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

Key Providers for 2021: Prosperix

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/26/2021

The Background:

There is no doubt that the events of the past 18 months brought about a level of change to business the likes that had never been seen before. The very attributes of the Future of Work movement were accelerated, including the power of remote and hybrid work, advancements in talent engagement and talent acquisition, and the transformation of how business leaders structured their work-based strategies and approaches.

Given the symbiotic relationship between talent, technology, and evolutionary business thinking, there is added weight to how the many aspects of the Future of Work were accelerated in the face of global business disruption. As organizational leaders continue to reimagine what workforce management means to their enterprises, the accompany technology must work harmoniously with the alterations across the greater economic and labor markets.

Enter Prosperix.

Why They Were Selected:

A little less than a year ago, Prosperix operated under the “Crowdstaffing” brand; this solution was known for many of its industry-leading pieces of functionality that promoted a powerful “user experience” regarding applicant and candidate data tracking, analysis, comparison, and presentation, built on top of the solution’s foundational hiring marketplace (a built-in network of thousands of ready-to-hire talent suppliers).

The newly-rebranded Prosperix solution not only builds on these strengths, but also offers technology that truly allows its users to harness the power of the Future of Work movement and tap into the greater value of the agile workforce.

In Their Own Words:

Prosperix is a Silicon Valley-based workforce innovation company developing software for the Future of Work. Our contingent workforce and total talent management solutions enable businesses to build a powerful workforce that delivers extraordinary outcomes. The main tenets that drive the company’s philosophy are:

Today’s workforce must be global, empowered, agile, transparent, high-performing, and diverse.
The right people can dramatically impact the success of an organization.
When individuals and organizations are aligned, great results and outcomes are possible.
Innovation that combines technology and people in a meaningful way is the path to the future.

With our technology, businesses can access amazing talent from anywhere and everywhere, on-demand and without limitations, allowing them to grow exponentially by scaling their workforce quickly and easily. Our end-to-end solution includes applicant tracking, vendor management, connected talent pools, direct sourcing, artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, personal curation, and easy-to-use technology in a single, cloud-based, fully-integrated software suite.

The Outlook:

Prosperix’s messaging is incredibly unique in today’s workforce solutions market, leading with an edge that differentiates the company from others in the space. Understanding that it is the convergence between the “human” and “technology” elements of workforce management that will help both candidates and businesses prosper in the face of continued evolution across the greater world of talent and work.

Prosperix is positioned for incredible growth and impact heading into 2022, with offerings that traverse beyond mere workforce management. On top of an already-industry-leading hiring marketplace, the solution’s direct sourcing, talent pools, and VMS offerings are aligned with the company’s overall vision and purpose: provide human, workforce, and business prosperity in a time when the Future of Work movement is table stakes for organizations that want to thrive during these changing times.

The Great Resignation, The Great Reassessment, The Big Quit…Let’s Just Call It What It Is: A Talent Revolution

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/25/2021

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 acknowleding 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.

HR’s Impact on the Future of Work (Upcoming Webinar)

Business Leadership HR by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/22/2021

For years, there was an incredible gap between procurement and HR regarding management of non-employee labor. While each function could bring its unique expertise and power to how the greater organization facilitated its agile talent, the truth is that both sides were typically far apart in developing a convergence that could benefit the entire enterprise.

Today, the game has changed. As the contingent workforce evolved and transformed into the extended workforce, HR’s role has become critical in how the average organization integrates agile talent into how work is done. In fact, HR now has the opportunity to recalibrate how it harnesses the power of the Future of Work movement to drive enhanced management of extended talent and contribute to overall enterprise success.

As HR and talent acquisition executives begin planning for the year ahead, it is critical that they employ a series of Future of Work-led strategies and solutions for not only optimizing how work is done, but enhancing the way talent boosts revenue, productivity, and competitive advantages. I’m excited to join Utmost next week (Thursday, October 28, 11am ET) for an exclusive webcast that will:

Unveil the five strategies that every HR executive should include in 2022 planning.
Discuss why “HR psychology” must be reimagined in order for this function in the year ahead.
Highlight how HR can leverage emerging technology to enhance extended workforce management, and;
Detail HR’s ultimate role in how work is both addressed and optimized.

