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

Workforce Management Recommendations for 2022

Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing HR by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/09/2021

The extended workforce has, for several years, represented the natural advancement of contingent labor and its greater impact on critical enterprise objectives. Coupled with a sharply shifting business landscape, changing market dynamics, and the reimagining of how work gets done, today’s organizations must harness the influence of the symbiotic relationship between talent, technology, and business leadership to usher in a new era of work.

Heading into 2022, businesses in the throes of workforce planning are facing pressure-filled quandaries: how will the pandemic affect their operations in the new year? Will scalability be as critical as it has been over the past two years? How does technology and innovation influence talent acquisition and talent management? The below recommendations will assist enterprises as they continue to plan around the inherent agility of their extended workforce and its impact on the greater business:

Embrace the extended workforce as a means of tapping into top-tier talent and fostering enterprise flexibility. The past 20+ months have shown adaptability is key weapon in changing times. There is a major reason why 82% of businesses expect an increase in the utilization of non-employee labor in 2022. The extended and agile workforce enables organizations to better access top-shelf skillsets, deep expertise, and a dynamic relationship that is founded on flexibility. Short-term engagements and mission critical projects supported by agile talent is specifically what empowered business during the pandemic…and that will not change in the months and years ahead.
Prioritize dynamic channels of talent, such as talent communities, to fuel critical business endeavors. Real workforce agility is developed through dynamic outlets of talent that can be engaged in a real-time and on-demand way. Talent marketplaces and other digital staffing channels offer simple “search and select” functionality within their deep networks of expertise that allow organizations to build remote teams of appropriate and well-aligned skillsets for crucial corporate initiatives.
Develop a strategy to boost the impact of direct sourcing and talent pools. Direct sourcing emerged as a viable talent acquisition strategy within the United States several years ago (after more than a decade of massive adoption in Europe) allowing businesses to act as their own recruitment firms, saving dollars and time on talent engagement. In a post-pandemic world, direct sourcing can help businesses bypass traditional talent acquisition processes (which are often slower and more manual in nature than direct sourcing initiatives), nurture candidates in a meaningful way, and tap into top-tier skillsets as specific needs arise. Direct sourcing can also empower the enterprise brand and culture to attract candidates, a differentiating factor that can be incredibly effective way to attract top talent in competitive markets.
Continue to lean on the extended workforce to support business continuity and market competition. The year ahead brings a wealth of optimism to the world of work even though fears of a new coronavirus variant are sparking surges across the world. As such, the global market continues to face considerable risk as these emerging coronavirus variants, particularly Delta and Omicron, continue to raise concern. If the winter brings new surges, businesses will be able to replay the strategies of 2020 and adopt a flexible mindset towards its workforce; the agility inherent in the extended workforce will support (once again) business continuity and allow enterprises to remain competitive.
Rethink the application of core skillsets and expertise towards enterprise roles and projects. When markets shift, businesses must frequently pivot to new work models to get work done, survive challenging scenarios, and/or keep up with the demand for products and services. “Work models,” in this instance, are not limited to where work is performed (i.e., remote work or distributed teams), but also include the strategies that apply core employee and non-employee skillsets in a way that promotes flexible alignment between open roles/projects and available talent. In addition, the executive team should invest in upskilling and reskilling opportunities for its workforce to keep up in an age when digitization is a crux to relevancy.

Key Providers for 2021: Toptal

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/08/2021

The Background:

Well before the pandemic, the agile workforce was a transformational way of getting work done. Businesses were afforded with on-demand means of engaging and sourcing top-tier expertise and skillsets without the laborious processes of old standing in the way. While talent marketplaces and digital staffing outlets aren’t necessarily new to the Future of Work scene, their value has never been more apparent in a business world that craves the dynamic value that the extended workforce brings to the contemporary organization.

Today, businesses require digital staffing channels that can connect businesses with highly-skilled talent in near-real-time, helping to build truly agile workforces that can support and augment the critical ways work is done. Talent marketplaces have experienced incredible (over 700%) growth over the past five years, due to their ability to plug-and-play extended talent directly into the enterprise whilst fully-aligning with the core elements of projects and positions.

Enter Toptal.

Why They Were Selected:

Future of Work Exchange research finds that the pandemic forced 75% of businesses to reimagine how they applied skillsets and expertise to core projects and initiatives given the many shifts happening within the greater world of work. Without access to traditional in-person hiring and requiring solutions that would augment workforce scalability, businesses turned to digital and on-demand staffing platforms to quickly channel top-tier talent into their organizations’ mission-critical endeavors.

The Toptal Enterprise solution is a multi-faceted, services-oriented offering that allows users a range of nimble talent engagement models; by building on its deep talent marketplace and talent community, Toptal has the ability to helps its clients in a variety of ways, leveraging the power of the solution’s network to fill short-term, single-use talent needs or build a fully-scalable team of distributed talent.

In Their Own Words:

Toptal LLC operates a curated network of highly skilled freelance talent with business, design, and technology expertise that allows companies to scale their teams on-demand. Founded in 2010, the company now has the world’s largest fully remote workforce. Toptal has served more than 10,000 clients with a global network of talent exceeding 6,000 people in 100+ countries. For more information, please visit Toptal.com.

