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Why Agility Should Be The Foundation of Every Business in 2022

Business LeadershipGeneral Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

In the first month of the pandemic (March 2020), I quickly became a fan of The Atlantic’s Ed Yong and his consistent and informative coverage of the coronavirus crisis. Yong would end up winning the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for his collection of 2020 work as the pandemic was unfolding, along with its healthcare system ramifications, its effects on the frontlines, and coverage of the historic vaccine development that followed months of trauma and uncertainty.

This past weekend, I re-read one of his first pieces on the pandemic (“How the Pandemic Will End”) and was struck by the below paragraph, which I had to read several times because of the striking mode of thinking that this would be in the rear-view by the time we hit 2022:

“It’s likely, then, that the new coronavirus will be a lingering part of American life for at least a year, if not much longer. If the current round of social-distancing measures works, the pandemic may ebb enough for things to return to a semblance of normalcy. Offices could fill and bars could bustle. Schools could reopen and friends could reunite. But as the status quo returns, so too will the virus. This doesn’t mean that society must be on continuous lockdown until 2022. But “we need to be prepared to do multiple periods of social distancing,” says Stephen Kissler of Harvard.”

And here we are, in 2022, dealing with another variant of concern that is causing record cases, overwhelmed hospitals, confusing CDC guidance, and continued ramifications for an evolving labor market. I don’t think Yong or any of us would have still thought we’d still be in this position, let alone wearing facial coverings in 2022. In fact, I vividly recall a conversation with my mother in the summer of 2020 in which she had called me after she saw an epidemiologist on television that had stated that masks would be part of our lives through 2022 and possibly beyond. “I can picture a scenario where we still have to,” I said, thinking of the then-Presidential administration’s utter lack of failure in containing the pandemic, “but I really think we’re only looking at another year of this.”

Well, I was wrong, as was everyone else. Because two years in and the pandemic is still throwing curveballs at us. Facial coverings are recommended indoors, even for those of us vaccinated and boosted. Talk of a milder Omicron means little if the United States is averaging over 800,000 cases a day and hospitals are overwhelmed. And it also translates into a need for something else that’s been oft-recommended since day one: business agility.

Back in March 2020, the world was in panic mode. Layoffs, furloughs, supply chain disruptions, workforce issues, etc. were all the norm. The businesses that were able to thrive were the ones that could respond dynamically to the real-time, real-world problems that that COVID-19 pandemic wrought on the world at-large. What does “dynamically” mean in this instance? Well, it’s a multifaceted answer, but one that is rooted in the very foundation of business agility:

  • Pivoting to alternative supply and materials sources when supply chain issues immediately erupted (and are happening now as China imposes an Omicron-fueled lockdown).
  • Engaging on-demand talent and incorporating the extended workforce into functions across the greater business.
  • Moving away from “resiliency” and into true “adaptability” as the business continues to shift due to societal, political, and cultural changes.
  • Leveraging digital workspaces to support the permanent move to remote and hybrid work, and;
  • Blending elements of digital transformation with existing technological infrastructures to create a truly digital enterprise that can drive operational scalability when or how it is needed most based on corporate dynamics.

The Atlantic‘s Katherine J. Wu’s piece yesterday is the best way to approach the Omicron wave from both business and personal perspectives, and supports the criticality of agility in the months ahead. As continued uncertainty looms, it is crucial for business leaders to keep relying on the agility methodology that has helped them thrive over the past two years.

“What we can say is that the higher a wave crests, the longer and more confusing the path to the bottom will be. We need to prepare for the possibility that this wave could have an uncomfortably long tail—or at least a crooked one…But as the virus continues to trickle into more rural, sparsely populated parts of the country, that story gets more complicated: a smattering of regional peaks could slow and lengthen the overall decline. We tend to talk about “the peak” as if it’s one monolithic thing, but it’s an aggregate of asynchronous outbreaks…”

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FOWX Notes: January 14 Edition

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Some picked-up pieces, news, and insights from across the evolving world of talent and work:

  • The Supreme Court squashed the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate yesterday. Well, technically, the Court rejected OSHA’s mandate, which would have forced private businesses with over 100 employees to mandate vaccinations for workers (for workers that do not comply, weekly testing was required). This is a huge blow to the Biden administration’s latest tactic to combat the pandemic; in essence, the vaccine mandate would have boosted the United States’ overall vaccination percentage over the next several weeks. Biden encouraged privately-held employers to move forward with vaccine mandates in lieu of the court’s decision.
  • The United States added close to 200,000 jobs in December 2021, a “softer” figure than original estimates. Wall Street expected double that figure, however, the positive news is that the nationwide unemployment rate fell to 3.9%, better than the anticipated 4.1% (and much better than the 4.2% rate in November). Omicron would be the most likely culprit for the shortcoming in jobs added, mainly due to hesitancy on the part of many businesses to fill positions as cases were skyrocketing so quickly. If Boston’s latest wastewater analysis is any indicator, cases could be peaking in the Northeast U.S. (although hospitalizations and severe outcomes lag behind these figures), but won’t peak in other parts of the country for at least another couple of weeks.
  • Rapid COVID testing reveals inequities between FTEs and non-employee workers. Interesting article in The New York Times this week regarding large enterprises getting ahead of the government and securing millions of at-home and rapid COVID tests for their workers (even if many of them are pushing out return-to-office plans). Even though there is a clear demarcation between contingent and FTE workers due to compliance ramifications, the pandemic is one area (and workplace health and safety the other) that there needs to be some softening of the gray area between the two. At Google, it has been reported that employees have access to rapid at-home testing, while contractors and contingent workers must leverage PCR testing, which takes longer to derive results. With Google’s extended workforce to be estimated at roughly half of its total talent, this is a major issue for contingent workforce equity.
  • Bullhorn acquired candidate experience and onboarding platform Able this week. A longtime Bullhorn Marketplace partner, Able is a unique platform that offers candidate engagement, candidate experience, and enhanced onboarding functionality. This acquisition will allow Bullhorn’s staffing supplier client base to leverage candidate experience automation and improve overall talent attraction.
  • The Future of Work Exchange meets the World Staffing Summit. Big thanks to Jan Jedlinksi of Candidately for hosting me (and Future of Work Exchange research) on two panels at this month’s exciting World Staffing Summit.

Don’t forget to register for the exclusive WorkLLama and Future of Work Exchange webcast, The Age of Direct Sourcing 2.0, as well. Lots of great insights into the evolving world of direct sourcing and guidance on how businesses can drive enhanced value from “Direct Sourcing 2.0” initiatives and automation.

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FOWX Notes: January 7 Edition

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Some picked-up pieces, news, and insights from across the evolving world of talent and work:

  • According to the United States Department of Labor, a record 4.5 million individuals resigned from their jobs/positions in November 2021, a figure that is a touch higher than the previous high (September 2021, in which 4.4 million workers quit). As I discussed yesterday on the latest episode of the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, there’s so much more to the so-called “Great Resignation” than just workers leaving their jobs over compensation concerns. Plenty of individuals are worried about workplace conditions and equitable treatment, disillusionment with career trajectories and company culture, and a general unhappiness given the stakes of the pandemic. It’s no longer a question of when workers will come back, but rather how: two questions must have the proper response for workers in 2022: 1) “Is this what I want?”, and, 2) “Is this what I need?”
  • Instagram’s former Global VP of Marketing, Melissa Waters, joined Upwork as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Exciting times continue for the digital staffing giant as they continue to innovate around the evolving world of work and talent, especially on the heels of several new executive additions last month to its product and experience (PEX) and engineering teams.
  • It’s refreshing to see some new takes on the workforce management technology industry, especially from tech veterans like Utmost’s Annrai O’Toole. Annrai’s recent “2021 recap” included a thought that the Future of Work Exchange is incredibly passionate about: getting work done. “You need to step back and think about the core problem: a manager is simply looking for the best way to get work done. What is the fastest, most cost-effective way to get a task performed?”
  • Vaccine mandate legal drama takes center stage again today as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments (after cutting their holiday period short) on two separate accounts. There’s not so much clarity on exactly how these short-term cases will proceed given that they are part of the court’s “shadow docket” and not its regular calendar of hearings/issues, but rather, as succinctly stated by CNN, how “the ruling may provide a window into the court’s thinking that may be instructive to lower courts and serve as a precursor of what will happen when the court is faced with the same or a similar issue in the future.” In short: action coming out of these two arguments may influence how other court and legal systems around the country deal with vaccine mandates when they face their delayed rollout next month.
  • Pediatric hospitalizations and COVID cases in children are on a worrisome trajectory, meaning that the specter of remote school still hangs in the air. Some school districts across the United States are shuffling between remote and traditional in-person learning, with some major universities delayed a return to live classes until late January (many, many elementary, middle, and high schools have also delayed post-holiday returns to the classroom). While I don’t believe that we will see full-scale, longer-term remote learning as we did throughout the 2020-2021 school year, there is something here for every business leader to keep an eye on. Working parents are already stressed over exposure in the classroom; adding the pressure of a possible return to remote learning is, frankly, devastating. Business leaders must be prepared to offer more flexible working environments in the event that schooling changes ebb-and-flow over the next several weeks as Omicron blazes through the population.
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Six Big Future of Work Predictions for 2022

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsUncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

It’s impossible to capture every single possibility for the Future of Work in a single article. What we can do, however, is pinpoint five of the biggest possibilities for work optimization in the year ahead.

Before the path to predictions start, I think it’s important to chat about some caveats here. We are in a much different place than we were a year ago at this time. So, in talking about the future of remote work, the year ahead isn’t going to revolve around whether or not it’s beneficial and viable (which, yes, IT IS!), but rather transforming non-traditional workplace environments into more effective and productive settings.

