close

Technology and Innovation

The Future of Work is Magnetic: PRO Unlimited Rebrands to Magnit

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Magnets are colloquially known for their attractiveness properties, drawing metal (well, iron) objects and substances within its field. For the contemporary business in 2022, the very notion of “attraction” is a desirable trait: these enterprises cannot thrive in uncertain economic times, and especially facing a volatile labor market, without some crucial level of allure to its culture, workplace, and overall brand that can effectively attract top-tier talent and skillsets.

This morning, veteran integrated workforce management system PRO Unlimited, known across the globe for its powerful Managed Service Provider (MSP) offerings and Best-in-Class Vendor Management System (VMS), announced that it has rebranded itself under the new name Magnit. The new brand reflects the solution’s overall commitment to being a magnetic force in how businesses leverage its innovative technology to draw people to work in an effective manner.

“The new name, Magnit, reflects both the evolution of our industry and how far PRO Unlimited has come as the industry-leading integrated workforce management platform,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of Magnit. “Magnit is a reflection of our vision for the evolution of work. It also aligns with our position as the company of record in how businesses attract, engage, and source top-tier talent that tightly aligns with their goals and objectives. This is an exciting new chapter that will culminate in Magnit realizing PRO’s original goal: serve as a true, end-to-end platform comprised of modern software, proven expertise and world-class data and intelligence for workforce management.”

Perhaps the most critical facet of the rebrand is how the provider is approaching its end-to-end offerings: the move to Magnit is not just a simple rebrand, but rather a culmination of two years’ worth of consistent market activity, including acquisitions (WillHire, GRI, Workforce Logiq), partnerships (eightfold, Ceridian, etc.), and new product launches (Direct Source PRO, NorthStar, etc.). The new brand is an opportunity for the company to cohesively blend all of its core products and services under a unified architecture within a single brand.

It is expected that, over the next six months, any fragmentation of offerings will be streamlined and integrated under the new Magnit brand. This is a key attribute of the rebrand, as the company counts several “buckets” of products just within the data/analytics space, with ENGAGE Talent, Envision Analytics, and NorthStar (as well as its RatePoint offering) soon to be merged into a more interconnected solution.

Magnit will continue to work towards its “platform vision,” as laid out by PRO Unlimited back in 2020. With an array of innovation at its fingertips, Magnit is an ideal position to capitalize on an evolving business arena that requires top-tier skillsets to thrive; the rebrand can be considered a catalyst for the organization to continue its innovative work in becoming a platform of choice for not just the extended workforce, but also a source of agility for enterprises across the globe.

“The move to the Magnit brand represents the next bold age for our integrated workforce management platform,” said Vidhya Srinivasan, chief marketing officer at Magnit. “Both the name itself and our new logo echoes our core vision: augment the next evolution in workforce management by drawing people together through modern software and a commitment to the evolution of work. Magnit will be a powerful force for our clients, partners, and suppliers as we link businesses to the agile talent they require to thrive during these dynamic times.”

The definition of a magnet does not just mention the attraction of other metal- or iron-containing objects; it also includes the alignment of itself in an external magnetic field. For Magnit, this means one thing: the solution is positioned to align itself as a centerpiece in how businesses not only find the talent they need, but how they truly optimize how work is done.

read more

Direct Sourcing’s Future of Work Impact

Contingent WorkforceDirect SourcingGeneral InsightsPodcastSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Future of Work Exchange podcast features coverage of industry news, software developments, Future of Work happenings, and, most importantly, conversations with industry thought leaders.

Several months ago, I chatted with Sunil Bagai, CEO of Prosperix, for an insightful Future of Work-oriented discussion (click to listen to the full interview). Sunil and I discussed the changes in how businesses engage talent, the continued growth of direct sourcing, and some interesting Future of Work predictions. Today’s article is a recap of our conversation. [Note that this excerpt has been edited for readability.]

Christopher Dwyer: Seeing how our world of work and talent has been changing so much, you’ve had a front-row seat being where you are in workforce management software space. From your perspective, what do you feel are the biggest changes in the way businesses engage talent and get work done, and how the pandemic has shaped those aspects over the past couple of years?

