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Talent

The Talent Supply Chain Is Evolving…It’s Time to Rethink How We Approach It

Contingent WorkforceDirect SourcingEventsTalentTalent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of joining Prosperix‘s CEO, Sunil Bagai, and Defiant Solutions’ Bryan Pena for a spirited discussion on the evolution of the talent supply chain. Everything You Know About The Talent Supply Chain Is Wrong featured some new Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research, as well as a high-energy roundtable chat focused on how businesses can balance the power of today’s progressive labor market with the proper strategies for thriving in the months ahead.

If you missed the live event, we have you covered. Check out an on-demand edition below.

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Candidate-Centricity Should Be the Nexus of 2023 Hiring

HRTalentTalent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Sometimes it can be incredibly taxing on our minds to configure the many, many ways the Future of Work influences the way we live, the way we work, and the ways those two intersect. From new technology and innovative platforms to conscious leadership and overall business transformation, the very notion of the “future of how we work” involves so many intricacies that it can make our collective heads spin.

However, in a vacuum, we have to look at the future (and, in this case, the very near future) and configure specific aspects of corporate operations in such a way that they align with the external forces now driving success…or failure.

Talent has become the top competitive differentiator in a market that is increasingly globalized, unpredictable, and disruptive. Businesses that source the best talent, utilize that talent to get work done effectively, and retain that talent are always going to be the ones that thrive in a business arena that is evolving at a breakneck clip.

We’ve witnessed (and, more importantly, experienced) the highs and lows of talent engagement, hiring, and talent acquisition over the past two-plus years: pandemic-led layoffs, the rise of workforce agility, The Great Resignation, The Great Resettling, quiet quitting, quiet firing, and worker empowerment. It’s surely been a roller-coaster for talent acquisition execs, hiring managers, HR leaders, and other executives that hold some responsibility for workforce management within the typical organization.

At the end of the day, however, all of these talent-led transformations lead to one conclusion that should form the foundation of talent acquisition strategies in 2023: a candidate-centric model is the best path forward, considering the risks of an economic recession, continued global disruptions from war and supply chain issues, and, critically, the ramifications of the “talent revolution” that businesses have experienced since March 2020.

There are many reasons why running a candidate-centric hiring model makes sense in the year ahead:

  • Workers are done with being overpowered by their managers and employers when it comes to poor working conditions and a lack of appreciation.
  • Talented professionals have undergone a mental transformation during pandemic times that have forced them to reevaluate the impact of “work” and “career paths” on their personal lives as humans, leading to a desire for more purposeful work.
  • Workers desire true flexibility, not just a free weekly lunch or a ping-pong table in the break room. The flexibility for personal care, child care, elder care, etc. is all-important in today’s workforce; professionals crave the ability to attend their children’s’ events or harness the real power of remote and hybrid work to ensure that they have a proper work-life integration.
  • Candidates have more choices than ever before, regardless of the state of today’s economy. Businesses must stand out from the pack and offer a truly emotionally-engaging experience for their potential workers that leaves a real impression; will candidates gain a sense of trust, as well as an understanding of workplace and corporate culture?
  • Building on the above attribute, candidates desire a seamless and frictionless experience when applying for a job, negotiating terms, and following through the onboarding process. These may seem like more tactical aspects than strategic, but they go a long way towards developing a positive candidate experience for potential workers.
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is one of the most crucial elements of workforce management today. As frequently stated on the Future of Work Exchange Podcast, “A diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool.” Candidates want to know that they will be part of a diverse workforce that also includes a truly inclusive workplace culture.

There’s more to developing a talent-oriented hiring strategy than just being committed to the candidate; enterprises must look to the aspects above and understand that, in a volatile labor market, they need to do so much more than they have ever done before to attract the best-fit, top-tier talent, skillsets, and expertise. The candidate experience is paramount and candidate-centricity hiring models are essential to thriving in 2023.

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The Core Tenets of the Skills-Based Organization

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The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work; thus, the very future of the skills-based organization depends on forward-thinking strategies, ideas, and, of course technology. Businesses are more likely to thrive in the months and years ahead by adopting a candidate-centric approach to hiring that is skills-based rather than job-based.

The exclusive Future of Work Exchange infographic below, The Core Tenets of the Skills-Based Organization, unveils the six key elements of skills-based organizations and how they impact the greater business (and its staffing, recruitment, and hiring efforts).

