Another all-new edition of the Contingent Workforce Weekly episode, sponsored by DZConneX, a Yoh company, features a conversation with Cesar Jimenez, CEO of myBasePay. Cesar and I discuss the impact of direct sourcing, the current state of talent and work, the future of the agile workforce, DE&I, and so much more.
Tune into Episode 606 of Contingent Workforce Weekly below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.
“Well, I see us returning to the office right after the holidays.”
“We pushed out our return-to-office date to January 15. Hoping it sticks this time.”
“Back in May and June, our target date to get the office up-and-running against was September 16. It gave our working parents enough time to get situated with school schedules. But now, we just don’t know. It’s too hard to communicate a date to our staff because things are changing so rapidly.”
Those are some direct quotes from HR, talent acquisition, and procurement executives that I’ve spoken to over the past couple of weeks. And then there are these quotes, all from HR executives:
“My maternity leave crossed over with the mid-point of the pandemic. My team and I have all been fully remote since then, and I can’t picture any of us going back to the office except for bi-weekly or monthly team meetings or special projects.”
“Whether or not we mandate vaccinations or negative tests, the truth is that our business has fundamentally changed. We’re under 100 employees, which allows us to be a bit nimbler in how we communicate and operate within a virtual setting, and those employees that want to be back at our HQ have had the option for a few months now…but, I just cannot see how we go back to what we were doing before all of this started.”
“There are some big question marks we have. Our flexible workforce alone is anywhere between 800 and 1,000 people on any given day. We’ve done a pretty decent job of figuring out who is working where and how to effectively track how well projects are being completed, but there are some very stressful conversations ahead for our leadership team and what our 2022 looks like. Most of my team understand that things have changed, but how many really believe these changes are going to stick? That is the fundamental question at hand for us: do we attempt to slowly return to the way things were before? Or do we just accept that our organization has been permanently transformed?
While this is a random sampling of just six executives across the millions across the globe, now is a great time for us to remind ourselves of just how much impact the pandemic had on all aspects of our lives. Think of the first day it really hit home for you. That day didn’t necessarily have to be the true beginning of the pandemic as defined by the World Health Organization, so it ranges wildly for each of us.
I can remember the day after then-President Trump declared a state of emergency, editing a podcast for the following week’s edition of Contingent Workforce Weekly. My wife and mother-in-law spent most of that afternoon at the local Target (unmasked, if we can remember a time like that indoors!), stocking up on essentials in the event we were locked down in our homes for a couple of weeks (or more). That feeling inside of my chest, that sinking feeling, was more than just anxiety. It was my brain telling me that we were in something awful for the long haul.
In so many respects, the pandemic has had an incredibly profound impact on how we shop, how we interact with family and friends, how we travel, and ultimately how we live our lives. Some of us have been mildly sick with COVID-19, others have been hospitalized. Some of us have lost family members and friends. Some of us lost our jobs, homes, careers, and livelihoods. The economy may be bouncing back and the labor market may have recovered the vast majority of job losses from 2020, however, there is an indelible mark on every aspect of our lives, including business, that will never be the same again.
There are specific complications that we all wish weren’t part of our daily lives, and we certainly can all agree that the scale of tragic loss of life has been truly heartbreaking. I would bet there are several moments per day, too, when we say to ourselves, “I wish I could go back to the way things used to be” when we think of concerts, movies, restaurants, parties, holidays, etc. In due time, those pieces of life will come back to us at a much lower risk than they are today. For the world of business, however, we shouldn’t be thinking about pre-pandemic times, but rather the ways specific “accelerants” forever changed the way we work…forever. Consider that:
There are always going to be professionals that would like business to return to the ways it was before the pandemic, and those individuals cannot be blamed for wanting to return to a world that was less stressful. But if we take all of the things that have changed about how we get work done, how we view our talent, how the relationships between leaders and their staff have changed, how empathy is now a key element of the modern workplace, and how we have all benefited from the newfound flexibility within our roles, we all have to ask…why we would ever want to go back to the way things used to be?
