From all of us here at the Future of Work Exchange, we hope that you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! Enjoy the break…we’ll see you back here on Monday.
Christopher J. Dwyer
We hear the phrase so many times at this point in the year, with Thanksgiving only a couple of days away: “I’m thankful for [something, someone, etc.].” We all have specific things in our lives that we are thankful for: our families, our friends, our loved ones. This year is no different: entering Year Four of a disruptive pandemic, that, while no longer in its “emergency phase,” still causes concern, we are all certainly thankful for our health and the wellbeing of those in our families, our social networks, and within our network of peers and colleagues.
In 2022, however, being thankful means something different…or, at least, should mean something different.
It’s sometimes incredibly difficult to separate “work” from “personal” life, with so many of us experiencing our career paths intertwining with the everyday routines at home. However, there is an aura to our lives today that is not only different from just a few years ago, but significantly different than it has been in decades.
We’re living in a new world of work, and, the keyword there (“living”) means that work in and of itself isn’t just a place we go for eight hours a day, but rather something that defines us as people. At the core, we are humans. And, many of us express ourselves in terms of the work we do and the skills that we have attained.
While it isn’t always healthy, there are many, many professionals that entwine their careers and personal lives in such a way that there is sometimes a vast difficulty in separating the two. This, however, is the nature of how we work today. We are always “on.” We are very frequently consumed by the content in our fields, craving information, news, and insights through social networks and communication with those within our industries.
Thus, this year, “being thankful” takes on a much different meaning, one that revolves around the concept of flexibility and the notion that we are living in a world of innovation and evolution.
Let’s be thankful that we have firmly moved into an era when remote work and hybrid workplaces are an accepted and widely-adopted means of getting work done. Let’s be thankful for those business leaders that have cultivated flexible workplace environments that rely on remote work as a viable option for their workforce.
Let’s be thankful that worker empowerment is perhaps the strongest it has ever been, with The Great Resignation giving us so much more than unhappy professionals by providing workers with the strength to stand up for themselves and each other for better working conditions, more flexibility in the workplace, and so much more.
Let’s be thankful for those business leaders preaching and practicing the art of conscious leadership. Let’s be thankful for executives and managers that lead with empathy, compassion, and understanding. Let’s be thankful to leaders that show appreciation and mentor those that they manage and work with on a daily basis.
Let’s be thankful for the folks across the workforce spectrum that are actively promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, who are striving for a more diverse workforce, more diverse talent communities, and diversity-centric hiring and talent acquisition. Let’s be thankful to those business leaders that have created and will continue to create truly inclusive workplace environments and do what they can to develop a vibrant workplace culture that reflects positive values. And let’s be thankful for those business professionals that consistently support, lobby for, and devote time and resources to equal pay initiatives, deeper collaboration, and vibrant discussions regarding DE&I.
Let’s be thankful for the technology that has helped us transform the ways we leverage talent, engage workers, and ultimately get work done. Let’s be thankful for the solution providers that consistently innovate and provide enterprises with agile automation, next-generation analytics, workforce intelligence, and progressive functionality. Let’s be thankful for the platforms that have pushed direct sourcing into new and exciting territory, and let’s be thankful for the providers that are actively embracing the Future of Work movement.
And, finally, let’s be thankful for those that think outside of the box and desire to push the envelope. Let’s be thankful for those that helped transform the ways we work. Let’s be thankful for those individuals that regard “work” as needing to be more human-centric. And let’s be thankful for everyone that believes that the Future of Work movement is how we move forward into the next great era of business history.
The Background:
In addition to the many accelerants brought about by the Future of Work movement over the past few years, there has been another evolution that has been steadily aligning itself alongside the greater transformation of work, talent, and business leadership: the full-on progression of Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Vendor Management System (VMS) solutions and their parallel advancements with the fluid concepts of work optimization.
Enterprises today require advanced solutions that can not only transform the way they find, engage, source, and manage talent, but also technology that positions them to not only survive, but truly thrive as the business arena continues to evolve at a rapid clip.
