close

Contingent Workforce

Workforce Orchestration Unlocked: Elevating Services to Drive Enterprise Value

The extended workforce has become too important for organizations to manage through disconnected programs and isolated service providers. With contingent talent representing roughly 48% to 49% of the workforce in many industries, organizations increasingly need a more strategic approach to managing how work gets done. The challenge is not simply finding talent, as was pointed out during a recent Future of Work Exchange (FOWX) Podcast, featuring FOWX Managing Director Christopher Dwyer and Atrium’s VP of Enterprise Solutions, Kelly Couto. It’s about understanding where talent is needed, which workforce models make sense, and how different services can work together to create measurable business value.

That is where workforce orchestration is emerging as an important concept.

The modern workforce ecosystem includes a growing range of services, including managed service programs, employer of record and agent of record models, recruitment process outsourcing, embedded recruiting, early talent programs, direct sourcing, and SOW engagements. Rather than viewing these offerings as competing alternatives, Couto said organizations can increasingly treat them as components of a broader workforce strategy.

The starting point, however, should not be the technology or the service. It should be the business objective. As Couto explained, organizations need to begin by defining what success looks like and then identifying where they can create the greatest impact. That could mean examining specific labor categories, expanding into multiple workforce areas, adding embedded recruitment resources, launching an RPO program, strengthening an early talent strategy, or implementing an MSP that brings multiple elements together.

This strategy-first approach matters because every organization arrives with a different workforce environment. Some may already have sophisticated internal technology and established workflows. Others may have adopted new AI tools without fully understanding how those technologies fit into their broader ecosystem.

The role of services is therefore changing, noted Couto. Services can increasingly act as the connective layer between people, process, data, and technology. Rather than simply executing transactions or supplying talent, service providers can help organizations understand their current environment, identify gaps, determine where technology can create value, and build a phased strategy for improvement. That creates a more flexible model for workforce transformation. Couto emphasized that an organization does not necessarily need to overhaul every component of its workforce strategy at once. It can identify a high-impact area, create measurable results, and then expand into adjacent areas as the operating model matures.

This is particularly important as workforce strategies become more complex. Procurement, HR, talent acquisition, and business leaders increasingly need to coordinate around the same workforce objectives. They must understand supplier performance, talent availability, workforce costs, compliance, technology capabilities, and the employee and worker experience. Technology can provide important capabilities, said Couto, but technology alone cannot determine the right operating model.

That is why workforce orchestration is becoming increasingly relevant. The objective is not simply to deploy more tools or add more services. It is to connect the right capabilities around clearly defined business outcomes.

Couto shared that the organizations that make the greatest progress may not be those with the most technology or the largest number of workforce programs. They may be the organizations that understand how their workforce ecosystem fits together and can continuously adjust it as business needs change. The future of workforce management will require more than talent acquisition, staffing, or technology in isolation. It will require orchestration across all three.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

The Future of Contingent Workforce Management Is Orchestration

The contingent workforce has become too important to manage as a collection of isolated transactions. Organizations are balancing fluctuating demand, specialized skills, constrained budgets, supplier relationships, compliance requirements, and growing expectations around workforce flexibility. As a result, contingent workforce leaders are increasingly being asked to do more than fill openings. They are being asked to orchestrate talent, technology, suppliers, and business requirements around broader workforce outcomes.

That shift was a central theme during a recent Future of Work Exchange (FOWX) Podcast, featuring Cristin Monnich, Head of Services for Worksuite. Monnich highlighted a fundamental change in how organizations should think about external talent: not simply as labor to procure when internal capacity falls short, but as a strategic source of skills, relationships, flexibility, and competitive advantage.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

Beyond “When in Doubt, Use EOR”: A Smarter Approach to Worker Classification

Worker classification has become one of the more complex challenges facing organizations that rely on independent contractors, freelancers, and other forms of contingent talent. Shifting regulations, varying state requirements, and high-profile misclassification cases have created an environment where companies can be tempted to take the safest-looking path: classify more workers as employees or use an Employer of Record (EOR) model whenever there is uncertainty. However, during a recent Future of Work Exchange (FOWX) Podcast, Cristin Monnich, Head of Services for Worksuite, explained that excessive caution can create its own costs and talent risks.

