It was a bold statement but one I was comfortable making during the welcome address at the Future of Work Exchange LIVE executive roundtable in Boston last week (at the historic and elegant Harvard Club venue), the third annual event (hosted by Ardent Partners) that brought together swaths of procurement, HR, talent acquisition, contingent workforce, and recruitment professionals.

Given the audience, as well as the natural Future of Work undercurrent permeating the event’s core sessions, it only appropriate to view “the human factor” as a natural link to the day’s core themes and topics, such as AI in talent acquisition, skills-based hiring, direct sourcing, extended workforce management, DE&I, and the evolving workplace.

Highlights of the event include:

• Some wonderful commentary on artificial intelligence and its place in the evolving concept of skills-based hiring by Lori Hock and Rebecca Valladares (Opptly) and Raleen Gagnon (TalentEdge AI). The three longtime industry thought leaders took the audience through moving from role-based to skills-based hiring and highlighted the criticality of AI as the foundation for this transformation; Hock and Valladares provided real-world context around the continued evolution and influence of artificial intelligence (and how AI is a “rising tide” in today’s fast-paced talent acquisition arena), while Gagnon gave some robust commentary on AI in action for talent acquisition and workforce management.
• A riveting panel discussion on the data-driven evolution of extended workforce management, courtesy of Beeline’s Craig Coe and Benjie Hanson and TalentProcure’s Dawnette Cooke. Hanson illuminated the power of data-infused extended workforce management (with Coe adding Beeline customer examples of this in action), while Cooke provided some incredible commentary from her deep expertise as a solutions leader.
• A compelling look at direct sourcing and its future, heralded by Guidant Global’s Robin Sanders, WorkLLama’s Kevin Leete, and Splunk’s CWM program lead, Ashley Wilson. Sanders gave an incredible perspective of direct sourcing from the MSP purview, buoyed by years of Guidant’s stance as a pioneer in the field. Wilson provided real-world context around her current experiences with direct sourcing within Splunk’s extended workforce program. Leete, as he has done in years past (this is his third appearance at FOWX Live), converged progressive direct sourcing commentary with technology- and innovation-led examples of how the strategy (and its associated functionality) can revolutionize hiring.

As always with FOWX Live events, a highlight of the day was the opportunity for the conference’s attendees to not only engage and interact with each other, but share best practices, discuss challenges, and learn from each other at interactive roundtable conversations on topics like extended workforce management, direct sourcing, artificial intelligence, DE&I, technology and innovation, and new hiring strategies.

And, too, another endearing attribute of that “human factor”: the ability to converse, engage, and network with so many incredible leaders across the talent technology ecosystem, as well as the HR, talent acquisition, and procurement professionals who live the Future of Work 24/7.

At the end of the day, it’s the connections we make with our colleague. It’s the handshakes and hugs, the smiles and conversations. It’s meeting people in-person for the first time after only hearing voices and seeing faces on a screen. It’s the feeling of knowing that this industry, for all of the incredible innovation and technological advancements happening almost daily, is about the human connections we make with each other.

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The Future of Work Exchange is incredibly excited to host our final webcast of the year, The Future of Work 2024: Transformative Trends That Will Shape The Year Ahead, featuring an all-star lineup of panelists. I’ll be joined by Lori Hock (CEO of Opptly), Teresa Creech (Chief Corporate Development Officer at Beeline), and Amy Doyle (Global Leader, SVP at Talent Solutions TAPFIN) for a fun and engaging discussion on the technologies, solutions, strategies, and innovations that impacted 2023 and how concepts such as direct sourcing, DE&I, artificial intelligence, digital recruitment, and extended workforce management will impact how businesses optimize talent and work in 2024 (and beyond).

Register for the December 12 webinar below; we look forward to seeing you there!

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AI shapes industries, decisions, interactions, and opportunities, essentially impact everyone’s work and daily life.

If you missed last week’s exclusive webcast that featured Opptly and the Future of Work Exchange, don’t worry…we’ve got you covered. Check out an on-demand replay below and learn why Opptly’s Lori Hock and Rebecca Valladares (and, of course, the Future of Work Exchange) believe that AI will forever transform talent acquisition.