Sunil Bagai: That’s a really good question. Several changes have been happening. Some of them were obviously sped up by the pandemic. For example, businesses are now much more open to hiring remote workers. And when we say remote, it’s kind of like an umbrella where everybody can be under that remote category. But the reality is we need to slice it a bit further. Remote can be onshore where they’re local to that office, so they can at least still come into the office. Remote can be not local to the office, so some other state or anywhere else in the country. Remote can also be offshore where a person can be in the Philippines, Colombia, India, or somewhere else in the world supporting that organization. There are a variety of different ways to slice and dice what remote really means. And that nuance is new. And it’s important going forward.

Another trend that I’ve seen happen in the last few years is much more openness to a variety of different marketplaces. And that means being able to hire talent directly by going onto a portal, for example. So, that trend has taken off. What that does, however, is create a challenge in these organizations. Why? Because enterprises are not equipped to deal with the nuances of being remote or how to integrate hiring marketplaces into their existing hiring processes. So, for example, their ATS and VMS platforms are not fully equipped to integrate with those new ways of hiring. That’s creating some more challenges and friction, which will get ironed out and addressed as the next few years go on.

CD: Direct sourcing has become such a hot strategy. And the more we talk about it on the Future of Work Exchange, the more we’re educating the market on something that seems to be dominating conversations not only around the Future of Work but also talent acquisition and workforce management. I think back to some of my first encounters with the Crowdstaffing platform, and you were one of the pioneers of direct sourcing. What are your thoughts on where direct sourcing is going and where it could be headed?

SB: Let’s start by differentiating what is traditional direct sourcing. What we’re doing with a hiring marketplace is a step towards direct sourcing without having to necessarily, say, get rid of your suppliers. Because direct sourcing today assumes that you’re sourcing every candidate on your own without the use of suppliers. And I believe there’s a middle ground where you can still use suppliers — your incumbents or your initial supplier pool. The network can be a second supplier pool that can give you more access to talent as well as lower costs. And then you have a third option which is the bucket of direct sourcing, where you can engage talent directly using your brand. I believe that all can coexist.

And the aim is to use technology to publish your jobs across all diverse hiring channels. Each of these becomes a hiring channel…and may the best channel win. It shouldn’t matter where the talent comes from, as long as it’s the best talent and the best price (hopefully). From there, it’s about optimization and being able to select based on quality, based on price, and based on speed for your talent fulfillment. If you can do that, then that’s your ideal solution. It’s not one or the other, it’s a mix of all the options available through one common technology platform to help you achieve your talent needs.

CD: What are some of your 2022 Future of Work predictions — not just technology, but the space in general?

SB: For 2022, you’re already starting to see some interesting things happen in the industry. We’ve seen some large acquisitions, and we’ll probably continue to see consolidation where certain companies try to acquire other companies to have a larger presence in the space and diversify their solution portfolio. And there will be more consolidation of customers, as well.

We’re also starting to see MSPs really up their game and add much more value than they were traditionally accustomed to. Before, MSPs were managing programs, and now they’re really trying to differentiate themselves by offering more capabilities within their solutions. New technology will also continue to surface and add a different spin on how the workforce should be managed. That’s what I’m seeing for the remainder of this year.

read more

The VMS of 2022: The Nexus of Extended Workforce Management

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Vendor Management System (VMS) platforms are automated solutions that offer end-to-end management of the core and critical facets of contingent and extended workforce management. The VMS model (frequently paired with Managed Service Providers or “MSPs”) is perhaps the most mature platform in the workforce solutions market.

While the earliest incarnations of VMS technology functioned as automated procurement for staffing suppliers, these platforms have evolved to become the true “nexus” of all activity related to contingent and extended workforce management. In fact, the very foundational elements of today’s VMS solutions revolve around the many tenets of the Future of Work movement; the Vendor Management Systems available in today’s fast-moving, globalized technology market have all made great leaps in regard to managing the “extended workforce,” a phrase leveraged to describe the next progression of contingent labor.

The past couple of years has reinvigorated the world of non-employee talent in such a way that the collective business market finds itself with nearly half of its total talent (nearly 47%) comprised of contingent labor. The pandemic age has not only reaffirmed the need for businesses to harness the power of VMS technology, but to also take advantage of the many ways these platforms are reinforcing the many accelerants within the Future of Work movement.

