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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
Look for the Future of Work Exchange‘s upcoming Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study later this month.
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:
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:
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.
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.
Some picked-up pieces from across the industry, which we call “FOWX Notes,” for the week ending October 8:
The Background:
With non-employee talent workforce comprising 47% of the total global workforce, businesses across the globe are actively finding that they require advanced tools and next-gen solutions to effectively manage a sector of talent that is growing in both size and prominence. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has long pointed to the continued evolution of the Vendor Management System (VMS) technology platform as the relative “nexus” of agile workforce management.
As the Future of Work continues to accelerate how work is addressed and done, it is critical that businesses harness the power of robust VMS technology that can drive visibility into total talent, support control over contingent workforce spend, and serve as an effective extension of the enterprise’s overall extended workforce management strategy.
Enter Beeline.
Why They Were Selected:
Beeline represents the forward-thinking VMS that has consistently evolved alongside the customers it has been serving for over two decades. As the greater contingent workforce industry shifted from “commodity-led” to “talent-led,” Beeline made the necessary advancements to help its users adapt to changing industry standards. And, as the market continued to evolve to include Future of Work-era innovations such as artificial intelligence, direct sourcing, advanced analytics, and extended workforce management, Beeline transformed its end-to-end solution suite to map directly to these new requirements.
Beeline’s sheer breadth of offerings represent an ideal mix of functionality for managing the nuances of today’s growing and thriving agile workforce, including SOW management, services procurement, talent acquisition, talent pools, and total workforce management.
In Their Own Words:
For most companies, human capital constitutes the largest single cost of doing business. Organizations that once relied on internal workforces of direct employees are increasingly supplementing their full-time staff with an agile extended workforce of contingent workers, independent contractors, consultants, and service providers, allowing these companies to adapt quickly and flexibly to market threats and opportunities.
To connect businesses to the rich diversity of talent within the global extended workforce, Beeline creates and implements innovative and sophisticated contingent workforce management solutions. Beyond simply tracking and managing a company’s non-employee workers, Beeline Extended Workforce Platform automates the entire process, sourcing and managing all categories of non-employee talent while providing advanced analytic tools, augmented by artificial intelligence (AI), to deliver the insights organizations need to make better staffing and business decisions.
In the last 20 years, Beeline has become the world’s largest independent provider of solutions for sourcing and managing the complex world of contingent labor. With the deepest, most seasoned team of contingent workforce solution professionals, Beeline delivers innovative technology, end-to-end global and localized customer engagement services, and value-added capabilities which help many of the world’s largest enterprises, including more than 300 Global 2000 clients worldwide, meet their most critical talent needs.
The Outlook:
Beeline has long been a dominant player in the workforce solutions market, often owing its long-term success to dedicated talent-first functionality that supports the overarching goal of true enterprise agility. Even before the company announced its Extended Workforce Platform earlier this year, Beeline was already on a crisp path towards harnessing the full technological potential of the Future of Work movement through an industry-leading talent tech partner ecosystem, an overlay of AI and machine learning to boost the depth of real-time analytics, and a continued commitment to the high-impact realm of services procurement.
As a provider of next-generation agile workforce functionality, Beeline will continue to evolve, adapt, and transform the way its clients harness its powerful solutions to effectively optimize how work is done in 2022 and beyond.
Around a decade ago, the business world was in a full economic swing. After the darkest days of the Great Recession, enterprises were experiencing a surge for products and services that forced them to reevaluate how work got done due to the recessionary hangover; businesses were still gun-shy of hiring traditional workers at a pre-downturn clip, causing another spike in the utilization of contingent labor.
Just prior to that point in time, the “perfect storm” erupted; both businesses and independent professionals awoke to the value each brought to the table. Since then, neither has looked back.
Today’s “agile workforce” comprises 47% of the average company’s total talent, a far cry from 15 years ago when less than 12% of professionals were working on a contract basis. That the contingent workforce has had staying power is not surprising; there has been so much incredible value driven by this workforce that it also became a “hero” when the COVID-19 pandemic hit early last year. In fact, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has discovered that 82% of businesses experienced greater workforce flexibility and scalability due to the power of the agile workforce.
I am thrilled to join Geoff Dubiski, Chief Solutions Officer at Workforce Logiq, for an exclusive webcast tomorrow (October 6) at 11am ET. Geoff and I will discuss the findings from the recent Future of Work Exchange Report for 2021; we will highlight:
Click here to register for tomorrow’s event or click on the image below. I hope to see you there!