Enter Magnit.
Why They Were Selected:
Over the past two years, Magnit (formerly PRO Unlimited) has redefined the “MSP” and “VMS” acronyms by introducing its Integrated Workforce Management Platform, an end-to-end platform that addresses the critical elements of contingent workforce management as well as services procurement, SOW management, direct sourcing, next-generation analytics, and intelligence-led service offerings.
When the solution rebranded to Magnit just two months ago, it represented a culmination of aggressive market activity that has coalesced into one of the market’s most robust workforce management providers. Through major industry acquisitions (WillHire, GRI, Workforce Logiq), unique partnerships (eightfold, Ceridian, etc.), and new product launches (Direct Source PRO, NorthStar, etc.), Magnit has reinvented the role of workforce technology within the Future of Work movement…and now has become a frictionless source of end-to-end automation and innovation.
In Their Own Words:
Magnit™ is a global leader and pioneer in contingent workforce management. Our industry-leading Integrated Workforce Management (IWM) Platform is supported by 30+ years of innovation, modern software, proven expertise, and world-class data and intelligence. It enables companies to optimize talent and diversity goals while achieving operational and financial success. With Magnit, companies can adapt quickly to the evolution of work to grow their extended workforce with greater agility, transparency, and speed. Visit magnitglobal.com.
The Outlook:
Two years ago, when the company was still known as PRO Unlimited, CEO Kevin Akeroyd laid out a firm vision for the solution’s future: become a true workforce management technology platform that could serve as a seamless foundation of automation and high-touch managed services for an evolving world of work.
Magnit has realized that bold vision and then some: the solution is a market leader that excels in several arenas, including driving real workforce agility, providing total talent intelligence, redefining talent acquisition, emboldening the power of advanced services procurement, and establishing a core foundation of dynamic functionality and white-glove service. The company has become a Best-in-Class center of transformation for key elements of the modern workforce, particularly direct sourcing, world-class data, and vigorous analytics that can drive strategic value.
The Future of Work movement is a progressive set of ideals that represents the convergence of technological and essential accelerants that have forever changed the way businesses get work done. Magnit is a true reflection of these transcendent advancements, serving as a quintessential platform for today’s revolutionary world of work and talent.
Some picked-up pieces, news, and insights from across the evolving world of talent and work:
- Magnit appointed its first-ever Chief Technology Officer. The integrated workforce management platform (formerly known as PRO Unlimited) announced the hire of Mohan Natarajan as its first CTO. A 20-year software veteran, Natarajan joins the company after spending time at Salesforce, Motorola, Cisco Systems, and Silicon Graphics.
- Direct sourcing platform Opptly launched its Opptly.Connect™ application. The app, part of the company’s innovative array of direct sourcing and candidate management tools, is a unique offering that connects candidates with jobs via AI-driven matching based on actors beyond skillsets, including hard and soft skills, workplace preferences (i.e., remote work, hybrid workplace, etc.), and type of role (FTE, contingent, etc.).
- KellyOCG announced the appointment of Adelle Harrington as EMEA VP for MSP and adjacent workforce solutions. Harrington, who will report into KellyOCG president Tammy Browning, will oversee Kelly’s vast array of offerings in EMEA, such as SOW/services procurement, direct sourcing, and consulting services.
- Leading talent marketplace GigSmart announced a partnership with Onfleet. The integration between GigSmart’s Best-in-Class talent marketplace tech and Onfleet’s last mile delivery management software platform will allow delivery organizations to engage, source, and manage candidate while also managing delivery operations and customer communication.
- Industrial staffing giant EmployBridge completed its acquisition of talent marketplace and workforce management platform BlueCrew. The deal, which was formally announced on October 5, closed this week and will see the two organizations come together to build a “national workforce management platform.”
- AMS recently announced the launch of its “AMS Verified” talent tech analyzer. The new platform has verified over 1,000 solutions across the talent technology ecosystem, including direct sourcing providers LiveHire, WorkLLama, and Opptly.
