As director of contingent workforce for FINRA, Geoff Abere oversees the program that launched five years ago and currently manages over 700 contractors — 85% of whom are in tech-related roles. “We’re self-managed internally,” he says proudly. “Our goal is to bring in top talent and continually innovate our program to be best-in-class.”

The program is unique in that it resides in the technology department, allowing the team to work directly and in partnership with technology leadership and hiring managers. “We get real-time feedback from technology management and accordingly make changes to our program in an agile way,” he explains. And now, Abere’s team is implementing a high-power business intelligence to analyze trends and forecast contractor workforce needs.

Abere is especially proud of the program’s performance during the Covid-19 pandemic. FINRA’s technology leadership adopted remote work best in class tools early on and also have a strong desktop support team. The program’s hiring process was not impacted by the work-from-home mandate. In fact, 175 contractors have been hired since March this year.

“The pandemic has opened up a previously untapped talent pool. We see our employees and contractors working very productively in the current environment. They can still collaborate and produce cutting edge technology. And our managers are now open to location agnostic hiring. We can potentially source top talent anywhere in the country,” says Abere, describing the program’s success.