The best person to solve your next business problem may have no interest in becoming your employee. Does your talent strategy have a way to reach them?
That question belongs in the talent assessment conversation. We spend enormous energy deciding who fits a role, often before asking whether a permanent role is the right answer. Meanwhile, the options for getting work done extend well beyond the people willing to accept our next offer.
I call this Talent Access: a workforce strategy for accessing the capabilities a business needs, when it needs them, by combining employees, independent professionals and partners with AI tools and agents, supported by talent marketplaces and employment infrastructure. It means engaging talent however and wherever people want to work, within a structure that works for the business and meets its obligations.
Assessment needs to reflect that broader opportunity.
The labor market is bigger than your applicant pool
In September 2026, U.S. unemployment was 4.2%, while nonfarm payroll employment increased by just 29,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Slower hiring does not automatically mean the expertise a company needs is available, nearby or interested in permanent employment. An aggregate unemployment rate tells us little about those specific questions.
Independent work adds another dimension. Workforce solutions provider MBO Partners estimates that 74.9 million Americans earned income independently in 2026, compared with 72.9 million in its 2025 research. This broad measure includes supplemental independent work; it should not be read as 74.9 million full-time consultants or compared directly with the unemployment rate.
The strategic implication matters more than the headline: companies need a way to evaluate and engage expertise outside traditional hiring channels. Some of the people they need are building businesses of their own.
Independent talent is hardly new. The opportunity is to make access to that talent a deliberate part of workforce planning, supported by marketplaces, global employment partners and better visibility into capabilities.
Assess the work before opening the requisition
Start with the outcome. What must improve? Which capabilities are missing? How long will they be needed? What knowledge should stay inside the organization?
A finance team seeking better forecasts might need an independent specialist to repair its data, an employee who understands the business to own the decisions, and an AI agent to support recurring analysis. Treating that entire need as one job can narrow the search before anyone assesses the available talent.
Talent Access broadens the assessment decision. Leaders can evaluate internal development, external expertise and technology against the same business objective, while recognizing that each requires a different engagement model.
For people, seek evidence of relevant capability through work samples, structured discussions and proportionate simulations. Ask a specialist to explain a comparable problem and the decisions behind the result. Give an internal candidate the opportunity to demonstrate transferable skills. A familiar title or employer should not become the shortcut for competence.
Assess judgment alongside AI capability
PwC’s June 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer analyzed more than one billion job advertisements across 27 countries and territories. Roles where AI amplifies expertise and increases the need for human skills showed twice the growth in available jobs and 42% faster salary growth than roles AI makes easier for non-experts to perform. Those comparisons are observational, but they reinforce the importance of human judgment.
Where AI is part of the work, let candidates demonstrate how they use it. Provide the same approved tools and ask what they delegated, checked and rejected. The polished output is only part of the evidence. Can they recognize a flawed assumption and explain when human review is necessary?
Agents also need evaluation, although they are tools, not workers. Test their accuracy on representative tasks, define their permissions and establish escalation rules. Someone must remain accountable when an agent produces a plausible answer that is wrong.
Managers need the capability to coordinate this mix. Accessing a specialist or deploying an agent accomplishes little if nobody can define the assignment or judge the result.
Make engagement expertise part of the assessment
Capability is one decision. How to engage it appropriately is another.
Worker classification illustrates why this matters. In February 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed replacing its 2024 independent contractor rule. Federal policy changes also coexist with state requirements. California, for example, generally applies an ABC test, subject to exceptions, and its standards can differ from federal law. Cross-border engagements add the requirements of other jurisdictions.
A contract label cannot settle those questions. Companies need to examine the actual working relationship and revisit it when the scope, location or management of the work changes.
This is where the supporting ecosystem earns its place. Marketplaces help companies discover and evaluate expertise; their contracting and compliance support varies. Employers of record, or EORs, can provide a local employment route, handling payroll, benefits and employment administration. Contractor compliance specialists support classification reviews and appropriate independent engagements. An EOR employs people; it does not make an employee into an independent contractor.
Ecosystem resources such as Human Cloud can help buyers compare these options. Companies can access expertise in engaging talent as well as expertise in performing the work. They still need clear responsibilities, appropriate legal review and visibility into what each provider actually delivers.
Put Talent Access into practice
Choose one business need where the current hiring approach is struggling. Bring HR, procurement, legal and the business leader together before selecting the engagement model. Define the outcome, assess the available capabilities and agree how performance and risk will be managed.
Then compare the assessment with actual delivery. Did the work improve? Was the engagement appropriate? Did the internal team gain capability? Use those answers to inform the next decision and identify where employees need development.
HR has an opportunity to help the business become more adaptable without treating people as interchangeable or compliance as an afterthought. That starts by expanding what we assess and who we consider.
The next advantage may come from accessing the right capability faster than the organization chart can accommodate it. Our assessment practices should make that possible.
Sources
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment Situation, September 2026. Released October 2, 2026. Unemployment 4.2%; preliminary nonfarm payroll change +29,000.
[2] MBO Partners. State of Independence 2026, Perspectives from the Independent Workforce (74.9 million). Comparison: 2025 State of Independence (72.9 million), also cited in MBO’s February 4, 2026 article Benefits of Bringing Creative Talent Into Contingent Workforce Programs. Provider-sponsored survey estimates; includes supplemental independent work.
[2a] MBO Partners. Source for the 2025 comparison figure. February 4, 2026.
[3] PwC. 2026 Global AI Jobs Barometer. June 15, 2026. Job and salary growth comparisons are observational, not proof of causation.
[4] U.S. Department of Labor. Questions and Answers on the 2026 independent contractor proposed rule. February 2026. Cited as a proposal, not an enacted replacement.
[5] California Department of Industrial Relations. Independent contractor versus employee. ABC test, exceptions and differing state and federal standards. Accessed October 14, 2026.
[6] Safeguard Global. Employer of Record Services. Provider description of legal employment, payroll, benefits and local compliance responsibilities. Accessed October 14, 2026.
[7] Human Cloud. Platform and services overview, including marketplaces and EOR discovery. Accessed October 14, 2026.