Without further ado:

  • Since we teased it above: the digital workplace and the digital workspace will converge. There’s a stark difference between the “digital workplace” and a “digital workspace.” Digitization, as part of broader digital transformation initiatives, has long entailed replacing core pieces of enterprise operations and processes with repeatable, scalable, and interconnected automation. The digital workspace, on the other hand, involves the enablement of truly digital, virtual, and automated access to productivity and collaborative tools for workers no matter where they are located (in the office, on the road, in their home offices, or at their kitchen tables).
  • The solution to the “Great Staffing Shortage” and “The Great Resignation” revolves around worker prosperity. The one thing that is maddening around the so-called “Big Quit” is that there are so many leaders around the world that cannot grasp the reality of why workers are leaving; on the surface, there are a variety of reasons that include equitable treatment, better compensation, better working conditions, more flexibility, etc. However, dig deeper and “worker enlightenment” shines: the workforce wants to prosper.
  • Data remains important, but intelligence becomes the gamechanger. In today’s talent tech ecosystems, there are several key platforms from which data flows freely: VMS, HRIS, extended workforce systems, direct sourcing platforms, and proprietary tech offered by MSP solutions. The candidate, FTE, non-employee, freelancer, and professional services data that can be extracted from these solutions presents businesses with an opportunity to derive true total intelligence and allow hiring managers to execute real-time decisions based on the depth of skillsets and expertise within the company’s total talent network. In an age when staffing shortages are the norm, a difference of just a day or two can have major ramifications on the success of a new project or initiative.
  • Culture becomes the most critical non-technological Future of Work attribute in the year ahead. Businesses have long been successful despite their culture; in 2022, the average enterprise will thrive because of their culture, not in spite of it. Empathetic leadership that converges with an inclusive workplace, environments that promote the power of the worker, and an overall positive, engaging candidate and worker experience are factors that will enable businesses to retain talent, drive talent attraction, and, most importantly, attain true talent sustainability.
  • The extended workforce continues to grow. This is a prediction that I’ve been making every year for the last dozen or so years, and, I don’t see it changing in 2022. The extended workforce is founded on agility and flexibility, consequently the two biggest areas of need for businesses as they traverse yet another pandemic-led year in which work and talent evolution is the norm. Closing in on half of the globe’s entire workforce, the extended workforce will become even more of a competitive differentiator in addition to the business continuity and “elasticity” that it drove over the past two years.
  • “Adaptation” molds the way businesses adopt, leverage, and scale innovation. I remember becoming a bit bored of the “digital transformation” discussions of a few years ago, with too many conversations around automating pieces of the business that should have been automated years and years ago. When the pandemic hit, enterprise technology took on a whole new meaning, one that unified the way businesses interacted with customers, suppliers, and their remote workforce, while also developing a culture of real business agility that could help the greater organization better adapt to changing times. Whether it’s core workforce management technology, blockchain-enabled operations, AI-fueled analytics and data analytics, or digital staffing, businesses in 2022 will find that the way they adapt to evolving times will dictate and shape the very ways the harness the power of innovation.
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Forget About Resolutions…Let’s Optimize 2022

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

In the early evening hours of December 31, 2020, I gathered around a fire pit with my wife, children, and dear friends from around the neighborhood. When we made a toast, I said, “Good riddance, 2020.” The stress, the trauma, and the uncertainty of what was probably the most anxiety-inducing year of our lifetime was ending, and, on the horizon, a 2021 filled with hope and optimism.

Just a couple of months later, I stood in line in the upper concourse of Gillette Stadium (home of my beloved New England Patriots) and awaited the first of my (now) three jabs of the groundbreaking Moderna vaccine. To me, it wasn’t just a vaccine, but rather a representation of how we could collectively move forward from everything that pushed us to our emotional limits in the year that was 2020. Of course, we know what happened next:

  • The biggest vaccination campaign in our lifetime kicked off in early 2021 and provided the world with some measures of optimism entering the spring and summer months.
  • The Delta variant upended some (or most) of those “hot vax summer” plans and caused COVID cases to surge across the world.
  • Talented professionals began leaving their roles in droves, kicking off what is still referred to as “The Great Resignation,” although should now be considered “The Talent Revolution.”
  • Vaccine mandates became sources of political, business, and social disagreements.
  • Another coronavirus variant, Omicron, proved to be the most transmissible of all variants to date and is now responsible for hundreds of daily cases in the United States alone.

We have the most innovative tools ever designed to better manage talent and talent engagement. We understand what we need to do to solve staffing shortage issues. We have the ability to open our minds and hearts to do the right thing. We have the ability to build digital workplaces and digital workspaces. We know that the extended workforce represents nearly half of all global talent for a very good reason. And we have access to solutions that can provide next-level, AI-fueled data to help us make better business decisions.

The phrase “work optimization” is frequently used in our industry (and here on the Future of Work Exchange) to describe the essential goals of the Future of Work movement: get work done in the most effective way(s) possible. And as the calendar flips to another year, I believe we should take those ideas a step further.