Utmost’s VP of Marketing, Neha Goel, will be co-presenting with me as we showcase some new Ardent Partners/Future of Work Exchange research on the evolving role of HR in not only extended workforce management, but within the Future of Work movement, as well. Click here or on the image below to register for next week’s event. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Contingent Workforce Weekly, Episode 607: How the Future of Work Will Transform 2022 Workforce Planning

Podcast by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/20/2021

An all-new edition of the Contingent Workforce Weekly episode, sponsored by DZConneX, a Yoh company, highlights how major Future of Work accelerants (digital talent acquisition, remote and hybrid work, etc.) will converge with non-technological elements (such as empathy-led leadership) to transform how businesses execute 2022 workforce planning.

Tune into Episode 607 of Contingent Workforce Weekly below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.

Talent, Technology, and Transformation are the Future of Work (Upcoming Webinar)

Contingent Workforce General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/19/2021

For the past several years, the simplest way I could define the Future of Work was the optimization of work via talent, technology, and transformative thinking. While the Future of Work has evolved mightily given specific accelerants and the advent of innovative new tools and strategies, the foundation is the same. This year’s Future of Work Exchange Report for 2021 (formerly titled The State of Contingent Workforce Management) found that:

The pandemic’s main effects on enterprise talent were squarely focused on a series of interconnected attributes related to the workforce, especially in regard to the type of worker required to meet fast-changing needs and requirements of the business and the means in which to manage it effectively.
Traditional workforce management required new approaches to assure ongoing operations, given the mighty (125%!) increase in the utilization of remote and hybrid work models.
Going into 2020, 43.5% of the average organization’s total workforce was considered “contingent.” In 2021, that number sits at 47% and there are strong indications that this percentage will grow as the transformation of talent and work continues forward.
82% of businesses stated in our study that the agile workforce enabled flexibility and scalability at a time when it was most needed. As markets recovered, enterprises had the ability (via talent marketplaces, talent pools and communities, as well as traditional staffing suppliers, etc.) to ramp up hiring to meet growing demand.
The impact of workplace culture evolution in 2021 means that more workers, having experienced more individual control and responsibility over their work days, would like to retain some level of control over when and how they get work done – from the hours that they work to how they physically address their workspaces. As businesses push deeper into the realm of digital transformation, the remote work-specific facets of worker and workplace flexibility are not only better-enabled (via enhanced collaboration tools and unified communications), but more realistic pieces of the Future of Work movement, and, most importantly, a central asset to overall work optimization, and;
The enterprise’s renewed focus on its human capital and overall depth of skillsets across the greater organization (as 62% of organizations are prioritizing in 2021 and beyond, according to FOWX research) means that businesses require the necessary tools, solutions, and strategies for engaging, managing, and driving value from their extended workforce.

I’m excited to join Beeline’s Judy Bumgarner (their Director of Product Strategy) on an exclusive webcast TOMORROW at 11am ET to discuss the new research, the above bullets, and, of course, the Future of Work today and into 2022. Click here or on the below image to register.

Modern EOR, Agile Workforce Transformation, and the Future of Work: An Interview with myBasePay Co-Founder, Angela Alberty

Business Leadership Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/18/2021

myBasePay is transforming what it means to be an agile workforce management technology platform. The Future of Work Exchange is excited to welcome the solution’s co-founder and Chief Business Officer, Angela Alberty, for an engaging discussion on the Future of Work, the evolution of the agile workforce, and more:

Christopher J. Dwyer: Thanks for joining us, Angela. It’s great to chat once again. Tell us a little bit about your background.

Angela Alberty: Thank you for coordinating, Chris, its an honor to be able to join, and congrats on the launch of FOWX! Well, my background is probably consistent with most in this space, meaning: I didn’t necessarily grow up wanting to be in the staffing / human capital space. But one year out of college I quickly found myself in a position at an agency and the rest has consisted of the last 10 years in the employer of record (EOR) space, with a specialization in the contingent workforce sector for some of the largest EOR providers out there. A year ago, I had the opportunity to partner with Cesar Jimenez and co-found myBasePay. With similar backgrounds, we launched in March of this year and its been exciting to see our brand grow into one of the new waves of the modern EOR platform, with an aligned mission in representing the advocacy for the temporary worker.

