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Diversity’s Measurable Impacts on the Contingent Workforce

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion General Insights Talent by John Yuva on 03/27/2023

Diversity programs continue to evolve, and enterprises must ensure their efforts span the total talent spectrum. Often, diversity initiatives are primarily focused on full-time, permanent employees. However, with contingent talent now comprising more than half of organizations’ entire workforce, diversity should permeate contingent workforce management (CWM) strategies.

In fact, recent Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research indicates 62% of enterprises plan to infuse diversity initiatives into their CWM efforts as part of their workplace goals.

Diversity Is Critical to CWM Results

CWM and the Future of Work movement are aligned in their workforce direction. Extended workers represent a global talent pool where flexibility and a skills-based portfolio are at their core. Equally important, however, are the unique perspectives and outside viewpoints of contingent workers that cater to diverse thinking and enterprise representation.

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The Link Between Diversity and Direct Sourcing

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 06/01/2022

Today, diversity is no longer a “check-a-box” factor for many enterprises around the world; rather, it has become a cultural movement within business that emphasizes the depth of talent pools, talent communities, and talent networks without bias or barriers. The truth regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is that direct sourcing programs (and extended workforce/contingent workforce programs) that are diverse tend to be more successful. If businesses can embed a spirit of inclusion within their direct sourcing processes and act in accordance with this mindset, they can broaden the existing talent landscape and improve upon it with new ideas and opportunity.

And, while established diversity programs previously existed in many enterprises, the events and civil unrest of the past two years have driven many businesses to develop and communicate more purpose-driven goals which are linked to societal, economic, technological, and sustainable shifts. To achieve these goals, a large number of businesses are trying to harness the power of a diverse workforce.

The Future of Work Exchange has long progressed the notion of “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” in which traditional direct sourcing phases and operations are “supercharged” to transform this strategy into a repeatable and scalable (not to mention more digitized) series of processes that can drive true talent sustainability:

As the overall labor market evolves in the wake of rising worker resignations, smart businesses will prioritize the need for deeper assessment and validation of skillsets and place a greater emphasis on the candidate and hiring manager experience. The starting point for most will be to build on their existing direct sourcing capabilities and work to develop Direct Sourcing 2.0 capabilities.

Simply put: much like the greater Future of Work movement, there is so much more to this than just automation and technology. Direct Sourcing 2.0 isn’t just a scalable strategy that is driven by next-generation software, but a program that relies on both technology and humanity to be successful in the face of an evolving labor market.

Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools. Using direct sourcing to hire diverse talent gives HR teams a direct ability to link purpose with DE&I efforts. For example, businesses can opt to tap into professional networks that were already designed for diverse workers from various backgrounds, cultures, and genders and link these to talent curation efforts. Direct sourcing initiatives can also benefit from “diversity automation” that is enabled from direct sourcing platforms that have partnerships and integrations with diverse job boards and networks. They can also offer anonymizing functionality that can hide specific information about different candidates.

Diversity, as stated above, is more than just an objective; it is a facet of the new world of work that sparks new ideas, catalyzes innovation, and enables a business with the necessary skillsets and expertise to thrive in changing times. Direct sourcing, then, can be an effective gateway in developing a more diverse workforce.

The NFL’s Diversity Problem Is a Wake-Up Call For the Business World

Diversity and Inclusion by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/17/2022

If you don’t know the story by now, here’s a quick recap from Mother Jones:

Earlier this week, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores filed a lawsuit accusing the league of “systemic racism” and identified examples of teams conducting “sham interviews” with Black coaching candidates without any intention of hiring them.

As evidence, he included text messages with New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick that seem to show Belichick congratulating Flores for winning the New York Giants coaching job days before Flores had even interviewed. In fact, Belichick had meant to text Brian Daboll, who would eventually be named coach. Roughly 70 percent of NFL players are Black, but the only Black head coach out of 32 teams is Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin.

There’s a little more to this story, including claims by Flores that he was offered $100,000 per game lost in the 2019 season in order to secure a higher draft pick. That issue, which may end up costing Dolphins owner Stephen Ross his franchise, is only a piece of this entire saga.

The bigger trouble at hand, of course, is this: the NFL has a HUGE diversity problem.