Let’s optimize 2022. Entirely.

That’s right…let’s optimize everything about the year ahead. Let’s look at our talent, how we acquire that talent, how we manage that talent, how we treat that talent, and optimize it all. Let’s optimize the use of technology and automation. Let’s review the ways we manage our staff and the benefits we offer them. Let’s take a long, hard look at just how broad-based our workforce actually is. Let’s continue to lean on remote and hybrid workspaces to boost both safety and productivity. Let’s take that great leap and get closer to being a truly “digital enterprise.” Let’s rethink how technology aids talent engagement. Let’s enable our hiring managers, talent acquisition leaders, and other stakeholders with real-time, AI-fueled total talent intelligence that can revolutionize workforce decision-making.

Let’s focus on how we enable our workers to prosper. Let’s think about the human side of business and how we can improve the emotional connections between leadership and the workforce. Let’s prioritize employee wellbeing and mental health. Let’s take a new approach to enterprise operations and ensure we are embracing change, progression, and evolution.

Let’s make 2022 a time to thrive. Let’s optimize the year ahead and push the Future of Work movement into a new stratosphere.

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What Does 2022 Hold for the Future of Work?

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past several months, I’ve written extensively about the evolution of talent and work and what it means for the modern business. Today, we collect various thoughts, insights, and predictions from extended workforce, contingent workforce, digital staffing, direct sourcing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the Future of Work in the year ahead:

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

The importance of data: “The future of external workforce management is data-driven. And as the world of work continues to evolve, talent becomes more geographically dispersed, and top talent becomes even more sought-after, “five-star” data has become critical to capitalizing on both worker quality and savings opportunities worldwide. In 2022 and beyond, we will see the increasing importance of quality data within non-employee workforce programs and how it can drive significant program benefits.”

Direct sourcing and leveraging your company’s brand: “In the new era of integrated workforce management and heightened competition for key talent, organizations are adopting new processes and enabling solutions – such as direct sourcing – to maximize talent, no matter when and how that talent is sourced/engaged or how it ends up being categorized and classified. Historically, talent acquisition teams have long relied on employer branding for permanent employee hiring, while not being fully aware of its power for the other half of the workforce (contingent). In contingent direct sourcing programs, leveraging employer brand is essential to maximizing talent acquisition effectiveness and, therefore, multiplying positive financial benefits. Given this, most enterprises should be taking steps toward adopting contingent direct sourcing to meet its non-employee program and organizational goals.”

The benefits of the integrated workforce platform: “More than ever, enterprises are finding they need to address a greater and more complex set of requirements to manage their expanding multi-category, multichannel, non-employee workforces, which poses new challenges and questions for organizations. For example, the number of technology and service solutions has been significantly increasing across established and new solution categories. It’s no longer just a program management office and a Vendor Management System (VMS), which presents enterprises with the challenge of choosing between a single vendor or multi-vendor approach. Leveraging an adaptable, scalable, and fully-integrated workforce management platform provider that offers an ecosystem of software, professional services, and total talent intelligence will be key to an organization’s success.”

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“2022 is going to bring more of the same things that we saw in 2021 and that is (at least mostly!) a good thing. The extended workforce will continue to grow in importance to companies of all types and talent shortages will likely get even worse. Taken together those two things will push companies to look to expand the markets and places they find talent in, continue to reinforce the intersection of quality, time-to-fill, and cost (rather than a myopic focus on just cost savings), and underscore the importance of broadening the talent base (and related initiatives like upskilling and giving people second chances). Companies need to ensure that their extended workforce programs consider all of these things and that they set goals that are directly tied to company strategy.”

Neha Goel, VP of Marketing, Utmost

“Extended workforce systems must be worker-centric, making it easy to take into account the various needs and preferences of the worker, allowing them to be mobilized in a scalable way. They also need to give workers and suppliers more control over their data and how they interact with technology, providing the flexibility and configurability necessary for them to get work done.”

“Flexibility comes in many forms, both in remote vs. office settings, and includes how workers set their schedules. If you aren’t actively listening to what your workforce wants and providing the technology that makes it possible to seamlessly engage and communicate with them in this new world, you will miss out.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“There will be an increased focus on talent wellbeing and tools that will contribute towards that, e.g., tools that maximize efficiency while minimizing stress in the new way of doing work, tools that predict outcomes towards achieving this objective both from a talent and organizational perspective, etc.”

Sunil Bagai, CEO, Prosperix

“I predict that there will be some banner acquisitions for talent and workforce solutions in 2022. I also expect that some of the big investments that have happened this year in startups will go bust. The technologies that I expect will gain momentum are ones that tackle the end-to-end lifecycle of hiring, facilitate hybrid work, and infuse blockchain for transparency, faster outcomes and automation. 

