Christopher J. Dwyer, Author at The Future of Work Exchange

THE BEST OF 2021: Once More, With Feeling: Empathy Is the Only Way Forward

Business Leadership General Insights Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/30/2021

[We hope you are having a great holiday season! This week, the Future of Work Exchange will highlight the “Best of 2021” as we feature some of our favorite pieces from the past five months since the site launched.]

The great gift of human beings is that we have the power of empathy, we can all sense a mysterious connection to each other.” – Meryl Streep

Over the past several months, there’s one word that has popped up more than so many others in my conversations with hiring managers, business leaders, HR practitioners, and talent acquisition executives. It’s a word that hasn’t been used very often in the corporate world, but it’s a concept that we are learning has such a profound effect on how work gets done. It’s at the very heart of who we are as humans and it’s a reflection of the energy we put out into the world around us. And, as we are finding, it’s a foundational way for businesses and their leaders to build long-lasting relationships with their workforce.

Empathy.

Many of us knew exactly what it would be like when the biggest remote work experiment in history kicked off in the dark days of March 2020. However, many others struggled with newfound responsibilities within their home as kids shuffled no further than the kitchen table and a laptop instead of to the bus. Many of us waded in the collective, anxious waters of a global pandemic that forced us indoors and to shutter social interaction. And too many of us still bear the scars of the most dangerous public health crisis in our lifetimes.

All of this means one thing: empathy must be the root of how we move forward. It must be the foundational layer to how we approach how work gets done and how we structure a workplace environment that is both inclusive and safe. It also means that, in the face of the Delta variant’s rampage across the country (and world), we as business leaders and we as business workers must prioritize empathy in nearly every facet of how we address our roles, our jobs, and our communications with each other.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 77% of businesses expect more empathy-driven leadership moving forward within their organizations, proving that “cold” and archaic modes of leadership, particularly instilling a culture of fear and rigidity, are detrimental to the overall enterprise. In order to retain talent and reengage key workers when needed, business leaders must create, foster, and deliver on the best possible workplace culture. By reinforcing expectations, practicing transparency, promoting positivity, and leveraging accountability (for both workers and managers), business leaders will ensure that empathetic efforts will help their organizations improve the talent experience for its total workforce.

Empathy within the workplace (and the workforce) has incredible benefits:

Empathy-led leadership will help business execs develop long-lasting relationships with its workforce. Workers that can perform their tasks with a touch of flexibility whilst feeling comfortable and safe within an inclusive environment are more likely to want to have a better relationship with their managers. Workers will be more apt to open additional lines of communication with their leaders and be honest about their workloads and any pressure they may be feeling about their roles. These long-lasting relationships can be especially critical when workers have opportunities outside of the organization, and, could potentially be a deciding factor on taking their talents elsewhere or staying put.
Leveraging empathy as a core Future of Work tenet will result in more productive workers and teams (and better business outcomes). Appreciation is also another factor that can catalyze a workforce. Workers that feel appreciated, along with a sense of physiological safety in an empathetic environment, are more likely to perform at a higher level due to a better overall employee experience. If they truly believe in what they are doing and feel that they are appreciated in how they perform their jobs, that extra level of value certainly cascades into the ultimate completion of the project. “Better business outcomes” has long been a goal for organizations, and empathy as a foundational workplace facet can be a critical contributor to achieving this initiative.
Empathy fosters a better connection with workers that can help stave off potential issues before they are exacerbated. Workers that have an open line of communication with their leaders will always feel that they can discuss major personal and business issues without fear of scrutiny or reprisal. In these scenarios, simply talking about problems, especially before they become worse, can potentially stave off detachment from the role or even resignations. Leaders pushing empathy can foster stronger relationships with their workers and ensure that these unions are robust tools in boosting the overall talent experience. In age that some have dubbed “The Great Resignation,” anything that executives can do in terms of empathy, flexibility, etc. will go a long way towards key talent retention.
Empathy-led leadership is one of several solutions to worker burnout. Think about the world we’re currently living in. The pandemic has been nothing short of an anxiety-ridden rollercoaster ride. Some of us have lost loved ones, others have been sick and experienced COVID first-hand. Many of us still battle with the lingering personal ramifications of this public health crisis. As we discussed recently, worker burnout is an epidemic on top of a pandemic; business leaders are the essential front-line of defense when it comes to curtailing this major issue. Empathetic and inclusive workplace environments (including, yes, remote environments!) can help curb some of the worker burnout issues that plague today’s talent by helping employees feel that 1) they are not alone in what they are doing, 2) they can reach out for help if they are overwhelmed, 3) they can establish flexible boundaries for when personal issues need to be prioritized, and, 4) they can work effectively with their leadership team to construct the best possible work-life balance for the maximum productivity and wellness.