The Outlook:

By offering one of the market’s deepest and strongest talent networks through a mix of concierge-like, high-touch services and a client model that drives workforce agility, Toptal is well-positioned to thrive in today’s evolving labor market. Businesses actively crave extended talent that can serve as dynamic responses to continued market challenges; Toptal’s long track record of success in delivering on-demand, top-shelf talent and expertise achieves that goal.

Toptal was an early pioneer in the remote work movement; the company itself operates within a remote infrastructure and has become the world’s largest fully-remote organization. This first-hand experience has allowed the solution to help clients achieve their talent-based goals in the ever-evolving remote and hybrid work workplace. The company even offers deep guidance and consulting to assist customers in building and developing truly agile and successful remote work environments.

Based on these unique advantages and offerings, Toptal is a talent marketplace solution that is tailored for the Future of Work movement.

Here’s How Hybrid Work Can Be Successful in 2022

Business Leadership General Insights HR by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/07/2021

Last week, my father-in-law drove into downtown Boston for a doctor’s appointment. When I spoke to him later that evening, he said, “Chris, thank goodness you don’t have to drive into the city everyday. Took me almost 90 minutes each way.” (We live in the southern suburbs that are ordinarily only 45 minutes away from the city without traffic.) I joked about not missing any of the multi-highway commutes into Boston, and said, “I’m definitely grateful,” understanding that I’ve been working in some type of remote or hybrid setup for the vast majority of my career.

For many others, though, the idea of remote or hybrid work has only been a reality for less than two years. And for their leaders, well, that’s a much different story.

There has been no bigger business-oriented discussion over the past 20+ months than remote and hybrid work. When the pandemic was in its infancy, many businesses were abruptly forced to close down physical locations and institute near-overnight contingency plans to support their workforce operating under remote conditions. For some, these plans went off without a hitch. For many others, however, the adaptation was bumpy.

While many of us had hoped COVID-19 would be in its eventual endemic form by now, new variants (hello, Omicron) are already portraying 2022 as yet another year that some semblance of uncertainty will remain within the business arena under pandemic conditions. If 2020 was a “shock to the system” and 2021 was a year of adapting to new ways of working, then 2022 must be the year that businesses truly develop Best-in-Class hybrid workplaces.

The biggest trick to hybrid work success in 2022 is, first and foremost, realizing that the past 20+ months were filled with ramifications due to the pandemic, but many of these transformational shifts were, in fact, Future of Work accelerants that forever shaped the ways work is done. And, there also needs to be a real understanding of the fundamental differences of remote work (full-time digital infrastructure) and hybrid work (remote work interspersed with in-office days). Going into 2022, businesses that anticipated a full return-to-office plan are quickly figuring out that hybrid workplaces make the most sense. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 72% of businesses are actively planning for the best fit between traditional, in-person structures and remote work, proving that the majority of enterprises understand that hybrid work will become the norm (if it already hasn’t) in 2022 and beyond.

We’re entering year three of a global pandemic and hybrid work is a reality. How businesses tackle this arena in the coming months will ultimately depend on the strategy’s ultimate success:

There’s no “return to normal,” so let’s just accept it. Seriously, just accept it! That’s the recommendation. Hybrid and remote work are both here to stay.
Rethink how core teams operate and allow them to develop their own best ways of getting work done. Blanket recommendations aren’t going to work for those teams that know their functions better than their executive leaders do. We’re already in the midst of 2022 planning, so each team should be taking this time before the holidays to develop a plan for the year ahead that takes into account the access they need to systems, technology, and, most importantly, each other. Cross-enterprise mandates may work for businesses in which the vast, vast majority of workers are operating in a similar field, however, many businesses leverage dynamic teams that can and will benefit from a workplace structure that aligns well with the work they need to do.
Work-life integration can, should, and will be the norm. A play on work-life “balance,” work-life integration is a much better concept for today’s workers that actively experience the unpleasant mixing of work and home life constantly throughout the day (and night). Hybrid work is only successful if leaders cultivate a (digital) workplace environment that encourages workers to take time for themselves and focus on mental wellbeing. How many of us are routinely answering emails after midnight? And, how many of us find ourselves glancing at our laptop screens at the same time we’re cooking dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for the kids? When there are no physical boundaries, workers sometimes feel as if they should work more hours because of the easy access to their devices. However, burnout is still very much a reality for too many professionals; business leaders have to ensure that their remote staff can regulate work-life integration in such a way that they are happy, productive, and well-rested.
Set workers up for success by giving them the tools, software, hardware, and emotional support they need to thrive. I can remember, during my early industry analyst years, running into a problem with my laptop. A quick walk over to the IT lead’s desk combined with a short wait, and, boom, problem solved. Many workers rely on this speed of service and support when our technology or hardware isn’t working properly (after all, IT is always there to help). At home, though? Software issues take considerably longer, while hardware issues can be catastrophic. Business leaders must ensure that their remote workforce has the necessary, up-to-date equipment to work productively at home. Also of note: the empathy factor. Working from home is not as glamorous as it seems if there are young children around or if workers are dealing with personal or health issues. Empathy-led leadership is just as critical in a virtual environment as it is in an in-person one.
Less time in the office does not mean more video calls and meetings. Check-ins are critical, so are one-on-one video calls between leaders and their staff. A constant stream of meetings and conferences, however, can drain productivity. Many businesses attempt to overcompensate for the lack of physical proximity by plugging more virtual conferences on the calendars, often unaware that a worker spending half (or more) of their day on camera or on conference calls. Leaders must whittle down the gatherings and get to the core of collaboration for the sake of productivity and time.
Hybrid work strategies should place flexibility at the core. As we wrote last week: expect the unexpected. There are both encouraging and ominous signs developing around the Omicron variant; whichever way this shakes out, though, business leaders must engage agility and push forward in a dynamic manner. A winter surge of cases could be around the corner, or, (hopefully) not. Planning for either scenario is what will drive success around any hybrid work strategy. After all, health and safety are more important than a simple edict to bring workers back to the office.
Position hybrid work as more than just a workplace strategy. Some talking-head executives have publicly proclaimed that their businesses are “office culture, first and foremost” and that remote or hybrid work doesn’t make sense. There’s no stopping that type of thinking, however, tell the talented individuals out there that would work for your organization if you had flexible workplace options. The Great Resignation is happening for many reasons, and one crucial attribute of this “Big Quit” is that businesses are not offering flexible conditions after 20 months of experiencing (first-hand, mind you) that they are attractive to top-tier talent. The hybrid workplace (and remote work, for that matter) opens up new channels of talent and expertise…a factor which shouldn’t go unnoticed in a continued war for skillsets.