Compliance Requires More Than Choosing the Safest Option

The fundamental challenge is determining how a worker should actually be classified. An independent contractor operating as an independent business is fundamentally different from an individual who functions as part of a company’s internal workforce. Treating those two situations the same can create problems for both the organization and the worker. Monnich argues that organizations need to become more intentional about understanding the distinction between an EOR and an Agent of Record (AOR) model. An AOR can be appropriate when an individual is legitimately operating as an independent business, while an EOR is designed for situations where a worker is functioning more like an employee. Forcing an independent worker into an employee structure can create additional costs and potentially cause the organization to lose valuable talent.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

So…Where Do We Go From Here?

Jobs reports that look pretty solid…and then are adjusted (negatively). Stock market booms and expands…but the economy feels a little weird. Unemployment doesn’t seem like it’s that bad…but a quick trip through LinkedIn shows so many folks with green banners searching for new gigs.

Gas is too expensive. Two wars rage on the other side of the world and the effects cascade down into the supply chain and other business aspects globally. Inflation is still stubborn. Groceries cost more now than ever before. Families are struggling in different ways.

It’s, well…it’s weird, isn’t it? For those of us that have been in the corporate arena for quite some time (author included; I’m an “elder millennial,” so, I feel a little old these days), we feel somewhat battle-tested. We’ve lived through an economic recession. We’ve traversed through the great unknowns of a global pandemic and all of its ramifications.

But this, this…feels…different. It’s almost as if we’re experiencing a golden age of innovation at the same time staring down one of the more unsettled economic periods of our lives.

Such an odd balance, for sure. So it begs the question: where do we go from here?

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

The Rise of Services as the X-Factor in the Talent Technology Ecosystem

Last week’s Future of Work Exchange feature piece on the “state of” EOR solutions sparked another thought: if we’re talking about services within the talent solutions landscape, what has changed and what needs to change?

The major difference between the HR tech, talent acquisition, and extended workforce solutions realm and every other industry (like IT, finance, etc.) is that “services” within these sectors doesn’t just translate into “consulting” or a human in a room hundreds of miles away supplying some type of vague “advice” on an inconsistent basis.

Workforce solutions that offer professional- and enterprise-grade services are foundational, value-add, and multi-modal offerings that traverse the wide spectrum of operations required to effectively find, engage, and manage talent while operationalizing skills alignment.

Actually, that word, alignment, translates into something that makes this industry so special. Think of the biggest stories happening today in the business climate and the one element that rises above the rest.

I’m talking about artificial intelligence, of course. And what comes along with the AI conversation is the worry over displacement and the cold architecture of the largest tech boom in decades.

“For twenty years, workforce programs have been rearview-mirror operations…quarterly reviews explaining what already happened. The convergence of AI and the industry’s massive transactional datasets flips that model: fill risk, rate drift, compliance exposure, and skills gaps can now be surfaced before they materialize, turning services from a reporting function into a forecasting one,” says Dustin Burgess, Head of Customer Experience at Magnit. “The dividing line in this market over the next five years won’t be who has AI, because everyone will, it’s who has the data depth and the services muscle to act on what it predicts.”

For an industry that focuses so much on, well, people, the AI conversation is both riveting and a little confusing. Today’s workforce solutions arena is relied upon to help businesses orchestrate talent strategies while optimizing the acquisition and management of talent. AI’s place in the talent technology ecosystem isn’t to replace the human element that has become the source of value, insights, and expansive, strategic power…it’s to enhance the connective tissue that services already provide.

“In many global industries, workforce success depends on genuine integration, not just a menu of siloed platforms and solutions. At Airswift, we are pushing the market to bring together RPO, MSP, SOW and direct sourcing in a way that reflects how work actually gets done: projects with shifting timelines, regulatory demands, mobilization needs, and talent requirements that rarely fit neatly into one model. By unifying these approaches into a single, skills‑centric framework, we help organizations see their workforce more clearly, respond to change more quickly, and deploy talent with the consistency complex projects demand,” says Jenny Amalfi, President of Americas, Airswift. “Services, essentially, become the X‑factor in making these models work in practice. It’s a practical, connected way of managing talent…and it’s reshaping how companies build and sustain their workforces.”