A phrase known as “compassion fatigue” has been uttered lately as more and more leaders tire of the past eighteen months and the changes they’ve had to make in how they manage their workforce (it’s also a phrase thought of and spoken by medical workers that are rightfully exhausted at the thought of caring for unvaccinated individuals as hospitals begin to surge once again across the country). The FOWX theory is this: if business leaders are tiring of pushing empathy and rooting it into the foundation of their workplace environments, they shouldn’t be surprised when productivity wanes or workers begin to quit.

The COVID-19 pandemic (an ongoing pandemic, I may add) has been stressful for everyone, no doubt. However, empathy is the only way forward for the world of business. It’s the only way that workers will have a sense of inclusion, wellness, and appreciation. Leaders must respond to challenging times with empathy and flexibility, not just for themselves, but for their direct reports, as well. According to Future of Work Exchange research, nearly 70% of businesses expect leadership to focus understanding the perspectives of the workforce as they adapt to personal and professional change over the next 12 months. When the public health crisis is in the rear-view, it will be those businesses that have led with empathy and truly understand the human elements of their workforce that will retain their top talent.

THE BEST OF 2021: Let’s Not Ignore Worker Burnout

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/29/2021

In late spring 2004, I graduated from Suffolk University with a degree in print journalism. In-between traversing between temporary accounting and finance gigs, I knocked on the doors of every local newspaper in the North Shore area above Boston. Some editors gave me a firm “no” while others offered poorly-paid freelance opportunities to write an article or two week per week. I eventually stumbled into a newspaper office in a larger Boston suburb and spent 45 minutes with the owner and publisher chatting about newspaper layout, local politics, the Red Sox, and more. When he found out that I could write, edit, and design (a “three-tool player” in the world of journalism, a rarity), he hired me on the spot.

During my first couple of weeks, I thought I landed a dream job…right out of college. I was covering political issues, police budget cuts, school committee meetings, and so much more. During my second or third week as “designer version” of my role, when I had to put together nearly 50 pages of ads, stories, features, pictures, etc. using Microsoft Publisher, the owner saw me yawn and rub my eyes. “You’ll do great in this industry, kid,” he said. “As long as you don’t get tired, you’ll be fine.” I thought he was joking, so I smiled. And less than a year later, I left the industry for good.

I clocked more 18-hours days than I could remember. I once worked 28 straight hours because a co-worker up and quit during an argument with the owner. In order to attend a Red Sox game (during their magical 2004 season, no less!), I had to make up the work when the game was over (at 10:30pm). When those same Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, I wasn’t at home celebrating; I was in front of a desktop computer putting together my second of three newspapers that evening. At the age of 22, I was burnt out, unhappy, and regretting having a dream that involved writing for a newspaper.

Nearly 17 years later, the very problem of worker burnout is unfortunately all too-common.

Business professionals are facing an epidemic on top of a pandemic: extreme burnout and work fatigue. Eighteen months of combating an increased workload on top of managing remote learning, an extreme lack of social interaction, and a rollercoaster ride of anxiety during the worst public health crisis our our lifetime. Some industries (such as healthcare and human medicine, veterinary medicine, light industrial, etc.) have experienced such an increased level of work that employees are facing the worst burnout issues of their careers. Staff shortages have been to blame for the majority of burnout cases, as businesses are often forced to “do more with less” in a period of continued uncertainty. And, within sectors that have experienced “boom” times over the past year, there has been a greater demand for products and services, resulting in organizations placing even more pressure on their workforce to perform.

In addition, workers that have moved to fully remote or hybrid models still routinely face a “blurring” of work and life balance, with care for children and their homes (on top of an additional workload) contributing to late nights on the computer, extended time on mission-critical projects, and work on the weekends. Worker responsibilities have surged, as well, as businesses seek to align staff shortfalls with the existing workforce.

Unlike pre-pandemic times (when burnout was still very much an issue), employees facing the epidemic of burnout now also have to contend with additional social, political, and health issues that are all comprise the world that is 2021. And it’s so much more than simple “stress,” too: mental anguish stemming from a workplace environment (and YES, a home office counts!) can have significant ramifications on business professionals, including irritability, physical illnesses, mental health issues, waning productivity, and, worst of all, a constant questioning of if the position/role (or, even worse, the career itself) is worthwhile.

