes. Time-to-fill averages 15 days but hits 53 in markets like New York, yet most organisations lack visibility into these metrics.

The Fatal Migration to SOW - Organisations systematically move contingent workers from staff augmentation (40% markup) to statement of work arrangements (70%+ markup) to circumvent headcount policies. Same worker, same work, same supplier—but a 30 percentage point premium. Tony calls this expensive policy avoidance masquerading as workforce strategy.

Redeployment as Competitive Advantage - Leading organisations maintain talent pools including recently completed assignments, silver medallists from permanent recruitment, and retired workers seeking short engagements. Technology matches historical quality scores, pricing data, and skills to new requisitions—eliminating onboarding friction since workers already have systems access and cultural knowledge.

Context Over Numbers - Tony's team contextualises data against benchmarks to identify red flags before they become crises. When five consecutive workers cite the same manager's attitude in exit feedback, that's not a data point—it's a leadership intervention waiting to happen.

Total Talent Intelligence Remains Elusive - Despite years of rhetoric, permanent and contingent workforces remain siloed. Magnet's "stage five visionary clients" achieve true total talent intelligence—mapping all workers in one view to answer strategically: should we build, borrow, or bot this capability?

Key Quote

"We've seen organisations pay 70% more to get around artificial headcount policies. They're paying 30 percentage points more to circumvent rules that are hurting the organisation and costing more money. Why do that?"

Practical Tips for TI Leaders

1. Consolidate all contingent workforce data immediately—dirty and unclean—then identify gaps rather than waiting for perfect data
2. Audit whether workers are moving to SOW to avoid headcount limits—you may be paying a 30-point premium
3. Build redeployment pools including completed assignments, silver medallists, and retired workers
4. Map contingent workers geographically and analyse metrics by location before making return-to-office decisions
5. Always provide context through benchmarks and identify red flags before they become crises

What Tony is Working On

• Expanding total talent intelligence capabilities integrating FTE and contingent workforce data
• Developing redeployment matching tools pairing skills, quality scores, and pricing history
• Advising clients on the "fatal migration to SOW" and quantifying cost impacts

About Tony Holly

Tony Holly is Senior Director with Magnet's Strategic Advisory Team, leading 40+ business intelligence consultants globally. He supports 600 of Magnet's 700 clients—including 20% of the Fortune 500. With degrees in psychology, industrial-organisational psychology, and organisational development, Tony has spent over a decade building analytics capabilities in the contingent labour space.

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