Technology and Innovation Archives - The Future of Work Exchange

Future of Work 2025: Predictions for the Year Ahead (Part I)

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Solution Providers Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/17/2024

2024 was another watershed year for the world of work and talent…and 2025 promises to be another transformational period in business history. Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange are excited to unveil a series of predictions over the next few weeks from industry thought leaders.

“The workplace and talent landscape are rapidly evolving, driven by relentless innovation, particularly through advancements in artificial intelligence within the talent technology ecosystem. Enterprises are increasingly integrating AI-powered capabilities into their talent engagement and acquisition processes, enabling skills-based hiring, and transforming recruitment and workforce management. This evolution not only streamlines operations but also empowers individuals by creating more dynamic and engaging opportunities, aligning roles with skills, and enabling personalized career pathways. In 2025, AI is set to become the pervasive force propelling the Future of Work.”

– Lori Hock, CEO, Opptly

“After a couple of years of uncertainty and, as a result, declines in contingent labor spend at many companies; 2025 will be a year of growth. This will be driven by new features and services, including AI that is practical, ethical, and compelling.”

– Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“Companies that have upgraded their tech stack in the last 3-to-5 years will surge ahead in 2025, leaving behind those that haven’t.”

– Brad Talwar, CEO, TalentBurst

“As a parent to a college sophomore, I’m excited about how the workforce is evolving to offer GenZ a different lifestyle. Gone are the days of staying with one company for PTO accruals (me and my love of travel), employers will continue to be challenged to find creative ways to retain talent and remember to focus on the new generation’s passion, not ours.”

– Tracey Klein, Fractional Leader, Advisor, and Collaborator, Klein Consulting

“Individual contributors that are fatigued by all the artificial intelligence changes will resist the demands from company ownership to become more comfortable using these ever-growing set of tools. This will lead to a reduced overall corporate employee base and an increase in entrepreneurship.

Value in the physical world will take more center stage. Clinical and light industrial optimization will take more focus. These areas that have historically lagged the traditional commercial side in terms of data-driven decisions will enjoy a renaissance when it comes to data optimization.”

– Chris Radvansky, Owner, Rad Consultants

The Role of Blockchain in Candidates’ Digital Identities

Business Leadership General Insights HR Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 12/12/2024

A more digital Future of Work environment also means an increase in data volume. Information about potential job candidates collected through direct sourcing efforts, as well as more process digitization puts an abundance of sensitive data at HR’s and business leaders’ fingertips. Concurrently, cybersecurity risks continue to grow as threat actors attempt to thwart individuals’ and corporate efforts to defend against them. Enter blockchain, a technology that holds the potential for capturing and securing sensitive personal and workforce data.

What Is Blockchain?

At its core, Synopsis defines blockchain as “a decentralized, distributed, and public digital ledger that is used to record transactions across many computers so that the record cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks and the consensus of the network.” For each ordered record (i.e., transaction) a block with a timestamp and transaction data is created and linked to subsequent blocks forming a blockchain. Whether it’s financial records, supply chain transactions, or personal information, blockchain guarantees a record of integrity and trust for all parties — without requiring a third party for verification.

Blockchain is most associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to secure a record of transactions. However, it is gaining more attention in industries outside of banking, including pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense, and food and beverage, with several companies piloting blockchain technology for track-and-trace initiatives. For example, in the food supply chain, a supplier is unable to alter transaction data such as batch numbers, ensuring the ability to appropriately track and trace specific food shipments in the event of a recall.

The technology is now making its way into the HR function. This week, we’ll look at blockchain from the individual level (digital identity), followed by part two, exploring areas where HR can leverage blockchain to benefit the enterprise.

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The FOWX Fifteen: AMS.

Direct Sourcing Solution Providers Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/03/2024

The FOWX Fifteen is an exclusive series at the Future of Work Exchange that highlights the industry’s innovative and disruptive platforms, solutions, and offerings that are driving the Future of Work movement. These providers are actively pushing talent technology innovation and ushering in a new, digital era of workforce management, staffing, and talent acquisition.

