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Solution Providers

Upwork’s VMS Partnership Strategy and the Future of Digital Staffing

Contingent WorkforceSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The realm of digital staffing has been quite robust over the past several years, with Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research pegging the growth of these solutions (which includes talent marketplaces and freelancer networks) at 700% since 2017. And it’s easy to see why: businesses must leverage dynamic talent solutions (and sources!) to engage top-tier candidates in real-time to succeed and thrive in an increasingly competitive and frenetic global business environment.

The concept of “omni-channel talent acquisition” has become table stakes for businesses seeking to thrive in these uneven economic times that are compounded by fierce, global competition from enterprises across the world. No longer do traditional staffing strategies drive enough value for those organizations seeking top-tier talent; the very underlying attributes of omni-channel talent acquisition are threaded within a larger, more expansive approach towards talent engagement that traverses beyond archaic measures.

Platforms such as direct sourcing solutions, talent marketplaces, freelancer networks, and digital staffing outlets are the very foundation of omni-channel talent acquisition. However, leveraging these sources on top of everyday talent engagement methods is just one piece of a larger, more dynamic puzzle; in order for businesses to truly derive next-generation value from expanded talent sources, they require connections between both omni-channel sources and their core systems of record.

Work marketplace market leader Upwork, oft-considered the largest provider of digital staffing technology, recently announced two unique partnerships with major VMS players.

“We’re thrilled to have announced the first of many partnerships with leading VMS and MSPs, with the initial two being SAP Fieldglass and FlexTrack,” said Matt Ryan, Upwork’s VP of Enterprise Solutions. “The partnerships are truly strategic and offer significant advantages to our enterprise customers. Our integration with VMS ensures a highly efficient and effective hiring process and enables businesses to manage on-demand talent effortlessly within their existing workforce structures.”

The new collaborations with SAP Fieldglass and FlexTrack offer a holistic solution for seamlessly sourcing and hiring expert independent talent, and, by integrating Upwork’s global network of skilled professionals with these cutting-edge VMS platforms, enterprise customers can directly access a talent pool spanning over 10,000 skills in more than 180 countries. This integration centralizes workforce management, onboarding, and payments, simplifying processes within existing workflows. Furthermore, the VMS partnerships mitigate risks associated with hiring outside established procurement processes, providing comprehensive control and reducing redundant approvals and hiring workflows.

“Our customers and many leaders recognize the challenges and importance of navigating an intricate web of diverse tools and platforms. Our goal is to help them further engineer an agile, dynamic workforce strategy, providing an end-to-end solution to seamlessly integrate diverse talent, optimize operations, and stay ahead in today’s environment,” said Ryan.

The innovation behind Upwork’s partnerships (and integrations) with SAP Fieldglass and FlexTrack represent the veritable future of not just digital staffing, but talent acquisition, as well. As the extended workforce continues to grow in both size and prominence (Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research peg the penetration of this labor at 49.5% of the overall workforce), enterprises will require real-time, dynamic tools to enhance the overall lifecycle of talent management.

“Navigating the path to enterprise success has become increasingly intricate, and the imperative to grow the top and bottom lines while keeping pace on the competitive landscape remains as urgent as ever,” said Zoë Diamadi, Upwork’s general manager of Enterprise. “This is just the beginning of the partnerships and powerful integration capabilities we plan to introduce, and we remain dedicated to providing solutions that our customers and businesses need in navigating the ever-evolving landscape of work.”