- Allegis Global Solutions, the talent solutions arm of staffing giant Allegis Group, announced that Steve Schumacher is its new president. Schumacher succeeds Chad Lane, who held the role at AGS since April 2010. Schumacher has spent nearly 30 years within the Allegis family of companies and takes over as president effective immediately.
Sometimes it can be incredibly taxing on our minds to configure the many, many ways the Future of Work influences the way we live, the way we work, and the ways those two intersect. From new technology and innovative platforms to conscious leadership and overall business transformation, the very notion of the “future of how we work” involves so many intricacies that it can make our collective heads spin.
However, in a vacuum, we have to look at the future (and, in this case, the very near future) and configure specific aspects of corporate operations in such a way that they align with the external forces now driving success…or failure.
Talent has become the top competitive differentiator in a market that is increasingly globalized, unpredictable, and disruptive. Businesses that source the best talent, utilize that talent to get work done effectively, and retain that talent are always going to be the ones that thrive in a business arena that is evolving at a breakneck clip.
We’ve witnessed (and, more importantly, experienced) the highs and lows of talent engagement, hiring, and talent acquisition over the past two-plus years: pandemic-led layoffs, the rise of workforce agility, The Great Resignation, The Great Resettling, quiet quitting, quiet firing, and worker empowerment. It’s surely been a roller-coaster for talent acquisition execs, hiring managers, HR leaders, and other executives that hold some responsibility for workforce management within the typical organization.
At the end of the day, however, all of these talent-led transformations lead to one conclusion that should form the foundation of talent acquisition strategies in 2023: a candidate-centric model is the best path forward, considering the risks of an economic recession, continued global disruptions from war and supply chain issues, and, critically, the ramifications of the “talent revolution” that businesses have experienced since March 2020.
There are many reasons why running a candidate-centric hiring model makes sense in the year ahead:
- Workers are done with being overpowered by their managers and employers when it comes to poor working conditions and a lack of appreciation.
- Talented professionals have undergone a mental transformation during pandemic times that have forced them to reevaluate the impact of “work” and “career paths” on their personal lives as humans, leading to a desire for more purposeful work.
- Workers desire true flexibility, not just a free weekly lunch or a ping-pong table in the break room. The flexibility for personal care, child care, elder care, etc. is all-important in today’s workforce; professionals crave the ability to attend their children’s’ events or harness the real power of remote and hybrid work to ensure that they have a proper work-life integration.
- Candidates have more choices than ever before, regardless of the state of today’s economy. Businesses must stand out from the pack and offer a truly emotionally-engaging experience for their potential workers that leaves a real impression; will candidates gain a sense of trust, as well as an understanding of workplace and corporate culture?
- Building on the above attribute, candidates desire a seamless and frictionless experience when applying for a job, negotiating terms, and following through the onboarding process. These may seem like more tactical aspects than strategic, but they go a long way towards developing a positive candidate experience for potential workers.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is one of the most crucial elements of workforce management today. As frequently stated on the Future of Work Exchange Podcast, “A diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool.” Candidates want to know that they will be part of a diverse workforce that also includes a truly inclusive workplace culture.
There’s more to developing a talent-oriented hiring strategy than just being committed to the candidate; enterprises must look to the aspects above and understand that, in a volatile labor market, they need to do so much more than they have ever done before to attract the best-fit, top-tier talent, skillsets, and expertise. The candidate experience is paramount and candidate-centricity hiring models are essential to thriving in 2023.
Last week, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange hosted an exclusive webcast, Scale Your 2023 Hiring Initiatives With Direct Sourcing, that highlighted the impact of direct sourcing on talent acquisition in 2023 and beyond.