The Background

The talent technology industry is awash in innovation. Whether it’s AI-fueled functionality, next-generation managed services, or progressive workforce management capabilities, there is no better or more ideal time to be a talent acquisition, HR, or extended workforce leader than right now.

A talent-centric, candidate-oriented world of work means that enterprises require a level of elegance, automation, and efficiency to effectively maximize new and exciting hiring strategies. Progressive concepts such as direct sourcing, digital recruitment, skills-based hiring, and Best-in-Class talent technology stacks are all elements that now fuel the Future of Work movement.

Enter AMS.

Why They Were Selected

AMS was purpose-built for the Future of Work, with an impressive arsenal of talent acquisition and workforce management services, all buoyed by the powerful AMS One platform. AMS One comprehensively streamlines workforce (traditional and extended) management through integrated digital capabilities, seamlessly enabling comprehensive recruiting, hiring, engagement, and operational (scheduling, workforce planning, payment processing, and reconciliation) functions within a unified suite of functionality.

Furthermore, AMS stands as a robust service provider that impeccably blends MSP, RPO, talent acquisition, and direct sourcing solutions together in an sophisticated, cohesive manner. The company’s Best-in-Class recruitment-driven offerings are anchored in global talent expertise and an innovative service delivery model that prioritizes forward-thinking talent strategies and approaches. And, with progressive solutions like the DE&I gamechanger AMS Omnis, AMS continues to thrive in an evolving world of work.

In Their Own Words

“AMS is honored to be named a global leader by Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange, reflecting our unique ability to drive transformative talent acquisition outcomes. As a trusted partner to some of the world’s most well-known organizations worldwide, we deliver comprehensive talent solutions—across MSP, RPO, direct sourcing, talent advisory, and digital solutions—all powered by cutting-edge technology and a relentless focus on innovation.

Today’s talent landscape is rapidly evolving, with a growing need for agile external workforce strategies. Our capabilities enable TA and HR leaders to adapt swiftly to this shift, helping companies leverage their brand to attract, engage, and retain critical talent on a global scale. Our award-winning solutions, like AMS One, combine deep domain expertise, data-driven insights, and advanced AI to optimize strategic talent initiatives. This accolade reinforces AMS’s commitment to empowering organizations to build high-performing teams and unlock new value through the external workforce. As the Future of Work unfolds, we’re here to ensure our clients stay ahead embracing change.” –Christoph Niebel, Chief Client Officer and President, Americas

The Outlook

AMS is positioned as a Future of Work-driven, talent-oriented, and innovation-heavy workforce solutions stalwart, seamlessly transforming talent acquisition through total talent intelligence and digitized hiring optimization. By converging advanced AI-powered functionality with agile direct sourcing and recruitment methodologies, AMS will continue to empower organizations to navigate the complex talent ecosystem with unprecedented, strategic precision.

The FOWX Fifteen: Opptly

Direct Sourcing Solution Providers Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/22/2024

The Background

Quick…name the most electrifying word in today’s business landscape. I’ll give you 10 seconds. Wait, you didn’t even need 10 seconds, did you?

“Artificial intelligence” rolls off your tongue faster than a machine learning algorithm processes data..and for good reason: AI has become the cornerstone of innovation, seamlessly weaving through enterprise ecosystems – from the intricate networks of IT and analytics to the strategic realms of finance and talent acquisition.

Recent groundbreaking research from Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange reveals a transformative landscape: an overwhelming 82% of businesses entered 2024 with a strategic mandate to amplify their artificial intelligence capabilities. Even more revealing? Among HR and talent acquisition leaders, that number skyrockets to nearly 95% – a clear signal of a profound technological revolution.

This isn’t just about technological adoption, though; it’s about a fundamental reimagination of talent strategy. AI represents more than a tool – it’s a strategic accelerant that empowers talent leaders to transcend traditional boundaries. By harnessing next-generation analytics, organizations can now dynamically map, find, and engage talent, while simultaneously building robust, forward-looking skills taxonomies that don’t just predict the Future of Work – they actively shape it.

Enter Opptly.