CJD: One thing that I’ve experienced thus far getting to know you and the myBasePay team is the camaraderie between your executive team. How important is that level of peer engagement when it comes to MBP’s level of success thus far?

AA: Its tremendously important and in terms of gauging it adequately, its been pragmatic on what I would consider our progress thus far. We each lend different areas of insight and have leveraged a team with the same level of conscious input and subject matter expertise. Adding to that is a layer of genuine companionship that has just organically seeped into the culture we’ve established amongst our staff. So I definitely feel that there is this positive, residual effect that our internal identity has benefited from as well.

CJD: You spent time in the staffing and contingent workforce industries before joining MBP. How does that expertise help the platform solve the problems it was designed to do?

AA: Well, I’ve been fortunate to see the contingent workforce ecosystem from many different angles: working with teams of general counsels to administer contracts, communicating with brokerages to establish risk management programs and portfolios of business, onboarding and processing payroll for hundreds of temporary workers under different verticals, working in and out of various VMS platforms for day-to-day procedures and running costs analysis to build and devise implementations for teams of contingent worker types while gaining fundamental concepts of HR and compliance oversight. These are all areas that are vital to a proper formation of an EOR business model, and coupled with the expertise our team brings to tie the technology behind the user and worker’s experience within our platform, are truly what we want to enable to solve these problems.

CJD: I very much admire the main goals of the myBasePay solution: provide EOR functionality, support contingent workforce management, and connect businesses with top-tier talent. How did the team develop this unique approach?

AA: You know, I think the best way to answer this question can probably apply to so many different areas of life in general: you live and experience the problems you eventually seek out to fix. I’ve mentioned this in prior presentations of our company but we’ve lived in the shoes of the independent contractor on 60-day payment terms, the temporary-waged worker trying to make ends meet during the holidays because they don’t qualify for PTO, the staffing agency owner reading through mounds of legal language to qualify as a supplier, the processor trying to gauge the risk threshold for a worker’s classification, and the enterprise customer dealing with a retention issue in their contingent workforce management (CWM) program because the benefits are subpar (or in some cases, non-existent). These experiences have been foundational in the creation of our goals.

CJD: One major strength is myBasePay’s support of the contractor, freelancer, and gig worker community (by offering the benefits that are normally out of reach). How will this help MBP continue its differentiated approach from others in the market?

AA: You said perfectly when you mentioned the “others” in the market. The EOR concept is nothing new; it has been around for decades, in fact. But we knew from day one our differentiator was going to begin with our prioritization around the worker. Market conditions are ever more poignant on the control that the candidate has in this current climate. But beyond that, what is the indirect benefit that an enhanced benefits structure can lend itself to in a more successful CWM program? That’s exactly the sort of analytical approach we take with each new opportunity. We firmly believe and have been able to showcase through various case studies that an enhanced benefits model can improve retention, increase productivity, and establish loyalty while offering a more aligned level of proper talent curation.

CJD: We’re entering yet another inflection point for the agile workforce, especially after eighteen months of a pandemic. Where does non-employee talent go from here?

AA: Simply put: UP! In fact, the pandemic has pressed the “fast-forward” button on an already increasing segment of the market. The full-time worker model is, dare I say, reaching antiquated levels. Tenure is dropping, the “Great Resignation” is here, generational impacts are shifting talent’s prioritization where increased skillsets, work-life balance and independence are more important than ever, and enterprise organizations are seeing the value of a more formalized CWM programs (hence the direct sourcing trend we see happening). Times are changing and many reports, including those found within Ardent Partners and FOWX, indicate more investment, participation, workforce market share, etc. being devoted to the non-employee talent segment and the formalization of the programs/departments that will need to grow in order to properly support it.

CJD: What does the Future of Work mean to you?

AA: I’ve asked and have been asked this dozens of times; it’s almost reached a level of philosophical surmise. I am simplistic on this approach: the Future of Work ends and begins with the worker and the technology that encapsulates this notion. The Future of Work is knowing that any person can go online and within seconds have dozens of opportunities waiting for them. How we enhance their working life thereafter with the technology that enterprises and third-party platforms invest in to create that optimum experience will be the ones at the top in the quest for talent. That, to me, is the essence of the Future of Work.