The contemporary Managed Service Provider (MSP) offering has become a formidable source of workforce management prowess that traverses beyond the normal boundaries of “outsourcing” in a way that sees these solutions shed their “traditional” tag (owed to decades of excellence…even in pre-tech days). Today’s MSPs operate as strategic workforce orchestrators by blending data, intelligence, services, and technology (including, yep…AI!) into a unified engine that supports how work actually gets done. They’re no longer defined by transactional program management; they’re defined by their ability to integrate platforms, optimize talent channels, drive skills alignment, and serve as the connective tissue between business strategy and workforce execution.

In a similar vein, as MSPs have become orchestration hubs for the extended workforce, RPO has become the orchestration layer for permanent talent by connecting intelligence, technology and delivery into a unified capability that supports how organizations actually grow. Today’s RPO-led programs (yes, service-driven!) function as embedded talent engines by integrating market intelligence, skills data, technology platforms, and advisory support to help organizations compete in increasingly volatile labor markets.

In an era when staffing and the greater labor market keep shifting, that level of services becomes that much more critical, doesn’t it?

‘Technology is becoming a commodity; orchestration is becoming the differentiator. The market is moving beyond buying ATS, CRM, VMS or AI tools in isolation,” says Orli Becker, Managing Director, Contingent Workforce Solutions, AMS. “Clients increasingly require a service partner that can integrate these technologies, apply AI responsibly, provide workforce intelligence and deliver measurable business outcomes across permanent, contingent and internal talent. AMS positions itself as that orchestration partner.”

As talent technology platforms mature (especially ATS, CRM, VMS, digital staffing, AI engines, etc.), the differentiator is no longer the software itself, but the service wrapper that surrounds it. Technology delivers capability; services ensure those capabilities become outcomes. The most effective workforce platforms pair automation, intelligence and workflow design with advisory support, configuration expertise, adoption guidance, and continuous optimization. Without that service layer, even the most advanced tools risk becoming underutilized features rather than business‑shaping assets.

“Technology delivers capabilities — but services are what ignite those capabilities into outcomes that actually move the needle. The best technology companies don’t just hand over software; they roll up their sleeves and help customers unlock every ounce of value. That service layer is the spark that turns a technology investment into undeniable, business‑shaping impact,” says Rebecca Valladares, Head of Operations at Opptly.

read more

The State of EOR: Reckoning, Evolution…or a New Direction?

The EOR market is incredibly loud right now. It is expanding, consolidating, and getting pulled into every conversation about global talent, the extended workforce, and the Future of Work movement.

The problem is quite simple. Employer of Record solutions, technology, and services are far too often viewed and leveraged as a neo security blanket. It is easy enough. It is available whenever a program leader feels uncertain. And it delivers a sense of comfort that feels like compliance, even when it is not.

The real issue is that comfort has become a substitute for clarity. EOR is being used to avoid the classification conversations instead of informing them. It is being applied to workers who do not need employment and being treated as a universal fix instead of a targeted model.

And the market is starting to feel the consequences.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the Future of Work, extended workforce management, and the many other topics FOWX covers, 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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

Korn Ferry Acquires AMS: The Age of Talent Architecture?

In our ongoing series of the most important moments in the contingent and extended workforce over the past two decades, one of the common themes that permeated throughout the industry over the past two decades is the power and overall impact of strategic mergers and acquisitions.

SAP and Fieldglass. IQNavigator and Beeline. PROUnlimited and the multitude of solutions the company acquired (WorkforceLogiq, GRI, WillHire, etc.). And now we can add another transformational acquisition to the global workforce solutions fold.

Yesterday, Korn Ferry announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire AMS, a move that sparks several key transformational implications for the global talent and extended workforce arena. Since its founding years as AlexanderMann and its rebrand to “AMS” just five years ago, AMS has driven excellence in RPO and MSP/contingent workforce solutions, skills-based hiring orchestration, and global talent advisory services. The organization has successfully traversed a post-pandemic talent landscape through an array of both services and solutions that are well-aligned to the needs of today’s evolved extended workforce and traditional HR/recruitment programs.