Here at the Future of Work Exchange, we’ve talked at-length about the value and impact of flexibility and empathy in how executives manage their workforce. Business leaders can extend these concepts to ensure that they address the core issues behind worker burnout and improve overall work-life balance. To start, organizations must:

Institute deeper communication between managers and staff. Workers aren’t always willing or able to give away information in a conversational setting with managers, and, managers shouldn’t be playing coy with their workforce’s emotions. Open up the proper channels of communication and get right to the issues at hand: leaders asking if their employees how they feeling and allowing them to freely discuss the physical and mental impacts that all avenues of work are having on their work-life balance. Communication may seem like a gigantic obstacle, but more often than not, once the gates of discussion are open, both sides will begin truly understand the perspectives of what is occurring from a burnout perspective.
Provide a more flexible system of paid time off, vacation, and mental health support. Scroll through LinkedIn on any given day and you’ll read about various companies taking a progressive approach to workforce management, whether it’s offering extended time off, additional benefits for fully-remote workers, and services/offerings for mental health support. No worker that’s currently clocking 60-hour weeks will turn down an opportunity to develop a better plan for vacation or time off. Although workers with mental health issues may be hesitant at first, once they feel comfortable taking advantage of such benefits, they should utilize whatever the enterprise offers for mental health support.
Consider a dramatic short-term shift in the overall workplace structure. The long-vaunted “four-day workweek” has been effective for some businesses over the past several years, however, not all organizations could shift to this model and be successful from a productivity perspective. With that said, though, running such a dramatic short-term experiment could reveal so much about its longer-term success a viable option…quite simply: if you haven’t tried, how do you know it won’t work? Now is the perfect time to move to a four-day workweek, especially with many return-to-office plans on hold due to the continued impact of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. If a two-month experiment reveals that workers are happier, more productive, and better engaged with their roles and with each other, then it’s an experiment worth conducting.
Develop a direct line of collaboration regarding upskilling and reskilling opportunities. Although not a front-and-center issue when it comes to worker burnout, there is sometimes a hidden root cause: a misalignment between a worker’s total skillset and the work they are performing within a stressful or demanding environment. It’s not so easy juggling a career with an anxious home life in what was supposed to be the waning months of a pandemic but has now turned into a horrifying repeat of the early months of 2021. Managers must institute a direct line of communication about career paths and “where” workers want to be in the future. If there is an opportunity to undergo training for a different unit or department, there’s no better time than now to kickstart that initiative before burnout gets worse. The last thing executives want to experience is another period like this past spring, which were the largest on record regarding worker resignations across the United States. Existing experience and expertise is always going to be an incredible benefit, even if the long-term fit between the worker and his or her current role isn’t set up for long-term success. Employers must give these workers the opportunity to leverage their unique talents and apply those skillsets to other facets of the greater business.

THE BEST OF 2021: What is the Future of Direct Sourcing?

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/28/2021

Businesses learned a harsh lesson in 2020: those that could not adapt to the major shifts in work optimization were the ones that could not survive months of extreme disruption. As 2021 careens towards its end, another new year is on the horizon, and businesses must prepare for perhaps the most critical period of their history given the direction of the economy and the labor market.

The shift towards “flexibility as the Future of Work” means that enterprises must execute in a more dynamic manner. The companies that thrived and continue to thrive are the organizations that understand and embrace 1) how they want to get work done, 2) the talent and technology needed to get that work done across both the short- and long-term, and 3) the proper balance between human and automation.

In looking at various perspectives in how work was transformed over the past 18 months, there is one strategic program that businesses seem to gravitate towards in convergence with the talent-led world in which we now live: direct sourcing.

Going into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were the #1 and #2 (respectively) priorities for businesses; even the most forward-looking organization could not imagine at that time just how critical a program it would be in the face of unprecedented change. Even the most basic direct sourcing programs drive table-stakes value to their owners through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent and a level of hard cost savings. However, many attributes of the world of work and talent were fast-tracked over the past 18 months due to the most serious public health crisis of our lifetimes and its long-ranging ramifications across the scope of business, worker, and personal perspectives.

Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent to a revolutionary means of tapping into the extended workforce to drive better business outcomes. As the business world continues to evolve, even in the throes of a “Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now a standard. The question then becomes: How do businesses continue to respond in the wake of being forced to reimagine talent acquisition, human capital, and the agile workforce?

Direct Sourcing 2.0.

“Direct Sourcing 2.0” follows the next generation of direct sourcing strategies and is fundamentally rooted in the linkage between key technological arenas, a renewed focus on the candidate experience, a seamless connection between talent pools and the projects and roles that require specific expertise, and a retooled “hiring manager experience” that takes into account Future of Work-era innovation.

