This research is the intersection of HR and Procurement.

HR manages the hearts and minds; procurement manages the buying ledgers and contracts? But as work has atomised and the "blended workforce" has swelled to nearly half of the average organisation’s output, this binary has collapsed. The result is a chaotic middle ground where talent is bought like stationery and employees are managed like assets, often with disastrous efficiency. This research is for the practitioners tasked with making sense of this mess.

Procurement: You are likely responsible for HR, Professional Services and/or Contingent Labour. You understand that buying a consultancy’s time or a freelancer’s code is not the same as procuring steel for a factory, yet your toolset (RFPs, rigid taxonomies, and compliance checklists) treats them as identical. You suspect that Procurement is woefully underfunded for the complexity of the services it buys, and you are tired of being viewed merely as a barrier to speed rather than a strategic architect of value.

HR: You are the custodian of culture at a time when half your workforce doesn't technically work for you. You are acutely aware that the "employee experience" cannot stop at the payroll edge, yet you lack the visibility to manage the army of contractors and gig workers currently powering your projects. You face the Sisyphean task of doing more with less, often viewed as administrative overhead rather than a driver of organisational design. You are reading this because you know that "Total Talent" must be more than a PowerPoint slide.

CWP leader: you lead Contingent Worker Programmes, or you drive strategy within MSPs and BPOs. You are the engine room of the flexible workforce. You see the friction firsthand: the hiring manager who bypasses the system, the statement of work that is actually a disguised headcount, and the talent that slips through the cracks. You are looking for a way to move the conversation from transactional efficiency to competitive advantage.

We write for the leaders who understand that the future belongs not to those who defend their silos, but to those who can tear them down. If you believe that talent is talent, regardless of the ledger it sits on, you are in the right place.

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