What is the Future of Direct Sourcing?

Direct Sourcing Talent Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/14/2021

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 Future of Work Exchange‘s upcoming Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study later this month.

The Mom Project’s $80M Series C Funding Represents Opportunity for Both Moms and the Digital Staffing Industry

Diversity and Inclusion Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/13/2021

Several weeks ago here at the Future of Work Exchange, we recognized The Mom Project as one of our select “Key Providers for 2021,” an exclusive set of solutions and platforms that are disrupting the workforce technology spectrum and impacting how work is addressed and done. In that feature, we wrote:

“The Mom Project is uniquely positioned to continue its rampant growth in the market from three perspectives: 1) it is one of the most visible workforce management platforms that is actively prioritizing and truly aligning DE&I within the very fabric of its functionality, 2) it offers one of the industry’s deepest communities of gender- and ethnically-diverse skillsets and talent, and, 3) its progressive technology platform enables a spectrum of innovative talent acquisition, talent engagement, and workforce management solutions that harness the incredible power of artificial intelligence and machine learning while forming a foundation of total talent management automation.”

So, in essence, it may not be so surprising that last week, The Mom Project secured $80M in Series C funding that will bolster the solution’s standing in the digital staffing marketplace, help it enhance its already-robust suite of functionality, and, most importantly, continue to connect talented mothers with open jobs, roles, and positions. This top-tier level of funding will augment the company’s teams and add additional headcount while boosting product development, a critical factor in an ever-evolving industry.

“We’ve demonstrated to the market that betting on moms is good business,” said Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder of The Mom Project. “We’ve seen 20x growth over the last three years and are eager to leverage this momentum and the trust and equity we’ve earned with moms and our customers and partners to continue building and expanding the reach of category-defining solutions that reshape how work evolves to meet the needs of modern families.”

FOWX analysis of this major market activity finds that the Leeds Illuminate-led funding (with participation from existing investors 7GC, Initialized Capital, OCA Ventures, Citi, High Alpha, Grotech Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank) for The Mom Project is both an opportunity for both moms and the digital staffing industry at-large:

This sizable level of funding, more than anything else, puts the focus on getting talented mothers, women, and diverse candidates back into the workforce. Just a couple of days ago, we wrote that 309,000 women left the workforce in September alone (on top of the tens of thousands of job losses across other backgrounds and races). The Future of Work Exchange fully expects The Mom Project to boost the power of its deep and diverse talent community, which was already a sizable component of its overall offering. With thousands of new and talented individuals added each day, the added investment will certainly help the platform expand its global reach, as well.
The Mom Project will be able to enhance its market-leading functionality in 2022 and beyond. AI-led neural network engine, equitable self-learning technology, functionality that takes into account DE&I and customer culture in candidate-matching and workforce planning…the Series C level of funding will allow The Mom Project to build on these innovative features as well as its unique WerkLabs solution, which harnesses the power of predictive analytics, workplace data, and talent experience intelligence to help enterprises design and develop the most inclusive and productive workplace environments.
This investment reflects the continued growth and impact of the digital staffing industry, which includes both digital staffing platforms and on-demand talent marketplaces. Ardent Partners, which has been covering the digital staffing space for nearly a decade, has found that there has been a 7x increase in the utilization of digital staffing solutions over the past six years, with more and more businesses opting to augment their greater talent acquisition strategies with on-demand talent channels that provide highly-qualified, pre-vetted, and project-aligned workers. A digital staffing outlet such as The Mom Project (which offers both workforce management functionality and a deep community of talent) securing $80 million in funding reinforces just how powerful digital staffing can be in the evolving world of talent and work. As businesses develop more flexibility into how they structure their workforce, digital staffing will become a relied-upon range of technology to enhance talent engagement.

Key Providers for 2021: Workforce Logiq

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/12/2021

The Background:

Several years ago, Ardent Partners predicted in its annual State of Contingent Workforce Management research series (now re-titled under the banner of the Future of Work Exchange) that the world would eventually experience a workforce in which 50% was comprised of non-employee talent (including freelancers, temporary workers, independent contractors, gig workers, and professional services). Today, that number sits at 47% and shows no signs of slowing down in terms of growth and impact, meaning that the “50% threshold” is fast approaching the world of business.