There’s much more to the hybrid work story in 2022 than just the above thoughts. Business leaders must be aware of the benefits of remote and hybrid work beyond the obvious necessities regarding the pandemic’s ramifications. There are data security and intellectual property concerns, as well, which must be accounted for. Questions remain regarding insurance concerning the workforce. However, at the core, the hybrid work model is what will allow businesses to continue thriving and being agile in the face of an evolving arena.

“Talent Sustainability” Is the Next Great Workforce Strategy

Business Leadership Direct Sourcing HR Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/02/2021

It’s not easy out there for hiring managers, HR executives, and talent acquisition leaders. Besides both the personal and professional panic over the Omicron variant (even though we’re still in the throes of Delta’s continued rampage), these roles must consistently battle the ramifications of the so-called “Big Quit,” aka “The Great Resignation,” and otherwise known as “The Great Reassessment,” etc. Around these parts, we understand it’s instead a “talent revolution.”

There have been many theories, approaches, and strategies proposed that could curb some of the effects of The Great Resignation, but even now, there is no cure-all series of processes that can outright solve all of the current talent issues that are plaguing organizations across the world. And, to be honest, having more and more attributes of the traditional employer-employee relationship shifting towards the worker in regards to “power” is something that has been a long time coming. Aspects such as flexibility, empathy, better working conditions, and more inclusive workplace environments are all now table stakes for the modern-day workforce.

One of the key facets of the Future of Work movement in 2021 (and even more so in 2022) is the enterprise’s renewed focus on its human capital and overall depth of skillsets across the greater organization (as 62% of organizations are prioritizing right now, according to Future of Work Exchange research). So many major workforce shifts over the past two years, including the overall desire for real business and workforce agility, mean that enterprises must reimagine how roles, jobs, and projects are executed over the short- and long-term, given the natural progression of market, economic, and corporate factors (not to mention the ongoing uncertainty regarding a true end of the pandemic in the United States and across the world).

In 2022, enterprises must build towards “talent sustainability.” The concept of talent sustainability revolves around the idea that businesses can, through their workforce solutions (such as extended workforce technology, VMS, etc.), direct sourcing channels, and both private and public talent communities, build self-sustaining outlets of talent that 1) map to evolving skills requirements across the enterprise given product development and the progression of the greater organization, 2) reflect existing expertise and skillsets across the enterprise that can be leveraged for real-time utilization, and, 3) allow hiring managers and other talent-led executives to leverage nurture and candidate experience strategies to ensure that all networked workers are amiable and open to reengagement for new and/or continued projects and initiatives.

There are, of course, several caveats to a true talent sustainability strategy that represent several key innovations and forward-thinking ideas. These items, listed below, all meaningfully contribute to this progressive approach:

A workforce management “system of record” (i.e., VMS, extended workforce platform, etc.) that can blend both non-employee and FTE data to generate true “total talent intelligence.”
Access to on-demand talent communities and talent pools via both direct sourcing platforms and talent marketplace solutions.
An artificial intelligence-led architecture that augments and transfers the mobility of talent to where it is needed most.
Machine learning- and AI-led candidate assessment, skills validation, and talent fraud prevention.
A major emphasis on the depth of skillsets, expertise, and human capital available across the greater organization.
Creating a “culture of learning and development” (via upskilling and reskilling opportunities) help the organization hedge against future skill gaps.
Joint collaboration between HR and procurement to facilitate total talent management-like capabilities, and;
Deeper automation of recruitment marketing, referral management, and other facets of direct sourcing to expand talent pools.