Recently, the Future of Work Exchange announced the publication of the much-anticipated VMS Technology Advisor, a report that assesses and evaluates 11 of the major Vendor Management System platforms that are currently helping organizations around the globe automate key extended workforce management processes, provide access to talent intelligence, and reinforce contingent workforce spend management.

The new report, which is available here, evaluates Beeline, Coupa Contingent Workforce, ELEVATE, Eqip, Pixid, Prosperix, PRO Unlimited, SAP Fieldglass, Utmost, VectorVMS, and VNDLY (a Workday Company).

read more

Defining the VMS Technology Market: New Future of Work Exchange Research Study Now Available

Contingent WorkforceSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange have long been preeminent sources of analysis of the extended workforce industry and its associated technologies and solutions. With the introduction of our Technology Advisor (and Solution Advisor) series several years ago, the analyst team has been able to assist thousands of business leaders with the necessary information, insights, and intelligence as they traverse the complex solutions landscape within procurement and spend management, procure-to-pay, contingent and extended workforce management, direct sourcing, and digital staffing.

Today, we announce the publication of the much-anticipated VMS Technology Advisor, a report that assesses and evaluates 11 of the major Vendor Management System platforms that are currently helping organizations around the globe automate key extended workforce management processes, provide access to talent intelligence, and reinforce contingent workforce spend management.

The new report, which is available here, evaluates Beeline, Coupa Contingent Workforce, ELEVATE, Eqip, Pixid, Prosperix, PRO Unlimited, SAP Fieldglass, Utmost, VectorVMS, and VNDLY (a Workday Company).

The 2022 VMS Technology Advisor deep-dives into each provider’s strengths within requisition management, services procurement, SOW management, analytics and intelligence, direct sourcing, Future of Work readiness, total talent acquisition, total workforce management, global capabilities, and other key attributes inherent in today’s leading VMS platforms.

read more

The Future of Flexibility

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsTalent AcquisitionTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

“Flexibility” has become the de-facto, hot-button phrase to describe how the Future of Work should operate. However, if we dig deeper, the very notion of flexibility transcends the confines of remote and hybrid work.

Take a deep breath for a moment. Think about your current role before the pandemic. Now think about it in the throes of 2020 and 2021. Now think about your role today and how you’re working. Chances are there are some very stark differences between these three moments in time.

For one, the very modes of work have shifted tremendously over the past two-plus years. Those that worked remotely found the transition was easy: just stay the course. Those that already had a hybrid schedule understood how to change their mindsets while also transforming their leadership and collaborative styles. And for those in which remote work was a new concept, there were some growing pains.

As we sit more than halfway through 2022, there are more questions than answers in regard to the concepts of flexibility in the workforce, the workplace, and the work itself. While flexibility has become a core piece of our pandemic-era business lexicon, the truth is that there is so much more to the idea of flexibility than what we’ve experienced thus far:

  • Flexibility also translates into agile thinking regarding the makeup of our workforce. This doesn’t just mean that businesses should increase their utilization of non-employee talent (which, of course, has become a value-driver during these uncertain times), but rather dig deep into all available talent sources and develop a truly agile workforce. Talent marketplaces, digital staffing outlets, and direct sourcing strategies can all enhance the depth of current talent communities and ensure that businesses can be flexible when needed (market conditions, business issues, etc.).
  • Flexibility should cascade down into attributes such as purpose, work-life integration, etc. For far too long, being a “dedicated worker” meant a gold watch at the end of a very, very long tunnel. Now, in the wake of the biggest health crisis of our lifetime, talented professionals seek more from their jobs; the realm of “purpose” and “work-life integration” both translate into workers craving meaningful work that enables them with flexible hours, flexible projects, and a flexible model that allows for unplugged time, more task-oriented collaboration (rather than open-ended coordination), and the ability to reevaluate career paths more frequently.
  • Flexibility means reviewing workplace structures to provide a malleable foundation rather than a rigid “return-to-office” setup. If there’s anything we learned about the coronavirus behind COVID-19, it’s that it’s become an unpredictable harbinger of disease and disruption. Fall and winter surges fill hospitals over capacity, shutter public attractions, and force governments to reevaluate social safety and public health regulations. This all means that hardline, return-to-office planning should not only be canceled, but outright replaced by a flexible foundation that is based on science, the overall productivity of the organization, and what works best for the workforce. Too many business leaders believed that this far into the pandemic was the ideal time to bring workers back to physical locations, when they should have been experimenting with new models and assessing what was best for the business and the mental wellness of its talent.
  • Flexibility should apply to workforce technology and process automation, as well as data science and artificial intelligence. AI and data don’t need to be at the center of every single facet of the contemporary business, but it needs to be at the forefront of how businesses shape talent acquisition and address how work is done. Enterprises must understand the flexibility inherent in today’s crucial workforce and talent tools, like VMS, MSP, direct sourcing, and digital staffing, and tap into the modules that they may have ignored in months and years past. Requisition management and financial/administrative tools are table stakes, however, leveraging “deeper” functionality such as AI-led analytics, expansive candidate matching, candidate experience tools, talent community development, total talent intelligence, and digital recruitment are all incredible doorways into making workforce technology more flexible for an evolving business.
read more