Why the shift to Direct Sourcing 2.0? Isn’t direct sourcing effective in its “1.0” version? Of course. Direct sourcing and its traditional phases (including talent curation, talent pool segmentation, integration into core recruitment streams, talent nurture, etc.) are driving increased value within those organizations that are currently leveraging standard programs. However, that doesn’t mean it can’t evolve. Take into account the major shifts in both business and candidate behavior over the 18 months, and, especially, over the past several months:

The “candidate experience” is far deeper than we ever imagined. It’s not just about ensuring that candidates have a positive experience when engaged, but rather extending that experience into areas such as when they are engaged, how they are engaged, the communication methods used for reach out, methods of onboarding and offboarding (seamless, digital, and virtual!), etc. Recruitment marketing automation, digitized referral campaigns, and a mobile-optimized means of communicating with hiring managers all contribute to the next great era of the candidate experience.
Hiring managers should be engaging and sourcing talent in a consumerized and enhanced manner for the sake of efficiency and quality. This doesn’t mean that we have to completely meld e-commerce technology with direct sourcing platforms, however, it does translate into taking into account just how effective existing processes are within the hiring managers’ total workload. The greater business must provide hiring managers with the necessary trust and education to ensure that these leaders are converging the company’s main goals and objectives with how they find, engage, and source talent (which will result in superior role-to-candidate matches). In addition, harnessing the power of next-gen direct sourcing automation, recruitment marketing technology, and similar solutions will boost the hiring manager experience.
Businesses must go “beyond the brand” and prove that they are fostering truly inclusive workplace cultures that resonate with candidates. An organization’s “brand” can be a powerful tool for direct sourcing; candidates tend to flock to those companies that align with their own beliefs and values. However, businesses must move beyond the brand and incorporate deeper elements of the organization in how it applies Direct Sourcing 2.0 strategies, including communicating its purpose and vision (and ensuring that it resonates with candidates) and how well its preferences in how work is done are broadcast to workers (fully-remote, hybrid, on-site, etc.). A purpose-driven organization wants to establish a more trustful relationship with its candidates, share its core cultural values with them (particularly on the DE&I front), and communicate how open it is to the attributes desired in today’s “Age of the Worker,” such as flexibility, career development opportunities, and the enablement of core skills growth.

Look for the new Ardent Partners/Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0, in January 2022.

THE BEST OF 2021: Let’s Just Call “The Great Resignation” What It Really Is: A Talent Revolution

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/27/2021

My dear friend and fellow agile workforce pundit Jon Younger ends his frequent Forbes articles with a phrase that is essentially perfect for what is happening in today’s labor market: Viva la revolution!

Call it The Great Resignation. Call it The Great Reassessment, or even “The Big Quit.” No matter what name is tied to what’s occurring in this frenetic, volatile talent economy, it just means one thing: there’s a revolution of talent happening right now.

Yes, major pieces of the “worker-led” transformation of talent and labor are owed to a market that has been accelerated since Day One of the pandemic, as many talented professionals (and the businesses they work(ed) for) experienced the biggest disruption of their their corporate lives. Remote work became a norm, flexibility was a baseline, and empathy became a foundation for how leaders treated their teams.

However, there are other attributes that are a long time coming, such as equitable treatment, fair and living wages, and inclusive workplace cultures that promote safety and openness. There’s more discussion around worker burnout than ever before. And, critically, there’s a clear element of diversity that permeates through the job market, as well.

Looking at all of these elements converging, one would wonder, “Why would we ever go back?”

Those that worked remotely pre-pandemic can now validate the productivity concerns of such a work model. Those businesses that experienced an increase in productivity since the pandemic began now understand that they can trust their staff to get work done away from the office. And it’s not just a remote vs. in-office issue: think of the core societal changes that occurred in tandem with the pandemic. Think of the renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I). From permanent hiring to extended talent, hiring managers and other business leaders are finally acknowledging real enterprise value of diversity.

Put it all together and this is what you get: millions and millions of talented professionals that know their value, know that they can work flexibly, and know that they deserve better working conditions from various perspectives.

Since the Bureau of Labor Statistics started tracking statistics on the number of workers who voluntarily left their positions, there was no greater month for turnover than this past August, when 4.3 million Americans left the workforce (the previous record was May 2021, only a few months prior). The fact that the entire summer experienced somewhere in the neighborhood of 17+ million resignations (over 20 million if you count April in these figures) speaks volumes about where we are collectively headed.

