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Omni-Channel Talent Acquisition: The Future of Hiring

Events by John Yuva on

Omni-channel talent acquisition is one of the hottest topics in the staffing world today. No longer can enterprises rely on just a handful of talent sources to get work done, especially in a business world that requires them to harness the robust skillsets and expertise of workers across the world. Much like the world of retail in that “omni-channel” outlets integrate different methods of shopping available to consumers, omni-channel talent acquisition translates into the ability for enterprises to leverage various sources of talent to address their needs.

The demand for specialized talent in precise intervals, as well as the ability to tap into vertical-specific channels as a means of staying competitive in an increasingly globalized business arena continues to grow unabated. Digital staffing solutions, such as talent marketplaces and on-demand talent networks, often yield vetted, evaluated, and deeply experienced candidates who can make an immediate impact on corporate operations. In this regard, omni-channel talent acquisition becomes a pathway to true workforce scalability in a time when it is needed most.

Join Ardent Partners’ SVP of Research, Christopher J. Dwyer, as he discusses why omni-channel talent acquisition could become a pathway to true workforce scalability at a time when it is needed most. During this exclusive webcast on Tuesday, February 21 (11am ET), Dwyer will highlight:

  • How omni-channel talent acquisition can impact hiring today…and in the future.
  • Why direct sourcing is a critical and foundational element of omni-channel talent acquisition.
  • Why the omni-channel approach should be a key strategy for HR, extended workforce, and talent acquisition teams in 2023, and;
  • The outlook for hiring in 2023 and how new and innovative strategies, solutions, and technology will shape the world of work ahead.

Register for this exciting webinar here. We look forward to seeing you there!

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Procurement 2023: Big Trends and Predictions

Business LeadershipEventsProcurementTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

For the past decade, Ardent Partners analysts Andrew Bartolini (Chief Research Officer) and Christopher J. Dwyer (SVP of Research and Managing Director of the Future of Work Exchange) have taken executives on a late January ride through the big trends shaping the business arena and the predictions that could come as a result.

2023 will be no different, as Bartolini and Dwyer will join Beeline and iValua for a lively discussion on Thursday, January 26 (10am ET) regarding the big trends impacting both the procurement arena and Future of Work movement right now…and what’s just up ahead for these two distinct areas in the year ahead. Join us as we discuss:

  • How economic factors will impact the procurement function in both the short- and long-term.
  • Why the extended workforce will play a pivotal role in business agility.
  • How next-generation technology and innovation are driving enhanced value to the modern enterprise, and;
  • The big Future of Work predictions that will shape enterprises operations in the year ahead.

Click here to register for this exclusive webcast. Hope to see you there!

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The Six Trends That Will Shape The Future of Work in 2023 (On-Demand Webinar)

Events by John Yuva on

Last week, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange hosted an exclusive webcast focused on the six critical trends that will shape the Future of Work in 2023 and beyond. The Six Trends That Will Shape The Future of Work in 2023 featured an in-depth discussion on the various strategies, approaches, technology, functionality, and innovation that are set to pave the way for work optimization in the year ahead. The Exchange‘s Managing Director, Christopher J. Dwyer, discussed:

  • How “non-technological” strategies, such as skills-based hiring, will have a massive impact.
  • Why direct sourcing and omni-channel talent acquisition will play major roles in 2023’s talent acquisition initiatives.
  • How the transformation of business leadership (including conscious leadership styles) will be required for workforce management.
  • The roles of extended workforce, VMS, direct sourcing, and MSP solutions on talent engagement and workforce management, and;
  • How businesses can best prepare to thrive in 2023 by leveraging the power of their talent and talent strategies.

Check out the on-demand edition of the webcast below, and be sure to participate in our new research study to gain complete access to our entire research calendar, which will include studies, reports, and thought leadership pieces centered around direct sourcing, total talent management, HR’s role in the Future of Work, extended workforce management, and much, much more.

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Quick Reminder: Two Great Webinars This Week!