Extended Workforce Evolution and the Modern VMS

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Way back when (say, about 25+ years ago?), businesses required a veritable system-of-record that could effectively serve as an automated outlet for their many, many staffing suppliers, vendors, and agencies. The birth of the first Vendor Management System (VMS) platforms were essentially akin to “eProcurement for staffing,” with a handful of those organizations blending some basic human capital management competencies into the core of their earliest solutions.

The 2008-2009 Great Recession translated into a “perfect storm” for the contingent workforce arena: businesses sought to regain competitive footholds without the ability to rehire those laid off during the worst of the financial crisis, while those who lost their roles began to realize the incredible value of transforming their talents into what would eventually become the freelance economy.

The past couple of years has reinvigorated the world of non-employee talent in such a way that the collective business market finds itself with nearly half of its total talent (nearly 47%) comprised of contingent labor. The pandemic age has not only reaffirmed the need for businesses to harness the power of VMS technology, but to also take advantage of the many ways these platforms are reinforcing the many accelerants within the Future of Work movement.

The veteran platforms in the space, such as Beeline, have managed to meld the traditional elements of VMS with pioneering innovation, such as direct sourcing (perhaps the first VMS solution to embrace this), advanced SOW and services procurement, AI-led functionality, and human capital-fueled offerings that all contribute to its “Extended Workforce Management” technological overlay (not to mention an industry-leading talent technology ecosystem).

PRO Unlimited has revolutionized the concept of “integrated workforce management” through an aggressive mix of key acquisitions (WillHire for direct sourcing, Workforce Logiq for AI-led managed services, GRI for sheer market expansion, etc.) and a commitment to becoming a “platform of choice” for all aspects of today’s extended workforce.

SAP Fieldglass, a fellow long-time solution, has also progressed its offerings in recent years to include a focus on light industrial and shift management (key functionality for an industry that has seen the largest jump in utilization of contingent labor since the pandemic began), next-generation analytics (fueled by a move to a Hyperscaler data warehouse), and enhanced candidate experience management. The platform, when combined with the power of SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, and other SAP technology, will continue to be a trailblazer.

Relative newcomer Utmost has redefined extended workforce management with its incredibly flexible functionality, deep commitment to total talent intelligence, native integration with HRIS platforms, and overall sheen of innovation that has helped it stand out from the rest of the market. Its agile technology has also enabled one of the market’s strongest offerings around candidate management and the candidate experience, as well as an appropriate focus on “how work gets done.”

A solution like Prosperix (formerly Crowdstaffing) is a truly unique and revolutionary platform that has turned the design of VMS on its head. The provider’s “VMS Network” is one of the most disruptive products on the market; Prosperix is a true end-to-end vendor management platform built on a talent marketplace with a candidate-centric model.

Coupa’s Contingent Workforce solution is an idyllic blend of spend management and VMS technology, with robust intelligence offerings (including prescriptive guidance based on a wealth of data and information) and some of the industry’s leading candidate-matching functionality. VNDLY, acquired by Workday late last year, boasts one of the best user experiences in the marketplace, along with its real-deal procurement and HR blend of offerings that are now enabled within the larger Workday suite of solutions (VNDLY’s data and intelligence architecture are also a powerful formula for total talent management).