Why They Were Selected

Opptly’s core offerings revolve around progressive functionality within direct sourcing, candidate engagement, skills-based hiring, and skills taxonomy development. However, the platform is so much more than the sum of these attributes, as the solution is a true “people technology” that is actively blazing a path forward within the Future of Work movement.

The proprietary and future-leaning artificial intelligence-driven technology within the Opptly platform represents the veritable future of AI in talent acquisition. Opptly’s advanced AI offerings seamlessly match the best talent with mission-critical opportunities by analyzing deep professional insights, skills, expertise, and project requirements in real-time, all while factoring in progressive candidate elements such as culture, diversity, etc.

Through sophisticated machine learning algorithms and NLP-augmented functionality, Opptly optimizes the entire talent lifecycle – from sourcing and vetting to engagement and project success – delivering unparalleled efficiency and precision in the direct sourcing, talent acquisition, and workforce management ecosystems.

In Their Own Words

“Opptly is proud to be included amongst other Best-in-Class platforms and solutions in the talent technology arena. This accolade is a testament to our unwavering commitment to truly unbiased artificial intelligence that can revolutionize the ways businesses find, engage, and manage their total talent. Opptly represents the future of hiring – where cutting-edge technology meets human potential, creating a seamless, intelligent, and equitable dynamic that transforms how organizations and talent connect, collaborate, and succeed.” – Lori Hock, CEO of Opptly

The Outlook

Simply put, Opptly is a pure technological representation of the Future of Work movement: next-generation functionality, AI-fueled talent innovation, and cutting-edge, skills-based hiring offerings that are actively revolutionizing the ways businesses address how work is done. As artificial intelligence continues to dominate talent acquisition strategies, Opptly and its progressive AI sophistication will continue to help enterprises dynamically adapt to modern workforce trends, seamlessly match top-tier talent with critical opportunities, transform their talent strategies, and provide an intelligent and infinitely scalable competitive advantage.

Spin for the Win with Gamification

Business Leadership General Insights HR Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 11/21/2024

In an article on the Future of Work Exchange last week, we discussed digital credentials and badges as a means to recruit, verify, and retain talent. This week we’re exploring those concepts further through gamification in the workplace and how the Future of Work can be transformed by its utilization.

Gamification Defined

Gamification is defined by Investopedia as, “the incentivization of people’s engagement in non-game contexts and activities by using game-style mechanics.” First coined in 2002 by game designer Nick Pelling while incorporating game elements into ATM and vending machines, gamification became mainstream by 2009 and has only grown as a strategic approach in HR and business.

With employee engagement and productivity a high priority for enterprises, gamification bridges the employee experience with enterprise needs. It can turn mundane tasks and processes, such as training and upskilling, reviewing corporate and HR policies, rolling out new products and services, and even applying for a job within the organization into engaging activities.

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Employee Engagement Still Lacks Execution

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights HR Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/20/2024

Today’s enterprises can be characterized as fast-paced, ever-evolving to effectively respond to a more dynamic marketplace. Within the hustle and bustle lies a critical workforce need that is often overlooked: employee engagement. The concept can be confused with simply offering employees certain monthly perks identified from a quick survey. However, it goes much deeper than that and reaches beyond permanent, full-time employees to those in the extended workforce, as well.

A well-rounded definition of employee engagement comes from Engage For Success: “Employee engagement is a workplace approach resulting in the right conditions for all members of an organization to give of their best each day, committed to their organization’s goals and values, motivated to contribute to organizational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being.”

Powerful, Yet Underutilized

It is that commitment toward oneself and the enterprise that makes employee engagement such a powerful workforce approach. Yet, as a Gallup survey indicates, only 36% of U.S. employees are engaged in their work and workplace. The number is even lower on a global scale, with only 20% of employees engaged at work.

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Digital Credentials Provide Talent Visibility, Skill Recognition

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing General Insights HR Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 11/14/2024

As people’s careers progress, they establish a professional profile comprised of a resume, portfolio, performance reviews, letters of recommendation, degrees, certifications, memberships, and other career achievements. Often, these paper-based items are dispersed and sometimes forgotten over time. However, they are all critical pieces of employees’ professional identities that make them unique in the workforce. Even more important, they represent their skills and competencies to potential or current employers.

