John Yuva, Author at The Future of Work Exchange

Optimize Your Staffing Suppliers

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Solution Providers Talent Acquisition by John Yuva on 04/18/2023

The contingent workforce is now an essential component of enterprise execution and competitiveness. For many organizations, direct sourcing or online marketplaces are a primary means of securing non-employee talent. However, enterprises continue to utilize traditional staffing suppliers as well. In some cases, these relationships are based on a long-standing foundation for sourcing contingent workers.

Staffing suppliers, however, come with their own risks and rewards. Ongoing oversight is necessary to ensure these relationships are optimized and the organization’s staffing and workforce goals are met. The following are several considerations when managing staffing suppliers for contingent workforce engagement.

Track supplier performance for greater optimization. There are metrics for a host of business processes; the same should be true of staffing suppliers and their impact on talent management goals. According to Prosperix, a provider of workforce innovation solutions, staffing suppliers are not just meeting a talent need but contributing to a total talent management ecosystem. As such, a service-level agreement (SLA) detailing specific performance metrics must be established with regular tracking to mitigate potential risks.

What performance metrics are critical and specific to staffing suppliers? Prosperix says four KPIs are the most important.

Submissions to Positions
Submissions to Interview
Submissions to Hire
Assignment Completion

“These KPIs measure each staffing supplier’s responsiveness, whether they source an appropriate number of candidates, the quality of those candidates related to open positions, and whether they source reliable hires who successfully complete their assignments. Any staffing vendor that does those well is a worthy partner,” explains Prosperix.

Gain transparency and flexibility with contingent workers. Similar to enterprises being unaware of their supply chain’s second- and third-tier suppliers, many organizations lack adequate HR tracking of the identity and location of their contingent labor. This lack of transparency puts the organization at great risk for fraud, theft, etc. Awareness of potential risks and global compliance issues when engaging with contingent workers are paramount.

Equally important is having flexibility for how and where contingent labor works and resides. Globalization and the technologies to bridge teams from afar only broaden the talent pool — a good thing for organizations and their total talent management objectives. “Increasingly, workers choose how they want to work. Accommodating freelancers, independent contractors, alumni, interns, and project workers for difficult-to-fill positions and establishing a network of suppliers across a larger geography helps expand recruitment pipelines and improves access to qualified talent,” Prosperix says.

Communicate with your staffing suppliers. Signing the contract with a staffing supplier doesn’t mean the relationship goes on autopilot. Quite the opposite. A staffing supplier should receive the same level of due diligence and supplier management as any critical supplier. Often, it requires weeks or months to adequately track performance and determine supplier effectiveness. Thus, it’s imperative to have specific staffing targets identified and communicated.

Communication is a basic tenet of any business relationship. However, with talent management and matching contingent workers with specific positions, a lack of communication between HR and a staffing supplier could mean a significant loss in revenue and training costs. A supplier could lack a quality talent pool of contingent workers or an absence of diversity in its mix of candidates. Today’s skills-based hiring also presents additional challenges for staffing suppliers. Does the enterprise require a specialized niche of skilled labor? If so, can the staffing supplier tap into a large talent pool with those skills? Effective communication can help mitigate potential risks and ensure the organization attracts contingent workers that meet its talent requirements.

Staffing suppliers remain a value channel for sourcing contingent workers. Like any supplier relationship, however, performance and optimization are only achieved if HR and business managers have their staffing needs clearly defined and communicated.

Talent Sustainability Through Direct Sourcing

Business Leadership Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion General Insights Talent by John Yuva on 04/17/2023

In 2023, direct sourcing is more than the sum of its parts; rather, it represents near alignment with the direction of business now and in the relative future. The labor market is still unsettled, while economic uncertainty (unfortunately) still rules the day. Businesses are in a continued war for talent, as unemployment sinks to historic lows and millions of job openings remain.

In addition, the Future of Work movement and resulting transformations actively dictate that businesses shift their hiring strategies. All of these facets together represent both a new challenge and a new opportunity for direct sourcing: helping enterprises cultivate a flexible and scalable workforce that drives true talent sustainability.

Direct Sourcing Evolves

Enterprises need sustainable talent most to remain competitive and enable future agility. Direct sourcing can help enterprises achieve talent sustainability through several means.