Events by John Yuva on

Join Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange for two exclusive webinars this week. Later today, our own Christopher J. Dwyer will join Lesley Walsh of Beeline for an exciting webcast featuring discussions around the extended workforce, going “beyond VMS,” and what it means for the Future of Work:

And tomorrow, join the Exchange again to learn which trends will shape the Future of Work in the year ahead:

 

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What Trends Will Shape the Future of Work in 2023?

Events by Christopher J. Dwyer on

It’s a great question, and, fortunately, the Future of Work Exchange has some answers. Join us on Wednesday, December 14 at 1pm ET for an exclusive webcast that will discuss the six major trends that will shape the Future of Work in the year ahead.

Next week, we’ll highlight the high-impact trends that promise to transform the way enterprises think about work, talent, leadership, and business operations. Tune into the webinar to learn:

  • How “non-technological” strategies will have a massive impact.
  • Why direct sourcing and omni-channel talent acquisition will play major roles in 2023’s talent acquisition initiatives.
  • How the transformation of business leadership (including conscious leadership styles) will be required for workforce management.
  • The roles of extended workforce, VMS, direct sourcing, and MSP solutions on talent engagement and workforce management, and;
  • How businesses can best prepare to thrive in 2023 by leveraging the power of their talent and talent strategies.

Click here to register for next week’s event and join us for an exciting webinar that will highlight the trends that will impact how we work in 2023. Tune in!

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Beyond VMS: Transformative Technology for the Future of Work (Upcoming Webinar)

Business LeadershipEventsTalent by John Yuva on

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange are excited to announce that registration is now open for an exclusive webcast, Beyond VMS: Transformative Technology for the Future of Work. Hosted by extended workforce platform Beeline, the upcoming event will deep-dive into how the next generation of Vendor Management System (VMS) technology, particularly extended workforce solutions, can transform the ways businesses find, engage, and source talent, as well as enhance how they ultimately get work done.

Beeline’s always-insightful Lesley Walsh (the platform’s ) will join our own Christopher J. Dwyer to discuss:

  • How the new world of work and talent requires agile automation to navigate an uncertain 2023.
  • Why extended workforce technology is the ideal solution for managing the continued evolution of talent engagement and talent acquisition.
  • How enterprises can supercharge their contingent workforce management programs in anticipation of the year ahead.
  • Why enterprises need technologies that go beyond VMS to acquire top-tier candidates with the skillsets to make an immediate impact on their business, and;
  • How omni-channel talent acquisition will be the foundation of the Future of Work in 2023.

Click here to register for this exciting event and prepare your organization for what will certainly be a transformative 2023 for extended workforce management.

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Believe the Hype: Direct Sourcing is a Key Element of the Future of Work

Direct SourcingEventsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

I can remember a moment back in January 2020, an era that seems so very long ago. At that point, the world looked so much different: we weren’t so worried about a global pandemic, nor we were masking up whenever we left the house. We weren’t bombarded by 24/7 news on social media about mass suffering and sickness. And, as we know all so well know, the way we looked at our workforce was much, much unlike the way we perceive talent today.

Ardent Partners’ 2020 State of Contingent Workforce Management research study found that, when polled regarding their top priorities heading into the new decade, direct sourcing and talent pools were #1 and #2, respectively. There were many executive leaders that participated in that study who saw the writing on the wall: talent acquisition needed to change and so did the ways businesses engaged top-tier skillsets and expertise.

Call it omniscient, or call it plain luck; no matter how we describe these pre-pandemic insights, those forward-looking business leaders were onto something. In elegant, MSP-led programs in Europe years ago, direct sourcing took the form of “contingent RPO,” in which businesses built their own talent pipelines via pseudo-agencies that they controlled and operated outside of traditional staffing supplier relationships. So, while direct sourcing isn’t a new concept, it certainly feels like that when we consider the incredible growth of these programs and the attention and focus paid to the concept over the past few years.

(I also have to give immense credit to a dear friend of mine, Jeff Nugent. Here’s a post from 2014 in which he discusses the benefits of direct sourcing. Yes, 2014!)