Solutions like VectorVMS (deep partner network with a mid-market focus), Pixid (one of Europe’s most powerful VMS platforms), ELEVATE (unique omni-channel direct sourcing channel offering and incredibly customizable functionality), Eqip (blockchain-fueled functionality and innovative offerings) and FlexTrack (the only VMS built on a SFDC architecture, which opens new and refreshing doors for CWM programs) are also contributing to the extended workforce management technology revolution, as well.

The VMS technology landscape today looks markedly different than it did even a few years ago, and for good reason: the classic iterations of Vendor Management System software wouldn’t cut it in a world that is founded on flexibility and agility whilst also being more talent-led than ever before. VMS needs to be more powerful, more strategic, and, most importantly, tightly aligned with the true future of how work will be done.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange will soon release the 2022 edition of its VMS Technology Advisor report, which assesses and evaluates the top providers in the Vendor Management System market and will serve as a guide for those organizations seeking deep analysis of a complex technology landscape as they undertake workforce management solution selection.

read more

There’s So Much More to the Future of Work

Business LeadershipDirect SourcingHRTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

There’s so much more to the Future of Work than what we’ve experienced thus far.

Around two years ago, during the very first summer under pandemic-era living, we had all had a strong taste of what the so-called “Future of Work” had to offer: remote work became a normalized attribute of the modern business, corporate leadership was consistently changing in the face of survival, and digitization proved to be a competitive differentiator as enterprises moved operations as a direct plan of attack against transformative times.

Since then, we’ve collectively learned to “live” with a life-changing virus whilst embracing the major changes in the way we address how work is done. While some businesses have instituted “return-to-office” plans, many others have settled on models that work well for both productivity and the satisfaction of flexibility for the workforce.

More so, businesses are operating in environments that are increasingly more digital and more human, two vastly different elements that are shaping the Future of Work for organizations across the world. The Future of Work Exchange has covered these aspects since its inception, however, there is so much more to this movement than what we’ve experienced thus far over these past two-plus years:

  • The (continued) transformation of talent acquisition and the power of “open talent.” The extended workforce continues to grow. Freelancers and contractors, sparked by The Great Resignation, are “resettling” into new and different (and most importantly, flexible) roles that better suit their needs and purpose. The technology behind how we find and engage talent has been centered on innovation more now than ever before. We haven’t even begun to truly think about how functionality like blockchain can change the Future of Work game; just look at an organization like the Velocity Network Foundation, which blends digital wallets, blockchain-fueled credentialing, and a truly foundational, evolving “rulebook” that guides candidates/talent and businesses.
  • The real-deal application of artificial intelligence within the confines of “work.” Just because an organization currently leverages a flavor of AI does not mean that this translates into a true application of the technology. AI can become even more of a Future of Work gamechanger when organizations apply deeper elements of its powerful reach, including driving efficiency in hiring, powering predictive and prescriptive insights, and enabling stronger efforts in recruitment. Platforms like HiredScore, Glider.ai, Eightfold.ai, and ModernHire are taking AI in talent acquisition and talent management to a new and exciting era in today’s frenetic labor market.
  • The rise of conscious leadership. The realm of conscious leadership follows a similar path to the one paved by empathy, in that nearly every facet of human contact between an executive and his or her colleagues and staff is rooted in a meaningful, genuine purpose. A leader’s core approaches involve them becoming more aware of their actions, more aware of how kind and, yes, conscious, those actions and insights may be perceived by the organization’s workforce.
  • Strategies that began as extensions of extended workforce management that will become table stakes for the world of talent and work…particularly direct sourcing. Direct sourcing experienced its biggest spike in both prominence and utilization since the beginning of 2020 and there are no signs that businesses will slow how they leverage talent pools and talent communities to inject top-tier talent into their organizational projects and initiatives. Direct sourcing technology is evolving, too, in such a way that “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which follows AI-fueled, digital recruitment-led functionality (as well as next-generation talent curation), will become the prominent form of direct sourcing as businesses progress their utilization of these critical platforms. Providers such as WorkLLama, LiveHire, Prosperix, Opptly, High5, PRO Unlimited (Direct Source PRO, which has recently integrated WillHire into its solution), and AMS are all contributing to the Direct Sourcing 2.0 revolution.
read more

“The Ecosystem Effect” and the Future of Work

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange research peg the extended workforce as comprising upwards of 47% (or more) of the average’s company total talent. This figure is expected to grow in both size and impact when 2022 is said and done, driven by a “Great Resettling” that is a direct by-product of the so-called “Great Resignation” that has seen four-plus million workers voluntarily leave their positions each month since last fall.