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The Impact of Contingent Workforce Management Analytics

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights Talent by John Yuva on 04/10/2023

Today’s total talent management strategies rely on analytics to execute workforce objectives. For extended workers who comprise nearly half of enterprises’ entire labor force (49%, according to our research), analytics are even more crucial to developing metrics and optimizing performance. Recent Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research indicates that 81% of organizations cite the improvement of contingent workforce management (CWM) analytics as a priority, highlighting the importance of deeper, more insightful data and analysis.

CWM Analytics for Insights

According to Beeline, a leading contingent workforce solution provider, “For many organizations lacking formal analytics and reporting on their contingent workforce, identifying key metrics can even be challenging.” The focus on analytics goes well beyond hiring, scheduling, and payment data, to include deeper areas of concentration. The following are several analytic subsets imperative to contingent workforce management and performance.

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Avoid Passing on Passive Job Candidates

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Acquisition by John Yuva on 04/06/2023

When we talk about Future of Work job candidates, it’s often in the context of active recruiting through direct sourcing initiatives, talent marketplaces, or online recruiting platforms. With the transition to skills-based hiring, attracting and selecting the right candidate is even more critical in meeting enterprise goals. As such, it may be time to expand the talent pipeline and include passive job seekers. This candidate segment can lie under the recruitment radar among the hundreds of active job applicants vying for coveted organizational roles.

Passive but Silently Active

Who are passive job candidates? These mostly employed individuals are not currently looking for employment opportunities. Many are happy in their place of work, but should the right career opportunity present itself, they could be persuaded to leave. According to Zippia, an online job recruiting firm, 73% of potential candidates are passive job seekers. And a considerable 87% of these candidates are open to the new job opportunities provided by active recruitment.

Attract an Active Response

Attracting passive job candidates relies on initiatives that are already cornerstones of the Future of Work paradigm. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs are attractive to this recruitment segment because they want to work for employers that are progressive and supportive of various causes and lifestyles. Thus, it is imperative that organizations promote their DE&I efforts and results on social media and corporate communications for wide exposure. LinkedIn shared that a total of 134.5 million users regularly uses the platform every day. In addition, more than 48% of LinkedIn users are active each month. Enterprises should be using the platform to expand their reach in the marketplace, promote programs that capture company culture, and solicit users who are interested in employment or organizational programs.

With more enterprises restricting remote work, it is job flexibility and remote/hybrid models that continue to resonate with employees and many job seekers. Now is the time to capitalize on that fact and emphasize that the enterprise fully supports work/life balance and remote/flexible scheduling. Employees who previously enjoyed those benefits but are facing restrictions or revised policies may be more open to recruitment inquiries. At the very least, now is the time to communicate with current and potential employees about the intent to remain a remote/hybrid workplace.

Actively Recruit Passive Candidates

Shifting now from attracting passive candidates to actively recruiting them, there are several strategies identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to accomplish that objective.

Social Media

Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, or association online job boards, social media’s reach is unparalleled. LinkedIn for example, offers recruiter subscriptions to best leverage the platform’s community. According to SHRM, “Another way to find passive job seekers on LinkedIn is to use the ‘advanced people search’ tool and enter your criteria for the ideal candidate for a job that is or will be available at your organization.”

Content Exposure

Establish a company blog to share industry trends and information that business professionals in the field can turn to. It positions the enterprise as thought-leading and engaged with the sector, which can attract passive job candidates looking for best-in-class employers.

Targeted Marketing Collateral

When passive job candidates are identified, the enterprise can target specific materials to them that speak to programs or benefits candidates would find attractive. Market those DE&I initiatives or hybrid work models as a reason to consider working for the enterprise.

Employee Referral Programs

Employees can serve as a critical extension of an organization’s recruitment strategy. With an employee referral program, outreach can occur via social media channels or through personal communication. Often, there are perks, such as a bonus for referrals that result in a hire. More importantly, an employee referral program promotes employee engagement and can lead to recruitment cost and time savings.

Seek What You Need

Passive does not mean uninterested. It is the responsibility of HR and business leaders to seek out recruitment opportunities and cultivate relationships with job candidates who possess skills and capabilities that could be a competitive differentiator for the organization. In my own professional life, I was a passive job candidate who received a LinkedIn invitation from Ardent Partners’ founder and chief research officer Andrew Bartolini to explore a potential job opportunity with his firm. I was not actively applying or networking for new employment opportunities. However, after two months of casual conversations with Andrew and his team, the position we discussed was an ideal fit with my background and professional passions. And here we are. Passive candidates need a reason to walk through the door. Show them the reasons why.

