If you caught last week’s Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, we chatted about several distinct attributes of the world of work and talent that will be transformed in the year ahead. In the span of just under 30 minutes, we just barely scratched the surface of the vast possibilities that the Future of Work movement will have on businesses across the globe over the next 12 months, given the many “accelerants” that contributed to work optimization in 2020.
There are many tenets of the Future of Work that will play invaluable roles in 2021, including diversity and inclusion, direct sourcing, new talent channels, the depth of transformational business thinking, flexibility- and empathy-led leadership, and the overall impact of new technology and innovative solutions.
I spoke with several contingent workforce, HR, and talent acquisition technology leaders over the past week to gain their perspectives on what’s in store for the Future of Work and the agile/extended workforce in the months ahead:
Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline
“The events of 2020 make me a bit reticent to make any predictions for 2021, but I’ll try! As the pandemic comes to an end due to a combination of vaccine distribution and herd immunity, I think we’ll see companies adopt a blended in office and remote work strategy for their entire workforces. Some jobs will be 100% in the office and others will be 100% remote but, for a large number of professional workers, we’ll see a mix where key activities return to being in person. At the same time, specifically as it relates to the extended workforce, companies will continue to engage workers in locations where they don’t have a physical presence as they’ve learned that they can grow their talent pools and drive down both time-to-fill and costs by doing so.”
William T. Rolack, Sr., VP of Diversity and Inclusion, Workforce Logiq
“With real incentives for tangible results, D&I leaders are in a better position to move beyond tracking diverse supply chain expenditures to drive real impact on overall employee representation. And, those often overlooked contingent workers must be a part of the diversity dialogue. With the call for workplace equity, regardless of worker type, and because contingent workers are strong talent pool for full time positions, organizations risk missing the mark if they focus their D&I efforts solely on their full-time workforce.”
“Diversity and inclusion isn’t a “program.” Too many organizations today treat it as an ad-hoc initiative. Employers that have fostered real cultures of belonging understand D&I needs to permeate the organization at the core, and be a lens through which senior leaders invest, act, and make decisions. Real progress can only occur when employers understand this interconnectivity and link D&I initiatives with their larger business objectives.”
Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder, The Mom Project
“We are seeing more and more companies turn to The Mom Project for help building diverse talent communities. That signals to me that, while there’s a real commitment and willingness to invest in diversity and inclusion, many companies are still trying to identify the right partners that will actually help them move the needle. We developed our Diverse Talent Cloud offering to connect our partners and customers with the best talent communities of diverse candidates. I think you’ll see more companies look for solutions like The Mom Project as they get serious and strategic about converting their diversity objectives into impact.”
“Forty percent of our community of 400,000 working parents are women of color. When I see stats saying approximately 60 percent of the jobs eliminated the first months of the pandemic were held by women and that women of color were disproportionately affected, I am reminded that our mission of finding moms jobs is more important than ever. One of the things we’re doing beyond connecting diverse talent with flexible, professional work is funding initiatives like RISE, an upskilling and opportunity-creation program for women and families. It’s a virtuous circle that bolsters the program and the mission benefiting everyone involved.”
Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited
“A world where more than 50% of the workforce is not FTE is not too far into the distant future. In fact, the contingent workforce landscape is growing at an unprecedented rate – with approximately over 40% of all skilled workers being contingent vs. full-time. As employers begin to augment their human capital strategies to accommodate for this shift in the market, many leading organizations are supplementing traditional sourcing channels by creating private talent pools of known (alumni, silver medalists, referrals, retirees) and unknown (brand-attracted) talent. Done correctly, direct sourcing powers significant cost savings, improved talent quality and faster time to fill. However, some organizations are finding the execution of direct-sourcing programs more difficult than anticipated and struggling to realize the full benefits. Often, the use of multiple vendors is the culprit, creating bottlenecks, discontinuity and inefficiencies. When powered by cutting-edge technology and human expertise, a single direct-sourcing platform eliminates disjointed communication between parties, reduces confusion and inefficiency created by overlapping responsibilities, and aligns all interactions to one service team.”
Jim McCoy, SVP of Talent Solutions, ManpowerGroup
“Increasing DE&I in existing markets where local demographics do not align with targeted skill sets has limited success unless remote sourcing is leveraged properly. Increasing candidate diversity is best achieved in markets where diverse candidates actually reside. 52% of school age children are learning remotely at least part-time and 1/3 of children under 12 years old lack adult supervision. To attract diverse candidates, accommodating the priority needs of workers, such as childcare, is increasingly critical.”
“In 2020, many employers had to contend with employees who had to log off or step away from their jobs for 10-to-14 days at a time, requiring them to reallocate skills to their remaining workforce or assign managers to take on additional responsibilities. The willingness of workers to take on dual roles is a short-term reality as competitors seek to hire singular skills, increasing risk and rate of turnover, and the trend of overperformers taking on extra work will not continue indefinitely.”
In industries such as IT, where the demand for talent increased due to COVID-19, competitive pay has been critical. There was little to no unemployment for IT workers, who shouldered essential responsibilities of helping companies deploy most of their employees to work from home while also maintaining the highest levels of cyber security. As long as IT workers are receiving appropriate compensation, they are less inclined to switch jobs and move to a new company where they will have less tenure.”
Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama
“While the usual priorities around cost optimization and DEI will stay top of mind, there will be an increased focus on talent wellbeing and tools that will contribute towards that, e.g., tools that maximize efficiency while minimizing stress in the new way of doing work, tools that predict outcomes towards achieving this objective both from a talent and organizational perspective, etc.”
Vanessa Janus, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, DZConneX (A Yoh Company)
“Direct sourcing and proactive talent pools have quickly become a critical component to a total talent strategy as organizations seek ways to provide a unified high level candidate experience and strong employee value proposition regardless of labor type. Direct Sourcing, as part of a holistic vision of your talent acquisition program, is more important than ever in order to attract the most qualified and diverse talent faster and more cost effectively.”
“The challenge going forward will be to ensure a company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are happening for all labor types and talent acquisition streams. Thus, the rise in direct sourcing and total talent management to help not only increase visibility but to also unify and maximize D&I efforts.”
Dave Putt, SVP Sales and Marketing Strategies, ELEVATE
“We see the adoption of direct talent sourcing has been slow and steady. More importantly, there is an on-going appetite from customers and partners to include talent pooling and other direct sourcing capabilities into our ELEVATE VMS.”