Over the past three years, there may be no hotter topic in the world of talent and work than direct sourcing, and rightfully so: it was a top overall priority for enterprises heading into the pandemic, and, during it, these businesses realized the workforce scalability and candidate experience enhancement inherent in direct sourcing programs. Last week’s event discussed:
- Why the volatility of 2023 will be an ideal setting for direct sourcing strategies and programs to shine.
- The functionality required to digitize recruitment and catalyze direct sourcing success.
- How “Direct Sourcing 2.0” represents the next generation of direct sourcing via mobility, AI, and an enhanced hiring manager experience, and;
- The specific ways direct sourcing can impact hiring strategies, talent acquisition initiatives, and extended workforce programs in 2023.
If you happened to miss the live event, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out the on-demand edition of Scale Your 2023 Hiring Initiatives With Direct Sourcing below, and stay tuned to the Future of Work Exchange for our next exclusive live event.
The Background:
Omni-channel talent acquisition has become a powerful way for enterprises to thrive in today’s evolving world of work. Businesses have realized, especially with a Great Resignation-fueled backdrop, that top-tier talent is not always available in a localized fashion or even through the traditional outlets that have carried the organization’s staffing requirements for years (or decades).
Talent communities, talent marketplaces, and talent pools, in addition to direct sourcing, have become critical elements of the new world of work and talent. Not only do businesses require the ability to directly-source talent by transforming their operations into internal recruiting agencies, but they also need to leverage its workplace culture, employer brand, and other organizational attributes to attract the best-fit talent and expertise. And, they require a true convergence of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, next-level direct sourcing technology, and robust data science to get there.
Enter Opptly.
Why They Were Selected:
Talent decisions in 2022 are more important than they ever were before, as businesses continue to rely on their workforce as a key competitive differentiator in an increasingly-shifting and globalized corporate arena. Thus, it has become critical that enterprise hiring be founded on deep data and true talent intelligence in order to execute talent acquisition strategies that blend speed, quality, and alignment.
Opptly has become one of the industry’s leading direct sourcing and talent solutions due to its proprietary artificial intelligence-led offerings that catalyze next-generation hiring outcomes through its powerful AI-fueled fueled functionality, a frictionless user experience, and a candidate-centric nexus. With its foundation as a digital staffing solution (dating back to its days as Genesys Talent), Opptly’s wide range of differentiated direct sourcing offerings, particularly its unique blend of talent community development tech and its own expansive talent network, has enabled the company to become a Best-in-Class platform in the workforce solutions market.
In Their Own Words:
Opptly has modernized the way hiring companies and job seekers connect. When the workforce industry needed a solution that could accelerate and improve the talent acquisition process, Opptly built one. Our proprietary AI platform leverages best-in-class data science, skills focus, search and match, AI/machine learning, and neural network models to provide a direct sourcing solution that removes friction between talent and work and makes optimal hiring matches.
Opptly helps companies win in an intensely competitive market for talent by offering the broadest reach and seamless user experience along with advanced search capabilities. Going beyond simple semantics, our AI uses skills-based and success profile matching while filtering for workstyles such as contingent, permanent, remote, or in-office work. Together with our curation partners, we deliver optimally-matched talent within an AI platform that enriches the hiring experience.
With Opptly, clients can enhance and grow their private talent communities or engage Opptly’s talent communities for immediate access to millions of candidates. Clients that want to achieve the widest possible reach choose to access both. For today’s job seekers, there’s Opptly.Connect™, an intuitive app that delivers targeted work opportunities, all within a user experience that matches today’s direct-connect technologies.
Opptly was built by some of the sharpest minds in workforce solutions. Seeded by our ever-expanding talent communities, our proprietary AI enables innovative use cases, including career progression and data enrichment, military predictor and other specialty skills models, supply and demand analytics, and targeted sourcing initiatives. Visit Opptly.ai.
The Outlook:
Opptly represents the future of talent acquisition and recruitment technology. The company’s commitment to dynamic candidate data and intelligence is an indicator that Opptly’s next-generation technology will be incredibly crucial to businesses as they continue to traverse a volatile labor market and uncertain economic conditions. With seamless integrations into existing hiring strategies and technology, Opptly has the potential to permeate true total talent management into the spectrum of workforce initiatives.