The Background:
The healthcare industry often operates very differently from other key verticals, independent of major global trends and the challenges that plague the average business. The COVID-19 pandemic hit this sector the hardest in terms of staff shortages, worker burnout, safety and health concerns, etc. Future of Work Exchange research finds that while 90% of businesses believe that a semblance of “business normalcy” will be within reach sometime in early 2022, executives within the healthcare industry are not as convinced: 98% of healthcare businesses believe that normality is, at the earliest, two years away.
The extended workforce has long been a high-impact, high-value generator of true business agility. However, prior to 2020, the healthcare industry lagged behind their peers in regards to utilizing this type of labor to its maximum value, perhaps owed to insufficient supply channels, internal barriers due to archaic thinking, and the complexities in finding the right skillsets and expertise. The past eighteen months have brought about a change in thinking, largely due to the pressure put on healthcare facilities to shift talent to different locations, bring in on-demand talent when staffing shortages arise, and better plan for a quickly-evolving pandemic that continues to strain resources. FOWX research indicates that 98% of enterprises in this industry believe their non-employee workforce will be critical in the months and years ahead.
Enter RightSourcing.
Why They Were Selected:
RightSourcing, the healthcare-focused MSP arm of PRO Unlimited, has long been a dominant player in this industry due to its unique blend of managed services augmented with the power of the Wand VMS platform. RightSourcing may operate as a “specialty provider” in regard to its healthcare focus, however, the solution reflects the innovative approaches of its parent company in how it provides a wide range of services to its customers, including SOW management and services procurement, direct sourcing, DE&I support, and payrolling.
In addition to these offerings, RightSourcing also leverages a robust advantage through its data-driven analytics and market rate intelligence capabilities, two differentiators that are tailored for a complex and evolving healthcare workforce.
In Their Own Words:
RightSourcing provides a single, integrated platform of high-touch services and innovative technology solutions to help healthcare and higher education organizations increase cost savings, improve talent quality, mitigate risk and drive effectiveness within their contingent workforce program.
We are NOT a staffing company. We are not owned by, or affiliated with, a staffing company. We are PURELY vendor-neutral, which ensures true goal alignment with our clients. This vendor-neutral MSP approach leverages a nationwide network of clinical, IT, and business/professional staffing partners to provide the broadest access to talent at competitive market rates.
We provide clients with accurate, up-to-date labor market rate guidance. Historically, a lack of market labor rate intelligence has prevented healthcare organizations and higher ed from fully optimizing their hiring decisions. This results in significant unnecessary spend by paying higher market rates by role and/or location.
Bundling RightSourcing’s MSP experience with our industry-leading Wand VMS technology and actionable analytics makes RightSourcing fully accountable for the entire scope of an organization’s non-employee workforce. An integrated workforce management platform is more cost-effective, more agile, and maximizes efficiency to ensure the success of the program.
The Outlook:
The majority of healthcare staffing and healthcare HR/talent acquisition executives plan to invest more time, resources, and energy into optimizing the impact of the extended workforce, including tapping into direct sourcing (and talent pool), alternative talent channels, and talent marketplaces. With the continued weight of the pandemic forcing staffing shortages and worker burnout, healthcare enterprises must drive true workforce agility through today’s evolving contingent workforce.
RightSourcing is well-positioned as a powerful MSP that can blend progressive service offerings, a nimble VMS platform, and forward-looking, data-fueled solutions to transform the way the healthcare industry finds, engages, and manages its contingent workforce.
Some picked-up pieces from across the industry, which we call “FOWX Notes,” for the week ending September 10:
The Background:
With 47% of the average company’s total workforce now comprised of “contingent” or “non-employee” workers, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has discovered that the power of the Gig Economy has traversed beyond a specific set of verticals and industries. Sectors such as light industrial, health care, and the realm of blue-collar and hourly work have all realized the inherent value of an agile workforce that was essentially designed to help in an era when dynamic workplace structures are what separates businesses from the competition.
One of the challenges faced by these sectors in the past was the sheer complexity of talent acquisition prowess required to effectively engage talent based on variable demand and the unique inner-workings of shift-based and hourly work.
Enter Bluecrew.
Why They Were Selected:
Bluecrew’s unique value proposition, which centers around a “Gig Economy meets traditional contingent labor” approach, allows the company to enable a truly “elastic workforce” within its client base by tapping into Bluecrew’s liquid base of vetted workers. Augmented with industry-leading candidate matching technology that is driven by machine learning, Bluecrew provides its clients with a fully-automated administrative portal that balances both talent acquisition and workforce management.