“This is an iconic brand that I’ve known for almost 20 years — high‑quality work, outstanding people and a culture and values that are very similar, identical to Korn Ferry,” said Gary Burnison, CEO of Korn Ferry, during an investor call yesterday afternoon. “The real catalyst for business is people… What we have here is incredible people, deep data, unique technology and capability that we currently don’t have in lockstep and overwhelming industry and geographic coverage.”

On the surface, the $1.1B acquisition makes sense: Korn Ferry naturally extends its global reach with an elegant, time-tested, and well-trusted solution that immediately expands its assessment, recruitment, and talent intelligence ecosystem. The combined organization, off the bat, becomes one of the most comprehensive end-to-end workforce solutions in the greater market.

Some quick Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange analysis:

  • Advisory? Advisory. “Talent advisory” was a, hmm, confusing phrase in the workforce arena just several years ago. From our perspective, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that businesses truly understood the powerful value of talent advisory services, which features managed services blended with in-team representatives that guide and advise talent strategy, hiring process orientation, future-looking approaches, etc. In an age when hiring is wonky, AI is omnipresent, recruitment is evolving, and delivery needs to be differentiated, the AMS acquisition is a boon for the next age of talent advisory within Korn Ferry.
  • Diversification at center stage. Doubling down on the talent advisory piece: search-oriented services mesh with diversified talent advisory capabilities as part of the new end-to-end solution. AMS is known for its scale, innovative delivery models, and industry/sector specialization…all remarkable additions to KF’s existing advisory model, which includes Best-in-Class workforce planning, capability modeling, and candidate/talent intelligence.
  • AMS One and the solution’s skills-oriented frameworks bolster the Intelligence Cloud. Korn Ferry’s Intelligence Cloud platform gets a nice amplification of its already-robust ability to drive predictive talent/workforce insights, skills adjacency modeling, and deeper “role architecture” design advisory. The major value here? AMS will allow Korn Ferry to drive these market differentiators at enterprise scale.
  • Alignment across RPO models. Korn Ferry’s RPO-meets-upstream-advisory solution, bevvied with AMS market-leading RPO model, supercharges the company’s recruitment process outsourcing engine with not only a more global reach, but a symbiotic continuum from strategic, advisory-fueled talent design to true operational hiring and recruitment execution.
  • Vertical-specific nuances via AMS strengths. Much like any other acquisition in this industry (think Magnit’s acquisition of GRI and WorkforceLogiq), Korn Ferry’s AMS purchase bolsters those sectors where KF may lag from a true RPO or workforce design delivery standpoint, particularly life sciences, IT and technology, and financial services…all industries undergoing massive skills disruption.

“They have a skills business that will be extremely complementary to us,” Burnison added. “…a technology consulting offering, [talent services that include capabilities around] early careers and campus recruiting, [as well as] contingent workforce solutions.”

The Age of Talent Architecture?

The core reasoning behind this major acquisition boils down to a central theme, at least from the perspective of the Future of Work Exchange: this is more about Korn Ferry “owning” the realm of talent strategy solutions rather than just expanding market share or boosting existing RPO capabilities. Korn Ferry is a household name in leadership advisory and workforce planning, expertise long heralded from its decades as an executive search firm.

There has always been a distinct disconnect between the multifaceted layers of offerings within the greater workforce solutions arena; think about the many, many disparate services, products, solutions, and platforms that are often in play within the enterprise infrastructure, like time and attendance, contingent workforce management, analytics and reporting, candidate experience, recruitment, talent search, etc.

Korn Ferry, as anticipated by Ardent and FOWX, aims to connect true executive leadership advisory, workforce planning, skills intelligence, and recruitment execution into a single, unified banner of talent strategy-oriented offerings. Thus, the AMS acquisition is so much more than just a “scale play.” The power of the broad AMS solution (AMS One, skills-centric recruitment, Best-in-Class RPO, wide-scoping contingent workforce/MSP solutions, etc.), surged into Korn Ferry’s long-trusted credibility and workforce planning practices, strengthens the powerful connectivity between the company’s world-class search, talent, and organizational offerings and its workforce solutions layers.