Businesses do not want to be caught off-guard when they have a critical need for specific skills, especially in an era when the vaunted “war for talent” rages on at a level never seen before in workforce management history. The Future of Work is many things, and, talent sustainability is becoming one of its most crucial elements.

Let’s Not Forget About Contingent Workforce Management (CWM)

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/01/2021

The extended workforce has revolutionized the ways work gets done, giving businesses an opportunity to react dynamically to real-world problems and challenges while leaning on an agile network of top-tier skillsets and expertise. Future of Work Exchange research has consistently found that enterprises drive incredible value from the utilization of the extended workforce, especially in the face of a continued global pandemic that has reinforced the need for flexible talent, the ability to scale staff, and align mission-critical projects with all-world expertise.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange define the extended workforce as “the evolution of contingent labor and accounts for major transformations and talent shifts happening in today’s world of work and talent. The extended workforce’s strategic value and impact are driven by the utilization of contractors, freelancers, gig workers, talent pool candidates, professional services, and other forms of non-employee talent, and is enabled by innovation within talent acquisition (such as digital staffing, direct sourcing, and talent marketplaces).”

There’s a big piece of the extended workforce value proposition that cannot be ignored: contingent workforce management (CWM). The extended workforce represents evolution and progression, and CWM reinforces the need to apply both tactical and strategic capabilities, as well as the right technology, to drive many layers of value from this growing bucket of talent (which now represents nearly 47% of the average company’s total talent).

The non-employee workforce represents something entirely different than it did years ago. Today’s non-employee talent is a core element to organizational success, enabling businesses with the level of workforce agility required to become more dynamic in response customer, competitor, and market actions. With nearly half of the total workforce considered contingent in some sense, it is incumbent upon businesses to drive maximum value from their extended workforce. Ignoring this area of talent is essentially ignoring almost half of the people running the enterprise – executives that ignore the extended workforce in 2021 are guilty of human capital management malpractice.

There are several nuances to contingent workforce management in 2021, some of which are progressive concepts that reinforce the shifting links between talent and the way work is addressed and done. Other distinctions inherent in today’s extended workforce are direct ramifications of a challenging 2020 and reflect the major shifts in 1) how enterprises now perceive their skillsets and expertise, 2) how these workers support mission-critical projects and initiatives, and 3) how the impact of crucial changes (societal changes, progression of technology, etc.) in the talent acquisition arena will continue to transform how work is done.

In 2021, the average business is actively addressing critical organizational endeavors with a variety of non-employee skillsets and talent, choosing to converge their traditional full-time workers with the unique expertise inherent in the extended talent pool. Future of Work Exchange research finds that the typical business, however, must leverage a series of tool, solutions, and strategies to derive the true value of this workforce:

Contingent workforce management practices have long followed a robust blend of technology, process, and strategy orientation that is marked by efficiencies across the end-to-end spectrum of talent and work. Best-in-Class programs are built on core capabilities that drive consistent talent acquisition approaches, proper optimization of talent channels and sources, and cross-functional coordination between key internal stakeholders.
Technology and innovation are central to the Future of Work movement. As businesses transform the way they engage and leverage talent, and as they undergo major shifts in work optimization, automation will be the ultimate linchpin for these strategies. Best-in-Class organizations are actively relying on several key technology platforms to better engage talent, enhance workforce management, and drive flexibility and agility, such as VMS platforms, extended workforce solutions, digital and on-demand staffing, MSPs, and direct sourcing technology.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of Best-in-Class enterprises have integrated SOW management and services procurement into their core CWM programs, a fact that reinforces the need for businesses to effectively track, monitor, and manage all elements of their extended workforce (not just the contingent laborers). Often augmented by VMS or extended workforce solutions, Best-in-Class businesses have integrated capabilities into their programs that include resource-tracking, milestone and delivery date visibility, full sourcing and bidding processes, and other processes required to manage what is often considered the largest chunk of non-employee workforce spend.

In looking at the role of the extended workforce, the key to success is multifaceted and wide-spanning: embrace the evolution of talent, tap into both traditional and progressive platforms, and leverage next-generation strategies to best align the workplace environment with the ideal-fit talent and skillsets. Top-performing organizations are leading the next era of work optimization because they are actively adapting to the major shifts in the talent and work arena while also cultivating a culture of agility and flexibility.

How Will Omicron Impact the World of Business?

Business Leadership General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/30/2021

Stop me if you’ve heard the story before: the world is seemingly out of the clutches of an easily-transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus, there is talk from epidemiologists regarding the continued efficacy of vaccines against severe disease, and we begin to think the pandemic is beginning its endgame…but then, a new variant of concern pops up, disrupts both real-world plans and our overall hopes, and we’re left wondering if we’re on the verge of yet another wave of COVID that will upend any plans for a return to normalcy.

Over the past several days, a new variant of the novel coronavirus came to light. The Omicron variant reflects two- or three-times the spike protein mutations that its now-infamous cousin, Delta, brought to the world over the past five or six months, and many questions remain regarding the possibility of the variant’s ability to escape vaccine- or infection-led immunity, as well as its transmissibility factor (in what seems like forever ago, the once-dominant Alpha variant was more transmissible than the original lineage of the virus, while Delta’s rampage was largely a result of its increase transmissibility combined with waning vaccine immunity).