In a business world that now runs on flexibility, the Bluecrew marketplace and workforce management platform are solutions that are actively helping enterprises tap into on-demand talent and develop true workforce agility.
In Their Own Words:
Founded in 2015, acquired by InterActive Corp (IAC) in 2018, and recognized by Fast Company in 2020 as one of the most innovative workplace companies, Bluecrew is disrupting traditional hourly staffing (a $130 billion addressable market, almost exclusively offline) by pioneering “Gig 2.0”.
Hourly workers – we call them Crew Members – are Bluecrew’s lifeblood. We employ thousands of W-2 workers who are dependable, looking for flexibility, and ready to accept short- or long-term jobs, which they are intelligently matched with by our Elastic Hourly Workforce (EHW) platform. Bluecrew’s EHW combines multiple products and services into an end-to-end, intuitive solution for Crew Members to manage their work lives, and for our workplace customers to manage their hourly workforce.
Our workplace customers are challenged with variable demand; longer term, more predictable variability such as seasonal and cyclical, and less predictable, shorter-term variability like absenteeism and large, unexpected customer orders. This variability in demand creates complex challenges to effectively and efficiently manage hourly labor which until Bluecrew, has been left unsolved.
The Outlook:
Sectors such as light industrial, retail, hospitality, and other hourly-based industries are anticipated to experience upwards of 35%-to-40% growth in the utilization of non-employee labor over the next few years, reinforcing the need for both on-demand access to vertical-specific talent marketplaces (and other on-demand channels of skillsets) and end-to-end workforce management. This expected growth will result in more headaches for hiring managers that are seeking to fill roles quickly, efficiently, and with data-driven approaches at the helm to result in the best-aligned fit between workers and open jobs.
Bluecrew’s innovative “elastic workforce” approach to the hourly workforce market positions the solution to thrive in evolving times, especially considering the expansion of workforce agility into industries that are expecting to increase their utilization of non-employee talent in the months and years ahead. As these sectors continue to realize the hard-line benefits of the extended workforce, it will be platforms such as Bluecrew that will help fuel the ultimate optimization of how work is done.
The business world is consistently evolving, with a global pandemic setting off accelerants that are pushing the boundaries of how businesses address how work is done. Future of Work Exchange research points to a variety of factors that enterprises are focused on today in regard to how they are transforming the way work gets done, including:
I recently had the pleasure of joining Workforce Logiq’s Chief Solutions Officer, Geoff Dubiski, for the company’s highly-regarded The Deep End vodcast/podcast series. Click below to enjoy FOWX meeting The Deep End for insights on empathy in the evolving world of work, why the hybrid work model is here to stay, and some peeks of Ardent Partners’ new Future of Work Exchange Research Study for 2021:
The Background:
The extended workforce continues to grow at a rapid pace. Today, 47% of the average company’s total workforce is comprised of “contingent” or “non-employee” workers, which include traditional temporary workers, gig workers, independent contractors, freelancers, and SOW-based labor/professional services. Over the past five years, this number has increased by nearly 40%, proving that the agile workforce has become a key contributor to the Future of Work movement.
Several years ago, as the contingent workforce began its stratospheric rise in growth and utilization, many businesses remained focused on three key elements as this spectrum of talent began to dominate how work was done: visibility into suppliers and the talent itself, annual cost savings on contingent workforce spend, and, perhaps most importantly, the compliance ramifications of utilizing a non-employee workforce.
Today, there are essentially two sides to the 2021 contingent workforce management (CWM) program: 1) the strategic planning that pushes extended talent into the realm of true business agility through top-tier skillsets, access to new sources of expertise, and the innovation happening in talent engagement and talent acquisition, and, 2) the operational components that keep CWM as a well-oiled, effective, and sharply-run program that is not open to various labor, cost, and regulatory risks. Businesses must strike an efficient balance between these two perspectives to ensure that the agile workforce brings both value and flexibility to the greater organization.
Enter myBasePay.