The Opptly platform has been designed to represent the Future of Work movement; its leading-edge AI and candidate intelligence functionality position the solution to drive dynamic value to a market that requires real-time data, total talent acquisition capabilities, and a harmonious user experience to transform the way talent is engaged and hired.
Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange are excited to announce the launch of its annual Future of Work research survey. This comprehensive, online survey will fuel the Exchange’s research calendar for 2023 and aims to tackle progressive topics, such as:
- The impact of innovation and new technology on work optimization, particularly the applications of artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, chatbots, and digital wallets on the realm of talent engagement and talent acquisition.
- The growth of the extended workforce and how businesses can harness the power of the contingent workforce to thrive during challenging times. (Ardent Partners and FOWX plan to publish several exciting new reports on Best-in-Class contingent workforce/extended workforce management programs, including deep-dive insights into the required capabilities, competencies, and strategies for maximizing the value of this talent.)
- The evolution of talent acquisition, including how businesses can revolutionize the candidate experience while also enhancing the hiring manager experience through new technology, omni-channel talent engagement strategies, and advanced total talent intelligence.
- How remote and hybrid work models will impact business operations and the total workforce in 2023.
- The reality of total talent management and how organizations are getting closer to successfully implementing these programs.
- The transformation of business leadership, including how today’s executives are weaving in conscious leadership styles, empathy-led directives, and enhanced worker appreciation into their greater management strategies.
- How direct sourcing programs will evolve in the year ahead to include “Direct Sourcing 2.0” capabilities, such as digital recruitment, deeper marketing input, reflection of workplace culture and company brand, chatbots and AI, and more, and;
- The necessary competencies that must be included in all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs in 2023 and beyond.
Click here to participate in the new Future of Work Exchange research survey. If you are an executive leader that works in the HR, procurement, finance, talent acquisition, or IT function of your organization, or if you’re a Chief People Officer, this survey has been designed to capture your specific experiences in addressing how work and talent are managed at your enterprise. As a thank you for participating in this crucial research effort, all research study participants will receive access to all of the Future of Work Exchange’s market research studies in 2023.
The Background:
Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has found that the utilization of digital staffing, talent marketplaces, and alternative talent channels has increased by nearly 800% over the past five years, a surefire representation of how the “omni-channel talent experience” has revolutionized the way businesses find, engage, and source their external talent.
While the overall penetration of talent acquisition via these channels has experienced a stratospheric rise, the flip side to this level of innovation is that businesses still require robust onboarding, payroll, and compliance automation to ensure that the extended workforce delivers on its true value without the threat of labor risks.
Enter GreenLight.ai.
Why They Were Selected:
Payrolling, compliance and risk mitigation, and onboarding technology is not a new concept within the world of contingent workforce management. However, as businesses began to scale their extended talent programs in the wake of a pandemic, disruption via market events, and other activity that has been transforming the modern enterprise over the past few years, there has been an enhanced need for innovative platforms that technologically “align” with the digital staffing, direct sourcing, and talent marketplace solutions for maximum compliance and visibility.
GreenLight.ai has revolutionized the ways that VMS, direct sourcing, ATS, and digital staffing platforms deliver a real omni-channel experience while also providing a central “system of truth” that can be relied upon as the utilization of freelance talent continues to grow in the wake of a looming economic recession and continued ramifications from both the COVID-19 pandemic and unrest across the globe.
In Their Own Words:
GreenLight.ai is the first contractor payroll and compliance provider designed for the Future of Work, used by some of the world’s leading enterprises and most disruptive talent technologies to easily onboard and pay their extended workforce. With an API-first strategy, GreenLight seamlessly integrates with VMS, ATS, and Direct Sourcing programs, while providing embedded connections for benefits, insurance, and background checks.