For those of you that are interested in learning more about the ongoing pandemic from a virologist’s perspective (truthfully, it’s quite refreshing to read the analysis of a scientific professional when making business predictions), I suggest you check out Dr. Jon Skylar’s “COVID Transmissions,” which are released several times a week. Yesterday’s edition featured these thoughts regarding Omicron:

For right now, I think it is likely that vaccinated people are still well-protected. People who have received an additional booster dose are probably even better protected. If you have not gone out and gotten a booster, I would say that now is the time—provided your healthcare professional of choice agrees.

If you live in the US or Europe, Omicron is not currently the biggest COVID-19 threat you should worry about. People in the US should be concerned about Thanksgiving, upcoming holidays, and travel, which can spread the virus around the country. People in Europe should consider that there is already a lot of Delta variant SARS-CoV-2 causing a surge in cases in your continent, and that raging fire is a much more clear and present danger to you at this time. Other regions have their own unique problems, but I do not think there is currently any place where Omicron variant infections are the biggest pandemic-related worry. Most of these problems, however, can be addressed with ready availability and uptake of vaccines and boosters, and that’s what the world should continue to focus on.

So, what does it mean for the business arena? Well, the first thing to think of is that this tangle with a new variant isn’t the first rodeo for enterprises; we battled through Alpha and are currently contending with Delta, the latter of which will most likely contribute to higher case numbers due to last week’s Thanksgiving holiday. There are expectations that, if transmissibility of Omicron is even two- or three-times that of Delta, that it will become the predominant strain throughout the next several months. Does this portend a winter surge like 2020-2021? Most likely, and hopefully, not; an uptick of vaccinations and boosters will blunt a winter wave the size of what we collectively experienced last year.

However, we are seeing swift action from governmental agencies and a level of heightened concern from news sources. After the Delta variant ripped through the world in a short period of time, there is an expectation that more rigid measures will be taken to avoid an Omicron surge. International flights are banned to and from several countries, some states (like New York) are doubling-down on mask-wearing no matter vaccination status, and, the WHO (yesterday) stated that the global risk from the new variant was “very high.” Here’s how it could affect the business world in the weeks ahead:

Initial confusion over specific details (transmissibility, immunity response, etc.) will result in reinstatement of safety guidelines. Travel bans are the first step, and we’ve seen that in spades over the past several days. Epidemiologists have warned that such bans are not always foolproof, as a stealthy virus like this one is almost certainly already circulating in countries that have not yer publicly sequenced cases within their borders. Until there’s more information regarding its supposed increased transmissibility and the effect of vaccines on the variant, businesses will be awash in confusion and be forced to reinstate mask-wearing for all workers (even vaccinated ones) and other NPIs.
The consistent focus on “scalability” will be exacerbated. While it’ll take at least another week or two before there is more clarity on the variant’s health impact, business leaders must be prepared to scale their staffing up or down based on the colder months ahead. Many, many organizations battled with a winter last year that saw billions of dollars of lost productivity due to the first full cold-weather season in the pandemic. Hiring managers, talent acquisition leads, and HR execs should not necessarily be panicking, but at the very least ensure that talent communities and talent pools are primed for engagement until the uncertainty settles.
There are many, many unanswered questions regarding the impact of Omicron on the economy. The S&P experienced its worst day in nearly 10 months this past Friday, but was up 1.3% yesterday, mainly due to some reports that the Omicron causes mild symptoms in vaccinated and/or previously-infected persons. While this is a combination of anecdotal evidence and very small datasets, it is nonetheless an encouraging sign for the financial market. However, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies this afternoon regarding the impact of Omicron on the American economy, the very opposite could be true. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel stating that current vaccines could potentially “struggle” with the variant wasn’t helpful to Tuesday’s markets, either.
The criticality of “balance” should be at the forefront of every executive’s 2022 planning. Agility has been a way for businesses to both survive and thrive, while consistent and cautious planning is what businesses have long leveraged for the sake of preparedness. The two must converge together in order for the enterprise to weather a possible variant wave; business leaders should institute robust planning for 2022 as continued (i.e., continue planning as if we didn’t face a new variant) but have not just a “Plan B” in place, but rather a series of strategies that could be leveraged if we experience a repeat of last winter. Can return-to-office plans be altered quickly and without disruption? Does the IT infrastructure support a fast move to remote work? If sales execs and other internal stakeholders have resumed traveling, is there an alternative that could work in the name of safety? Business agility promotes real-time responses, while solid planning involves data, information, and intuition. The convergence of the two is the ideal way to meet whatever additional challenges the coronavirus throws our way.

This excellent article at Medscape takes a data-driven approach and reconfirms some elements of the concern while also offering some reassuring evidence. But, the bottom line is this: there’s a couple of more weeks of panic, pondering, concern, and anxiety until the CDC and other agencies better understand the transmissibility and immunity-effect factors. A waiting game, yes, but a critical one.