“What 2021 showed is that there is a huge appetite for talent and workforce solutions. 2022 will carry forward that same momentum into new offerings, investments and acquisitions. The areas to keep an eye out on are consolidation of marketplaces, enterprise solutions that combine direct sourcing, VMS and ATS together, and an infusion of blockchain technology for facilitating frictionless transactions.”

Wayne Crowley, SVP Talent Solutions RPO, Manpower Group

“We’ve realized a seismic shift in employment control away from employers to the talent these employers need. Rigidity in hiring processes, work location, compensation, and work schedules will severely limit employers’ choices for finding candidates with the skills they require. Employers of all sizes, brands, and industries should revisit their employee value propositions to make sure there is resonance with the talent they seek.”

Sam Bright, Chief Product & Experience Officer at Upwork

“We’ve seen monumental disruption occur in the workforce over the last two years. The Great Resignation has shown us that generations-old beliefs about the world of work have been upended. ‘Remote natives’ have become the norm, just as digital natives before them. Remote freelancing has become an essential part of the U.S. labor market and economy – contributing $1.3 trillion in 2021 alone – and we’ve seen firsthand how organizations effectively use marketplaces like Upwork to engage highly-skilled independent professionals to grow, scale and reinforce their teams. 

“Our 2021 Freelance Forward report found that freelancing increased to the highest share of the labor force in the eight years that we’ve been surveying, and we see this continuing into 2022. Hybrid, distributed, flexible work models are the future of work. To succeed, business leaders must shift how they look at their workforce and create hybrid teams made up of full-time employees and independent professionals, so they can be appropriately resourced to charge ahead on their critical business initiatives, no matter how complex or tight the timeline is.”

Tammy Browning, President, KellyOCG

“Heading into 2022, a trend that we’re watching closely is employee experience. As the labor market tightens, building a comprehensive and positive employee experience is critical for greater retention, productivity, and engagement and translates to better business results. Organizations that want an edge on their competition and are driven to succeed in the war for talent are focused on employee experience. In fact, our research finds 91% of leading companies say that improving the employee experience is as high a business priority as improving the customer experience.”

“We expect 2022 will bring a greater need for organizations to adopt a single robust talent management platform. According to our research, 72% of executives say they should adopt a talent management platform and use predictive analytics to determine future talent needs, but less than a third are using technologies to achieve these goals. As more employers embrace all forms of talent, hiring managers will require a tool that provides a complete view of their contingent and third-party workforce as well as relevant workforce analytics to make strategic decisions about future workforce needs.”

Matt Pietsch, Chief Strategy Officer, High5

“Organizations need to be ready to embrace managed direct sourcing by forming strategic partnerships, not simple vendor or supplier relationships, with partners that can execute on a strategy that incorporates People, Processes and Technology in order to win the war for talent.”

“Work with a workforce solution company that understands the importance of leveraging your brand and working as a seamless extension of your talent acquisition program, regardless if it is full-time, contingent, EOR/payroll, etc. This is one way to ensure an effective candidate experience and a much more efficient recruitment program.”

Taylor Ramchandani, Vice President of Strategy, VectorVMS

“In 2022 I believe that the candidate experience for the contingent workforce is going to be paramount. With the power sitting with the worker, regardless of employment determination, organizations need to prioritize being a desirable place to work. The need for a positive candidate experience will drive greater adoption of direct sourcing platforms, learning opportunities and more for the extended workforce.”

Jenna Dobbins, VP, Human Resources at Pontoon Solutions

Prioritize the value of employee wellness. “For talent providers like Pontoon and our customers, worker wellbeing will be a core tenant in 2022. Talent attraction and retention will be directly correlated with how workers are cared for and how employers meet their needs. We all have a responsibility to put mental health, wellbeing, and positivity above all else.”

Cultivate an ecosystem of talent sustainability. “At Pontoon, we have put a focus on employee learning and development in 2021. Our continuous learning culture has resulted in over 78,340 learning hours completed across our colleague population this year. In 2022, we have challenged ourselves to break this record as we continue to upskill our colleagues across Pontoon.”

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FOWX Notes: December 10 Edition

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsHR by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Some picked-up pieces, news, and insights from across the evolving world of talent and work:

  • I’ve often written about the “human” side of the business arena, with aspects like empathy-led leadership taking center stage as an indicator that the balance between “people” and “technology” is what the Future of Work movement is founded upon. This week’s news that Better.com’s CEO fired 900 employees via a single Zoom call last week is the complete opposite of the progress leaders have made over the past two years. It’s not surprising to see several of the company’s high-profile execs leave the firm in the wake of the Vishal Garg’s blunder, and his apology for the way the terminations unfolded are actually undone by the fact that he accused hundreds of the terminated employees of “stealing” from the company by “working two hours per day.” Even though Garg and his team utilized productivity data to formulate their decisions (for roughly 250 of those 900 employees), the behavior here is exactly why more and more workers are growing disillusioned with archaic leadership traits.
  • The U.S. Senate, unsurprisingly, voted to repeal the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate that would take effect on January 18, 2022. As reported by NPR: “Getting vaccinated should be a decision between an individual and his or her doctor. It shouldn’t be up to any politician, especially in a mandate coming down from that highest authority, the president,” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who led the effort to overturn the requirement, said during the Senate debate.” The thing about vaccination mandates is this: it’s not about control or authority, it’s about workplace safety. No matter if the Omicron variant is less severe or not (it already appears to be much more transmissible than the Delta variant), the last thing employers want to deal with is another winter surge that will tax the health care system. Vaccine mandates serve two purposes: increase the overall rate of vaccination across the country, and, ensure that workers operating within in-person locations are safe from infection. It’s not an overreach, nor is it an authoritarian play by the government.
  • Longtime Freelancer Management System (FMS) and workforce management platform Shortlist recently rebranded to Worksuite. The solution’s new name reflects the platform’s volume of functionality, including direct sourcing and talent pool technology, global freelancer payment management, as well as all of the hallmarks of the Shortlist offering (such as SOW management, services procurement, deep workforce analytics, compliance and risk mitigation tools, etc.).
  • The first company-owned Starbucks store voted yesterday to unionize. While the size of the store and its workforce are small, this is a major sign that more and more workers, no matter the industry, will see 2022 as a turning point for the transformation of the traditional employer-employee relationship. “Every social justice movement has started from the ground up, from a handful of people who stepped forward to demand change,” U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said in a statement” (and reported by The Buffalo News). The two key words there? Demand and change. The talent revolution is happening; expect similar instances as we head into 2022.
  • Something that’s not on the business radar for 2022 but should be: employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS). While eNPS has been around for several years, not enough businesses are leveraging this quantitative means of capturing the qualitative aspects of the employee experience (and employee experience). The Future of Work Exchange estimates that less than 10% of businesses are actively leveraging employee Net Promoter Scores in their greater workforce planning; by understanding the perspectives and feelings of staff, business leaders can formulate the best approaches to talent retention and talent-to-project-alignment.
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Here’s How Hybrid Work Can Be Successful in 2022

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsHR by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Last week, my father-in-law drove into downtown Boston for a doctor’s appointment. When I spoke to him later that evening, he said, “Chris, thank goodness you don’t have to drive into the city everyday. Took me almost 90 minutes each way.” (We live in the southern suburbs that are ordinarily only 45 minutes away from the city without traffic.) I joked about not missing any of the multi-highway commutes into Boston, and said, “I’m definitely grateful,” understanding that I’ve been working in some type of remote or hybrid setup for the vast majority of my career.

For many others, though, the idea of remote or hybrid work has only been a reality for less than two years. And for their leaders, well, that’s a much different story.

There has been no bigger business-oriented discussion over the past 20+ months than remote and hybrid work. When the pandemic was in its infancy, many businesses were abruptly forced to close down physical locations and institute near-overnight contingency plans to support their workforce operating under remote conditions. For some, these plans went off without a hitch. For many others, however, the adaptation was bumpy.

While many of us had hoped COVID-19 would be in its eventual endemic form by now, new variants (hello, Omicron) are already portraying 2022 as yet another year that some semblance of uncertainty will remain within the business arena under pandemic conditions. If 2020 was a “shock to the system” and 2021 was a year of adapting to new ways of working, then 2022 must be the year that businesses truly develop Best-in-Class hybrid workplaces.

The biggest trick to hybrid work success in 2022 is, first and foremost, realizing that the past 20+ months were filled with ramifications due to the pandemic, but many of these transformational shifts were, in fact, Future of Work accelerants that forever shaped the ways work is done. And, there also needs to be a real understanding of the fundamental differences of remote work (full-time digital infrastructure) and hybrid work (remote work interspersed with in-office days). Going into 2022, businesses that anticipated a full return-to-office plan are quickly figuring out that hybrid workplaces make the most sense. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 72% of businesses are actively planning for the best fit between traditional, in-person structures and remote work, proving that the majority of enterprises understand that hybrid work will become the norm (if it already hasn’t) in 2022 and beyond.

We’re entering year three of a global pandemic and hybrid work is a reality. How businesses tackle this arena in the coming months will ultimately depend on the strategy’s ultimate success:

  • There’s no “return to normal,” so let’s just accept it. Seriously, just accept it! That’s the recommendation. Hybrid and remote work are both here to stay.
  • Rethink how core teams operate and allow them to develop their own best ways of getting work done. Blanket recommendations aren’t going to work for those teams that know their functions better than their executive leaders do. We’re already in the midst of 2022 planning, so each team should be taking this time before the holidays to develop a plan for the year ahead that takes into account the access they need to systems, technology, and, most importantly, each other. Cross-enterprise mandates may work for businesses in which the vast, vast majority of workers are operating in a similar field, however, many businesses leverage dynamic teams that can and will benefit from a workplace structure that aligns well with the work they need to do.
  • Work-life integration can, should, and will be the norm. A play on work-life “balance,” work-life integration is a much better concept for today’s workers that actively experience the unpleasant mixing of work and home life constantly throughout the day (and night). Hybrid work is only successful if leaders cultivate a (digital) workplace environment that encourages workers to take time for themselves and focus on mental wellbeing. How many of us are routinely answering emails after midnight? And, how many of us find ourselves glancing at our laptop screens at the same time we’re cooking dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets for the kids? When there are no physical boundaries, workers sometimes feel as if they should work more hours because of the easy access to their devices. However, burnout is still very much a reality for too many professionals; business leaders have to ensure that their remote staff can regulate work-life integration in such a way that they are happy, productive, and well-rested.
  • Set workers up for success by giving them the tools, software, hardware, and emotional support they need to thrive. I can remember, during my early industry analyst years, running into a problem with my laptop. A quick walk over to the IT lead’s desk combined with a short wait, and, boom, problem solved. Many workers rely on this speed of service and support when our technology or hardware isn’t working properly (after all, IT is always there to help). At home, though? Software issues take considerably longer, while hardware issues can be catastrophic. Business leaders must ensure that their remote workforce has the necessary, up-to-date equipment to work productively at home. Also of note: the empathy factor. Working from home is not as glamorous as it seems if there are young children around or if workers are dealing with personal or health issues. Empathy-led leadership is just as critical in a virtual environment as it is in an in-person one.
  • Less time in the office does not mean more video calls and meetings. Check-ins are critical, so are one-on-one video calls between leaders and their staff. A constant stream of meetings and conferences, however, can drain productivity. Many businesses attempt to overcompensate for the lack of physical proximity by plugging more virtual conferences on the calendars, often unaware that a worker spending half (or more) of their day on camera or on conference calls. Leaders must whittle down the gatherings and get to the core of collaboration for the sake of productivity and time.
  • Hybrid work strategies should place flexibility at the core. As we wrote last week: expect the unexpected. There are both encouraging and ominous signs developing around the Omicron variant; whichever way this shakes out, though, business leaders must engage agility and push forward in a dynamic manner. A winter surge of cases could be around the corner, or, (hopefully) not. Planning for either scenario is what will drive success around any hybrid work strategy. After all, health and safety are more important than a simple edict to bring workers back to the office.
  • Position hybrid work as more than just a workplace strategy. Some talking-head executives have publicly proclaimed that their businesses are “office culture, first and foremost” and that remote or hybrid work doesn’t make sense. There’s no stopping that type of thinking, however, tell the talented individuals out there that would work for your organization if you had flexible workplace options. The Great Resignation is happening for many reasons, and one crucial attribute of this “Big Quit” is that businesses are not offering flexible conditions after 20 months of experiencing (first-hand, mind you) that they are attractive to top-tier talent. The hybrid workplace (and remote work, for that matter) opens up new channels of talent and expertise…a factor which shouldn’t go unnoticed in a continued war for skillsets.

There’s much more to the hybrid work story in 2022 than just the above thoughts. Business leaders must be aware of the benefits of remote and hybrid work beyond the obvious necessities regarding the pandemic’s ramifications. There are data security and intellectual property concerns, as well, which must be accounted for. Questions remain regarding insurance concerning the workforce. However, at the core, the hybrid work model is what will allow businesses to continue thriving and being agile in the face of an evolving arena.

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How Will Omicron Impact the World of Business?

Business LeadershipGeneral Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Stop me if you’ve heard the story before: the world is seemingly out of the clutches of an easily-transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus, there is talk from epidemiologists regarding the continued efficacy of vaccines against severe disease, and we begin to think the pandemic is beginning its endgame…but then, a new variant of concern pops up, disrupts both real-world plans and our overall hopes, and we’re left wondering if we’re on the verge of yet another wave of COVID that will upend any plans for a return to normalcy.

Over the past several days, a new variant of the novel coronavirus came to light. The Omicron variant reflects two- or three-times the spike protein mutations that its now-infamous cousin, Delta, brought to the world over the past five or six months, and many questions remain regarding the possibility of the variant’s ability to escape vaccine- or infection-led immunity, as well as its transmissibility factor (in what seems like forever ago, the once-dominant Alpha variant was more transmissible than the original lineage of the virus, while Delta’s rampage was largely a result of its increase transmissibility combined with waning vaccine immunity).

For those of you that are interested in learning more about the ongoing pandemic from a virologist’s perspective (truthfully, it’s quite refreshing to read the analysis of a scientific professional when making business predictions), I suggest you check out Dr. Jon Skylar’s “COVID Transmissions,” which are released several times a week. Yesterday’s edition featured these thoughts regarding Omicron:

For right now, I think it is likely that vaccinated people are still well-protected. People who have received an additional booster dose are probably even better protected. If you have not gone out and gotten a booster, I would say that now is the time—provided your healthcare professional of choice agrees.