Sustain the Leadership Evolution

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Uncategorized by John Yuva on 03/30/2023

What the previous three years have shown is that enterprises are resilient. The ability to turn on a dime operationally and transform from an in-person to a nearly fully remote workforce is a stunning achievement. It is the ultimate in change management execution, forever altering the Future of Work paradigm and business leadership as we know it. In defining the Future of Work movement, the Future of Work Exchange identified the transformation of business leadership as one of its three critical pillars.

Workplace Humanization Arrives

How has business leadership transformed? Quite simply, leaders today have a newfound focus on “humanity,” and the need to be more talent-oriented to thrive during uncertain times. During the height of the pandemic, there was no separation between how leadership and employees experienced this global event. Everyone went through it together and had similar fears, anxiety, and concern for others. Many leaders recognized this fact and rebooted their workplaces by retaining employee flexibility and remote/hybrid models once the world started to normalize.

Bridging of Human and Skills-Based Objectives

Along with the humanization of the workplace, the need for skills-based talent became apparent as well. The criticality of enterprise agility, flexibility, and business continuity is now a central part of talent acquisition strategies. It is no longer about filling a job role, but rather hiring candidates that bring specific skills and competencies while also being a good cultural match. Business leaders today actively bridge the human aspect with skills-based execution. Understanding, for example, the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion as part of the cultural fabric, leaders have integrated DE&I into hiring and operational objectives.

Business Leadership Evolves

The Future of Work Exchange and Ardent Partners have identified five ways business leadership is evolving.

Inclusivity Is Paramount

93% of business leaders state that they are focusing leadership efforts on developing and cultivating a more inclusive workplace culture. Not only does this invoke a sense of belonging within the workforce, but it can enhance brand reputation when promoted on recruitment portals and in the media. More job candidates are seeking employment with enterprises that place a premium on inclusivity.

Providing Purpose

Over the next 12 months, nearly 70% of business leaders plan to develop a vision and plan for making work more purposeful across the organization for its total workforce. In his Fast Company article, Raj Indupuri, CEO of digital clinical software and service provider eClinical Solutions, said it’s critical to have leadership goals that all employees can align with. “In my experience, it’s more enjoyable to come to work when surrounded by others who are equally passionate about your purpose.”

A Focus on Well-Being

Throughout 2023, nearly 75% of executive leaders anticipate enhancing the ways the business improves worker well-being and mental health. While the impacts of the pandemic have subsided, the emotional effects continue to linger. Monitor employee well-being and mental health through surveys and regular one-on-one check-ins with team members. Such feedback is crucial to identifying employees who may require specific mental health services or programs.

Empathy-Driven Leadership

Today, 65% of executives include empathy in their management styles, which reflects a flexibility-driven approach to leveraging more humanity in how they lead. This can lead to more open communication between employees and leadership, as well as a greater comfort level in presenting ideas that could result in untapped innovation.

The Conscious Leader

Over the past year, 73% of executives have moved towards more of a “conscious leadership” approach, which centers around the understanding of worker perspectives, emotions, and concerns. Conscious leadership brings the human aspect of leadership management full circle.

Is the current business leadership transformation sustainable? The outlook is hopeful. By modeling and promoting such behaviors as empathy, conscious leadership, and a focus on DE&I principles, it unifies the workforce to not only adopt those approaches but also hold business leaders accountable. That accountability will help sustain the Future of Work ideals and continue the evolution of an employee-centric workplace.

Diversity’s Measurable Impacts on the Contingent Workforce

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion General Insights Talent by John Yuva on 03/27/2023

Diversity programs continue to evolve, and enterprises must ensure their efforts span the total talent spectrum. Often, diversity initiatives are primarily focused on full-time, permanent employees. However, with contingent talent now comprising more than half of organizations’ entire workforce, diversity should permeate contingent workforce management (CWM) strategies.

In fact, recent Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research indicates 62% of enterprises plan to infuse diversity initiatives into their CWM efforts as part of their workplace goals.

Diversity Is Critical to CWM Results

CWM and the Future of Work movement are aligned in their workforce direction. Extended workers represent a global talent pool where flexibility and a skills-based portfolio are at their core. Equally important, however, are the unique perspectives and outside viewpoints of contingent workers that cater to diverse thinking and enterprise representation.

