The Future of Work Exchange Podcast welcomes Christy Forest, CEO and Executive Director at LiveHire, to discuss the current state of direct sourcing, the future of this high-impact strategy, the reality of total talent management, and much more.
This week’s podcast, sponsored by Worksuite, also highlights the importance of “balance” between human-centricity and digital evolution.
It can be tough to strategize around the best-fit approach for optimizing how we get work done. Digital-focused plans have been top-of-mind for the past several years, with the concept of “digital transformation” a rightly-hyped strategy that prioritizes automation, linkage of enterprise systems, scalability of core processes, and (most importantly) real-time convergence and access of insights and data.
However, the “digital enterprise” cannot survive on technology alone. Innovation does not occur in a vacuum, regardless of just how advanced businesses software (and hardware) is across the greater organization. “Human centricity” should be heralded as a proactive and forward-thinking approach that places not just people in the center of work optimization, but the skillsets inherent within the human workforce.
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.
The procurement function plays a critical role within the Future of Work movement. This business unit, in addition to their typical, operational prowess in optimizing spend management and supply management, also holds responsibility for influencing extended and contingent workforce management and its many links to the ways enterprises drive value from their non-employee talent. Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange, in partnership with Beeline and iValua, are excited to host an exclusive webcast tomorrow focused on the big trends and predictions that will shape 2024 for this crucial enterprise function.
Andrew Bartolini (Ardent’s Chief Research Officer), Brian Hoffmeyer (SVP of Market Strategies at Beeline), and Vishal Patel (iValua’s VP of Marketing) will join me for a spirited discussion on hot-button topics such as inflation, economic conditions, the talent wars, extended workforce growth, direct sourcing, and the 2024 impact of artificial intelligence on business operations. Join us tomorrow (Thursday, February 1) at 10am ET. You won’t want to miss this event!
The current deluge of artificial intelligence news and coverage in the wake of ChatGPT’s meteoric rise in utilization over the past eight months has resulted in many, many businesses pondering the relative future of their overall operations.
Will AI become the de-facto technology that all processes revolve around? Will AI replace the vast majority of human-led positions over the next several years? Does generative AI, like ChatGPT, signal the apocalypse?
Well, the answers here are “probably,” “possibly but probably not,” and, “no, we won’t live in a Terminator-styled future in which robots control the world.” Artificial intelligence is a powerful range of technologies that were designed (and continue to evolve) to mimic human thinking, automate redundant processes, and transform business operations into hyper-efficient layers that are harmoniously entwined.
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.
Our “Talent Expert Series” on FOWX features podcast excerpts of today’s Future of Work thought leaders who appear on The Future of Work Exchange Podcast. The series kicks off with an excerpt from Season 7, Episode 12 featuring Kara Kaplan, CEO of High5, as she discusses a range of topics from the evolution of staffing to the growth in the extended enterprise to the next stage of direct sourcing.
Click to listen to the full interview. Note that this excerpt has been edited for readability.
Christopher Dwyer: Let’s begin with your general insights into the staffing industry, especially given your unique vantage point with High5. When you think of the evolution of staffing and the rise and continued growth of the extended workforce, where are we today?
Kara Kaplan: For starters, the evolution of staffing and the emergence of the extended workforce has ushered in this profound transformation that we’re seeing. It’s a fundamental shift in how companies view and engage with talent. The traditional employment model has been supplemented and, in some cases, supplanted by an extended workforce. Thus, you see many organizations today, if not most, embracing the extended workforce as an integral component of their talent strategy.
And when we look at the term “employee” in general, it’s really evolving with these new models. You have everything from full-time, part-time, contract, gig, remote, hybrid, shared and other terms emerging. Those organizations that rigidly stick to the traditional relationship are going to find themselves fighting an uphill battle. Conversely, enterprises that appreciate and use a mix of workforce models will ultimately be the ones that succeed and have access to more talent and better talent.
It’s more of an adaptation to the new global economy that we now live in and all the complexities and opportunities that are part and parcel of that global shift. At the end of the day, organizations need to embrace this evolution not as an option but more as a strategic imperative. The exciting thing is that organizations are starting to do that.
CD: There is definitely a talent revolution occurring and obviously companies like High 5 fit into that. However, how do you see companies like High5 and other digital staffing platforms fitting into this change in talent acquisition?