Regarding the business arena, there’s a generic response, here, as well, that’s worth mentioning: expect the unexpected. Just six months ago, life seemed the most optimistic it had been since January 2020. The Delta variant upended most of those positive emotions and there’s always the possibility that Omicron can, as well. However, if there’s one lesson that we’ve learned since March 2020, it’s this: it’s not necessarily the unexpected scenarios we should be worrying about, but instead just how agile and nimble we can be to react dynamically in the face of whatever occurs over the next several months.

The Power of Talent Communities

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/29/2021

As we wrote last week here on the Future of Work Exchange, there are many innovative platforms today that are changing the dynamics of talent engagement and workforce management. No longer can enterprises traverse the transformative landscape of talent on their own; technology is no longer the wild card for better enterprise outcomes, but rather the foundational core of how businesses can optimize how work gets done through the power of top-tier talent and expertise.

The very concept of “talent communities” lies somewhere within the power of talent pools (via direct sourcing strategies, and, more specifically, talent curation), the global reach of talent marketplaces, and the continued progression of digital staffing technology. These attributes, combined with the evolution of core workforce management technology (such as Vendor Management Systems and extended workforce automation), present business leaders with something that they’ve truly never had before: the ability to build dynamic, on-demand communities of talent that are comprised of various types of workers that can be engaged in such a way that they drive real workforce scalability.

We’ve all heard various phrases tossed around the past several years: talent pools, talent clouds, talent channels, talent marketplaces, etc. In some way, they are unique depending on usage and purpose. However, many more times, they are similar in scope and deliver exactly what drives real-time responses to new enterprise challenges: agile talent. [While I’m aware that these phrases, over time, have come to mean different things to organizations, the evolution of the labor market and its corresponding technology means that “community” is an ideal catch-all term. The one caveat to talent communities is whether or not they are public or private.]

Talent communities, then, can be described as any network a business relies on to engage talent, foster collaboration with independent workers, and augment the overall breadth of the extended workforce. Contemporary direct sourcing technology allows users to build deep networks that resemble social channels in which businesses can both nurture and engage talent, while today’s VMS and extended workforce platforms offer functionality for injecting that talent directly into organizational recruitment streams. Talent marketplaces, while also offering end-to-end workforce management automation, also play a pivotal role in pushing talent from their networks to directly where hiring managers need them.

Together, these solutions offer businesses the opportunity to build robust talent communities that serve several purposes, including:

Creating a groundswell of skillsets and expertise for ongoing talent acquisition initiatives. Just knowing that businesses can leverage on-demand accessibility to top-shelf talent means that any new project or initiative will be supported with the necessary skillsets for completion. In an ongoing war for talent and amidst the so-called “Great Resignation,” many business leaders can be assured that critical objectives will leverage the best-fit talent when, where, and however it is required. Many industries today are facing staff shortages that are draining revenue, alienating customers (and consumers), and, worst of all, destroying productivity. Agile skillsets available in near-real-time? A boon for the enterprises that are feeling the ramifications of “The Big Quit.”
Driving true workforce scalability. “Scalability” took on new meaning during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some businesses faced a revenue shock that forced them to lay off chunks of staff, while others experienced a spike in demand for products and services. The extended workforce became the de-facto face of scalability, and one reason that direct sourcing and talent pools took on such a high profile was that enterprises had the ability to tap into an engaged community of workers that were ready for new opportunities. And, as the ebb-and-flow rollercoaster petered out for some organizations, the temporary staff they had leveraged were free to take on new projects with other businesses.
Fostering a level of engagement with talent that helps to develop a better overall candidate experience. The concept of the “candidate experience” didn’t begin during the era of COVID, but well before the crisis. However, the pandemic and its continued labor ramifications (yes, the Great Resignation) exacerbated the criticality of the overall talent experience; business leaders have been pumping more time, energy, and resources into building and curating deeper talent pools by leveraging the power of the employer brand and all that is associated with it (positive culture, spirit of charity, social responsibility, etc.). Too, an enhanced level of candidate engagement is often what is needed to sway passive candidates and convince them to join a talent community.
Improving the overall hiring manager experience. Often overlooked because of the bullet directly above, there should be tremendous focus on the overall hiring manager experience, given that these leaders are the ones that are at the forefront of talent engagement and talent acquisition activity. Hiring managers are facing somewhat of an existential crisis: they, too, are feeling the anxiety of staff shortages with added pressure from several stakeholders and functional units to find each department a top-tier level of talent in a short amount of time. Talent communities give hiring managers a built-in leg up on their engagement activity, enabling with them on-demand access to a network of pre-vetted, known, and highly-skilled candidates…making their overall experience that much more seamless (and positive).

We experienced first-hand what is was like to live in a business world perpetuated by uncertainty and consistent worry over the future. The necessary agility required by businesses to navigate the first year of the pandemic was driven by initiatives that began before the crisis took shape, such as utilization of direct sourcing strategies and digital staffing channels. We’ve been learning (actively, mind you) that thriving during the second full year of the pandemic occurred mainly in those organizations that realized the power of talent communities would provide longer-term and deeper workforce scalability whilst boosting initiatives around emotional connections to candidates, and the development of networks that would amplify the workforce agility that is now a prerequisite to moving onto yet another year that will be challenging given the evolving nature of a public health crisis that seems to throw roadblocks even when things seem hopeful and optimistic.