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Future of Work 2024: Predictions For The Year Ahead (Part I)

Business LeadershipContingent WorkforceDirect SourcingGeneral InsightsHRSolution ProvidersTalentTalent AcquisitionTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

It’s that time of year again when we leverage our insights and experiences from the year that was to effectively look forward to the months ahead. The Future of Work Exchange is excited to share a variety of commentary from thought leaders and executives from across the industry. Today is the first in a multi-part series that will run through the end of next week.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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FOWX Notes, December 1 Edition

Business LeadershipSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

News and happenings from around the greater world of work and talent:

  • Industrial staffing platform Employbridge hires Chris Campbell as its new Chief Product Officer. The trailblazing workforce solution, which is powered by leading digital staffing platform Bluecrew, hired the former Angi and Workhuman executive as its latest high-profile addition. Campbell will oversee the company’s continued growth and evolution. “The HCM platform ecosystem has traditionally been considered the exclusive realm of pure-play technology companies, and we’re on a quest to turn that notion on its head,” Campbell told the Future of Work Exchange. “With the acquisition and integration of Bluecrew, and a Best-in-Class software engineering and product management team working together to advance our purpose, we have a massive opportunity to not only unlock potential for every constituency that we serve but also to redefine the future of work in a way that works for everyone. What happens when you combine thirty years of deeply entrenched and locally-led expertise, national scale and influence, and a fully extensible SaaS platform that materially improves the lives of talent and clients? Let’s find out.”
  • Extended workforce platform Beeline announces its innovative “Beeline Supplier Network.” The new offering is a forward-thinking solution designed to enhance collaboration, efficiency, and visibility in managing contingent labor across organizations, and was developed to serve as a marketplace and resource hub, providing tools for suppliers to showcase their capabilities, promote differentiators, and access valuable business tools, ultimately facilitating easier consideration for inclusion in extended workforce programs. “I am incredibly excited about the recent launch of our Supplier Network,” said Brian Hoffmeyer, the company’s SVP of Market Strategies. “It is a direct reflection of Beeline’s extended workforce platform strategy and will help buyers and suppliers better connect and collaborate to find and engage top-tier, high-quality talent.”
  • Multifaceted workforce management solution Ceipal adds new Chief Marketing Officer, Andy Weiss, to its team. The total talent management platform, which blends ATS, CRM, and VMS functionality under a seamless umbrella of offerings, recently added Weiss to its executive team. “I’m thrilled to bring Ceipal’s innovative staffing and recruiting technology to our valued clients and potential customers,” said Weiss. “Our mission from the start has been simplifying the work of recruiters, staffing experts, system integrators, and MSPs. Now, we’re taking it a step further. Our AI isn’t just an add-on; it’s embedded into daily workflows, making routine tasks better, faster, and smarter. Ceipal is growing fast. I can’t wait to see what we bring to the market next.”
  • ServiceNow and AWS announce a strategic partnership to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into business applications. This collaboration aims to leverage AWS’s machine learning services to enhance ServiceNow’s platform, offering users advanced AI-driven functionalities for improved business processes.
  • Former Paychex CFO Efrain Rivera joins Magnit’s Board of Directors. With his extensive experience in finance and strategic leadership, Rivera is expected to contribute significantly to Magnit’s growth and development initiatives as the industry giant continues to innovate around its array of extended workforce solutions.
  • While jobless claims increased slightly by 7,000 to 218,000 last week, the overall number of individuals in the U.S. collecting unemployment benefits reached its highest level in two years. Totaling 1.93 million in the week ending Nov. 18, the stat is the highest it has been since late 2021. The rise in continuing unemployment claims may indicate challenges for those already unemployed in finding new work, signaling some softness in the otherwise resilient labor market amid slowing hiring and fewer job openings.
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A New Era of Innovation, Part VI: The The Future of Workforce Technology

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past several weeks, the Future of Work Exchange has showcased a series of articles dedicated to the latest wave of innovation in the realm of technology associated with the Future of Work movement. This special feature series shone a spotlight on trailblazing providers who are not only transforming the methods by which businesses discover, engage, acquire, and oversee talent but also on how they harness this talent to enhance their work processes.

With advancements in areas like direct talent acquisition, digital staffing, Vendor Management Systems (VMS), extended workforce management, total talent management, and Managed Service Provider (MSP)-led services, the field of workforce solutions has emerged as a revolutionary influence in the contemporary business landscape. Its nimbleness empowers companies to stay at the forefront of change, its adaptability aligns with the shifting nature of work, and its relentless pursuit of innovation consistently reshapes the terrain of talent acquisition and management.

