Definition - What does extended workforce mean?
An extended workforce is the combination of people who provide their skills and expertise to the organization who are not employees of the organization. The people who are external to the organization are recruited for their specific skills and knowledge such as freelancers, consultants, and vendors but do not directly work as employees of the company.
SureHire explains extended workforce
An extended workforce includes contractors and other non-employee workers. Contingent workers are acquired by the organization for their project-specific skills. This in turn gives the business the ability to act on opportunities faster. An organization that makes use of an extended workforce has to have the appropriate processes and structures in place to assimilate the external workforce into the business along with the internal workforce.
Historically, utilizing an external workforce was carried out for the purpose of cost-saving initiatives. It is currently viewed as a means to obtain specialized skills in order to mobilize the organization to take advantage of opportunities in the market at a lower cost than adding more traditional employees and the secondary costs of traditional employees such as worker's comp insurance, health benefits, and overtime pay.