In the business arena, ideas and strategies that attract so much attention are inevitably destined to fail to live up to the hype. There may have been a moment or two a couple of years ago when it seemed that direct sourcing could have headed down that same fateful path. However, it very much did not, due to three main reasons:

  • Talent pipelines and talent communities became the lifelines of businesses throughout the COVID-19 pandemic as they required flexibility and scalability regarding their workforce.
  • The candidate experience, which became ever-so critical, followed a core element in Best-in-Class direct sourcing programs: talent nurture capabilities, and;
  • Businesses required a steady flow of both active candidates and passive candidates to power through The Great Resignation.

Heading into 2023, the very realm of “hiring” will take on new meaning as businesses contend with a variety of issues that could impact their organizational pathways in getting work done…and, of course, merely surviving. The war in the Ukraine continues to rage and disrupts global trade. The Great Resignation is turning into “The Great Resettling” as workers begin to discover how they want their careers to unfold. The specter of an economic downturn hovers, with recessionary fears sparking precautionary layoffs and major transitions by organizations. And, yet another COVID winter surge is just up ahead.

For enterprises today, direct sourcing isn’t just a concept that’ll ease some measure of talent shortfalls. Direct sourcing is, and has been, a key element of the Future of Work movement. Whether it’s the ability to traverse omni-channel talent engagement, building deep, segmented talent pools, fostering core talent communities, or developing enterprise-wide workforce scalability, direct sourcing remains a powerful strategy as the world of talent and work continues to evolve.

Join Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange on Thursday, November 10 at 2pm ET for our next exclusive webcast, Scale Your 2023 Hiring Initiatives With Direct Sourcing. Register for this exciting new webinar and learn more about the impact of direct sourcing on talent acquisition and recruitment in the months ahead.

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Scale Your 2023 Hiring Initiatives with Direct Sourcing (Upcoming Webinar)

Direct SourcingEventsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Hot on the heels of our Five Things You MUST KNOW About the Future of Work webcast earlier this month, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange are excited to announce that our next virtual event will be held at 2pm on November 10. This time, we’re focused on perhaps the most dynamic topic in today’s exciting world of work and talent: DIRECT SOURCING.

Going into 2020, direct sourcing and talent pools were top priority areas for businesses across the globe. One global pandemic and a Future of Work-accelerated business arena later, it has become even more critical for businesses that want to thrive in the months and years ahead. 2021 and 2022 were mired in “The Great Resignation” and a “Great Resettling” of workers across various industries, roles, verticals, etc. Along with the volatile labor market that this sparked, businesses are also worrying about the specter of another economic recession while also attempting to plan for an important calendar year in 2023 from corporate objective standpoints.

Direct sourcing, and the concept of Direct Sourcing 2.0 (a FOWX original term meant to define the next era of direct sourcing), has proven to drive incredible value across several key areas of talent acquisition, recruitment, and workforce management, including: enhancing the candidate experience, boosting the hiring manager experience, revolutionizing talent engagement, improving the overall quality of talent, and enabling seamless talent redeployment.

Join Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange on Thursday, November 10 (at 2pm ET) or an exclusive webinar, How to Scale Your 2023 Hiring Initiatives With Direct Sourcing. We’ll unveil some brand new data points, several Best-in-Class strategies for launching and maximizing direct sourcing programs, and so much more! Register now!

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The First Thing You Must Know About the Future of Work

Business LeadershipContingent WorkforceDirect SourcingEventsGeneral InsightsTalentTalent AcquisitionTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

The Future of Work Exchange (FOWX) and Ardent Partners recently hosted their complimentary webinar, The Five Things You MUST KNOW About the Future of Work, which discussed the critical capabilities that enterprises can unlock to truly optimize the way they address talent acquisition, extended workforce management, and, most importantly, work optimization. Over the next five weeks, we’ll be recapping each of the five things discussed during the event. In our first installment this week, we’ll be diving into the evolution of talent and the ever-present phrase, “The Future of Work.”