Just a month or so ago, discussions revolved around whether businesses or workers would blink first. New BLS data proves that workers aren’t coming back unless organizations completely revolutionize their stance on the employer-employee relationship. It’s not just about compensation, it’s the fact that workers desire true flexibility. They crave work-life balance. And, most importantly, they want their own values and purpose to align with those of the businesses they choose to support.

Workers that traditionally “job-hopped” are finding that they can do so much more easily in today’s market, while workers that were once “lifers” question their career choices during a time that forced all of us (business aside) to reevaluate our lives in the face of the worst and biggest health crisis of our collective lifetimes. When people witness a family member falling ill and succumbing to a nefarious pathogen, and, when they see the terror across the nation’s hospitals as they collapse from surge after surge, it results in an “awakening” that has a cascading effect on both personal and professional thinking.

If workers aren’t satisfied, why would they stay put? With so many (read: millions!) of open positions across the country (and world), most of which offer consistent flexibility and a more soulful candidate and worker experience, why would any talented individual, in this current global landscape, want to “waste” their valuable months and years with an organization that doesn’t offer everything that they want and need? The pandemic reprogrammed many facets of human thinking; it was only natural that the same transformational mindsets would alter how we, as people, reevaluate our choices as business professionals.

Many of us lost family members, friends, and colleagues to COVID-19. Some of us attended funerals with limited family members due to social distancing guidelines. We’ve watched the horrors of the insides of ICUs on the evening news or on social media. Even though things are better than they have been in months, the pandemic is still a part of our everyday lives (even with the modern marvels that we have in coronavirus vaccines). When these morbid aspects of life creep into how we think about what exactly it is what we want from our lives (which, of course, include our careers), it’s very normal that we’d question why we spend time working for an employer that doesn’t offer flexible hours, doesn’t offer equitable treatment and wages, and doesn’t enable remote or hybrid work models.

Workers are human, and humans will always modernize their thinking due to the world around them. What is happening right now in the labor market is certainly a convergence of many factors that would have eventually accelerated critical shifts in talent engagement…however, these transformations are, to a greater extent, the result of humans questioning their choices moving forward and ensuring that one of the biggest pieces of their lives, their careers, are satisfying the personal, professional, and emotional aspects of their lives.

This isn’t just a reaction to a pandemic and its wide-sweeping business ramifications, it’s a true revolution of talent that will forever shape the Future of Work.

Happy Holidays from the Future of Work Exchange!

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/23/2021

The Future of Work Exchange would like wish all of our readers a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season.

Next week, tune in for the “Best of 2021” as we look back on some of the highlights from another transformative, revolutionary year in the greater world of talent and work.

Thank you for an amazing five months! We’re just getting started…

How Should Enterprises Invest in Technology in 2022?

Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/22/2021

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.

What Does 2022 Hold for the Future of Work?

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/21/2021

Over the past several months, I’ve written extensively about the evolution of talent and work and what it means for the modern business. Today, we collect various thoughts, insights, and predictions from extended workforce, contingent workforce, digital staffing, direct sourcing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the Future of Work in the year ahead:

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

The importance of data: “The future of external workforce management is data-driven. And as the world of work continues to evolve, talent becomes more geographically dispersed, and top talent becomes even more sought-after, “five-star” data has become critical to capitalizing on both worker quality and savings opportunities worldwide. In 2022 and beyond, we will see the increasing importance of quality data within non-employee workforce programs and how it can drive significant program benefits.”

Direct sourcing and leveraging your company’s brand: “In the new era of integrated workforce management and heightened competition for key talent, organizations are adopting new processes and enabling solutions – such as direct sourcing – to maximize talent, no matter when and how that talent is sourced/engaged or how it ends up being categorized and classified. Historically, talent acquisition teams have long relied on employer branding for permanent employee hiring, while not being fully aware of its power for the other half of the workforce (contingent). In contingent direct sourcing programs, leveraging employer brand is essential to maximizing talent acquisition effectiveness and, therefore, multiplying positive financial benefits. Given this, most enterprises should be taking steps toward adopting contingent direct sourcing to meet its non-employee program and organizational goals.”

The benefits of the integrated workforce platform: “More than ever, enterprises are finding they need to address a greater and more complex set of requirements to manage their expanding multi-category, multichannel, non-employee workforces, which poses new challenges and questions for organizations. For example, the number of technology and service solutions has been significantly increasing across established and new solution categories. It’s no longer just a program management office and a Vendor Management System (VMS), which presents enterprises with the challenge of choosing between a single vendor or multi-vendor approach. Leveraging an adaptable, scalable, and fully-integrated workforce management platform provider that offers an ecosystem of software, professional services, and total talent intelligence will be key to an organization’s success.”

