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Why Going “Beyond the Brand” is Critical for Direct Sourcing 2.0

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The direct sourcing arena is a frequent topic here on the Future of Work Exchange and rightfully so: direct sourcing represents a critical avenue from which businesses can enhance their talent engagement and talent acquisition strategies, especially given the unique circumstances surrounding 2022.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has frequently pointed to direct sourcing as a major catalyst of the Future of Work movement, owed to its ability to bring together (“curated”) known and vetted workers (as well as those opting in via job portals), who are then “nurtured” and engaged in a manner that promotes a positive candidate experience. While some businesses (25%-to-27%) have had a direct sourcing program in place for more than two years, for the most part, the majority of business leaders are just beginning to tap into the relative power of such a strategy (over half of all enterprises plan to implement such a program by the end of 2023).

And this, right here, is where there needs to be a reimagining of how direct sourcing fits into the next great era of work and talent…and that’s by implementing “Direct Sourcing 2.0” capabilities and strategies. The upcoming Ardent/FOWX research study, Direct Sourcing 2.0, points to two attributes that are representative of the next “wave” of direct sourcing: (1) going “beyond the brand” regarding talent attraction and retention, and, (2) mapping candidate “personas” for better project-to-talent fit.

It is no longer enough for a business to simply lead with a prominent brand as it had done in the past. An employer’s brand is important to most talent, but businesses must continually and comprehensively assess their processes, culture, and workplace to define the characteristics of the candidates who will be the best-fit from both a cultural and skills perspective. Which behaviors are the strongest match for the business at-large? Which skillsets will thrive in a specific environment? How will talent pool candidates react to a change in a team or department’s work location strategy (fully-remote, hybrid, or in-office operations)?

Businesses that traditionally defined the skill and experience requirements for a new role or project should expand their definitions to include soft skills, emotional intelligence, empathetic fit, and other modern worker attributes as a way to develop stronger placements and greater success of newly on-boarded candidates, as well as combat the growing risk of talent fraud. The platforms today that can leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other forms of emerging innovation are well-positioned to assist businesses in enabling the most critical pieces of Direct Sourcing 2.0 approaches.

These teams should also analyze how current hiring processes, such as onboarding and training, impact the overall candidate experience, and make any necessary adjustments. A successful Direct Sourcing 2.0 program builds upon its experience and prioritizes the factors that resonate well with current and prospective employees.

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Six Big Future of Work Predictions for 2022

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsUncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

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

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

Without further ado:

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

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Future of Work Exchange would like to wish all of our readers a very happy and safe New Year’s weekend. Thank you to each and every one of you for taking the time to make this site what it is today and for all of the time you’ve spent reading our coverage of the evolving world of work and talent.

Extra special thanks to PRO Unlimited, Utmost, Prosperix, and Beeline for supporting the Future of Work Exchange these past several months.

We have some VERY special things on tap for 2022. The Future of Work starts here!

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Happy Holidays from the Future of Work Exchange!

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Future of Work Exchange would like wish all of our readers a safe, happy, and healthy holiday season.

Next week, tune in for the “Best of 2021” as we look back on some of the highlights from another transformative, revolutionary year in the greater world of talent and work.

Thank you for an amazing five months! We’re just getting started…

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Determining the Value of the Agile Workforce

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

I can vividly remember a conversation with an HR executive back in 2014. She and I were in a spirited discussion regarding the growth of her enterprise and how quickly her team needed to bring in new talent to support that rampant expansion. Her contingent workforce volume had doubled in just a couple of years, and she caught onto my public proclamation that, by 2020, close to half the workforce would be considered “non-employee.” I still keep in touch with her all of these years later, and she still points the contingent workforce as a big reason why her organization was able to bring in the necessary skills and expertise to grow effectively.

Today’s agile workforce comprises 47% of the average organization’s total workforce, a far cry from the days when it was just a sliver of the overall talent pool. The agile workforce of 2021 has driven incredible value for businesses around the globe. Consider that 82% of businesses stated that the contingent workforce enabled workforce flexibility and scalability over the past year (according to Future of Work Exchange research), and, consider that 70% of businesses believed that the agile workforce enabled adaptation to changing times, as well as business continuity.