Of course, The Great Resignation is mostly driven by a key force: a “Talent Revolution” that has become a catalyst for quits. Workers crave purpose, flexibility, and agility, as well as control and empowerment, and these elements have driven millions of talented professionals into the realm of the extended workforce…a very strong reasoning behind the Exchange’s bullish prediction on this talent community’s expected rampant growth in 2022 and beyond.

“The size, variety, and complexity of this workforce is only increasing as workers ask for different work arrangements with organizations. For example, many IT workers want project-based gigs, digital nomads want flexible remote arrangements, and retirees want to come back to work in a limited capacity,” said Kevin McFarland, Head of Business Development and Alliances at Utmost. “Often, these workers are in critical roles whether in R&D, customer-facing roles, or revenue-generating roles.”

With these movements as a backdrop, business leaders must be more in tune with how they manage their extended and contingent workforce; a failure to appropriately harness the relative power of this type of labor, especially during what may become uncertain economic times, may make the difference between merely surviving the months or ahead, or truly thriving in the future.

Utmost, a prominent provider of extended workforce management and Vendor Management System (VMS) technology, recently unveiled its Utmost Connect platform, a low-code, integration-friendly hub that enables Utmost users to automate core workforce management tasks, tap into third-party applications for “peripheral” attributes of the extended workforce (skills verification, governance, compliance, risk management, etc.), and leverage pre-designed solutions to support flexibility and agility.

“With Utmost Connect, we are enabling our customers to build solutions to achieve their unique business outcomes. Organizations need more than mere integrations that pass data seamlessly between systems, that is a given- they need an ability to automate workflows that span multiple systems with a user experience that reflects how work gets done,” said McFarland. “For instance, many managers operate primarily in Slack to receive communications, like the status of a worker being onboarded, and to conduct tasks, like approve a laptop provisioning request during an onboarding flow. With Utmost Connect, this and many more similar experiences are possible.”

With the extended workforce branching its many complexities across several key enterprise functions and their associated systems, particularly procurement, HR, human capital management, finance, IT, data security, and talent acquisition, it is critical that today’s workforce management platforms offer a robust series of “connectors” and integration-ready applications within a global ecosystem for augmenting key items (like governance and compliance, credential management, project management, etc.).

Utmost has become one of several market-leading VMS solutions due to its innovative nature and flexible software, two attributes that are critical in a world that is now, more than ever, focused on getting work done. As enterprise software traverses beyond mere “supplier management” and “workforce management” and continues to add in Future of Work-era functionality, it will become crucial for businesses to tap into extended workforce systems and a powerful talent technology ecosystem that has the ability to address all aspects of the total talent paradigm.

“At the highest level, companies are increasingly relying on more and more software to get work done. Gartner predicts that the spend on software will increase from $675B to $755B in the next year: 11.8% growth, more than twice the pace of growth of overall IT spend,” said McFarland. “Said another way, we are experiencing a Cambrian explosion of innovative software to support the workforce – everything from new tools to manage access to a growing number of systems to new productivity tools that agile teams use to collaborate across time zones. We are enabling customers to utilize this growing ecosystem of software to deliver the experience they desire across the entire worker lifecycle.”

Utmost Connect is launching with 35 named integrations and use cases, with a vigorous pipeline of additional integrations and automation that will be shared throughout the second half of 2022.

read more

Why the Evolving (and Growing) Extended Workforce Requires Deeper and More Agile Technology

Contingent WorkforceTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

I had the pleasure of joining Beeline to discuss why the growing and evolving extended workforce requires deeper and more agile technology. Here’s a sneak peek of my feature:

“Given the state of the labor market and continued economic uncertainty, the next six months could (and probably will) bring an increased utilization of extended talent, mainly due to the influx of workers that have entered the contingent arena after months of a Great Resignation-fueled dissonance with existing workforce structures. If that 47% penetration rate soon becomes 50% (or higher), businesses won’t just desire advanced technology to manage the many intricacies of the extended workforce, they’ll require it in the face of increasing complexities around the engagement, facilitation, management, and integration of this evolving workforce.”