KK: Today’s talent revolution signifies a profound shift in how organizations acquire and engage talent. We’re seeing it become much more commoditized. Talent is more dynamic and diverse, as well as more digitally connected than ever before. With the rise of talent marketplaces and digital staffing solutions, they’ve been instrumental in reshaping talent acquisition strategies and truly enabling organizations to adapt and thrive in this global landscape.
At their core, talent marketplaces democratized new access to a global pool of talent. These platforms are empowering organizations to source talent with levels of speed and accuracy that were not possible just a short time ago. For example, in the recent past, when working with many staffing agencies, there was a significant amount of manual effort required in matching a worker with a shift — even if they had a robust ATS, it would only benefit them to a degree. However, today’s digital staffing solutions driven by artificial intelligence and automation have redefined the recruitment process and streamlined nearly everything from candidate sourcing to screening to onboarding and payrolling. It saves a vast amount of time and resources.
CD: In our industry when you think about digital staffing, what comes to mind is BMS, MSP, direct sourcing, total talent, workforce management technology, and artificial intelligence. AI has moved beyond hype and is generally accepted as table stakes in our industry. What are your views on AI and its impact?
KK: To your point, we can’t have this conversation without talking about generative AI and what it means. However, the idea that AI is table stakes for competitive differentiation may be overly simplistic. While AI can undoubtedly provide a significant edge, it’s not a cure-all as companies are seeing. Enterprises still have to remain focused on their core offerings and the human aspect of talent as well as customer relationships to build a sustainable competitive advantage. It’s certainly an exciting time for AI but also a scary one as well. AI is not going away and we’ll continue to hear frequently about the technology, but going forward we need to think about AI in the right way and in the smart way.
CD: Let’s pivot to direct sourcing which was gaining momentum even before the pandemic and is now another table-stakes strategy for businesses if they want to deepen their talent pool and scale their workforce. There’s so much more to direct sourcing than simply contingent recruitment process outsourcing (RPO). With that in mind, where do you see direct sourcing heading?
KK: So much has changed in just the year since I started High5. There’s no doubt that direct sourcing has emerged as a pivotal force in recruiting and is definitely here to stay. There are sessions at major conferences dedicated to direct sourcing with brands like Northern Trust, Toyota, and Meta espousing its benefits. When that starts to happen, the more prominence direct sourcing will have. Clearly, in terms of the future of direct sourcing, the benefits are there. However, its adoption will require an education process. Anytime an education process is involved, it’s going to slow things down, particularly from a sales cycle perspective, but that process plays a vital role in ensuring that organizations realize the efficacy of direct sourcing. To be successful means ensuring that best practices are being followed. When direct sourcing initiatives fail, it’s because they didn’t follow best practices. Again, I’m extremely bullish on the future of direct sourcing, but I do think it will take some time for that education to catch up.
CD: Before we wrap up, 2023 is quickly coming to an end. What do you see on the horizon in the year ahead?
KK: I wish I had a crystal ball. For us, 2024 is about strengthening our position in the market. Being known as the “tech first” company, we’re making heavy investments in our tech enablement, our marketplace, and our other platforms. We have a great deal of excitement around some of our recent tech acquisitions and the compelling value proposition that creates for us going forward.
Last year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg boldly proclaimed 2023 to be the company’s “Year of Efficiency” after a whirlwind three years in a post-pandemic business landscape. The efforts to shed roles, cut costs, and downsize expenses, in addition to maintaining innovation and improving its financial resilience, paid off: the company’s $966.60 billion market cap is edging ever-so-closer to the much-desired $1 trillion mark.
A major foundational cornerstone to Meta’s year of efficiency wasn’t just a commitment to driving down expenses and improving spend management; the social media giant shed over 20,000 jobs in 2023 alone in a sector (technology) that saw the loss of over 262,000 positions in the calendar year (and nearly 11,000 in 2024 thus far). While the tech market as a whole hit a rough patch due to less-than-favorable economic conditions and retribution from pandemic-era over-hiring, 2024 promises to be a positive, exciting, and, more importantly, something year for those in the tech world.
Companies across all sectors may consider Meta’s 2023 efforts as some sort of blueprint for how to achieve their goals: cut costs, slash jobs, maintain innovation. Seems easy, right? Nope. The push for “AI everything!” means that businesses cannot just slice-and-dice their workforce at-will as a cost-cutting measure; the skillsets required to leverage AI models, integrate AI technology, and actually use these tools are not just waiting in the backyard.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting to downsize and make operations more efficient; the issue that one of the world’s largest companies touted job reductions as an anchor for their push for efficiency and the danger is that copycat enterprises will believe that they could easily do the same.