At the time of Flores’ suit, there was only a single Black coach in the NFL (Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers). Years ago, to boost the diversity profile of its coaching candidates, the NFL introduced the “Rooney Rule,” in which the league mandates that teams interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior-level football positions. This clearly has not worked to improve the diversity across the NFL’s coaching ranks.

The rule was adopted and mandated in 2003, when there three Black head coaches in the league. Today? There are three Black head coaches in the league. Something’s not right.

During last week’s Super Bowl media week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that “a diverse workforce is a better workforce.” (Has he been reading the Future of Work Exchange?) Well, clearly, Goodell cannot be trusted to follow through on this statement, especially because he’s more known for needlessly aggressive punishment for naturally deflated footballs than he is for his track record on diversity.

Granted, the NFL is a different beast than the typical organization in the business arena. Interviews are publicly known, there’s always conjecture about who is going to move where, etc. However, when a multi-billion-dollar entity (not to mention America’s most-watched sport) cannot effectively leverage its vast resources to improve its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) goals, what type of example does that set for every other corporation?

DE&I has become perhaps the most critical non-technological component of the Future of Work movement. Nearly 84% of businesses today say they expect to develop a more inclusive workplace environment over the next 12 months, a statistic that accurately reflects just how important it is for an enterprise to prioritize how it handles diversity and diverse hiring.

The NFL has incredible resources at its disposal; it could easily develop a Chief Diversity Officer (which nearly 70% of businesses expect to implement within their ranks by the end of 2023) that is accountable to all 32 team owners, not to mention the fans and the media. It could create reskilling and upskilling opportunities for diverse coaching candidates to ensure that there is no excuse for passing over diverse talent when major positions are open. And, it should re-tool the Rooney Rule in a manner that moves away from incentives and pushes a better strategy (one of Flores’ issues, which is 100% on point, is that Rooney Rule-led interviews are often shams, as was his with the Giants and Broncos).

For businesses across the globe, this should be a wake-up call. DE&I should be top-of-mind for every organization; “The Great Resignation” is tearing apart the traditional measures of talent acquisition, leaving businesses scrambling to find top-tier skillsets and expertise. Diversity is a gateway into innovation and business progression, enabling organizations with a deeper, more robust community of hyper-qualified candidates that can drive better business outcomes. The “Talent Revolution” at hand dictates that enterprises do all that they can to become more attractive to workers…and that starts by building a diverse and inclusive workplace environment (and culture!).

The NFL’s Rooney Rule has been nothing but a “box-checker” for nearly two decades. The parallels with “diverse spend” goals are uncanny, aren’t they? This is why the NFL’s diversity issues should hit close to home for business leaders. The NFL needs to do more; that’s wildly apparent. And so don’t typical businesses, as well. Fast Company published a piece nearly a year after the George Floyd protests and found that while dozens of the world’s biggest tech companies collectively donated nearly $3.8 billion to charities, there was little movement on the actual change within their organizations; even though societal change was at the forefront of talent acquisition, diverse talent represented a tiny percentage of engineering or leadership roles.

Right now, it is feared that the NFL will take a similar approach and throw money at charity, spin these issues into marketing and communications fluff, and hope that everything blows over. For the business arena, leaders should take a much, much different approach: start truly investing in diverse talent, provide opportunities for growth and upskilling, and, most importantly, view DE&I as a true gateway to innovation, a deeper workforce, and better business outcomes.

How Hidden Biases Can Affect Hiring And Diversity Initiatives

Diversity and Inclusion by Featured Contributor on 02/14/2022

[Today’s guest contribution was written by the team at Prosperix.]

Businesses often pride themselves on their diversity initiatives in the workplace, but the hidden danger of recruiting bias means limiting your candidate options during the hiring process. Maybe you don’t even know you’re doing it, but everyone has internal biases, whether consciously or unconsciously. Besides the most common bias that is already being tackled, like gender bias in hiring, the workplace is rife with unconscious bias, and since you aren’t aware of it, it’s hard to stamp out. It’s detrimental to both current and prospective employees, recruiters, and the companies themselves. Unconscious bias can inhibit diversity, recruitment efforts, promotions, and the retention rate in companies. For being an unknown factor, bias has a lot of harmful side effects.

Are You Guilty of These Common Biases?