Why They Were Selected:
Future of Work Exchange research finds that nearly 60% of businesses are prioritizing control over compliance and risk management within their contingent and extended workforce programs. While aspects such as remote work, artificial intelligence, and other top-of-mind topics usually steal the headlines in the Future of Work arena, the truth is that compliance and risk mitigation for the non-employee workforce is just as critical as the “newer” elements of talent management and work optimization.
In less than a year, myBasePay has transformed the way businesses think about both the back- and front-ends of their talent acquisition programs through its unique array of compliance management automation, contingent workforce management efficiency, and tools to enhance the overall lifecycle of the non-employee worker.
In Their Own Words:
By the year 2030, half of the US workforce will consist of contingent workers. Simultaneously, organizations are struggling with skills shortages, changing labor regulations, and disruptive technologies. How can organizations leverage this trend to improve their competitive strategy and thrive in the new economy?
myBasePay’s mission is to help organizations focus on growth and talent development. We aim to achieve this with our employer of record (EOR) model and AI-powered technology enabling us to create an ecosystem where organizations and contingent workers can thrive through transparency, trust, and collaboration.
Our platform is like having a legal, admin, HR, compliance, and payroll department all rolled into one integrated solution, so organizations focus on growth and finding great talent.
Since our official launch in March, we have:
Contingent workers can bring unparalleled agility, flexibility, and adaptability to any organization looking to adopt a flexible work model as their competitive advantage.
The Outlook:
myBasePay is a true turnkey solution for both CWM programs and contingent workers alike, helping to facilitate a spectrum of efficiency within engagement, sourcing, classification, onboarding, and other key facets of the typical talent management initiative. Future of Work Exchange research finds that 84% of businesses were forced to “reimagine” their workforce management operations and processes in light of the disruptions experienced over the past 18 months. If digital transformation was not on the radar for procurement, HR, and other functional leaders before the pandemic hit, these challenging times made it patently obvious that manual processes were no longer acceptable and must be stricken from the workplace.
myBasePay is uniquely positioned as an agile contingent workforce solution that not only provides users with easy-to-use and AI-fueled talent management functionality, but also industry-leading worker classification, onboarding, and compliance management offerings.
This week, both of my children began their 2021-2022 school years. My daughter (eight, heading into third grade) and son (five, heading into kindergarten) waddled onto the bus with masks on their faces and and anticipation in their hearts. For both of them, and this is something that surprised me as a parent, wearing a mask is commonplace: at the grocery store, at Target, at indoor activities, and, of course, at school. For children that are similar in age to mine, there’s a constant worry that nags at both of my wife and I’s minds, and that’s that both cannot receive any of the three available COVID vaccines.
For the millions of children under the age of 12, the first few months (at the very least) are going to have to leverage the same non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) used during in-person learning last year, including masks, social distancing, better ventilation, altered activities, etc. Once one of the major vaccines (most likely Pfizer’s or Moderna’s) is approved for children under 12, the game changes tremendously. But for now, we’re experiencing increased anxiety as working parents.
This uncertain start to the school year translates into uncertainty for businesses, too (something I talked about during a recent (Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast episode). If we take a quick trip back to a year ago, many of us remember the first day of school as the first day of “remote school,” in which we, as working parents, would simultaneously pop open two laptops and start the day. We would shuffle around conference calls and video meetings, frequently checking in on our children to ensure that they had the proper modules up on their screens. No doubt that this had a tremendous affect on productivity, consistently, and morale within our roles at our respective enterprises.
A year later, none of us want to go through that experience again. However, the reality is clear: the vast majority of school-age children are not yet qualified to receive a vaccine, meaning that those aforementioned NPIs are all we have to combat infection in the classroom (although vaccinated teachers are certainly helping the cause, it still is only one vaccinated person in a room filled with upwards of 12 or more bodies). And again, as discussed on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, there are major ramifications if things get out of hand and we are forced to contend with a hybrid schooling model.
Behind the uncertainty for the new school year is also a ripple effect due to the Delta variant’s rampage. After-school programs, activity centers, and daycare facilities are all dealing with their own staffing shortages and workforce issues. This extreme gap in both daycare and aftercare has a direct influence on whether or not working parents who cannot perform remotely wade back into the labor pool. Although 70% (or more) of the jobs lost during the pandemic have been restored, those difficult-to-fill positions may remain that way for some time as high-contact roles (restaurants, hospitality, retail, etc.) fall out of favor due to the increasing impact of the Delta variant.