As businesses continue to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of talent, the workforce solutions industry remains an essential catalyst for success, providing the essential tools and strategies necessary to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Today, we introduce four additional solutions that epitomize this new era of innovation.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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A New Era of Innovation, Part V: The Transformative Solutions Landscape

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the summer, the Future of Work Exchange featured a series of articles focused on the “new era” of innovation happening within the technological landscape associated with the Future of Work movement. The exclusive feature series highlighted providers that are revolutionizing the many ways businesses not only find, engage, source, and manage talent, but also how that talent is leveraged to optimize how work is addressed and done.

Given the advancements in arenas such as direct sourcing, digital staffing, VMS, extended workforce management, total talent management, and MSP-led services, the workforce solutions arena stands out as a revolutionary force in today’s business world. Its agility allows companies to stay ahead of the curve, its flexibility adapts to the changing nature of work, and its pace of innovation continuously reshapes the landscape of talent acquisition and management.

As businesses continue to navigate an ever-evolving talent landscape, the workforce solutions industry remain a critical enabler of success, offering the tools and strategies needed to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment. Today, we feature four additional solutions that represent a new era of innovation.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model from the Future of Work Exchange.

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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Beeline’s Future-Forward Approach: Revolutionizing the Extended Workforce

Contingent WorkforceProcurementSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research routinely points to the realm of “total talent management” as a critical offshoot of the greater Future of Work movement. The very ideas around total talent, in which businesses effectively blend catch-all and centralized strategies and processes for end-to-end talent acquisition (both direct hire/FTEs and contingent labor) and talent management (again, both sides), are typically divisive in the industry.

This is why the Future of Work Exchange has pointed to “total talent intelligence” as a gateway of sorts to bigger total talent management programs and initiatives. And, a crucial piece of total talent intelligence is total visibility into the extended workforce and its many forms.

Beeline, a market-leading Vendor Management System (VMS) and extended workforce platform, unveiled its new and innovative “Global Workforce Intelligence” (GWI) offering, as well as a new offering targeted at mid-sized contingent workforce programs (“Beeline Professional”).

The availability of the GWI tool is a watershed moment for the workforce solutions arena, as Beeline’s new tool will provide business users with enhanced levels of visibility into the totality of the non-employee workforce. This is an especially welcomed innovation for the industry, as the extended workforce has grown so large and complex (49% of the average company’s total workforce), and, with the advent of “omni-channel talent acquisition,” become ever-spread across numerous channels and sources (such as expert networks, talent marketplaces, direct sourcing-developed talent communities and talent pools, etc.).

In a press release, Beeline’s CEO, Doug Leeby, stated, “We help companies overcome the complexities of the modern workforce. Beeline’s solutions are filling gaps that have previously hindered the optimization of the extended workforce, enabling organizations to maximize every member of their workforce and gain a clear competitive market advantage.”

Gaining access to true, real-time talent intelligence across all workforce systems (not just VMS tools) isn’t just a boon for the progressive enterprises seeking total talent transformation; GWI is a solution that enables so much more, including dynamic viewpoints of compliance, real-time labor risk assessments, and enhanced workforce planning (and workforce optimization).

Beeline’s other new offering, Beeline Professional, is aligned to small- and mid-sized extended workforce management programs (under $25M in annual contingent workforce spend) that require access to a powerful array of VMS and extended workforce functionality. Beeline Professional was developed with pre-designed dashboards, tools, reports (and analytics), and workflows that can be harnessed without typical enterprise software implementation efforts.

Ardent and FOWX research finds that nearly 90% of programs of this size experienced an increase in utilization of extended labor going into 2023; these programs are also facing a major technology gap, as nearly 70% of small- and mid-sized extended workforce programs lack the required automation to effectively optimize their contingent workforce to be better-aligned with work that needs to be done.