The post The Rising Tide of AI in Talent Acquisition (On-Demand Webinar) appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

I’m thrilled to join Opptly’s Lori Hock (CEO) and Rebecca Valladares (Head of Operations) tomorrow, August 16, for a Future of Work Exchange exclusive webcast that will demystify some of the confusion around artificial intelligence and spark discussion around its potential as a talent acquisition industry gamechanger.

Lori, Rebecca, and I will discuss:

• How AI can be leveraged to drive efficiency, accuracy, speed, and deeper, data-driven decision-making.
• Why AI will become the de-facto tool for recruiters and talent acquisition professionals.
• How AI can revolutionize new strategies such as skills-based hiring and predictive analytics, and;
  
• The future of AI-led tools (such as ChatGPT) and their responsible use as they become more entwined with everyday business processes.

Register for tomorrow’s webinar here or click on the image below. See you there!

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Direct sourcing has emerged as the most viable and powerful of talent engagement strategies to boost the depth and quality of talent, enhance skills pipelines, and contribute to forward-looking talent acquisition initiatives. While direct sourcing programs remain the “hottest” of strategies today, there is a question of how to improve their ROI and enhance the overall value that direct sourcing brings to the contemporary organization.

Join Ardent Partners’ SVP of Research, Christopher J. Dwyer, along with LiveHire’s Executive Vice President, Karen Gonzalez, as they discuss the landscape of direct sourcing today and how it fits into 2023’s Future of Work-led business arena. Gonzalez and Dwyer will unveil strategies for improving the overall ROI of direct sourcing and how to position programs to succeed, and thrive, in the months and years ahead. Click here (or below) to register for next week’s exclusive event.

The post Improving the Impact of Direct Sourcing: Driving ROI Through Dynamic Talent Strategies appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

As new strategies, such as skills-based hiring and omni-channel talent acquisition, become transformational ways to revamp hiring initiatives, artificial intelligence is a conduit to disrupting and changing the ways enterprises evaluate and source talent.

Join Opptly, Ardent, and the Future of Work Exchange for an exclusive webcast that will highlight the many roles of AI in a candidate-centric workforce market that prioritizes the depth and impact of talent. I will join Opptly’s Lori Hock, CEO, and Rebecca Valladares, Head of Operations, to discuss:

• How AI can be leveraged to drive efficiency, accuracy, speed, and deeper, data-driven decision-making.
• Why AI will become the de-facto tool for recruiters and talent acquisition professionals.
• How AI can revolutionize new strategies such as skills-based hiring and predictive analytics, and;
  
• The future of AI-led tools (such as ChatGPT) and their responsible use as they become more entwined with everyday business processes.

Click here or on the image below to register for next month’s exclusive webinar. Looking forward to seeing you there!

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For many businesses, leveraging contingent talent is table-stakes to thriving during uncertain times. Thus, the question at hand is: “How does the extended workforce impact the Future of Work?”

On Tuesday, June 20 (next week!), Beeline is hosting an exclusive webcast that will tackle this question and deep-dive into the elements of the extended workforce that have tangible value in a talent-centric corporate arena. Brian McCourt, the extended workforce platform’s Senior Client Relationship Manager, will join me to discuss:

• How leading businesses are not only surviving but thriving in times of uncertainty through Best-in-Class extended workforce strategies.
• Valuable insights on the transformative impact of next-generation automation on talent acquisition.
• The effective solutions for optimizing the management of today’s rapidly growing and evolving contingent workforce.

Register here for next week’s event or click on the image below. See you there!

The post Unlocking Success in the Future of Work: Maximizing the Potential of the Extended Workforce (Upcoming Webinar) appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

My colleague Andrew Bartolini (Ardent Partners’ Chief Research Officer) kicked off Tuesday’s conference and welcomed a packed room to a day filled with innovative insights. After a few minutes defining the Future of Work and setting the scene for the day ahead, Opptly CEO Lori Hock moderated an incredible panel discussion, “The Rising Tide of AI in Talent Acquisition,” that featured the solution’s Head of Operations, Rebecca Valladares, and Sevenstep’s Chief Solutions Officer, Paul Harty.