As the ever-evolving attributes of the Future of Work movement cascade into how businesses find, engage, source, and manage their total talent, it is critical that they leverage the next-generation solutions that can effectively transform workforce intelligence and drive long-term value from the agile workforce.

Enter Workforce Logiq.

Why They Were Selected:

Workforce Logiq has come a long way since its days under the ZeroChaos brand, a Managed Service Provider (MSP)/Vendor Management System (VMS) hybrid that had massive staying power across various global regions and large sectors and industries. The rebrand to Workforce Logiq in early 2019 wasn’t just a simple swap of corporate names, but rather a true technological transformation that heralded a new age of total talent intelligence and workforce management innovation.

Today, Workforce Logiq is a leading workforce management solution provider that effectively blends deep human expertise with next-level artificial intelligence and total talent insights. Its predictive analytics engine is an industry differentiator, enabling their customers to leverage on-demand data to execute more educated talent-based decisions in a time when agility is paramount. In fact, Future of Work Exchange research finds that 64% of businesses plan to leverage AI-led tools to support talent retention and related issues within the next two years.

In Their Own Words:

Workforce Logiq provides predictive workforce management solutions powered by an unmatched combination of human and data-driven intelligence. We help organizations reimagine and transform how they achieve greater management, performance, and financial control over their global workforce and talent supply chains.

Our global solution portfolio includes: Managed Service Provider (MSP), Vendor Management System (VMS), Statement of Work (SOW), Employer of Record (EoR), Direct Sourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), and Employment Screening.

The Workforce Logiq Total Talent Intelligence® platform is a proprietary combination of predictive analytics, expert guides, and proprietary technology powered by sixteen patented and patent-pending innovations, including:

Talent Retention Risk (TRR) Score: benchmarks employment volatility within a company, and potential worker interest in unsolicited recruiting approaches.
IQ Location Optimizer: identifies the best and biggest pool of available contingent and full-time talent – at the best cost.
IQ Rate Optimizer: benchmarks how much an organization needs to pay to attract and win contingent and full-time talent based on unique, company-specific workplace characteristics.
IQ Talent Diversity: predicts gender and ethnic statistics on our recruiting database of 100 million professional and knowledge worker candidates – helping organizations make smarter, confident, and more proactive decisions on how to boost employee representation.
And more!

In today’s hyper-competitive talent market, we are committed to helping companies make more informed talent decisions faster, earlier, and more cost-effectively.

The Outlook:

One of the most impressive pieces of Workforce Logiq’s deep technology stack is its ENGAGE Talent offering, which provides real predictive intelligence regarding active and passive candidates while allowing users a real-time picture of how talent is situated across the world. Combined with Workforce Logiq’s longstanding commitment to workforce and data insights (which permeate throughout the entirety of both its MSP services and VMS platform), the solution will continue its reign as a mature and powerful workforce management solution.

Building on top of already-robust SOW management, services procurement, and direct sourcing offerings, Workforce Logiq was already primed for continued success in the months and years ahead before it was acquired by PRO Unlimited over the summer. The two organizations, together, will provide an even deeper end-to-end solution that truly encapsulates the evolution of the Future of Work movement.

The “Age of the Worker” Still Has Too Many Disparities

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/11/2021

Across the world of talent and work, there are many factors in play that reflect perhaps the most volatile job market we have experienced in business history. The Great Recession of 2008-2009 brought a swift tumble to the labor pool, however, the economic recovery began relatively quickly and “only” hit a peak of 10.6% unemployment (in January 2010). Comparatively, in April 2020, during the earliest and perhaps the most confounding times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate hovered around 14.7% (and considered higher in some circles given the panic and confusion around that period of time).

For all of the horror, unspeakable challenges, and both personal and professional disruptions that we all have faced over the past eighteen months, the labor market’s initial plunge was only the beginning of a series of major issues for the workforce that continue to this day.