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.

Happy Thanksgiving!

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/24/2021

The Future of Work Exchange is grateful for all of the wonderful feedback and the incredible response to our new destination site. We hope that you have a relaxing long weekend with family and friends. Enjoy the holiday…we’ll be back on Monday!

A Sneak Peek of the Upcoming “Direct Sourcing 2.0” Research Study

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/23/2021

Heading into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were the top two priorities for businesses in regards to talent acquisition and workforce management. The strategy and its programmatic components (talent curation, talent pool segmentation, talent nurture, etc.) represented a way for enterprises to tap into a veritable “bench” of talent that is curated by the organization (and would typically include silver medalists, alumni, past contractors and freelancers, candidates driven to career portals or job boards, etc.). By acting as its own recruiting firm, the business (and its hiring managers) are able to reduce hard costs, improve time-to-fill rates, and enhance the overall alignment between open positions and candidates.

Direct sourcing went from being an additional way to find talent in pre-pandemic times to, today, 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 “The Great Resignation,” the lowest unemployment rate since the pandemic began, and “power” shifting to the worker, the continued transformation of talent engagement is now an enterprise 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?

The answer lies within the evolution of direct sourcing, where the strategy, program, and its associated technology not only take into account core attributes such as talent curation and talent pool segmentation, but also deeper, critical aspects like the candidate experience, candidate skills assessment, the hiring manager experience, automated recruitment marketing, going “beyond the brand,” and the overall “reach” of direct sourcing across all elements of enterprise recruitment.

And now, a sneak peek of the Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0:

While direct sourcing as a strategic workforce program is relatively new when compared to more established areas, such as contingent workforce management and talent acquisition, its impact in highly-competitive job markets can be game-changing. Truth be told, even basic direct sourcing programs can drive value through a combination of on-demand, plug-and-play talent, and hard-cost savings. But the pandemic’s impact on the workforce has dramatically accelerated market shifts. Today, talent is scarce and comes at a premium.

As a result, workers are demanding greater flexibility from their employers. They are more focused on work-life balance, while also desiring greater independence. Among many things, the “Great Resignation” of 2021 indicates a seismic shift in power towards the worker and away from the employer. This may or may not be permanent, but businesses, nonetheless, face constant pressure to deepen human capital and future-proof skillsets within their total workforce. Now, more than ever, enterprises require a steady flow of new workers to keep pace with their competitors. Now, more than ever, enterprises need superior sourcing capabilities. Now, more than ever, enterprises need a new approach.

Now is the time for “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” the next generation of sourcing strategies that blend innovative solutions with a renewed focus on the candidate experience and an ability to use talent pools to populate the key projects and roles that require expertise and experience. Today’s business climate has accelerated the need for a reimagined approach to candidate engagement. As the market for talent continues to tighten amidst the lingering pandemic and a surging number of resignations, businesses find themselves in a new kind of “war for talent,” one that is far more extensive and complicated than anything experienced pre-pandemic.

The Age of Extended Workforce Technology Innovation

General Insights Solution Providers Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/22/2021

Nearly five years ago, the merger between Vendor Management System (VMS) giants Beeline and IQNavigator was a monumental event in the workforce management solutions industry. Two-and-a-half years earlier, software conglomerate SAP purchased Fieldglass for $1B, by far the biggest transaction in the VMS technology arena up until that time. And, just three years ago, business spend management leader Coupa purchased DCR Workforce, with the solution now integrated into the platform’s core offering and known as Coupa Contingent Workforce.

These were watershed moments in the history of workforce management software, with four major VMS players undergoing mass-scale transformations that would forever shape the future of the industry.

Late last week, enterprise software giant Workday announced that it agreed to acquire fast-growing VMS solution VNDLY in a $510M deal. The monetary terms of the soon-to-be-confirmed transaction sent shockwaves throughout the industry; VNDLY’s “vendor-friendly” and API- and integration-flexible software quickly became an enterprise-grade platform in a short period of time (it was founded in 2017), impacting the world of work by presenting both HR and procurement practitioners (as well as Managed Service Providers) with another technological option in a fairly mature software space.

The acquisition of VNDLY certainly seems like a market-shifting event, however, the world of work and talent is markedly different than it was even three years ago. Thus, we need to look at this event from a different lens than the ones we traditionally use to measure the impact of a major market acquisition.

Yes, this is a major score for Workday, no matter how we view the deal today. Workday invests half of what SAP did over seven years ago for the one the industry’s fastest-growing and most flexible VMS platforms. VNDLY’s strengths lie in its advanced cloud infrastructure, incredibly strong provisioning tools, robust SOW management and service procurement modules, truly agile analytics, and real-time workforce visibility. And, its core automation is incredibly configurable and designed to be a flexible VMS platform. The opportunity for Workday is clear: sell their HR clients on the merits of bringing procurement-led vendor management automation into the HR tech fold. A tall task, for sure, considering that one of several visions for the original SAP Fieldglass deal revolved around the synergies with SAP SuccessFactors (many of which have not yet been realized).