The panel discussed how critical artificial intelligence’s impact could be in the world of talent, especially as attributes such as the candidate experience, hiring manager experience, and the role of recruiter become ever-so-crucial in a volatile labor market. Valladares spoke of the utmost importance of the technology, stating, “Ultimately, recruiters who use AI will replace recruiters who do not use AI.”

The day’s second expert panel featured WorkLLama’s Kevin Leete, RSM’s External Workforce Lead, Lizzie Parnell, and Graphite’s VP of Alliances, Vanessa Miller. The panel, “Building Direct Access to Talent,” featured a lively conversation around the myriad ways talent acquisition is changing the ways businesses directly-access top-tier candidates. Parnell spoke about RMS’s unique “Work Your Way: An RSM Opportunity Marketplace” initiative, which prioritizes the candidate experience and encourages hiring managers to diversify their talent acquisition efforts through omni-channel sources of expertise.

HireGenics’ John DeWeerd (Senior Vice President) and Kristen McArdle (SVP of Client Success), with JLL’s Senior HR Business Partner, Caitlin Klezmer, discussed the impact of today’s extended workforce during the day’s third expert panel, “Why the Extended Workforce Is Your Greatest Asset.” The panel conversed around the contingent workforce’s role during uncertain economic times, its place in the pantheon of flexible workforce strategies, and how agile talent cascades into deeper talent acquisition innovation.

Before capping off the day with an elegant Harvard Club lunch (always a highlight of any event at this prestigious venue), FOWX Live’s attendees gathered for interactive roundtable discussions on topics such as remote and hybrid work, extended workforce management, DE&I, hiring challenges, and technology strategies.

This exclusive event was dedicated to exploring the Future of Work and addressing the unique challenges presented by the evolving workforce and business landscapes. For the procurement, HR, and talent acquisition executives in the room, this was another invaluable and engaging conference to help better guide them on their Future of Work journeys.

The post Embracing Change, Unlocking Opportunities: A Recap of the “Future of Work Exchange LIVE” Event appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

In June 2022, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange hosted “FOWX Live,” an executive roundtable event focused on the core Future of Work topics that are driving business transformation. For many in attendance (including me!), it was the first time attending a live event since before the beginning of the pandemic.

John Healy, founder of Whrrr.work and one of the earliest Future of Work evangelists (and a former workforce solutions executive), kicked off Tuesday’s agenda with a spirited morning keynote that distilled various points of research around the Future of Work. “The way people connect with work is broken” is how John began his keynote address, discussing how the world of work has been transformed and requires new and innovative thinking regarding how businesses connect their projects with open talent-led work models.

FOWX Live featured two engaging panels:

• Atrium’s Nancy Maren, Utmost’s Dan Beck, and Sage’s Jessica Wall discussed how the extended workforce has impacted today’s businesses and how modern HR and procurement leaders can effectively harness the power of both VMS and MSP solutions to not only connect the enterprise with top-tier talent, but how to also drive true innovation and agility within extended workforce management.
• I joined JLL’s Caitlin Klezmer and WorkLLama’s Kevin Leete for a conversation on perhaps the hottest topic of the day: remote and hybrid work. Caitlin, Kevin, and I discussed how businesses are adapting to fully-remote and hybrid workplace structures, as well as how talent engagement and talent acquisition strategies are shifting to account for the desired flexibility in the candidate pool.

One of the major highlights of FOWX Live was the ability for attendees to converse with each other at “roundtable” sessions on core Future of Work topics, such as remote/hybrid work, DE&I, contingent workforce management, and technology strategy. These roundtable discussions featured lively discourse around these important areas of the Future of Work movement, and when it came time to “switch” roundtables (attendees could spend 30 minutes each at two different topic-led tables), it was tough for everyone to wrap up the conversations! Truly a highlight of this week’s event.

MA State Rep. Josh Cutler closed out the day as a special guest lunch keynote; Rep. Cutler was a prominent member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Future of Work Commission. He spent the lunch hour discussing the report’s major findings and how they were applicable to both professionals and businesses alike.

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