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Unconscious Bias Restrains DE&I Efforts

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR by John Yuva on 03/23/2023

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is widely regarded as a critical component of a Future of Work vision. It is an important initiative for enterprise and employee unification, engagement, and inclusion for workers of all backgrounds and demographics. Despite those positive intents, DE&I is under greater scrutiny from local and state governments that view such programs as part of a “woke” agenda. However, understanding its value and reward, enterprises across the U.S. continue to foster DE&I principles and integrate them into their recruitment and workforce engagement strategies.

With the current political and social polarization that exists, HR and managers must maintain the momentum of DE&I and further drive its criticality within the organization. Two areas that are extremely relevant today are unconscious bias and employee resource groups. The intent of addressing these two areas is to bring greater awareness to our own biases while recognizing the needs underserved employees in the enterprise who may be impacted by unconscious bias themselves.

Address Unconscious Bias

The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) defines this concept as “Unconscious biases are social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.”

One interesting aspect of unconscious bias that UCSF points out is that it’s “…far more prevalent than conscious prejudice and often incompatible with one’s conscious values.” This is an important statement for HR and managers because it means with engagement, employees can better recognize and quell unconscious bias in their own interactions.

Examples of different types of unconscious bias include affinity bias, confirmation bias, conformity bias, and gender bias. Lattice, a people management platform, says a few key approaches can help reduce the effects of unconscious bias.

First and foremost is self-recognition. Knowing that we all have biases is a necessary step in recognizing our own and preventing them from impacting our decision-making.
Assess various employee and team touchpoints across the enterprise to determine where potential biases may exist and who may be most vulnerable to them.
Conduct annual unconscious bias training to promote inclusiveness and empowerment and reduce unconscious bias in day-to-day interactions.

Establish Employee Resource Groups

The first employee resource group (ESG) was established by black employees at Xerox in the 1960s in response to high racial tensions in the workplace. An ESG is a voluntary, employee-led group with members who share similar interests or demographic characteristics.

According to an article from Great Place to Work, ESGs “… exist to provide support and help in personal or career development and to create a safe space where employees can bring their whole selves to the table. Allies may also be invited to join the ERG to support their colleagues.”

Great Place to Work says ESGs are effective in the workplace for several reasons.

Act as advocates for underserved employees, bringing greater awareness to specific individuals or issues.
Improve physical aspects of workplace facilities, whether it’s gender-neutral bathrooms or designating safe places for employees to converse.
Create a sense of belonging and purpose with like-minded employees. Not only does this elevate trust but also inspires conversations that would otherwise not occur.
Identify potential organizational talent through ESG leadership that may not have those opportunities due to unconscious bias.
Pursue solutions for specific enterprise challenges, maintaining open lines of communication with leadership and keeping leadership aware of the interests and issues of the group.

A key factor in the success of an ESG is having an executive sponsor. Ceridian, a human capital management software company, says, “An executive and/or leadership sponsor can not only help to increase visibility, innovation, and awareness, but can also help align ERG activities with business goals. Additionally, commitments from senior leaders signal a wider, organizational commitment to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.”

Prioritize DEI in the Enterprise

We live in a polarized world that has led to significant divides. The workplace is a melting pot of employees with many outside societal and political viewpoints that share a common goal: the success of the enterprise. DEI must remain a strategic priority for organizations to ensure that despite the societal divide, its inner walls are a place of cohesiveness, diversity, inclusion, and equality.

Amish Mehta, managing director and CEO for CRISIL, a global analytical company, summed up the importance of DE&I in his firm, “As a people-first organization, we are committed to equal treatment of, and opportunity for, all employees, irrespective of their background, orientation, and preferences. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion are at the core of CRISIL’s value system,” Mehta says.

“We welcome skills and perspectives that help us serve our clients and communities better and enable us to create a sustainable, and diverse culture where everyone can be their best.”

Skills-Based Is the New Workforce Frontier

Business Leadership Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation Uncategorized by John Yuva on 03/16/2023

We have recently talked about gamification and digital credentials as strategies for greater employee engagement, collaboration, and skills development. As enterprises re-engineer their workforce architectures toward a skills-based organization, these strategies will play a critical role in that initiative.