The Evolution of Talent and Talent Acquisition

When it comes to the Future of Work, one of the first things to know is the evolution of talent and talent acquisition. And this idea of the “evolution of talent” can be ambiguous. Talent is always evolving and has been for a long time. The way that businesses perceive their talent is also evolving. And, the way that those businesses get connected to talent, and vice versa, continues to evolve. It’s also being innovated through technology and new strategies and new programs.

The fact is nearly half of our workforce today is comprised of extended workers or contingent workers. We have aspects like direct sourcing and digital staffing that are making it much easier for businesses to find the talent they need to get work done to address those mission-critical projects and fill the appropriate roles. FOWX and Ardent research has been focused historically on the extended workforce and contingent workforce, but we’re talking about all types of talent.

Thus, talent acquisition as a function and as a series of processes has also progressed. We need to consider aspects like the candidate experience, and the way that our culture and our brand attract new talent into our organization. Many business leaders think of the Future of Work as being centered around technology, revolving around the idea that technology drives the Future of Work. And we  wouldn’t necessarily disagree with that; technology is a critical piece. And for some aspects and attributes of the Future of Work, technology and innovation are the nexus of those areas.

Technology is a Future of Work Centerpiece

Talent and the growth of the extended workforce represent the first leg of the stool with such things as the candidate experience, but also digital staffing, direct sourcing, online talent marketplaces, and core workforce management solutions (such as MSPs and VMS platforms) These technologies are helping us to redefine the way we think about work. We’re living in a world where even though we don’t want to hear the word “pandemic” anymore, the pandemic really did shape what we think about the Future of Work.

It’s really critical to think about aspects like remote work and the technologies that support a hybrid workplace and how we leverage digital workspaces, digitization, and the idea of the digital enterprise, all rolling up into this notion of digital transformation. New technology and innovation are not the totality of the Future of Work, but certainly a centerpiece of it. And when we look at the transformation of business leadership, we often juxtapose this with business transformation or business leadership transformation, as well. It is leadership that dictates strategy, it dictates vision, and it dictates culture. And by proxy, we transform the way business leadership manages itself, manages its workforce, and how it expands its power and control over the organization.

Thus, the transparent transformation of business leadership is really critical, and honestly has nothing to do with technology. It all revolves around aspects like conscious leadership, empathetic leadership, empathy at work, and flexibility — thinking about how we lead in very new and different ways. It’s turning on its head the idea that “the boss” is always this very strict person who’s known for rigidity in how he or she perceives and manages the workforce. Business leaders are transitioning to be more flexible in their thinking. When you combine all these aspects together, that’s the future of work and the view of the Future of Work Exchange and Ardent Partners as well.

Ever-Present Future of Work

Thus, the “Future of Work” phrase is ever-present. It’s everywhere. Back when our FOWX architect, Christopher J. Dwyer, started using this phrase in 2013/2014, there weren’t many others using it. Today, we see so many conferences named “The Future of Work” as well as many websites and research studies. But unlike a lot of phrases that are hot today, it’s anything but hype. It really is this idea of permanence. Much of the change that we’ve gone through as people, as leaders, as workers, and as businesses, it’s not hype…nor is it a fad. The Future of Work is permanence. It’s not going to fade from view.

Future of Work “accelerants” that were once seedlings to the world of work and talent are now table stakes. Remote work, for example, is not new. Many of us have been working in a remote or hybrid workplace for most of our careers. And there are many others who have done so, as well. But for some business leaders and workers, it’s a very new aspect of their daily work lives.

The “Future of Work” phrase is ubiquitous. It’s an omnipresent way of looking at the current and future state of work. We are now focused on how we can improve the way we get work done, the way we manage talent, the way we engage talent, and the way that we treat our workforce. But we’re also thinking about tomorrow and the ways we’re going to get work done depending on several factors, including the economy, politics, global markets, and other aspects that could change the business arena.