The agile workforce of 2021 is a powerhouse of skills, expertise, and value. And it’s why the Future of Work Exchange is teaming up with myBasePay this coming Thursday, November 4 at 11am ET, for an exclusive webcast on the value of the growing contingent workforce. I’ll be joined by myBasePay co-founder and CBO, Angela Alberty, as well as LiveHire’s EVP of North America, Karen Gonzalez, for an engaging discussion on major contingent workforce trends and the path ahead for agile talent.

Click here on or on the image below to register:

 

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The Next Big Thing (or Three Things) in the Future of Work

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on

When I started my industry analyst career (way back in 2006; please, don’t make me feel old!), the contingent workforce was one of several high-profile “complex spend categories,” ones that typically fell under the purview of the procurement or purchasing function but kept their own specific and unique attributes (i.e., marketing spend management necessitated much different sourcing techniques than business travel, facilities management was miles away from typical procurement processes, etc.). In short: there were some stark differentiators that proved it was a growing, distinctive area of corporate spend, however, at the time, it was just that: another area of spend.

What I describe as the “perfect storm” occurred during the Great Recession of 2008-2009: rough economic times forced businesses to reimagine their staffing strategies. Two key things happened: 1) enterprises realized that non-employee labor could be a gamechanger in terms of expertise and skills-related value (in addition to the cost benefits), and 2) the individuals that were forced (or chose) to adopt a flexible workstyle ended up finding that this setup was more productive and an overall better choice for their careers.

Over the years, the results of this “perfect storm” paid incredible dividends, so much so that the contingent workforce was no longer an augmentative talent strategy for businesses across the world, but a true value-driver that brought unique skillsets and top-tier expertise to mission critical projects and initiatives. And, as we all know, the years that passed resulted in this swath of talent evolving into the “agile workforce” that now allows businesses the workforce scalability from cost and skill perspectives.

With a full year living a pandemic environment that has caused disruptions to both personal and business worlds, however, a key question remains: what’s the next big thing in contingent workforce management? Well, there are actually several key “things” instead of just one…

The “Platform Approach” to Extended Workforce Management Technology

The contingent workforce has seen a consistent stream of progression over the past 15 years. With this type of talent firmly ensconced in the “agile workforce” or “extended workforce” mold, it’s not enough for businesses to have a condensed technological approach. As initiatives around direct sourcing, talent pools, total talent management, and other crucial elements of talent acquisition and talent management become more entwined within CWM, it will be incredibly important for businesses to have the proper technology stack (or a single platform with these modules) to execute on these strategies, whether it’s via a deep ecosystem of “peripheral” providers (such as direct sourcing platforms or digital staffing marketplaces) or in-system offerings that can address more than “core” (i.e., requisition management) aspects of contingent workforce management.

And, as total talent management becomes more of a reality in 2021, businesses will require a deeper technological approach to ensure that they are deriving the richest possible total talent data via interconnected systems and platforms.

The Impact of Non-Tech Attributes of the Future of Work Movement

On the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, I’ve frequently discussed the “non-technological” components of the Future of Work movement, which range from the transformation of business thinking to the value of flexibility-led workforce strategies. In the face of a business environment which is actively struggling to return to normal (and with factors like burnout, fatigue, and mental health as common workforce issues), technology isn’t the top cure. Strategies such as empathy-led leadership will transform the talent experience and ensure that the workforce is engaged to bring innovative voices into the business as it seeks deeper and unique skillsets and expertise.

“Workforce Agility” Becomes Table Stakes…For Real

The agile workforce. The extended workforce. Business agility. These are all hot-button phrases that can sometimes mean different things to different executives. However, the crux of these terms is so very simple: harness the relative on-demand nature of today’s talent to develop the most dynamic responses possible to enterprise needs and requirements.

If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that workforce scalability is essentially linked to economic survival in the now-chaotic world of business. Taking that scalability one step forward is the very root of workforce agility, from which businesses can tap into talent pools, talent marketplaces, talent clouds, talent communities, their own trusted FTE workers, and a range of services and other recruitment streams to build, in real time, a dynamic response to a crucial enterprise initiative.

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