Business leaders must approach the coming weeks (and months) with a balance of empathy, flexibility, and strategic planning in order to thrive this wave of the pandemic:
In addition to the above elements, there is another notion at hand: the range of enterprise skillsets and how they can be shifted within a digital environment. Many businesses have poor visibility into their available skillsets and expertise, including both full-time workers and non-employee talent. Understanding where and how these skills are deployed company-wide can be a crucial advantage in developing new work models. Businesses that operate on a digital scale can easily push skills to where they are needed, and, as an uncertain fall looms (due to both the return-to-school and Delta variables), this dynamic approach can alleviate some of the productivity gaps that may arise if working parents experience disruption.
No matter what the next several weeks brings to the world of talent and work, business executives can act now to ensure that empathy, flexibility, communication, and innovation are at the forefront in how they lead their organizations to success during uncertain times.
Welcome to an all-new edition of the Contingent Workforce Weekly episode, sponsored by DZConneX, a Yoh company. As the summer ends, the arrival of fall brings continued uncertainty to both the business and personal lives of the world’s workforce, especially as millions of children (who cannot yet be vaccinated) head back to school. Businesses will need to prioritize the “art of flexibility” as the world of work continues to evolve.
Tune into Episode 605 of Contingent Workforce Weekly below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.
[Editor’s Note: Over the next several weeks, the Future of Work Exchange will unveil its “21 for 2021” list of key solution providers that are shaping the Future of Work through innovative technology, progressive functionality, and overall impact on the evolving world of talent and work. On deck for today: The Mom Project.]
The Background:
In the world of “digital staffing,” which is a wide-encompassing industry that includes talent marketplaces, talent clouds, talent communities, on-demand staffing outlets, freelancer management systems (even though “FMS” as an acronym is seemingly defunct), as well as direct sourcing technology, it’s not often that businesses have access to an end-to-end workforce management platform that also prioritizes talent engagement with a deep community of gender- and ethnically-diverse professionals.
Future of Work Exchange research finds that 62% of businesses expect more focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives over the next year, proving that the technology spectrum within workforce management needs to evolve to meet this expected shift moving forward.
Enter The Mom Project.
Why They Were Selected:
The world for working parents has dynamically shifted…again. The Mom Project’s Greg Robinson (COO and co-founder), who appeared on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast earlier this year, said that he and his team fear that we will see another mass exodus of women from the workforce due to the pandemic and its wide-sweeping ramifications. The Mom Project is looking to change that through its unique ability to connect enterprises with qualified and diverse candidates in a nimble, agile, and on-demand manner. That alone warrants selection as a solution that is shaping the Future of Work, but there’s more to the story.
On top of its 500,000+ (and growing) network of diverse candidates, The Mom Project also offers progressive workforce management technology such as true total talent management functionality, an AI neural network learning engine (that incorporates customer culture and DE&I attributes) that helps users identify key DE&I trends and patterns, and automation that assists enterprises in building ready-to-engage, pre-vetted talent from both non-employee/contingent and direct hire/FTE perspectives.
The Mom Project is one of the most progressive and innovative workforce/talent solutions in today’s evolving technology landscape.
In Their Own Words:
More than one million American women will become parents this year, joining the ranks of the working parenthood — a vital segment of the workforce. Simultaneously, businesses are challenged to retain talented employees as they navigate through this period of life, and struggle to find the experienced talent they need to grow.
The Mom Project is the expert partner helping companies create stronger, more diverse workforces that are well-prepared for the Future of Work. These are the big picture problems that C-suites, boards, investors and hiring managers across the country are focused on. We’re proud to be the consultative, action-oriented partner working hand-in-hand with our customers to drive lasting change.
Women staying engaged in the workforce on their terms is good for families. It’s good for business. It’s good for everyone. .
The Outlook:
Over the next two years, 62% of businesses expect to address DE&I objectives and initiatives with workforce management technology and similar automation, according to Future of Work Exchange research. This statistic reflects just how critical diversity, equity, and inclusion truly is within the digital staffing solutions arena and its crucial place as part of greater talent management strategies.
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.