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Upwork’s Work Without Limits: HR Builds Bridges Across the Organization

EventsSolution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Upwork, a global talent and work platform, recently held its Work Without Limits summit as an in-person and streaming event in Chicago The main stage was filled with customer and enterprise presenters, including Upwork’s Tony Buffum, vice president of HR Client Strategy, who served as moderator for the panel titled, “HR: Building Bridges Across the Organization.” Joining Buffum to discuss how HR leaders are earning trust, building awareness, and gaining alignment with key business partners to drive business results, was a panel that included:

  • Zoë Harte, Chief People Officer at Upwork.
  • David Harris, SVP of HR for PepsiCo.
  • Sarah Harse, Global Category Leader for HR Services and Professional Education, Johnson & Johnson.

The panel discussion covered a variety of topics. However, a central theme was HR’s cross-functional collaboration in executing the enterprise’s talent strategy. This article explores several areas around that theme. While HR is looked upon by the enterprise to drive talent and other critical initiatives, it cannot do this alone. There must be a partnership across the entire business with other functions like procurement, finance, legal, marketing, engineering, and the like.

Responsibility Lies With Everyone

When it comes to the role of sourcing and identifying talent, who is ultimately responsible? This was the opening question that Buffum posed to the panel. Harte believes everybody is responsible for bringing exceptional talent to drive the business initiatives that are the priorities for the organization. “HR has a powerful role in that. And so do the people managers and so does procurement. We all must do it together to be successful,” she said.

Responding with a procurement perspective, Harse says in the past the function took the upfront role of sourcing, finding the channel, putting it in place, and ensuring it operated. However, that’s not enough anymore.

“Just having the channel available is not enough to really solve the challenges that are ahead for our people leaders. The more we can do to partner with our HR counterparts, our finance counterparts, or our legal counterparts to connect those dots and really think about each of us having a unique role to play — with the hiring manager at the center helping to navigate all these different channels we have available — is really critical,” Harse said.

The audience at Upwork’s Work Without Limits event listens in to insights regarding the evolving world of work and talent. (Photo credit: Upwork)

Communication Is the Cornerstone

Because several business units contribute to the identification of talent sources, cross-functional collaboration is imperative. Harris described this process at PepsiCo, which included partnerships with finance (always a major role within large companies), procurement (to ensure all the contracts and partnerships are in place), and the internal talent acquisition team (securing the available people when and where they’re needed).

Of course, such collaboration couldn’t occur without effective communication. What projects are underway and the associated strategies? What are the different metrics or objectives among the functional lines? Harte says each individual team may be working toward different metrics. However, the role of the leader is to take a step back and look at the overall objectives they’re working toward. Knowing the business mission enables everyone to work together.

“It’s then easier to see how you can merge your objectives and key results together to ensure you’re making good compromises,” said Harse. “Communicate and really have a conversation about that so people understand the give and take of everyone involved. You’ll be able to find alignment and come to some level of agreement.”

Commit to Early Engagement

However, even the best-laid plans and communication can pose challenges. Harse spoke about her own experiences in procurement working through problem areas cross functionally and where opportunities exist to work toward a better goal. She said a common pitfall is the last-minute rush that can occur when a project is tossed over the wall to another function. Because both functions have not been on that journey together, there’s a lack of understanding around the purpose of the project and the work that’s been put into it.

For the individual or team suddenly holding the project, there’s a lack of alignment in terms of priority regardless of the urgency involved. Harse said much of the issue can be resolved with better early collaboration during the ideation phase.

“We have a number of subject matter experts across all our large organizations who can bring significant value to the table. Procurement shouldn’t be viewed at the table as simply the purchasing or supply chain person, but rather the beneficiary of these strategies as well,” said Harse.

She adds that the greatest learning coming into a new role supporting HR is that everyone can identify with the need for talent access. All are people leaders who understand the challenge of filling the seats to get the work done.

“It’s easy to get people on board with that message if you bring them in early and start to engage with legal and finance counterparts at the beginning of the journey to bring down some of those barriers that inevitably come up. This is crucial for those unique relationships we want to build to really be successful,” Harse explains.

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