Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) is becoming an essential procurement strategy proving to be a game-changer in industries like water, where projects are complex and require specialist skills. Traditionally, contractors are brought into a project after designs are finalised, but with ECI, they are engaged much earlier—once designs are finished, leaving little room for flexibility. ECI flips this on its head by engaging contractors early—right at the design and planning stages. This shift allows for better collaboration, cost efficiency, and risk management.

Bridging ECI and Workforce Planning

Recruitment is often treated as a reactive function, with contingent workers hired at the last minute to meet project demands. ECI changes this dynamic by enabling earlier visibility into project pipelines, allowing recruitment teams to:

• Anticipate skills shortages before they become critical.
• Build talent pools in advance, reducing time-to-hire and ensuring the availability of skilled workers.
• Engage candidates earlier, improving retention and workforce quality.

By aligning recruitment strategies with project timelines, businesses can move from last-minute hiring to a proactive workforce plan. This will result in less firefighting, more strategic hiring, and a far more resilient workforce model. ECI providers should encourage organisations to consider the availability of talent—in the water sector, we know that over a third of skilled roles are vacant—and more proactively create strategies to secure, engage, and onboard the staff required to enable delivery.

Reducing Costs and Increasing Efficiency

Hiring under pressure often increases costs, whether through premium agency fees, higher salaries for urgent hires, or extended project delays due to labour shortages. With ECI, recruitment teams can:

• Reduce reliance on reactive hiring, which tends to be more expensive.
• Ensure roles are costed into project budgets early, preventing unexpected financial strains.
• Hire in phases rather than in a rush, improving efficiency and productivity on-site.

Minimising Risk and Ensuring Compliance

Workforce compliance is a key concern in regulated industries. ECI enables recruitment teams to implement early compliance checks, ensuring that workers are fully vetted before they arrive on-site. This includes:

• Right-to-work verification and health & safety training.
• IR35 planning, ensuring compliance with employment regulations.
• Security clearances, where required, reducing delays in project execution.

Businesses will avoid costly disruptions caused by non-compliant hires or last-minute recruitment bottlenecks.

Enhancing Supply Chain Collaboration

One of the most significant benefits of ECI is improved collaboration across the supply chain. This extends to recruitment, where:

• Contractors and recruitment partners can co-design workforce strategies, ensuring the right mix of temporary, fixed-term, and permanent staff.
• Recruitment suppliers become strategic partners rather than just transactional service providers.
• Alliances with key recruitment agencies mirror alliancing models in construction, creating stronger, more efficient hiring ecosystems.

Attracting Better Talent

A major challenge in contingent recruitment is attracting top talent. Candidates increasingly look for job security and career progression, and businesses that integrate ECI into their workforce strategy can offer clearer career pathways. With ECI, firms can:

• Provide candidates with a better understanding of project timelines and potential career growth and career opportunities.
• Position themselves as proactive employers, attracting higher-quality candidates.
• Create a more structured recruitment process, improving the overall candidate experience.

Final Thoughts

By integrating ECI principles into contingent recruitment models, businesses can gain a competitive edge, reducing costs, improving efficiency, and ensuring a skilled workforce is available when needed. This means better planning, lower costs, reduced risk, and stronger workforce retention. As the industry moves towards greater collaboration and long-term thinking, recruitment needs to be part of the conversation from the start.

For organisations looking to optimise their workforce strategy, now is the time to rethink recruitment through the lens of Early Contractor Involvement.