Why is skills-based the next workforce frontier? Simply put, traditional, antiquated job description-defined roles are ineffective in today’s volatile business landscape. Enterprises require agility and flexibility to respond appropriately to operational and market changes. A skills-based workforce architecture supports that requirement by aligning employee skills with project-focused initiatives. Deploying employees with specific skill sets to solve problems and ensure business continuity is a Future of Work vision.

Purpose of Work Redefined

With a nimble and responsive workforce, enterprises can leverage their talent using a more holistic approach while generating a greater sense of work purpose for employees. According to an article in Training magazine, “Skills-based organizations have a more agile and employee-centric approach to work where employees are valued for their skills rather than their job title, level, or educational qualifications.”

“It is a new operating model of work where employees are matched to tasks and projects based on skills, capabilities, and interests. Focusing on skill sets instead of job experience can help organizations optimize their talent pool.”

However, the success of this workforce model depends heavily on the ability to define work within the enterprise. What is the work that can ultimately provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace? Where in the organization does the most critical work reside? What skillsets and capabilities are most valued to accomplish the work required? How does the enterprise capture, structure, and utilize skillset data?

The critical answers to these questions are all part of the foundation of a skills-based structure.

Core Tenets of a Skills-Based Organization

The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work; thus, the very future of the skills-based organization depends on forward-thinking strategies, ideas, and, of course, technology, according to Chris Dwyer, senior vice president of research at Ardent Partners and the managing director of the Future of Work Exchange.

Consider the Future of Work Exchange’s six key elements of skills-based organizations and how they impact the greater business (and its staffing, recruitment, and hiring efforts).

Candidate Centricity

A candidate-centric talent strategy ensures that businesses place the utmost emphasis on the candidate experience and the candidate journey, thus positioning them to attract and engage top-tier skillsets and expertise. Employee development opportunities are essential in retainment and career progression initiatives.

A Shift to Skills-based Hiring

Job-based hiring has long been the foundation of talent acquisition. However, for skills-based organizations, prioritizing expertise as the core of hiring enables a deeper range of total talent. An important part of this strategy is diversity, equity, and inclusion in the hiring process as well. DE&I should be communicated by leadership as an enterprise priority.

A Foundation of AI and Data

Deeper, AI-furled technology allows businesses to execute more effective candidate matching, identify critical skills gaps, and provide leaders with predictive insights into the organization’s future talent. Rather than reactively responding to operational and market changes, AI and data enable a proactive approach to talent identification and deployment.

Expansion of Skills

Hard skills are crucial, but “soft” skills are critical for productive and engaged workers. SBOs expand their candidate searches to prioritize behavioral skills just as much as traditional expertise. The need for strategic problem-solving and collaboration across business units is an inherent characteristic of a skills-based enterprise.

Enhanced Experiences

Skills-based organizations not only prioritize the candidate journey but also the hiring manager experience to ensure that consistent, scalable methods are leveraged to catalyze a frictionless talent acquisition experience.

Omni-Channel Talent Acquisition

Skills-based organizations leverage “omni-channel talent acquisition,” in which hiring strategies revolve around a variety of talent sources, including direct sourcing, talent marketplaces, digital staffing, etc. Cultivating those pipelines with diverse candidates, while also using source prioritization for specific requirements will streamline the talent acquisition process.

A skills-based organization is a major transformation from the traditional approach of job-defined roles and responsibilities. Core to a successful skills-based workforce model is comprehensive talent assessments of existing skillsets, integration of workforce technologies, and structured processes for identifying projects and deploying needed skillsets. And of course, there’s change management that is necessary to make the transformation sustainable, a topic we’ll tackle in a later article.

Spin for the Win with Gamification

Business Leadership General Insights HR Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 03/09/2023

In an article on the Future of Work Exchange last week, we discussed digital credentials and badges as a means to recruit, verify, and retain talent. This week we’re exploring those concepts further through gamification in the workplace and how the Future of Work can be transformed by its utilization.

Gamification Defined

Gamification is defined by Investopedia as, “the incentivization of people’s engagement in non-game contexts and activities by using game-style mechanics.” First coined in 2002 by game designer Nick Pelling while incorporating game elements into ATM and vending machines, gamification became mainstream by 2009 and has only grown as a strategic approach in HR and business.

With employee engagement and productivity a high priority for enterprises, gamification bridges the employee experience with enterprise needs. It can turn mundane tasks and processes, such as training and upskilling, reviewing corporate and HR policies, rolling out new products and services, and even applying for a job within the organization into engaging activities.