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The Top Talent Challenges of 2023 (So Far)

Business LeadershipContingent WorkforceDirect SourcingTalentTalent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The business arena is shrouded in disruption and uncertainty, given the volatility of the labor market, supply chain risks, and economic challenges that are plaguing a variety of industries across the globe. With talent as the modern enterprise’s top competitive differentiator, it is no wonder that these external factors are placing pressure on talent-specific operations within the average organization, particularly workforce oversight, extended and contingent workforce management, skills analysis, talent engagement, talent acquisition, services procurement, etc.

In another exclusive Future of Work Exchange infographic, we highlight some brand new Ardent Partners research and unveil the top talent-oriented challenges for businesses (thus far) in 2023.

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Getting Started With Skills-Based Hiring

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The Future of Work Exchange has frequently discussed the advent of the skills-based organization, and rightfully so: Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 73% of businesses currently face a critical challenge in the months ahead: a lack of candidates with the required skillsets for open positions. This is yet another representation of why the skills-based organization (SBO) is a true opportunity to, essentially, reimagine the ways they think about talent acquisition and the role of talent in getting work done.

The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work; thus, the very future of the skills-based organization depends on forward-thinking strategies, ideas, and, of course, technology. And it all begins with skills-based hiring.

I’m excited to join my friend and fellow Future of Work expert Mark Brodsky on an exclusive Q&A panel discussion on Wednesday, March 15 at 11am ET. The staffing and recruitment expert panel, hosted by innovative skills intelligence platform Glider AI, will address:

  • Migrating from a job-based to a skills-based hiring strategy.
  • How to identify the required skills.
  • How to assess candidate skills.
  • Evaluating skills-based hiring tools and AI.
  • Uncovering hidden skills from current employees.
  • Securing executive and finance stakeholder alignment.

Next week’s event will also feature some brand new Future of Work Exchange research and statistics that will illuminate the criticality of the skills-based organization and its role in the evolving world of talent and work. Join us!

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Five Reasons Why Direct Sourcing Can Supercharge Hiring

Direct SourcingTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Future of Work Exchange has long discussed the value, impact, and power of direct sourcing. Over the past three years, direct sourcing has dominated discussions across the world of talent and work, and rightfully so: Direct sourcing represents a dynamic entry-point to talent sustainability. Considering its impact on the candidate experience (transforming how workers engage with potential employers), referral management (automated, mobile-optimized referrals), and talent community development (boosting talent curation and progressing into a new stratosphere of on-demand talent pools), direct sourcing is a robust strategy to developing real workforce scalability…and talent sustainability.

Today, we are excited to present an exclusive infographic, Five Reasons Why Direct Sourcing Can Supercharge Hiring.

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The Continued Rise of the Extended Workforce

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During The Great Recession of 2008-2009*, businesses faced a harsh reality: do more with less…or else face a reckoning. Tens of thousands of enterprises were forced to lay off swaths of their staff in the wake of rough financial times, with so many others undertaking additional cost-cutting measures beyond slashing their total headcount.

Many incredibly talented professionals found themselves out of a job, and many once-thriving organizations found themselves without the same level of expertise they once maintained. However, unlike recessions of past, an interesting event occurred: a bounce-happened quick enough that those very businesses required talent to meet a rising demand for their products and services. And, those professionals who were cut from their positions became open to flexible work and new working arrangements.

Enter the “perfect storm” that signaled a revolution.

In the months preceding The Great Recession, the average penetration rate of contingent labor hovered around 10%-to-12%. In the wake of those awful economic times, that penetration rate soared to nearly 17%. This meant that 17% of the average company’s total workforce was comprised of temporary workers, independent contractors, freelancers, and professional services-based labor.

In 2010, that number hit 20%. In 2011, it was nearly 23%. And so on, as demonstrated below:

The meteoric rise of the contingent workforce, what we now refer to as the “extended workforce” to encompass the agility, flexibility, and extended talent sources inherent in non-employee talent, has reached an apex of sorts. Today, in 2023, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 49% of the average company’s total workforce is comprised of external, extended talent.