However, the workforce solutions industry is different than other business software realms. When SAP bought Fieldglass (remember, for a BILLION dollars), it was market-shifting. There were a handful of leaders in the space that felt the impact immediately. It was the same for the Beeline-IQN merger; it transformed the market heading into 2017 and opened the doors for a new way of looking at vendor management software. Coupa buying DCR was a move that spoke directly to the company’s appetite for addressing a major gap in the procurement technology market.

The VNDLY acquisition, and especially its price-point, are eye-popping. This is amazing news for the workforce management space, especially for a team that grew from startup mode to enterprise technology faster than anyone else. They deserve major kudos and the future is indeed bright for VNDLY and its technology as it arms itself with the power of Workday’s vast global reach (and deep, deep R&D resources). We cannot, however, get too focused on “prisoner of the moment” analysis here; there’s so much more to our industry than a single provider changing hands to the tune of a half-billion dollars.

It is critical to remind ourselves that we are truly living in an age of workforce technology innovation. Utmost is redefining the concept of total talent management and providing near-unrivaled workforce visibility to its clients. PRO Unlimited is actively transforming itself into a forward-thinking, end-to-end platform for all talent and workforce activity. Beeline morphed fundamental pieces of itself by offering extended workforce technology that traverses beyond its powerful VMS platform (and tapping into the reach of its talent technology ecosystem to do so). Platforms such as ELEVATE, Eqip, and Pixid are bringing unique viewpoints to the market.

We also need to look no further than the direct sourcing technology arena for even more instances of workforce management innovation. WorkLLama is one of the most exciting and groundbreaking platforms in the industry. LiveHire’s direct sourcing automation is revolutionizing talent pool strategies. Opptly is bringing a new technological voice to the market based on decades of workforce management expertise.

Companies like Upwork are reconceiving the role of digital staffing by blending a deep talent marketplace with innovative, end-to-end workforce management functionality. The Mom Project’s robust technology and deep talent marketplace position it as a truly unique and inventive solution. Talmix is bringing to market a unique blend of talent marketplace and direct sourcing functionality. Platforms like Prosperix are bringing a Future of Work dynamic into the workforce solutions fold.

To dig even further into what others in the space are doing, let’s revisit PRO Unlimited’s past 12 months of activity: the company bought leading rate management solution PeopleTicker, expanded its European MSP reach with the acquisition of Brainnet Group, entered into the industry’s first partnership with the unique Eightfold AI, bought fellow market-leading MSP/VMS hybrid Workforce Logiq, and then, most recently, acquired the dynamic direct sourcing platform WillHire.

Simply put: the workforce solutions arena is in a much different place than it was several years ago. Innovation is rampant today, and, the greater workforce technology ecosystem (VMS, EWS, direct sourcing, digital staffing, talent marketplaces, etc.) are collectively reimagining how businesses 1) drive efficiencies around the engagement and management of the extended workforce, 2) derive workforce scalability through dynamic engagement automation, 3) augment the inherent flexibility of extended talent, and, most critically, 4) aid how businesses get work done.

On the Thursday afternoon edition of Mad Money (with Jim Cramer), Workday’s Chief Strategy Officer, Pete Schlampp, stated that the focus on the VNDLY acquisition was “attaching to this trend in the pandemic; workers want more flexibility and companies want to have more control over their extended workforce.” He added that businesses want “to be able to flex and expand quickly” and the VNDLY acquisition will allow Workday users to execute total workforce optimization.

Schlampp is correct in the sense that businesses want more scalability and that workers want more flexibility, however, linking these major workforce attributes solely with the COVID-19 pandemic is absolutely selling short the continued growth, evolution, and impact of the extended workforce over the past several years, as well as the vast amount of innovation that has been developed and offered by a wide variety of platforms for the years before the public health crisis hit. Consider that:

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research pegged the penetration of the extended workforce at 43% of all business talent…before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, that statistic has grown to 47% and will soon hit 50%.
Our research found that, prior to March 2020, 21% of the average company’s workforce was working remotely or in a hybrid model (with that number expected to double by the end of 2021, according to those same businesses).
“Workforce agility” was the main focus of workforce and talent management for consecutive years in Ardent and FOWX research dating back to 2017 through our most recent research study (summer 2021), and;
“Total workforce management” and “total talent management” have, for the past decade and long before the pandemic, been major goals for businesses that want to blend contingent workforce management with human capital management and truly optimize how talent is found, engaged, sourced, and managed. As we learned with SAP Fieldglass and SAP SuccessFactors, just simply owning two distinct pieces of that total talent management puzzle does not equate to a easy “switch” that can be turned on for businesses that want to manage all enterprise talent under a single solution.

The ultimate point is this: today, it’s not just about managing suppliers and vendors and merely augmenting a contingent workforce management agenda on the world of talent, but rather looking at how to manage the workforce effectively in optimizing how work is done. Several years ago, a VNDLY acquisition by Workday would be the biggest transformative shift across the workforce management technology landscape. Today, it represents one of many innovative approaches to getting work done.