Technology plays a significant role in gamification initiatives either through mobile apps, learning management systems, or custom-designed solutions with specific objectives at the core. Gamifying the mundane means incorporating game elements that spur friendly competition, performance, and recognition. According to a TalentLMS 2019 gamification survey, the five most motivating gamification elements include:

Rewards
Badges
Points
Leaderboards
Levels.

Leverage Gamification for Engagement and Change Management

Using these game elements, HR is in a position to drive change management and influence the enterprise culture through gamification. In an interview, Kenneth W. Wheeler, vice president — human resources (L&D) at LogiNext Solutions, identifies several workplace attributes where gamification can play a significant role.

The essence of belonging: It has been said many times on the Future of Work Exchange that a sense of purpose is a driving force for many employees. What better way to bring employees together than through gamified activities? According to Wheeler, “Gamification can be designed to ensure that all employees recognize that they are a part of something big, that their individual contribution really matters to the business, and they truly belong.”

Creativity and feedback: Enterprises face volatile markets and supply challenges requiring frequent problem-solving. As the focus grows on skills-based hiring, employees bring with them a variety of competencies that organizations can and should leverage. Gamification through simulation and role-playing can bring visibility to untapped expertise and innovative thinking. Wheeler remarks “…one can observe how the best performers deliver and can get instant feedback and coaching for improvement on their own capabilities.”

Motivation and accomplishment: Much of employee engagement revolves around motivation. Through motivation, employees are more willing to participate in new initiatives and team-based activities. Gamification provides that feeling of accomplishment that can help sustain inspiration and excitement. Wheeler says to consider a team or group format where executing different activities earns points, resulting in a top-ranked team winner. “…all this flourishes healthy internal competition fueled by motivation and an emotional feeling of accomplishment, thus invariably promoting a culture of positive engagement.”

Peer influence and recognition: Gamification is not just about competition but recognition as well. Through activities and collaboration, enterprises should encourage workers to nominate and formally recognize those employees who serve as leaders and role models. “To be recognized and appreciated as a core human expectation by virtue of gamification plays a great role in how employees feel and evaluate their own self-worth at work,” Wheeler says.

Compelling Gamification Statistics and Examples

Despite the possibilities that gamification can bring enterprises and their workforce, the TalentLMS survey revealed that 44% of organizations have yet to introduce gamification into their operations.

However, for those that have made gamification a part of the organizational fabric, the statistics are telling:

Employees say gamification makes them feel more productive (89%) and happier (88%) at work.

61% of the respondents receive training with gamification.

83% of those who receive gamified training feel motivated, while 61% of those who receive non-gamified training feel bored and unproductive.
78% of the respondents say that gamification in the recruiting process would make a company more desirable.

What are some examples of how organizations are utilizing gamification in their workforce strategies?

Recruiting. Use simulation or group role-playing as part of the hiring process, with rewards given to the winning individual or team. If that individual accepts a job offer, he or she is rewarded with a digital company badge.

Onboarding. Many enterprises rely on digitization for their onboarding processes — offer perks (gift cards, etc.) for new hires who complete their onboarding the quickest.

Professional development. Continuous training modules can feel tedious to complete. However, instituting a leaderboard and point system based on completion and testing scores takes professional development to a new level.

Performance and career management. Skill-based hires and promotions give HR an opportunity to identify specific roles and promotion paths that employees can strive toward. Using gamification, digital badges and leaderboards motivate workers to reach their goals and clearly see their progression as new skills or competencies are obtained.

Gamification is fast becoming an ideal complement to Future of Work strategies. In fact, consider A/B testing where a more traditional training approach is compared to a gamified version to determine potential differences in engagement. While the investment in gamification varies widely depending on the technology and degree of implementation, it can lead to critical workforce insights as well as expand recruitment initiatives. Roll the dice.

Digital Credentials Provide Talent Visibility, Skill Recognition

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing General Insights HR Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 03/02/2023

As people’s careers progress, they establish a professional profile comprised of a resume, portfolio, performance reviews, letters of recommendation, degrees, certifications, memberships, and other career achievements. Often, these paper-based items are dispersed and sometimes forgotten over time. However, they are all critical pieces of employees’ professional identities that make them unique in the workforce. Even more important, they represent their skills and competencies to potential or current employers.