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“2022 is going to bring more of the same things that we saw in 2021 and that is (at least mostly!) a good thing. The extended workforce will continue to grow in importance to companies of all types and talent shortages will likely get even worse. Taken together those two things will push companies to look to expand the markets and places they find talent in, continue to reinforce the intersection of quality, time-to-fill, and cost (rather than a myopic focus on just cost savings), and underscore the importance of talent diversity (and related initiatives like upskilling and giving people second chances). Companies need to ensure that their extended workforce programs consider all of these things and that they set goals that are directly tied to company strategy.”

Neha Goel, VP of Marketing, Utmost

“Extended workforce systems must be worker-centric, making it easy to take into account the various needs and preferences of the worker, allowing them to be mobilized in a scalable way. They also need to give workers and suppliers more control over their data and how they interact with technology, providing the flexibility and configurability necessary for them to get work done.”

“Flexibility comes in many forms, both in remote vs. office settings, and includes how workers set their schedules. If you aren’t actively listening to what your workforce wants and providing the technology that makes it possible to seamlessly engage and communicate with them in this new world, you will miss out.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“While the usual priorities around cost optimization and DE&I 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.”

Sunil Bagai, CEO, Prosperix

“I predict that there will be some banner acquisitions for talent and workforce solutions in 2022. I also expect that some of the big investments that have happened this year in startups will go bust. The technologies that I expect will gain momentum are ones that tackle the end-to-end lifecycle of hiring, facilitate hybrid work, and infuse blockchain for transparency, faster outcomes and automation.

“What 2021 showed is that there is a huge appetite for talent and workforce solutions. 2022 will carry forward that same momentum into new offerings, investments and acquisitions. The areas to keep an eye out on are consolidation of marketplaces, enterprise solutions that combine direct sourcing, VMS and ATS together, and an infusion of blockchain technology for facilitating frictionless transactions.”

Allison Robinson, Co-Founder and CEO, The Mom Project

“By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce, and they are the most diverse in American history. If you aren’t actively creating a diverse and inclusive environment for future talent that is front and center in every aspect of your business and culture, you will miss out on this talent. Technology investment and digital transformations mean little without the commitment to a more diverse workforce behind them to drive results.”

“The end of 2021 marks a critical moment as talent – and moms specifically – re-enter the workforce, but they are not looking to go back to how it was before. They are looking to continue fueling progress with a more flexible, supportive and more human Future of Work.”

Wayne Crowley, SVP Talent Solutions RPO, Manpower Group

“We’ve realized a seismic shift in employment control away from employers to the talent these employers need. Rigidity in hiring processes, work location, compensation, and work schedules will severely limit employers’ choices for finding candidates with the skills they require. Employers of all sizes, brands, and industries should revisit their employee value propositions to make sure there is resonance with the talent they seek.”

Sam Bright, Chief Product & Experience Officer at Upwork

“We’ve seen monumental disruption occur in the workforce over the last two years. The Great Resignation has shown us that generations-old beliefs about the world of work have been upended. ‘Remote natives’ have become the norm, just as digital natives before them. Remote freelancing has become an essential part of the U.S. labor market and economy – contributing $1.3 trillion in 2021 alone – and we’ve seen firsthand how organizations effectively use marketplaces like Upwork to engage highly-skilled independent professionals to grow, scale and reinforce their teams.

“Our 2021 Freelance Forward report found that freelancing increased to the highest share of the labor force in the eight years that we’ve been surveying, and we see this continuing into 2022. Hybrid, distributed, flexible work models are the future of work. To succeed, business leaders must shift how they look at their workforce and create hybrid teams made up of full-time employees and independent professionals, so they can be appropriately resourced to charge ahead on their critical business initiatives, no matter how complex or tight the timeline is.”

Tammy Browning, President, KellyOCG

“Heading into 2022, a trend that we’re watching closely is employee experience. As the labor market tightens, building a comprehensive and positive employee experience is critical for greater retention, productivity, and engagement and translates to better business results. Organizations that want an edge on their competition and are driven to succeed in the war for talent are focused on employee experience. In fact, our research finds 91% of leading companies say that improving the employee experience is as high a business priority as improving the customer experience.”

“We expect 2022 will bring a greater need for organizations to adopt a single robust talent management platform. According to our research, 72% of executives say they should adopt a talent management platform and use predictive analytics to determine future talent needs, but less than a third are using technologies to achieve these goals. As more employers embrace all forms of talent, hiring managers will require a tool that provides a complete view of their contingent and third-party workforce as well as relevant workforce analytics to make strategic decisions about future workforce needs.”