Is this a new age of “talent architecture”? If so, the combined Korn Ferry-AMS solution may may stand as one of the first fully realized blueprints for how global enterprises design, align, and execute workforce strategy in an era defined by AI acceleration, skills volatility, and relentless labor market complexity.

read more

Smarter Talent, Faster Hiring: AI’s Expanding Role in CWM

Artificial intelligence is becoming a permanent fixture as part of today’s enterprise operations and talent management approaches, serving as an essential technology for contingent workforce management (CWM) strategies that streamline candidate pairings with operational needs while increasing transparency of available skillsets and workforce contributions. Whether shoring up talent gaps or scaling needs, AI provides external workforce insights invaluable to HR and recruitment professionals and business leaders. The evolution of artificial intelligence will mean the emergence of more CWM opportunities.

Enterprises and HR executives who are not at least exploring the possibilities of AI’s impact on CWM will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage when sourcing talent and executing extended workforce strategies. Beeline stated that the “effects of AI in extended workforce management are just beginning and can be seen shaping how jobs are described, how candidates are evaluated, and how contracts are written. AI will soon be employed for more strategic outcomes like workforce planning, workforce optimization, and total workforce management.”

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more

The Twenty (or So) Most Important Moments in Contingent Workforce History (Part I)

Last month, I officially was able to say “for 20 years” when tweaking my bio for an Ardent Partners project. While I often say things like “don’t let the gray hair fool you…I’m a millennial” and “oh my gosh do I feel old,” this 20-year mark had me thinking:

What are some of the most important moments in the history of the contingent workforce industry, especially over the past two decades? What are some watershed happenings that forever changed this arena, from acquisitions to new technology and innovation to rebrands to beyond-industry/macro-level shifts?

So, some ground rules:

  • Limiting this list to the past 20 years, as stated above.
  • We will try our best to not include too many of those macro, world-shifting events that essentially affected every business industry, not just the contingent workforce (you’ll see why).
  • It’s incredibly tough to not repeat provider/solution names, especially those that have experienced major transformations and parlayed those transformations into industry-shifting momentum, but, we’ll also try our best to consolidate multiple items from a single provider into a single mention (no promises, though).
  • This is not a ranking; while some of us may perceive some of these items as more important as others, the truth is that one provider’s momentous experience may have not translated into anything major for particular segments of the industry.
  • This was designed to be both productive and fun, so please head into this list with an open mind.

Part I of the 20 (or so) most important moments in contingent workforce history over the past 20 years, below.