Years ago, many of us (this author included) believed that there would be a day when half of the total workforce would be considered contingent or extended. And now, in February 2023, that day is here. The extended workforce has traversed beyond its origins as a mere augmentative staffing attribute and has become a powerful entity that has transformed the way businesses think about how they get work done. Back in 2008 and 2009, businesses flipped the notions of the contingent workforce on its head; what emerged from that period of time was the continued rise of this malleable workforce that has driven so much value to organizations across the world.

Today, the extended workforce is a foundational element of the business arena. And the reasons are plentiful, including:

  • The rules of hiring have changed. Years ago, staffing suppliers represented the vast bulk of contingent hiring. Today, that is no longer the case. In the age of omni-channel talent acquisition, enterprises are enabled with a variety of candidate sources that can be converged to drive real-time skills alignment, on-demand hiring, and enhanced visibility into deeper attributes of candidates. While traditional staffing suppliers are still a critical piece of the contingent workforce, the “omni-channel experience” represents a new era in which enterprises can expand their talent searches through the advent of innovation, direct sourcing automation, new candidate channels, and next-generation and AI-fueled technology.
  • “Optimization” translates into agile talent strategies. Business agility is not a new concept, and certainly wasn’t considered so when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted, well, pretty much everything. In the wake of “doing more with less” yet again, as well as the fallout from having to continually realign hiring strategies with the actual, real-time demands for products and services, businesses found that workforce optimization provided a linear and effective pathway towards true enterprise agility. This entailed optimizing the mix of internal and external talent in such a way that the greater organization benefits from the best-aligned skillsets and expertise being leveraged to get work done efficiently and productively by maximizing the total talent pool.
  • The skills-based organization requires a robust connection to the extended workforce. We’ve talked about the skills-based organization here at the Exchange for quite some time (even earlier this month). The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work, which, essentially represents a skills-oriented focus in which expertise is the nexus of hiring rather than costs, budgets, etc. The extended workforce plays a vital role in SBO-driven concepts, particularly when thinking about the depth of skills, expertise, and relevant experience across all open channels of talent, be it talent marketplaces, talent pools, talent communities, freelancer networks, traditional employees, etc.
  • Hybrid workplaces have influenced hiring strategies. When the pandemic hit, businesses across the world were forced to shift into fully-remote or hybrid-led workplace models. Along with the natural acceleration of remote work as a pandemic by-product came a shift in how enterprises structured hiring strategies. Looking beyond the backyard allowed organizations to think more expansively, finding workers and candidates from across the world with the skillsets they desired. The extended workforce and remote work often go hand-in-hand, and this new thinking towards hiring is a major reason why it continues to grow and continues have such an incredible impact.

The ultimate growth and value of the extended workforce shows no signs of slowing as its nears a 15-year pace of increasing utilization. In today’s Future of Work-driven business climate, the extended workforce is a powerful mainstay that contributes to and facilitates real enterprise agility.

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The Future of Work is Now: Top Trends for 2023 (New Research!)

Business LeadershipContingent WorkforceGeneral InsightsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

2023 promises to be a year unlike any other. With rampant inflation, economic uncertainty, and a volatile labor market, enterprises must balance agility, flexibility, and dynamic strategies to thrive in these uncertain times. The year ahead will surely challenge enterprises, with the specter of an economic downturn lingering overhead as well as continued uncertainty regarding the volatility of the labor market. However, as businesses have done over the past three years, they will persevere, they will thrive, and, most critically, they will innovate.

In the spirit of looking ahead, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange developed a brand new research study: The Future of Work Is Now: Top Trends for 2023. Sponsored by Guidant Global, this exciting new research study highlights the key trends of today’s dynamic world of work and their implications on business operations in the year ahead. Click here to download the new report.

We identified seven key trends that will shape the way businesses find, engage, and source talent, manage their extended workforce, and optimize they ways they get work done. Download the new research study today!

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The Elements That Will Shape the Skills-Based Organization

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Here’s a phrase that’ll be mentioned many times throughout 2023: the skills-based organization will be the one that thrives during what could be an uneven and uncertain year ahead. Skills is akin to currency in today’s volatile market in such a way that it seemingly creates a have/have not business society. Those with top-tier skills will flourish, and, those who don’t, well…

The latest United States jobs report was rosy from a certain perspective (adding 517,000 jobs in January alone), one that reflects not only the lowest unemployment figures in nearly 55 years, but also an awkward juxtaposition of the discussions around an economic downturn and the continued fight against inflation.