What is the answer? Enter the world of digital credentials.

A Digitized, Verifiable Professional Profile

At the foundational level, candidates convert their professional profiles into digitized and verifiable credentials that enterprises access quickly and securely when recruiting or promoting staff. In today’s aggressive labor market, having digital credentials is a competitive differentiator in the workforce. It separates a candidate’s application from random submissions, thus streamlining the selection process and generating cost savings for the hiring enterprise through greater efficiencies.

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Artificial Intelligence Mitigates Unconscious Bias in Hiring

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 10/31/2024

Today’s remote and hybid workplaces means access to a diverse and globally connected talent pool — one where the importance of equity and inclusion is stronger than ever. Standing in the way, however, are traditional hiring processes, coupled with ongoing controversies surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that can enable rather than reduce the influence of unconscious biases in talent decision-making. The answer to overcoming these challenges and improving equity in hiring may lie in artificial intelligence (AI). AI tools can introduce impartiality into talent decisions and processes, mitigating the effects of unconscious bias.

Unconscious Bias Lives in Us All

To quell unconscious bias, one must understand it first to later recognize its presence. The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) defines unconscious biases as “social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.” Unconscious biases include affinity bias, confirmation bias, conformity bias, and gender bias.

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Direct Sourcing Gains an Assist with Chatbots

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing General Insights HR Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 10/24/2024

The dial on artificial intelligence (AI) has been turned up to such a degree that anyone can now experiment with the technology. AI tools from ChatGTP to Lensa are putting the power of AI into the hands of everyday folks — with stunning results. While the consumer side of AI continues to gain attention, it’s important not to overlook the applicability and possibility of the technology for direct sourcing and extended workforce needs.

Today, there are several providers of AI-based tools for optimizing the direct sourcing of extended workers. One of the most recognizable and popular tools is chatbots. This technology has evolved significantly over the years from a more scripted application to one of conversational AI realization. Through developments in natural language processing, users have a difficult time recognizing whether it’s a human or a bot they’re interacting with.

How are chatbots contributing to efficiencies in direct sourcing efforts? It’s occurring in several ways, allowing HR, business managers, and recruiters to focus on more strategic aspects of total talent management initiatives.

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Value of Artificial Intelligence Delivers for Human Resources

Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation Uncategorized by John Yuva on 10/17/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) has fully broken through the parameter of the Future of Work — where HR can effectively engage with AI technologies to deliver automation and sustainable talent outcomes. The complex decision-making of today’s HR professionals makes AI a near necessity to achieve recruitment and total talent management objectives in the current enterprise. By leveraging AI, machine learning, and data analytics, HR professionals can automate many manual tasks while enhancing the employee lifecycle experience.

The embrace and utilization of AI technologies is proving transformational for HR professionals and their industry. According to Sameer Maskey, founder and CEO for Fusemachines, and adjunct associate professor at Columbia University, in a Forbes article, “Clearly, AI is primed to disrupt the HR industry as we know it. In fact, with AI, HR teams are poised to serve as a critical and strategic ‘talent insights engine’ of an organization,” he says.

“However, this advancement requires HR professionals to do more than just embrace the technology to unlock automation-powered efficiencies and data-driven decisions. It requires them to identify novel applications of AI, such as a virtual recruiter, or employ simulated AI-augmented work settings for recruitment that will increase the efficiency of the HR team even further. Doing this will take candidate and employee engagement to a whole new level,” Maskey adds.

While HR is reaping the benefits of AI for such automated tasks such as payroll and benefits administration — essential responsibilities of HR — there are even greater strategic opportunities to truly revolutionize core talent acquisition and talent management areas.

AI Elevates Direct Sourcing Strategies and Employee Retention Execution

AI tools and machine learning algorithms are aiding HR professionals in streamlining workforce processes across the enterprise. The following are several areas where AI can bring immediate value to human resources and provide valuable insights into workplace strategy and dynamics.

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