GreenLight focuses on a positive user experience, speed, visibility, and ease of integration that provides protection and indemnification options while removing the complexity of determining worker classification. Designed in conjunction with leading labor lawyers and tax experts, GreenLight’s platform has been dubbed ‘the world’s most intelligent classification engine’ and has compliance in its DNA. GreenLight also serves as the Employer or Agent of Record in over 120 countries, with intuitive and AI-driven processes that have workers onboarded in minutes.
Uniquely, GreenLight’s platform highlights the importance of focusing on the needs of the contractors, providing tools and benefits that enable them to thrive as independent workers – while ensuring our clients attract and retain the best freelance talent. It’s why the best digital staffing platforms private label our technology, and the reason GreenLight is the partner of choice for socially-conscious, forward-thinking contingent workforce programs.
The Outlook:
The adoption of digital staffing platforms and related solutions (particularly direct sourcing and talent marketplaces) has created a vacuum in which business leaders must delicately balance the need for top-tier talent with the necessary rigor to maintain compliance and mitigate misclassification risks. GreenLight.ai has been, for years, known as the one of the most powerful and intuitive solutions for offering just that…with an added “Future of Work touch” that separates its technology from the rest of the pack.
GreenLight.ai’s innovative range of offerings has proven to transform the way both businesses themselves and their core omni-channel talent platforms optimize the hiring, usage, and candidate experience of freelance talent. As Future of Work-era accelerants continue to shift the dynamics in the world of extended workforce management, GreenLight.ai will continue its long track record of providing Best-in-Class automation, integration, speed, visibility, and end-to-end protection against misclassification risks.
If you’ve been following the news recently, erratic billionaire Elon Musk, he of Tesla and SpaceX fame, finally completed his quest to purchase social media giant Twitter for over $40B just last week. And, in typical Musk fashion, simply buying one of the most storied social media cornerstones of the past decade-plus just wasn’t enough for him: whether with intent or not, he’s already created havoc at an organization that was once lauded for its workforce flexibility.
The Future of Work Exchange, since its inception, has been a source of insights regarding the criticality of workplace culture and ramification of toxicity within corporate boundaries. In an age when resignations are rampant, uncertainty over the economy looms over businesses like a financial specter, and Year Four (yes, Year Four!) of pandemic could create massive disruptions yet again, businesses need to lean on several key factors to not only attract talent, but retain the top-tier expertise it already has.
Workplace flexibility, empathy-led leadership, attention to mental wellness, and robust wellbeing strategies, as well as a strong corporate brand that is associated with these facets, are all crucial elements in creating a positive environment that drives talent retention and boosts both talent engagement and talent acquisition initiatives. Economic downturn aside, the jobs market is still quite hot; United States employers added 261,000 jobs in October, according to The New York Times, a figure that shows that “the economy is resilient.” Furthermore, the Times also reported that:
There have been other recent signs that the labor market remains exceedingly tight. Job openings, after falling significantly in August, rose again in September to 10.7 million. That increase meant there were roughly 1.9 job openings for every unemployed worker. The number of people who quit their jobs — typically a sign that workers are confident they will find better ones — ticked down to 4.1 million but remained high. Layoffs overall have stayed low.
However, that aforementioned specter of a recession cannot be ignored. While “layoffs have stayed low,” none of us can scroll through LinkedIn without hearing news of peers’ and colleagues’ troubles with mass cuts. What does this have to do with Elon Musk and Twitter and workplace culture? Just keep the Times information in the back of your mind.
Musk has made public his desire to buy Twitter for a very, very long time and that dream was realized when the purchase went through last week. Immediately, Twitter, a company known for aspects like its company-wide mental health “holidays,” was immediately turned on its head from a workplace culture perspective. Let’s forget for a second (since the Exchange is not a political site) the “free speech” attributes of Musk’s gunning for the social media giant and instead focus on how much damage he’s done…in just a week’s time.
