Since Angela Westhead once had aspirations of becoming an attorney, her path to the contingent workforce space seems like an unlikely one. Yet her passion for people was the driving force through each career twist and turn. “It all comes back to relationships for me — people who are doing contract work are doing work that matters,” says Westhead, now the manager of contingent workforce and business process outsourcing at Zendesk, a customer service enablement software company.

Much of Westhead’s experience with contracted employees was at X, formerly known as Twitter, where she was a senior analyst for the contingent workforce and spearheaded the creation of a human-centered program. While at the company, Westhead led a $90 million staffing program and streamlined processes, strengthened vendor relationships and shortened the time to fill for contracted roles. Because the contingent workforce was a pipeline for full-time talent, contractor satisfaction was critical. Westhead introduced a contractor experience program, offering perks and incentives specific to contractors. Wellness events, fireside chats with leadership and social connection events were just some of the ways she maintained contractor engagement. Internal surveys showed the success of her efforts: Satisfaction rates among contractors and management were higher than 80%.

In late 2022, Westhead took on a new challenge to design a contingent workforce program at Zendesk. She is re-examining its global strategy to determine where contractors are most needed and how to engage an international workforce. Westhead has also implemented a contractor orientation and a Slack channel to begin to build community and create an engaged and high-performing contracted workforce.