If you live in the US or Europe, Omicron is not currently the biggest COVID-19 threat you should worry about. People in the US should be concerned about Thanksgiving, upcoming holidays, and travel, which can spread the virus around the country. People in Europe should consider that there is already a lot of Delta variant SARS-CoV-2 causing a surge in cases in your continent, and that raging fire is a much more clear and present danger to you at this time. Other regions have their own unique problems, but I do not think there is currently any place where Omicron variant infections are the biggest pandemic-related worry. Most of these problems, however, can be addressed with ready availability and uptake of vaccines and boosters, and that’s what the world should continue to focus on.

So, what does it mean for the business arena? Well, the first thing to think of is that this tangle with a new variant isn’t the first rodeo for enterprises; we battled through Alpha and are currently contending with Delta, the latter of which will most likely contribute to higher case numbers due to last week’s Thanksgiving holiday. There are expectations that, if transmissibility of Omicron is even two- or three-times that of Delta, that it will become the predominant strain throughout the next several months. Does this portend a winter surge like 2020-2021? Most likely, and hopefully, not; an uptick of vaccinations and boosters will blunt a winter wave the size of what we collectively experienced last year.

However, we are seeing swift action from governmental agencies and a level of heightened concern from news sources. After the Delta variant ripped through the world in a short period of time, there is an expectation that more rigid measures will be taken to avoid an Omicron surge. International flights are banned to and from several countries, some states (like New York) are doubling-down on mask-wearing no matter vaccination status, and, the WHO (yesterday) stated that the global risk from the new variant was “very high.” Here’s how it could affect the business world in the weeks ahead:

  • Initial confusion over specific details (transmissibility, immunity response, etc.) will result in reinstatement of safety guidelines. Travel bans are the first step, and we’ve seen that in spades over the past several days. Epidemiologists have warned that such bans are not always foolproof, as a stealthy virus like this one is almost certainly already circulating in countries that have not yer publicly sequenced cases within their borders. Until there’s more information regarding its supposed increased transmissibility and the effect of vaccines on the variant, businesses will be awash in confusion and be forced to reinstate mask-wearing for all workers (even vaccinated ones) and other NPIs.
  • The consistent focus on “scalability” will be exacerbated. While it’ll take at least another week or two before there is more clarity on the variant’s health impact, business leaders must be prepared to scale their staffing up or down based on the colder months ahead. Many, many organizations battled with a winter last year that saw billions of dollars of lost productivity due to the first full cold-weather season in the pandemic. Hiring managers, talent acquisition leads, and HR execs should not necessarily be panicking, but at the very least ensure that talent communities and talent pools are primed for engagement until the uncertainty settles.
  • There are many, many unanswered questions regarding the impact of Omicron on the economy. The S&P experienced its worst day in nearly 10 months this past Friday, but was up 1.3% yesterday, mainly due to some reports that the Omicron causes mild symptoms in vaccinated and/or previously-infected persons. While this is a combination of anecdotal evidence and very small datasets, it is nonetheless an encouraging sign for the financial market. However, as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies this afternoon regarding the impact of Omicron on the American economy, the very opposite could be true. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel stating that current vaccines could potentially “struggle” with the variant wasn’t helpful to Tuesday’s markets, either.
  • The criticality of “balance” should be at the forefront of every executive’s 2022 planning. Agility has been a way for businesses to both survive and thrive, while consistent and cautious planning is what businesses have long leveraged for the sake of preparedness. The two must converge together in order for the enterprise to weather a possible variant wave; business leaders should institute robust planning for 2022 as continued (i.e., continue planning as if we didn’t face a new variant) but have not just a “Plan B” in place, but rather a series of strategies that could be leveraged if we experience a repeat of last winter. Can return-to-office plans be altered quickly and without disruption? Does the IT infrastructure support a fast move to remote work? If sales execs and other internal stakeholders have resumed traveling, is there an alternative that could work in the name of safety? Business agility promotes real-time responses, while solid planning involves data, information, and intuition. The convergence of the two is the ideal way to meet whatever additional challenges the coronavirus throws our way.

This excellent article at Medscape takes a data-driven approach and reconfirms some elements of the concern while also offering some reassuring evidence. But, the bottom line is this: there’s a couple of more weeks of panic, pondering, concern, and anxiety until the CDC and other agencies better understand the transmissibility and immunity-effect factors. A waiting game, yes, but a critical one.

Regarding the business arena, there’s a generic response, here, as well, that’s worth mentioning: expect the unexpected. Just six months ago, life seemed the most optimistic it had been since January 2020. The Delta variant upended most of those positive emotions and there’s always the possibility that Omicron can, as well. However, if there’s one lesson that we’ve learned since March 2020, it’s this: it’s not necessarily the unexpected scenarios we should be worrying about, but instead just how agile and nimble we can be to react dynamically in the face of whatever occurs over the next several months.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Future of Work Exchange is grateful for all of the wonderful feedback and the incredible response to our new destination site. We hope that you have a relaxing long weekend with family and friends. Enjoy the holiday…we’ll be back on Monday!

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