Musk and Twitter leadership laid off 50% of its staff late last week, with many employees receiving the news indirectly; some were denied access to critical systems, while others could not even log onto their laptops. Some heard of peers being laid off on social media and most others received emails informing them of their newfound, involuntary exits. And, this is only a peek at the culture Musk has already fostered, as beyond the layoffs, some employees found themselves literally sleeping in their offices to meet erratic deadlines:
A Twitter employee who shared a photo appearing to show his boss sleeping on the office floor has caused a stir on the platform. The image, which was tweeted by Evan Jones, a product manager at Twitter Spaces, on November 2, was captioned, “When you need something from your boss at elon twitter.” It shows a woman who has been identified as Esther Crawford, a director of product management at Twitter, wearing an eye mask and lying in a sleeping bag on the floor of what appears to be an office.
Yes, we’ve all had to pull all-nighters before. We’ve all had to burn some midnight oil to get a particular project or two done in our career history. It’s just that these things are adding up and it does not look good for a global organization that is a household brand…especially one that has a career page that says this:
We put people first. Be you, really. That’s how we build trust. Together we’re creating a culture that’s supportive, respectful, and a pretty cool vibe. Sure, we’re not perfect, we’re people. But we’re open and honest about who we are and what we do.
We’re all about flexibility and equity. At Twitter, we do our work where it makes the most sense. Most roles can be done from home. But some positions take place in the office. Either way, we believe in giving all Tweeps maximum flexibility whenever we can.
There’s no doubt that there is a barrage of negativity surrounding Musk’s Twitter takeover. As reported by Vox:
In the days after Musk took over, he booted top executives, slashed rank-and-file headcount, pushed engineers to work harder, and began fast-tracking a hodgepodge of potentially revenue-generating features, including charging users to get or keep a verification check mark.
It’s not new for a new business owner and executive leader to catalyze immediate change. Again, it’s 1) the pace at which these changes are happening, 2) the disregard of existing positive culture across the workplace, and 3) the abhorrent attitude in which Musk is displaying while transforming the social media giant. Here are more nuggets from the Vox piece:
One Twitter employee described the morale at the company after the layoffs as low, and said that many colleagues who survived this round of cuts wish they had gotten laid off and gotten severance instead. Twitter is giving many laid-off employees full pay and benefits through at least January, although it’s not clear if this applied to all employees, particularly those outside the US, sources said.
Twitter staff have received little official communication, such as emails or corporate-wide Slack messages, so far from Twitter’s executive leadership since Musk officially took over. One employee who spoke with Recode on the condition of anonymity called it an “information vacuum.” That’s been an adjustment for many Twitter employees who are used to a more measured, communicative, and structured work culture. One anonymous Twitter employee told the Washington Post that the work atmosphere under Elon was like “working in Trump’s White House.”
And, to top it all off, Musk eliminated the “work-from-anywhere” policy that Twitter developed earlier this year, and terminated its beloved “days of rest” monthly holidays, two attributes that were solid pieces of the workplace culture at Twitter.
Musk has been seen a brash innovator who leads in a differentiated way. He wants to implement at “24/7” work culture that, unfortunately, does not align with where workers are right now mentally and physically. The fear here is that business leaders who look up to Musk as an example of how to lead will mimic his policies and strategies, most of which will introduce toxicity into workplace culture in a time when it’d be the absolutely last thing an enterprise needs in this volatile market.
Over the weekend, news broke that Twitter asked some of its laid off employees to return to the company, realizing that some of their layoffs were mistakes. According to Fortune:
After laying off roughly half the company on Friday following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return. Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake, according to two people familiar with the moves. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information…The requests for employees to return demonstrate how rushed and chaotic the process was.
In less than a week, Musk’s takeover of Twitter included the elimination of flexible work policies, termination of monthly wellness days, a mass layoff in which nearly 50% of the company’s staff was cut, and a reachout to some of those let go because the process was rushed and chaotic. A once-lauded organization for its incredible workplace culture, Twitter will now reflect the very toxic nature of a new owner who destroyed this foundation in less than a week.