What is the answer? Enter the world of digital credentials.

A Digitized, Verifiable Professional Profile

At the foundational level, candidates convert their professional profiles into digitized and verifiable credentials that enterprises access quickly and securely when recruiting or promoting staff. In today’s aggressive labor market, having digital credentials is a competitive differentiator in the workforce. It separates a candidate’s application from random submissions, thus streamlining the selection process and generating cost savings for the hiring enterprise through greater efficiencies.

With enterprises utilizing direct sourcing, talent marketplaces, and other online recruiting platforms and tools, digital credentialing provides a centralized, verifiable means to elevate an organization’s talent acquisition strategy. While a digitized and verifiable professional profile is a game-changer for those candidates adopting the technology, it represents the tip of the iceberg in terms of the potential for digital credentials in both the workforce and the workplace.

Digital Credentialing for Granular Achievements

The future for digital credentials lies in digital badges and certificates — which support many Future of Work objectives. The graphic element of a badge or certificate combined with metadata describing the knowledge and activities required to earn it is innovative for verifying competencies.

Whether it’s an enterprise, university, or professional association, developing its own digital credentials to support advancement and motivation can pay dividends. Credly, a leading provider in the digital credential space, says, “Digital credentials save your organization money on marketing, human resources, and recruiting costs, which has an impact on the financial bottom line.”

Credly highlights the benefits of digital badges and certificates in several settings. Let’s explore some of those implementations and the value they provide employees and job candidates.

Universities Focused on Marketable Skills and Achievements

More colleges and universities are thinking beyond the traditional transcript for their graduates. The goal for many is to help students bridge the gap between academics and employment. Classes and grades lack evidence of actual capabilities. However, providing workshops, internships, and other opportunities to showcase knowledge and real-world execution and earning a digital certificate of achievement, makes students more marketable to potential employers.

Professional Associations Provide Visible and Shareable Digital Credentials

Many associations attract members through credentials, certifications, or educational offerings. Those achievements are often awarded through paper-based certificates that members proudly frame and display in their offices or cubicles. However, times are changing. While a tangible certificate is still an option, it should be complemented by a digital credential that is sharable online. Credly says this serves two purposes: 1) members can share the credential on social media, job boards, resumes, and email signatures and 2) it provides the association with visibility and marketing opportunities by having its digital credential appear on LinkedIn and other platforms.

Enterprises Implement Digital Badges and Certificates to Engage and Retain Employees

As organizations hire permanent employees and contingent workers, having transparency in their complete skillsets is critical to react appropriately to evolving markets and workforce fluctuations. Equally important is employee engagement to attract and retain workers, especially those seeking advancement opportunities. Digital credentialing is playing a major role in those initiatives.

Enterprises are offering their own digital badges and certificates through learning tracks and skill-based activities. Earning a badge or certificate verifies competencies with evidence that the organization can use for talent visibility and career progression initiatives while giving workers shareable online recognition of their achievements.

IBM Goes Global with Digital Badge Program

Few enterprises are doing digital badges as successfully as IBM. The company’s IBM Global Skills Initiative was launched to ensure the global IT workforce was current and competitive in its skills. A decentralized IT structure presented challenges in identifying skilled experts. However, by offering four types of digital badges across learning tracks from foundational to expert level, the company has been able to verify skills and competencies.

Credly shares some of the outcomes from the IBM Global Skills Initiative:

Powerful data analytics and reporting features that enable IBM to produce global heat maps of talent.
Linkage with talent acquisition and HR systems to enhance visibility and understanding of employee career planning and progression.
Ability to track skills at the nano level and make them discoverable to HR and hiring managers in real time.
Being able to differentiate employees by skills, while seeing a complete view of the individual’s broader competencies and abilities.

The program grew immensely popular among workers, leading to 195 countries represented in the skills registry; 92% of badge earners saying the badge verifies job skills; and 87% of badge earners feeling more engaged with the company and motivated to learn more. In 2018 alone, there were 1,600 different badged activities. This has paid off in IBM’s marketing efforts as well — 200 million social media impressions (or an equivalent of $39,000 per month in marketing value.

According to Credly, “Digital credentials allow a company to create a culture of recognition, rather than just awarding participation trophies for showing up. Digital credentials allow managers to see the achievements of their most dedicated and engaged employees. With access to real insights, companies can make more-informed human capital decisions.”