For all the talk about a blooming-yet-complicated job market, there’s another side to this positive news. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 73% of businesses currently face a critical challenge in the months ahead: a lack of candidates with the required skillsets for open positions. This is yet another representation of why the skills-based organization (SBO) is a true opportunity to, essentially, reimagine the ways they think about talent acquisition and the role of talent in getting work done.

The most progressive way of thinking here is to apply agility-led principles to the realm of talent acquisition and talent engagement by 1) harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to revamp the candidate-matching process, 2) expanding “known” skills taxonomy in an automated manner to account for innovative and future roles, 3) developing a central, on-demand database of skillsets across talent communities (talent pools, talent networks, current employees, etc.), and, 4) leveraging a multi-dimensional nexus of skillsets and expertise from which to address new and evolving requirements based on the trajectory of the greater organization.

The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work; thus, the very future of the skills-based organization depends on forward-thinking strategies, ideas, and, of course technology. Here are the crucial elements that will shape the SBO in the months ahead:

  • Digital credentialing will emerge as a powerful disruptor in the skills validation market. Even in the technologically-advanced days in which we live, validating skillsets and expertise is largely a manual game. Talent acquisition execs and hiring managers (as well as other core HR leaders) must review portfolios, speak to references, confirm education and backgrounds, etc. to ensure that a candidate holds the proper skillsets for the role in which it is applying. Digital credentialing platforms remove nearly all of the guesswork and the tactical elements of skills validation and provide a veritable gateway into verified skillsets, strengths, certifications, etc. that candidates can maintain throughout the duration of their career. Solutions like Credly, Sertifier, Accredible, and Certifier are revolutionizing both the candidate-facing and hiring-led aspects of digital credentialing.
  • Blockchain realizes its potential and becomes a gateway for talent. Across the business spectrum, blockchain has so many potential paths: augmenting data warehousing, tightening legal and financial intelligence, and, yes, reinventing the ways enterprises find and connect with talent. In a hyper-competitive and globalized talent marketplace, the power of blockchain truly shines through; by defragmenting traditional barriers to talent acquisition, blockchain-fueled candidate networks enable hiring managers (and similar leaders) with the ability, in real-time, to view candidate profiles, validate expertise, and confirm career data and portfolios. Candidates own their information, and, subsequently, their career pathways, an important factor in today’s labor market from the worker perspective. The speed in which blockchain presents a match and a connection can dwarf that of traditional hiring. Platforms like the non-profit Velocity Network and innovative solution Braintrust are helping businesses reboot their talent strategies.
  • AI moves firmly into the talent acquisition arena. Artificial intelligence has become, particularly over the past several years, a formidable means of visualizing workforce data through dynamic analytics. Predictive analytics and scenario-building capabilities within workforce management suites and VMS platforms have changed the way HR, procurement, and talent acquisition leaders access total talent intelligence and supercharge their talent-decision making with that data. However, 2023 is the year of AI in talent acquisition; it is imperative that businesses drive real workforce scalability and boost their skills-oriented approach by leveraging artificial intelligence to better validate candidate profiles, enhance skillset-to-job matching, and improve the overall hiring process. Talent acquisition is entering a new, AI-charged era in part because of the advanced technology that can seamlessly streamline the ways businesses not only engage candidates, but also the ways they catalyze the skills-matching experience. Platforms like Opptly represent this exciting new generation of technology, along with solutions like Phenom, Gem, and Gloat, as well as Magnit and both its ENGAGE Talent tool and total talent intelligence offering. Too, solutions such as Glider.ai (robust skills verification and candidate assessment), Fuel50 (recalibrating workforce intelligence), and HiredScore (next-generation, proactive talent-fueled AI) will also disrupt the concept of AI in talent acquisition.

One other factor that could play a pivotal role in the evolution of the skills-based organization is direct sourcing and its impact on digital recruitment, an arena that is founded on the ability to better match open positions with top-tier skillsets. Today’s direct sourcing platforms are a key cog in developing a skills-oriented approach towards talent acquisition, with solutions such as WorkLLama, whose AI-fueled recruitment tools revolutionize candidate collaboration and boost talent acquisition strategies, and LiveHire, whose end-to-end recruitment and direct sourcing technology facilitates a dynamic and holistic approach towards total talent management,

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Is It Time to Reintroduce Ourselves to Total Talent Management?