In September, U.S. businesses only added 194,000 new jobs, a figure that shocked economists and labor market analysts alike. In addition, however, the true unemployment rate hit 4.8% in September; while this figure may seem like somewhat of a positive note amidst a weak rate of added positions, it’s really just hiding the many disparities that remain across today’s total workforce. And if we really want to dig deeper into how the lowest unemployment rate of the pandemic thus far just masks massive inequalities, there’s another stat that should shake business leaders to the core:

In September alone, 309,000 women (above the age of 20) dropped out of the workforce, according to the U.S. Labor Department. 309,000.

No, that is not a typo. 309,000 talented and hardworking women left the labor market within a 30-day span. That’s 309,000 women who are not part of a so-called “Age of the Worker.” These are women who are hitting pause on their careers due to factors way beyond their control.

Unemployment is low. The economy is thriving despite a Delta variant surge. One miraculous coronavirus vaccine has been approved and in use as a booster, with the two other major shots on their way. However, these same disparities in job growth are also occurring in other segments, such as in black men and both black and Hispanic women.

What is happening here?

The main problem is this: no matter how great the economy looks and no matter how low unemployment rates are, there is a foundational gap between 1) what we conceive the workforce to look like, and, 2) what that actual workforce looks like when broken out into gender, race, and cultural background, due to continued uncertainty in peripheral areas of the market that have a ripple effect on working mothers and people of color.

As we discussed previously here on the Future of Work Exchange, any level of uncertainty in the world of working parents is catastrophic. Any new COVID cluster in a school that eschews masks and precautions forces those parents to pause their professional lives and attend to remote learning. The continued shortage of staffing within daycare and pre-kindergarten facilities is astounding; too many working parents are having to make the difficult choice between their business personas and their roles as parents of young children.

Two years ago, if a third-grader woke up in the morning with a sore throat and runny nose, a parent could chalk it up to seasonal allergies or the common cold and send him/her off to class without a worry. Today, quarantining is disruptive and COVID testing can cause massive delays in a return to the live classroom. While some educational departments are leveraging “Test and Stay” models that enable quicker returns if children are asymptomatic, there are tens of thousands more that are not.

Those workers that are “between” pre-pandemic careers and a more settled return to the workforce are unsure of what is on the horizon. There’s no crystal ball that will tell them if the coming fall and winter seasons will spark yet another COVID surge. Millions of workers that were once toiling in more blue-collar-oriented positions are reevaluating their careers entirely, fighting as hard as they can for better pay, safer working conditions, and more flexibility in how they work before returning to work. Unfortunately, gender- and race-led disparities are caught in the middle of all of this and are suffering as a result.

So, what’s the answer here? It’s not so simple. The fact that organizations have implemented new diversity-led measures for gender diversity (82% of businesses are currently implementing these measures, according to FOWX research), cultural diversity (72%), and generational diversity (65%) speaks volumes about where businesses want to be, however, the hard truth is that they just aren’t there yet…and it’s going to take some time.

There are reasons to be both optimistic and pessimistic. COVID vaccines from Pfizer for 5-to-11-year-olds could be only weeks away, helping to curb some safety concerns regarding live and in-person learning. Not all of those 309,000 women that exited the workforce will remain out of the workforce permanently; between digital staffing outlets (such as The Mom Project) that promote on-demand and diverse talent, and the hiring managers that truly understand that a diverse and inclusive workplace culture is the best culture to build deeper talent pools, things can and certainly will change.

However, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the past eighteen months, it’s that planning for just a few months ahead causes nothing but disappointment in eventual retrospect. Businesses could stand pat in their months-long standoff with workers that are clamoring for enhanced pay, benefits, and working conditions. More COVID hotspots around the country could exacerbate the workforce inequalities that we’ve been facing since March 2020.

The question remains, though: will the “Age of the Worker” truly help those that aren’t just leaving the workforce because of culture or flexibility issues, but rather because they have no choice? The Biden Administration’s $650 billion initiative for childcare programs, universal pre-kindergarten, and the establishment of a robust paid family and medical leave program could be a boon here, although this is a measure that is months away from being approved and finalized. Many parents will choose to vaccinate their children as soon as they’re able to do so, and many will not.

Like everything else that’s occurred within the world of talent and work in this pandemic arena, there’s more ambiguity than anything else. Let’s hope it changes…soon.