Essential terms and definitions for freelance management, talent acquisition, workforce compliance, and more.
Platforms and technologies powering modern workforce management
Software platform that centralizes sourcing, onboarding, managing, and paying freelance talent at scale.
Online marketplace or technology platform that connects businesses with independent professionals for project-based work.
A curated, on-demand network of pre-vetted professionals that companies can access quickly for project-based or ongoing work.
A talent marketplace is an online platform that connects organizations with external or internal talent through discovery and matching.
Technology to build, curate, and hire from a company's own branded talent pool instead of relying on staffing agencies.
Workforce Management (WFM) is the set of processes and software used to optimize staffing, scheduling, time, and labor compliance.
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is recruiting software that manages hiring for open roles, from job posting to offer.
An HRIS is the core system of record companies use to manage employee data, payroll, benefits, and HR compliance for W-2 staff.
Contingent workforce management is how organizations source, engage, manage, pay, and stay compliant with their non-employee talent.
Cloud software that manages an organization's contingent workforce and staffing suppliers, automating requisitions, invoicing, rate cards, and spend reporting.
How companies find and connect with the right talent
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to automatically match job requirements with qualified candidates.
A hiring approach that prioritizes demonstrated skills and capabilities over traditional credentials like degrees or job titles.
The process of connecting job requirements with qualified candidates based on skills, experience, and fit criteria.
The use of artificial intelligence throughout the recruitment process to automate tasks, improve decisions, and enhance candidate experience.
Hiring platforms that enable managers to source, evaluate, and engage talent directly without intermediary involvement.
A curated database of pre-vetted candidates — employees, contractors, or freelancers — that a company or platform maintains for fast access to qualified talent.
The elapsed time from a candidate entering the hiring pipeline to accepting an offer — a core measure of hiring speed and efficiency.
A unified strategy that manages full-time employees and contingent workers together for holistic workforce visibility and cost control.
A third party that runs an organization's entire contingent-workforce program — suppliers, VMS, compliance, and spend.
A model where an external provider takes over all or part of a company's recruiting function to source, screen, and hire talent at scale.
A hiring approach that blends AI candidate ranking with expert recruiter judgment to produce a short, high-fit shortlist fast.
Talent vetting is the process of screening and verifying a candidate's skills, background, and fit before they reach a hiring manager.
Direct sourcing is hiring contingent talent from your own curated pool of known professionals instead of paying agency markups.
The proactive process of finding and engaging potential candidates — including passive talent — to build a pipeline for current and future roles.
Different categories of non-permanent workers
Any worker engaged outside of traditional permanent employment, including contractors, freelancers, temps, and gig workers.
The collective workforce of non-permanent workers including contractors, freelancers, and temps that organizations engage flexibly.
A self-employed professional who offers services to clients on a project basis, maintaining independence over how and when they work.
Skilled professionals available to engage quickly for project-based work, providing flexible capacity without long-term employment commitments.
The full network of non-employee talent a company relies on — freelancers, contractors, gig, SOW, and agency temps — managed as one.
A flexible outsourcing model that adds external skilled workers to your existing team to fill skill or capacity gaps under your direction.
A workforce that blends full-time employees with contingent talent — freelancers, contractors, and consultants — working side by side to flex capacity.
A specialist engaged for expert advice or a defined project under a statement of work, usually as an independent contractor rather than an employee.
A worker engaged for a limited period or specific need — seasonal demand, leave coverage, or a project surge — rather than permanently.
A worker who earns income through short-term, on-demand gigs, usually as an independent contractor rather than an employee.
Legal and regulatory requirements for workforce management
Ensuring all worker engagements meet legal, regulatory, and policy requirements across classification, contracts, taxes, and labor laws.
A third-party organization that legally employs workers on your behalf, handling all payroll, taxes, benefits, and compliance while you direct the work.
A third party that engages, classifies, and pays independent contractors on your behalf — the contractor-side counterpart to an Employer of Record.
A relationship where a company and a staffing agency or PEO share employer responsibilities for the same worker — along with the shared legal liability that can create.
A formal document that defines the scope, deliverables, timeline, and payment terms for a project-based engagement with a contractor or freelancer.
The error of treating someone who legally qualifies as an employee as an independent contractor — exposing companies to back taxes, penalties, and retroactive benefits liability.
A service where a third party becomes the official employer or engager of record for workers you've already sourced, putting them on its compliant payroll.
A written contract that defines a contractor's scope, pay, IP, and independence — documenting, but not determining, classification.
The risk that people or activities abroad create a taxable business presence, triggering foreign corporate income tax and penalties.
A legal finding that two businesses are both employers of one worker and share liability for wages, discrimination, and labor obligations.
California's AB5 law codified the ABC test, presuming California workers are employees unless a company proves all three prongs.
The IRS right-to-control test that weighs behavioral control, financial control, and relationship type to classify workers as employees or contractors.
A strict, three-part worker-classification test that presumes a worker is an employee unless all three ABC prongs are met.
A firm that co-employs your existing workforce to run payroll, benefits, and HR compliance where you already have a legal entity.
A worker classified as an employee, paid via IRS Form W-2, with taxes withheld and full benefits and labor-law protections.
An independent contractor paid via IRS Form 1099-NEC, responsible for their own taxes with no employer withholding or benefits.
A self-employed worker who provides services under contract, is paid via Form 1099, controls how the work is done, and handles their own taxes.
How contingent work is priced, billed, and budgeted
A fee paid to a staffing agency to convert a temporary or contract worker into a permanent, direct hire.
Total cost of workforce is the fully-loaded cost of your people — pay, markups, taxes, overhead, compliance, and hidden costs — not just the rate.
Cost per hire is the total internal and external recruiting cost of filling a role, divided by the number of hires in a period.
Spend Under Management is the share of contingent-workforce spend actively tracked and controlled through a formal program.
Contingent workforce spend is the total an organization pays for its non-employee talent — contractors, freelancers, temps, and SOW services.
A contract model where the client pays for actual time worked plus materials and expenses, rather than a single fixed price.
A rate card is a standardized document listing pre-agreed bill rates for contingent roles by skill, seniority, role type, and location.
Markup is the percentage a staffing provider adds to a worker's pay rate to set the client's bill rate, covering costs and profit.
The actual hourly, daily, or project compensation a contingent worker earns — before any staffing provider markup is added.
The bill rate is the total hourly, daily, or project rate a client pays a staffing provider for a contingent worker's services.
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