“Transformation” has become a common theme in the world of talent and work. Businesses are grappling with how to effectively manage a consistently-shifting labor market that has become volatile in the wake of The Great Resignation. A major by-product of the ongoing “Talent Revolution” is that more and more talented professionals are choosing a more flexible career path; with this influx of new extended talent, businesses must balance critical attributes such as contractor compliance, adherence to federal and regulatory and labor laws, and, of course, talent visibility.
I had the opportunity to chat with Jason Posel, CEO and founder of GreenLight, a leading technology platform focused on workforce management, global freelancer payments, worker classification, and regulatory compliance, about the Future of Work, the extended workforce, and more:
Christopher J. Dwyer: Jason, it’s great to chat with you. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jason Posel: I’m originally from London, but have spent the majority of my career in the United States – split between Palo Alto and Miami. I’m what they call an industry veteran within the staffing industry. I led a company that did what we do at GreenLight with legacy technology for big names and managed over one billion dollars in spend for them.
CJD: You’ve been in the workforce management technology space for a number of years. If anything, the past two years have brought about incredibly change in the world of talent and work. From your vantage point, what has been the biggest transformation?
JP: I think one of the biggest changes is the worker’s mindset. They want to be independent. In most cases, that’s not possible; labor laws make things complicated and there simply isn’t the infrastructure to make operating as an independent contractor easy. No one who decides to take control of their own careers wants to have to deal with taxes, benefits, invoicing, timekeeping, insurance, etc. That’s why we are focused on fixing this infrastructure gap: by connecting onboarding and risk management with the tools and benefits that people need to be independent.
CJD: The extended workforce is drawing ever closer to encompassing half of all global talent within the enterprise realm. As GreenLight focuses so much on compliance and visibility, what’s the best pathway forward for businesses that want to tap into this growing, agile workforce?
JP: They need to make sure they offer a great experience to their extended workforce – as close as it could get to being an employee. Great HR support, great benefits. You want your extended workforce to be flexible, but you still need to make an attractive offer to make sure they don’t leave before you capture the ROIs of onboarding them. The post-hire experience for contractors is so laggard, especially compared to the innovation focused on finding talent. It shouldn’t be…and we are changing that.
CJD: One of the most impressive attributes of the GreenLight platform is its dynamic slew of functionality that is tailored for the modern workforce.
JP: Yes – the people that take advantage of the extended workforce that goes through GreenLight are educated buyers. Unlike SMEs or startups, they care a lot about risk and work with us to make sure they get exactly what they need. GreenLight’s value proposition goes beyond paying payroll with one click; our platform needs to be ready to accommodate the needs of each of our clients. We’ve been an incredibly intuitive platform with a huge focus on the user experience. We built features specific to managing the unique needs of the contingent workforce, and we made it all accessible through APIs, so we can easily integrate with any type of talent matching technology – direct sourcing, VMS, ATS, and marketplaces. We also offer AI-powered worker classification, integrations with partners like Checkr for background checks, and Berxi for business insurance.
CJD: I’d like to chat a bit about the evolution of talent and how so many more organizations are leveraging talent marketplaces, digital staffing, and human cloud offerings. How does GreenLight provide its users with real-time visibility into these talent sources?
JP: Large enterprises don’t want to have to use another platform, so we bridge the technology gap by integrating with the tools companies already use to source talent. The data that our clients need is then easily accessible either through our UI or via API.
CJD: It’s obvious by now that the average enterprise has experienced a very sharp uptick in the utilization of global, remote freelancers. How does this affect the impact of global payments technology?
JP: This uptick you mention has made apparent the need for new infrastructure that allows companies like us to send and receive payments in a seamless way, with great reporting tools, and with APIs.
CJD: What’s a Future of Work prediction you have for the second half of 2022?
JP: Lots of niche talent marketplaces that focus on one single job function will be born. Those who land big clients that care about risk will need to use platforms like GreenLight to grow. We’ve met platforms that believe they don’t need to care about everything that happens after the job match-makings they facilitate, but come back after a few months to us when they are ready to scale.
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn and visit www.greenlight.ai for more information about GreenLight and its technology.