Matt Pietsch, Chief Strategy Officer, High5

“Organizations need to be ready to embrace managed direct sourcing by forming strategic partnerships, not simple vendor or supplier relationships, with partners that can execute on a strategy that incorporates People, Processes and Technology in order to win the war for talent.”

“Work with a workforce solution company that understands the importance of leveraging your brand and working as a seamless extension of your talent acquisition program, regardless if it is full-time, contingent, EOR/payroll, etc. This is one way to ensure an effective candidate experience and a much more efficient recruitment program.”

Taylor Ramchandani, Vice President of Strategy, VectorVMS

“In 2022 I believe that the candidate experience for the contingent workforce is going to be paramount. With the power sitting with the worker, regardless of employment determination, organizations need to prioritize being a desirable place to work. The need for a positive candidate experience will drive greater adoption of direct sourcing platforms, diversity initiatives across the workforce, learning opportunities and more for the extended workforce.”

Jenna Dobbins, VP, Human Resources at Pontoon Solutions

Prioritize the value of employee wellness. “For talent providers like Pontoon and our customers, worker wellbeing will be a core tenant in 2022. Talent attraction and retention will be directly correlated with how workers are cared for and how employers meet their needs. We all have a responsibility to put mental health, wellbeing, and inclusivity above all else.”

Cultivate an ecosystem of talent sustainability. “At Pontoon, we have put a focus on employee learning and development in 2021. Our continuous learning culture has resulted in over 78,340 learning hours completed across our colleague population this year. In 2022, we have challenged ourselves to break this record as we continue to upskill our colleagues across Pontoon.”

What Did We Learn About the Future of Work in 2021?

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/20/2021

I’m sure that the end of any year, not just 2021, warrants some level of deep reflection. However, the year that we just collectively experienced certainly calls for some retrospective insight, doesn’t it? 2021 marked the second full year of the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes and along with it, many transformations in how we all viewed both our personal and professional lives. From the business perspective, 2021 brought a host of talent-, technology-, and forward-thinking-led shifts that have forever altered the way we conduct business. Here’s what we learned:

No matter how rooted a business leader is to pre-pandemic times, remote and hybrid work are now foundational facets of the working world. Unified communication tools, better collaboration between leaders and their staff, and the general shift towards “flexibility” are all attributes of the new world of work.
Call it “The Great Resignation” or the “The Big Quit,” but what’s really happening is a true revolution of talent. The “talent revolution” is occurring all around us, with millions of talented professional voluntarily leaving positions in search of better working conditions, more flexibility, more empathy from leadership, more inclusive workplace culture, and, of course, better pay. The talent revolution is a stark reminder that leaders must reimagine talent engagement and talent acquisition if they are to thrive in the new year.
The extended workforce drives the Future of Work. Nearly 47% of all talent today is considered part of the extended workforce, a 10% leap from where it was at the every beginning of the pandemic. It’s not just a matter of tapping into the “evolution” of contingent labor, but rather truly robust communities of talent that take various shapes, including talent pools, talent marketplaces, niche staffing suppliers, personal and private talent networks, etc. Today’s extended workforce is a key element in how work gets done.
Empathy is a key Future of Work attribute. Leaders have to be in tune with the “human” side of its staff, as workers across the globe face personal and professional challenges that continue to eat into their thinned patience after 20+ months of pandemic ramifications (including severely ill relatives, lack of daycare, remote schooling, facing COVID themselves, etc.). Empathy-led leadership is, essentially, the only way forward.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) aren’t just buzzwords, but rather truly impactful pieces of the Future of Work movement. Let’s say it again: a diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool. Bringing in diverse talent sparks innovation by bringing in new voices to the table, including talent from various genders, cultures, and nuero-diverse backgrounds.
Direct sourcing has become a transformational means of finding, engaging, and retaining top-tier talent. By the end of 2022, nearly 30%-to-32% of all talent will be engaged and acquired via direct sourcing, according to Future of Work Exchange research. Direct sourcing isn’t just a way to segment “known” talent into talent pools, but rather a strategy, program, and set of automated tools to develop true talent sustainability via recruitment marketing, leveraging the power of enterprise branding and culture, and cultivating deeper relationships with candidates.
Services procurement strategy is due for an overhaul. Collaboration, rather than control, is the Best-in-Class way to enhancing management of an extended workforce category that sometimes (or, often) dwarfs traditional staff aug from a spend perspective. Procurement executives must reevaluate how they approach SOW management and services procurement in 2022.
Talent communities will be more critical than ever in 2022. As we wrote recently: “The power of talent communities is driven by the innovative ways businesses are leveraging talent pools, talent networks, and talent clouds, converging with the nuances of the employer brand, social and emotional connections with both active and passive candidates, the the ultimate development of omnichannel, experience-driven candidate engagement.”
Business leadership needs to change its mindset heading into a new year. The talent revolution, combined with the pressure of a new coronavirus variant in a globalized yet disruptive world, means that leaders and executive personnel cannot go into 2022 with archaic strategies for managing operations and staff. Whether it entails “reimagining” or “rebooting” core leadership strategies, aspects such as inclusion (i.e., inclusive workplace environments), flexibility, agility, and a better understanding of employee emotional wellbeing (yes, including empathy!) are all necessary moving forward.
Technology is often considered central to the Future of Work movement, and 2022 proved that many times over. From digital staffing and direct sourcing to artificial intelligence and blockchain, the pathways of technological innovation all lead back into the very idea of work optimization.