Visit Beeline to check out the full article (or click on the image below).

read more

Why Hybrid Work Works

Business LeadershipTechnology and Innovation by Featured Contributor on

[Today’s guest contribution was written by Tim Minahan, EVP Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer at Citrix.]

Employees given the flexibility to work both in an office and at home report higher levels of engagement, productivity and well-being.

Whether businesses like it or not, hybrid work is here to stay, and employees like it. And whether they believe it or not, the model is working. Research shows that hybrid workers – those who work partly in an office and partly remote – are more productive and engaged than employees who are entirely office-based or fully remote. They also report better well-being – both physical and mental – and feel more positive about their organization.

Despite the evidence and clear benefits that hybrid work can deliver, many companies are still grappling with whether and how to implement it. Some business leaders feel that real work can’t get done outside the office. But if implemented properly, flexible work models can lead to a more productive, healthy workforce.

More Productive

As revealed by Work Rebalanced, a poll of 900 business leaders and 1,800 knowledge workers around the world conducted by Citrix, 69 percent of hybrid workers feel productive, compared to 64 percent of remote workers and 59 percent of in-office employees. Further,

  • 69 percent of hybrid workers feel engaged, compared to 56 percent of remote workers and 51 percent of in-office employees.
  • 73 percent of hybrid workers are positive about their personal performance, as compared to 69 percent of remote workers and 65 percent of in-office employees.

More Connected

Hybrid workers also view their jobs and employers more favorably than their peers.

  • 71 percent of hybrid workers surveyed say they have a strong emotional connection to their team and immediate colleagues which motivates them to work harder, compared to 63 percent of in-office employees and 60 percent of remote workers.
  • 70 percent of hybrid workers say they have a strong emotional connection to their organization and leadership team, compared to 60 percent of remote workers and 58 percent of in-office employees.
  • 69 percent of hybrid workers would recommend their employer, compared to 60 percent of remote workers and 56 percent of in-office employees.

More Balanced

The pandemic has upended the way people work and driven stress to record levels. But one thing is universal: when employees experience a state of well-being at work, they can unlock their potential, work purposefully and creatively, and make meaningful contributions to the success of the entire organization. Hybrid workers lead the way here too, with 70 percent of those who participated in Work Rebalanced reporting good well-being, compared to 61 percent of remote workers and 60 percent of in-office employees.

Empowered by Technology

When it comes to enabling hybrid work, technology is a key driver of success. Employees want access to tools that allow them to work where they want and how they need to be their most productive. And they expect their employers to deliver it.

Of critical importance is removing the noise and distractions from work that technology can create. As uncovered by Work Rebalanced, the average employee spends around 54 minutes a day dealing with technology challenges. The typical employee, for instance, needs to navigate four or more applications just to execute a single business process, and accessing them requires remembering multiple passwords and navigating a host of different interfaces.

It’s frustrating and slowing them down. But with the right solutions, IT leaders can simplify and streamline work technology to ensure that employees have the space for ‘deep work’ and focus.

The Hybrid Work Stack

Many organizations are already making efforts to do so, leveraging digital workspace solutions that allow them to:

  • Unify work – Whether at home, on plane or in an office, employees have consistent and reliable access to all the resources they need to be productive across any work channel, device or location.
  • Secure work – Contextual access and app security, ensure applications and information remain secure—no matter where work happens.
  • Simplify work – Intelligence capabilities like machine learning, virtual assistants and simplified workflows personalize, guide, and automate the work experience so employees can work free from noise and perform at their best.

IT departments are now much more focused on really understanding and meeting employee needs with the work technology that they provide and are taking more of an employee-led, design thinking approach when it comes to work tech infrastructure.

And the move is paying off, especially among hybrid workers. According to Work Rebalanced, hybrid workers feel more empowered by their work technology, with 68 percent saying that their work technology enables them to perform effectively, compared to 65 percent of remote workers and 60 percent of in-office employees.

The Future of Work

Hybrid work is the Future of Work. And as Work Rebalanced makes clear, it can create significant, positive outcomes for employees and employers alike. If given the flexibility, trust, and power to choose where and how they work best, employees will thrive. And companies that grant it will accelerate their innovation and growth.

Tim Minahan is the executive vice president, business strategy and chief marketing officer at Citrix, a leading provider of digital workspace solutions.

read more
1 … 10 11 12 13 14 15
Page 12 of 15