Contingent WorkforceHRTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

For the past decade, the very concept of total talent management has been akin to the Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster of the business arena: a mythical idea that has only seen slivers of reality across global organizations. Sure, we’ve seen dribbles of total talent programs in some enterprises, as well as specific elements of these initiatives (i.e., total talent acquisition, total talent intelligence, etc.) offered by some of the industry’s more progressive workforce management solutions.

However, on the whole, total talent management itself has still not yet experienced its true arrival as we all would have anticipated. Back in 2011, I wrote perhaps the industry’s first full research study on total talent management, which found that there was extreme desire for such a program; the caveat, however, was that the tools weren’t quite there yet…and neither were the foundational elements required to make such a program successful.

So, here were are in 2023, with a toxic workplace environment (due to so-called “quiet quitting” and “quiet firing”), a volatile labor market, and a Great Resettling that represents a continued revolution of talent. There may or may not be a recession swirling around us like a dooming specter. And, above all else, enterprises realize that they require the right talent at the right time at the right cost to get work done in an efficient and optimal way.

Dare I say that we should reintroduce ourselves to the idea of total talent management? Should we truly flip this concept from theory into reality? Here a few reasons why:

  • The technology is finally there to support TTM. A decade ago, the phrase “extended workforce” didn’t exist…nor did the proper technology to make total talent management a reality. Contingent workforce management (CWM) was just beginning its ascent to true strategic imperative, while less than a quarter of the total workforce was considered “non-employee.” Today, the story has evolved: extended workforce systems are innovative offshoots of Vendor Management System (VMS) platforms that can easily integrate with the core human capital systems (ATS, HRIS, etc.) for true visibility, management, and oversight of both contingent and FTE labor. Point-of-entry automation for new requisitions and talent requests can access various forms of talent, including the ever-important talent communities developed by direct sourcing solutions. And, most importantly, today’s workforce management technology can easily help businesses understand their total workforce, an attribute which allows them to pinpoint the best-aligned talent (be it contingent or an FTE already on staff) for a given project or role.
  • Functional collaboration today is a must-have capability. Unlike in years past, it is much more common for businesses to experience core cross-functional coordination; procurement and finance tackle their problems together, for instance, for the sake of the bottom-line. HR, talent acquisition, and procurement have all experienced challenges and pressures over the past two-and-a-half years, each unit emerging from the acute pandemic phase stronger than ever before. As such, the idea of collaborative strategies is much easier to maintain in today’s business environment: in the quest for survival during those scary days of 2020, enterprise functions learned that they needed each other to thrive. And, today, these three distinct groups now understand that, in a world where talent is an incredible competitive differentiator, they must work together to bridge the gaps between extended workforce management and traditional hiring. By combining efficiencies and blending strengths, the triumvirate of HR, procurement, and talent acquisition can form a formidable backbone of total talent management.
  • Aspects such as purpose, flexibility, and empathy boost the importance of the candidate experience, with the notion of “engagement” playing a critical role in total talent acquisition. No longer does a great hourly rate set the tone for freelancers, contractors, and other types of non-employee talent when choosing their next destination. Workplace culture (and leadership style) are more crucial now than ever for hiring managers to hook new talent; as such, the idea behind total talent acquisition (a key phase within TTM that involves a centralized, standardized set of guidelines and processes for engaging and sourcing all types of talent) becomes one of engagement, as well. True total talent management programs harness the power of employee engagement and candidate experience tools and tactics to ensure a steady approach towards talent acquisition for both contingent and FTE talent populations.
  • The need for business agility, combined with the volatility of the labor market, translates into the perfect gateway for total talent management. Simply put: total talent management is needed today, now more than ever. Businesses must execute lightning-fast talent decisions to thrive in an uncertain economy; the “total talent intelligence” enabled by total talent management programs and associated platforms allow hiring managers and other leaders to understand 1) the current makeup of talent across the organization, 2) the best-fit resources (whether it’s someone in house, a current contractor, etc.) for a new project or role, and 3) provide a dynamic entryway into a truly agile workforce.

Total talent management has been an oft-maligned strategy that has bordered on the hypothetical for over a decade. However, the platforms available today and the transformation of work and talent, combined with the need for such a program, positions total talent management as an innovative strategy for the months and years ahead.

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