Contingent Workforce Weekly, Episode 609: Reflecting Back on 2021 As We Look Ahead to 2022

Podcast by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/17/2021

This week’s all-new Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, sponsored by PRO Unlimited, reflects back on the year that was as we look forward to a 2022 that is founded on innovation, progressive business thinking, and work optimization.

Tune into Episode 609 of Contingent Workforce Weekly below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.

Business Leadership Priorities for 2022

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/16/2021

We recently discussed the workforce management imperatives for businesses as they enter 2022 (and, next week, we’ll talk technology priorities for the year ahead). Today, we tackle what should be on the radar for every business leader as they seek to navigate an evolving talent landscape and the changing world of work:

Empathy must become more central of an approach in business leadership. As the competition for talent remains tight, business leaders should develop an inclusive workplace culture that encourages and prioritizes the human connections between leaders and their staff (such as scheduling more video conferences, checking in with workers more frequently, and developing “safe spaces” for workers to speak their minds and offer critical enterprise feedback). With so much of the Future of Work revolving around productivity and business outcomes, enterprise leaders must ensure that they are designing flexible work environments that allow an “elastic” means of getting work done.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion should be the “beating heart” of all talent- and work-led initiatives. DE&I is not just a response to corporate social responsibility or a checked box in regard to the major societal issues happening within the world at-large, bur rather an all-encompassing theory of change that involves the breakdown of barriers across the traditional workplace environment. Businesses must formulate work- and talent-based strategies around becoming an inclusive enterprise while developing a diverse culture that is open to new and innovative voices and candidates.
Prioritize the value of employee wellness. Mental health, as well as employee wellness must be melded into core workforce strategies, similar to how new technology and new talent acquisition approaches have become key pieces of the Future of Work puzzle. The very essence of the Future of Work is to optimize how work is done and enhance the productivity of both talent and technology. Mental health is a critical factor in just how productive, creative, and innovative the workforce can be in how work is addressed and ultimately optimized. Executive leaders must cultivate an environment in which all workers, regardless of position, feel “physiologically safe,” as well as restructure paid time off (PTO) policies to ensure that workers can take the time they need to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
Develop the ideal “worker-to-workplace environment” over the first few months of 2022. Heading into a new year, there is still very much a need, and, more importantly, a desire, for remote and hybrid work models. However, as the Omicron variant begins to cause surges of infections, there will be initial confusion and resistance over what really works and what is truly productive for both leadership and its talent as return-to-office plans face another barrier. Executive leaders still have the time and the ability to experiment with various work models and develop the best “worker-to-workplace environment” that is conducive to flexibility and strong business outcomes. Business leaders should continue to experiment over the next several months and track what is working, what is helpful for productivity, and how the workforce responds to these new environments. It will be especially critical to allow workers to have a voice and influence on the work models of the future.
Cultivate an ecosystem of “talent sustainability” that contributes to overall workforce agility. Beyond talent acquisition initiatives, leaders must take a long, hard look at the most prevalent skill gaps within their businesses and understand how current and future changes in the market will affect the talent that is needed to successfully lead product development, sales and revenue, and overall enterprise operations. A deeper analysis of total available skillsets (both FTEs and non-employee) and resources available via private networks, talent clouds, talent communities, and talent pools will provide the necessary intelligence to determine which elements must comprise a sustainable ecosystem of talent. Which workers are engaged in an “agile talent” model that is repeatable? Which professional services are utilized on a regular basis? How will shifts in economic modeling alter how the overall business address how work is done? These are questions to ask and then answer to build true talent sustainability.