We’ve talked workforce management in 2022 and we’ve discussed how business leadership needs to evolve in the new year. What major piece of the Future of Work movement is left? That’s right: technology and innovation.
2021 wasn’t just an interesting year for workforce management technology, but rather an extraordinary 12 months that saw some major acquisitions and major shifts in how extended workforce automation was positioned, offered, and enhanced. Here’s how enterprises should invest in Future of Work technology in the year ahead:
- Leverage technology that can not only better fill the candidate pipeline, but truly enhance the quality of candidates and the overall candidate experience. It’s not enough anymore to merely pump candidates into the enterprise recruitment stream; Best-in-Class businesses actively leverage solutions that can not only build and develop deep talent communities, but also ensure that these candidates have been vetted, qualified, and nurtured via AI-led platforms that validate skillsets, ensure alignment, and position workers to ultimately succeed.
- Point direct sourcing solutions will be gamechangers in 2022. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that nearly 32% of businesses today are leveraging some form of direct sourcing or talent pool automation, which includes both specific, point solutions as well as automation enabled by larger suites of technology (such as VMS or extended workforce platforms). As I wrote recently, direct sourcing needs to be the top workforce management priority in 2022, buoyed by the impact that this programmatic series of strategies, processes, and capabilities can bring to the average organization. “The increasing need for talent and the ongoing challenges competing for it mean that enterprises must continue to challenge the status quo and operate on the bleeding edge in order to stay on top. By blending traditional direct sourcing approaches (curation, segmentation, etc.) with “2.0” attributes (digital recruitment marketing, AI-led assessments, more focus on the candidate experience, etc.), businesses will ensure that, in yet another year of uncertainty, they will be positioned to optimize how work is done.”
- Platforms that have integrated offerings will revolutionize the way businesses manage the lifecycle of talent and the progression of work in the new year. Today’s “lifecycle” of talent engagement-meets-work optimization is nuanced in such a way that enterprises must place more rigor around various process-led attributes, including managed services, SOW management/services procurement, direct sourcing, DE&I, candidate assessment/skills validation, candidate experience, project management, shift and assignment management, analytics, etc. Solutions that offer interconnected processes to help these organizations facilitate frictionless, seamless workflows around all things related to “talent” and “work” will transform the Future of Work in 2022 (and beyond).
- Workforce management technology must focus on the variation inherent within the extended workforce. Today’s many channels of talent have coalesced into sustainable communities of candidates that all have crucial impact on the greater organization. 2022 is the year that the extended workforce officially becomes “half” of the total workforce, and with that, a much more laser-like focus on how automation can scale the agile workforce, extract its natural flexibility, and drive true talent sustainability to “future-proof” roles and positions across the entire enterprise.
- Unified communications and collaborative tools, as well as the true “digital enterprise,” are required to usher in the next great era of remote and hybrid work. Future of Work Exchange research discovered that over 42% of all workers would be working in a remote or hybrid setting by the end of the year, with that number growing to 55% (or more) by mid-2022. Businesses cannot rely on simple VPN connections, outdated communications-led tools, and leaky remote infrastructures to optimize how remote work is done. Enterprises require advanced levels of collaborative technology that can facilitate true workforce digitization in such a way that it transforms the very way work is done beyond the old-school parameters of the 40-hour, five-day workweek. When work can happen anytime and anywhere, we get that much closer to the real emergence of the digital enterprise.
- Artificial intelligence, machine learning, and similar technology must coalesce with human-led process management. Talk to any AI expert and he or she will state that ubiquitous, self-sustaining and reactive intelligence is still years (or decades) away. In the interim, businesses must future-proof the way they develop products, offer services, and conduct overall work; with no way to predict the need for future skillsets or expertise for jobs and roles that cannot be dreamt of today, integrating today’s AI and machine learning into human-led process management and operations is a fantastic way to drive work optimization and begin to prepare for the future state of the enterprise.