“For far too long, extended workforce solutions have catered to enterprises and ignored the unique needs of mid-sized programs,” said Leeby. “Using insights from over the last 20+ years in the industry, Beeline Professional is uniquely tailored to meet the core needs of mid-sized programs without compromising quality and innovation.”

Beeline’s new GWI and Professional offerings exemplify the company’s enduring dedication to workforce innovation, showcasing their profound, Future of Work-driven vision aimed at maximizing the extended workforce’s impact and value.

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A New Era of Innovation, Part IV: The Future of Work Awaits

Contingent WorkforceDirect SourcingSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past three weeks, the Future of Work Exchange has featured a series of articles that have highlighted the innovation occurring within the world of workforce management, talent acquisition, and staffing technology and solutions.

We live in a new era, one that is heralded by evolution, innovation, and acceleration…all part of the “Future of Work movement” that dictates how we work and how we thrive. Talent is the centerpiece of this movement, a veritable engine of sorts that drives innovation, sparks ideation, and facilitates competitive differentiation in a globalized market that thrives on expertise and top-tier skillsets.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

read more

A New Era of Innovation, Part III: The Next Generation of Workforce Solutions

Contingent WorkforceDirect SourcingSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past two weeks, the Future of Work Exchange has featured a series of articles that have highlighted the innovation occurring within the world of workforce management, talent acquisition, and staffing technology and solutions.

In a business world that is hyper-competitive and globalized, enterprises essentially run on talent. In such a corporate climate, there are many factors that can prohibit the modern enterprise from succeeding. Perhaps the largest of these is the major skills gap that exists within a majority of businesses today, and the inability to support critical projects and initiatives with necessary expertise.

In today’s rapidly evolving talent landscape, a plethora of channels has emerged, offering businesses a variety of options to source and manage their workforce. From digital staffing marketplaces and traditional staffing vendors to professional services, talent networks, and social media platforms, the choices are endless.

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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A New Era of Innovation, Part II: Inside the Workforce Technology Revolution

Contingent WorkforceSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Last week, the Future of Work Exchange featured a discussion about the technological revolution happening within the greater world of talent and work. In a world combining economic uncertainty, a candidate-centric focus, and continued evolutionary change in a post-pandemic business landscape, an organization’s workforce solution reliance is often what sets it apart from the competition.

Today, we focus on perhaps the most mature of all workforce solutions: Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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Leverage Digital Staffing Expert Networks

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsHRSolution ProvidersTalent AcquisitionTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

Many times, it’s been said that having the right talent in the right place at the right time is paramount to a successful workforce strategy. While enterprises have often used traditional staffing firms to source candidates, this is no longer a viable option in today’s competitive labor marketplace. Instead, organizations are turning to digital staffing expert networks to recruit and hire candidates quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

Transformative Shift to Digital Staffing

The focus on skills-based hiring is helping drive the transformation toward digital staffing. The ability to gain access to candidates with specific skills, competencies, and experience on a global scale is game-changing for many enterprises.

According to a blog post from Upwork, a global digital staffing provider connecting businesses with independent professionals and agencies, says, “As the internet has become a staple in the lives of people around the world, it has also become a central component in the modern job search.

“With the ability to match independent professionals with the skills and experience to perform excellent work to companies looking for the talent that will fit their needs, digital staffing should be a central component in the talent search for companies of all sizes.”

The rest of this article is available by subscription only.

Introducing a New Subscription Model

To continue providing valuable insights and resources on the future of work and extended workforce management, we’re transitioning our site to a paid subscription model. While some posts will remain free, subscribing will grant you exclusive access to in-depth analysis, market research, expert interviews, and actionable strategies that will help improve your business. Solution providers and practitioners are invited to join today and gain a competitive edge by tracking the industry’s important innovations, emerging trends, and best practices.

Click here to learn more.

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