For businesses that truly want to buy into 2024 as a “year of efficiency,” there are much more effective means of doing so without disrupting the fabric of their talent base, nor trying to mimic a unicorn-like company that has never truly struggled like so many other organizations. Here’s how contemporary businesses can push a “year of efficiency” agenda in more streamlined, effective, and innovative manner:
(And yes, we get it: layoffs and workforce-downsizing are an accepted aspect of the modern business world and are sometimes necessary when enterprises are faced with economic challenges or other issues that threaten their survival. The point of this article is not to say that companies should avoid layoffs at all costs, but rather take a holistic view of their operations, optimize their application of skillsets, and prioritize innovation.)
During this decade, each year has seemingly brought a reimagining to the greater world of talent and work. Entering 2020, hyped strategies such as direct sourcing and digital transformation were front-and-center before a once-in-a-lifetime (hopefully) pandemic transformed the very characterizations of what we consider to be “work.”
During post-pandemic times, there remains a sense of “resettling” that has not yet fully stabilized. There are still back-and-forth battles over remote and hybrid work. Enterprises still struggle with humanity and conscious leadership. Not enough business leaders prioritize the emotions of their workers. Organizations are in the midst of configuring just, exactly, how artificial intelligence should be utilized and integrated into their core operations.
This is a moment in time when “work” means many different things to many different leaders. And workers. And businesses. And people.
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.
In the final weeks of 2023 and just recently here on the Future of Work Exchange, we highlighted a variety of predictions and insights into the coming months. Not only did we unveil our own thoughts on trends, but also commentary from numerous executive leaders across the greater workforce solutions industry.
While there are many trends and corresponding predictions that generate headlines and steal thunder, there are several other trajectories that may not be front-page news, but nonetheless, are deserving of business leadership attention as we move further into January and, of course, into 2024.
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.
In the realm of workforce management, the concept of direct sourcing has not escaped the fervor of its own hype machine. The question persists, though: what defines direct sourcing? What is its true “reality”? What “state” is direct sourcing in today, given the evolution of talent acquisition and extended workforce management?
There is no easy answer, unfortunately. The most interesting facet regarding direct sourcing is that the industry has not yet settled on a true definition; much like contingent workforce programs can be called such without a drop of automation or third-party support, direct sourcing often falls into the same spectrum. Even without a VMS, extended workforce platform, or MSP in place, businesses can state that their non-employee workforce programs are tried-and-true (and “end-to-end”) even in cases where additional attributes, particularly services procurement and SOW management, aren’t considered part of the overall initiative.
Misconceptions surrounding direct sourcing often center on the intricacies of its implementation and the true characterization of what qualifies as genuine “direct sourcing.” Does an enterprise curating its talent internally and channeling candidates into a talent pool truly embody direct sourcing as a core workforce strategy? To discern the essence of direct sourcing, we must explore its full spectrum, including segmentation, integration into primary recruitment streams, and the facilitation of talent nurture capabilities — which is where the question arises: is automation indispensable for it to be deemed a true, end-to-end program? Do enterprises require deeper talent technology stacks to ensure direct sourcing meets its potential as a talent acquisition gamechanger?
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.
By now, we’ve all heard the many elucidations on the year ahead. From predictions and financial outlooks to economic forecasts and market guesses, there are so many thoughts on how the next twelve months will unfold from business, talent, technology, and leadership perspectives.
So, essentially, we’re in for another year in which the Future of Work movement will continue to reshape and transform the very ways we think about how (and why) we work.
2023 was a watershed year. Artificial intelligence fully sped its hype train in circles around both business and consumer personas, while dire-then-rosy-then-dire-again-then-optimistic economic outlooks pushed all of us onto a nonstop financial rollercoaster. The labor market remained (and remains) a tad volatile, even though it’s showing signs of slowing steadily based on jobs data heading into the final five or six weeks of 2023 (with an approximate 12%-to-14% drop in job adds in December from November).
And then there’s cooling inflation, as well, which will (hopefully) contribute to a strong economic year as a better balance between supply and demand converges with a full year of economic and labor market consistency.
The Future of Work Exchange believes there are dozens of factors that will shape the foundation of 2024. Here are, however, four of the most critical trends:
Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.
To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.