  • The Affordable Care Act as more than just a healthcare law. The development and passing of the ACA were truly a landmark workforce architecture event. It forced enterprises, MSPs, VMS platforms, and staffing suppliers to modernize overnight. It accelerated technology adoption, reshaped pricing, and laid the foundation for today’s extended workforce governance models. It was the moment when compliance stopped being a back‑office obligation and became a core pillar of workforce strategy, forcing organizations to rethink how they classified, tracked, and supported every category of talent.
  • The reinvention of PROUnlimited, its forward-looking integrated workforce management suite, eventual rebrand, and expansion into the next era of the extended workforce. PRO pioneered the integrated VMS/MSP approach way back in the early 2000s and became a formidable entrant into the mid-2000s contingent workforce solutions boom. Operating under a model that fought against staffing-owned providers, PRO had a long streak of success for a number of years. It was its pandemic-era reinvention, though, into a “platform approach” heralded by CEO Kevin Akeroyd that essentially sparked a series of industry-shifting moves from the legendary provider. The company doubled down on innovation, went on an acquisition spree (next-gen analytics through the GRI acquisition, direct sourcing automation with WillHire, additional market capital and progressive MSP capabilities through Workforce Logiq, etc.), and eventually rebranded to “Magnit” to reflect the magnetic pull of today’s progressive workforce solutions on the changing dynamics of candidates and talent.
  • Opptly’s emergence as one of the most disruptive and dynamic AI‑oriented platforms in the market represents a true inflection point for the contingent workforce industry. What sets Opptly apart isn’t just its ability to automate or accelerate traditional workflows; it’s how the platform dominates multiple layers of the workforce technology stack simultaneously, from sourcing and matching to intelligence, analytics, and strategic workforce design. The shift from “reporting” to “intelligence,” mainly driven by AI, skills taxonomies, and predictive analytics, fundamentally changed how enterprises make workforce decisions. What makes a platform particularly “innovative” in 2026 isn’t just how powerful its functionality really is, but rather its impact on enterprise agility and flexibility. Opptly redefined what a modern workforce platform should be. Its emergence marks a moment when AI stopped being an enhancement and became the engine powering how enterprises understand, engage, and deploy talent across the extended workforce.
  • AlexanderMann rebrands to AMS and signals a new era of contingent workforce solutions. AlexanderMann was a pioneer in RPO and recruitment offerings, as well as global talent acquisition outsourcing. Pre-pandemic, the organization enabled businesses with a wide range of solutions that effectively converged recruitment, managed services, and total talent management. The rebrand to “AMS” wasn’t just cosmetic, but rather a dynamic reflection of the move towards globalized, innovative, and intelligence-led solutions that balanced both full-time and contingent talent optimization. AMS proved it was one of the first global providers capable of truly integrating RPO, MSP, and total talent into a unified, future‑focused model that reflected where the world of work was heading. Five years later, that evolution proved prescient as more solutions within the industry reorchestrate their offerings around an agile mix of direct sourcing, recruitment optimization, managed services, AI-driven insights and analytics, and, of course, total talent management.
  • Beeline, IQNavigator, extended workforce management, and the new era of private equity-backed CW platforms. It was an early December day back in 2016 when I received a call from a close friend on IQNavigator’s leadership team. “We’re going to tell you something really, really, really BIG,” he said. “We?” I replied. And then there was a third voice on the line…from Beeline. I still vividly recall all of the thoughts, ideas, and emotions that spun around in the back of my mind: this was like Pepsi and CocaCola merging. The two platforms, operating under the Beeline brand, brought two incredibly powerful sets of tools and functionality together, which eventually paved the way for two other big, historical moments: 1) the industry’s first major instance of “extended workforce management,” when Beeline doubled-down on its Best-in-Class automation to articulate and operationalize a broader, more holistic model that converged gig talent, governance and compliance for all external workers, SOW and services procurement, independent contractors, shift-based and high-volume talent, and so much more, and, 2) Stone Point’s investment in Beeline marking the beginning of a new era of private‑equity‑backed contingent workforce platforms, giving the company the scale, stability, and capital to accelerate its evolution.
  • The Gig Economy explosion and the catalyst for omni-channel talent acquisition. Uber, Lyft, and others ushered in the first great era of the Gig Economy and along with it a new sense of “talent” that traversed what business leaders considered “contingent labor” and redefined the relationship between work, autonomy, and access. Essentially, the Gig Economy’s biggest impacts followed two core principles: 1) it was the first time that the platform was the employer, the marketplace, the scheduler, the payment engine, and the compliance shield; this, effectively, accelerated the amazing growth and disruption that platforms like Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr, Catalant, and others blazed across the business spectrum through its on-demand access to skills and expertise…and, 2) it catalyzed the concept of “omni-channel talent acquisition,” a phrase oft-used by our Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange teams to describe the new reality of talent engagement: skills, expertise, and capability flowing through multiple channels, platforms, and ecosystems at once.
read more

The Next Generation of Extended Workforce Management Requires the Next Generation of Managed Services

Sometime back in the fall of 2020, I remember a distinct conversation with a close friend who has spent close to two decades in the extended workforce solutions industry (she, like me, is an “elder millennial”).

The first six or so months of the COVID-19 pandemic were essentially a test in patience and resilience. So many organizations were actively reducing their workforce while preparing for worst-case outcomes and wondering if the business would survive the first year in what was proving to be an already-difficult new decade.

One of those patience tests for our industry was combating declining staffing levels and demand for talent. “It’s been a struggle,” she told me on that autumn morning, “but, what’s been very interesting is the increase in advisory requests from our clients. They really seem to want us to help with workforce strategy and design right now.”

That “right now” was a pivotal moment for the Managed Service Provider (MSP) model.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

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.

Click here to learn more.

read more
1 2 3 … 17
Page 1 of 17