The good news is that once you know about your own hidden biases, you can take steps to correct them with knowledge and training. This means that you won’t always be affected by them, or, if you are, at least to a lesser extent. What exactly are these biases that might be affecting your hiring decisions? Listed below are some of the more prevalent ones:

Confirmation bias: Confirmation bias means you only take in information that confirms your beliefs and ignore everything else. It also means you don’t look for details or under the surface since you believe your first impression. If you see a well-dressed candidate or resume or both, and you think that means they are a good candidate, then you will ignore anything negative about them after that. This generally means that you form your opinion, positive or negative, based on one detail (like from a resume) and simply see everything as confirming that opinion or as unimportant if contrary.
Affinity bias: This is where you identify with a candidate based on a similar or likable trait, so you act warmer towards them during the interview and speak better of them afterward. There was no fundamental basis for this warmth, just a feeling, which is subjective and can hurt other candidates.
Similarity bias (Ingroup bias): Similarity bias means you want to hire those most like you (same group interests or hobbies, etc.). While this is a great way to make friends, it’s not a successful tactic for hiring the best, unless they are applying for your job. You need to remember that most jobs have different competencies and, on top of that, you want diversity in the workplace.
Projection bias: You believe that others share your own goals, beliefs, etc., and so you think they’d be suitable for the company you are hiring for. But people have their own priorities and goals that have nothing to do with you and yours, so assuming this just leads to confusion and disappointment.
Halo effect: The halo effect is where you think that since the person is good at A, they will also be good at B, C, and D. But you need to see if they have the requisite skills and not judge the candidate based on one trait.
Pitchfork effect: This is the opposite of the halo effect where you see or hear something negative and then assume all of the candidate’s other traits are negative too. For example, during an interview, if the candidate answers the first couple of questions badly, you think they’ll answer everything that way and assume they’re not qualified for the job.
Status quo bias: The status quo bias is where you like everything the way it is and want it to stay that way. There are two sides to this coin: a) You are only looking for past experience to find a good candidate, which means you miss out on someone just entering the field, but who could be perfect. This means you keep focusing on those already in the field while ignoring fresh talent. Alternatively, if you are filling a previously held position by someone you liked, you’ll try to get a carbon copy of them in the next hire, which adds internal blinders to your search for the best candidate.
Nonverbal bias/Effective Heuristic: This is where you judge a candidate’s ability to do the job based on a superficial trait like tattoos or body weight. However, a one-dimensional characteristic doesn’t mean you can perform a full analysis to see if they are qualified. (It’s also dangerous on legal grounds, beware.) For example, if you think CEOs should be tall, then you will discount anyone shorter than your assumed cut-off height.
Expectation Anchor: If you are convinced that an earlier candidate was the best for the job, you don’t consider any of the later candidates even while still conducting interviews.
Contrast effect: The contrast effect happens when you see a ton of resumes or interviews in a row, and so you start to compare how they are to the previous candidates, even though you should be comparing individual skills and experiences to the job posting only.
Conformity bias: This bias is where, if you form a different opinion than the rest of a group, you’re more likely to change your mind to agree with them. This can be seen as the “Majority rules” idea or the “Mob mentality” that happens when a group of people form and one idea takes hold even when not everyone agrees with it.

There are quite a few biases you need to be aware of which makes hiring an even more difficult process. As, you don’t even realize that you might be missing out on the best candidates when you believe your first impressions and take things at face value.

Tips to Overcome Unconscious Hiring Bias

Refine Job Descriptions

Different words attract different candidates. Hence, it is essential to choose the right words while writing job descriptions. Job descriptions act as a primary filter and can in fact influence both the hiring process and the candidate’s opinion of the business brand, even before they get into the interview. While writing your job descriptions pay attention to making them standardized, job role-specific, and inclusive of supporting all forms of diversity.

Use a Hiring Marketplace

Hiring Marketplaces offer businesses a wide variety of candidates to choose from, with varying sets of skills and diversities. An open marketplace encourages anyone to apply and helps remove intrinsic bias. Rather than scrutinizing a worker’s background, this model gets to the heart of what matters most: finding talent that performs and produces results at the highest level. Moreover, modern-day Hiring Marketplaces built using the latest technology help in bias-free candidate matching by using smart algorithms and assessments to objectively match the best candidates with the right skills and motivations to the relevant jobs.

Improve Interview Processes

While conducting an interview, it is important to stick to a structured process so that everyone answers the same standardized questions. This makes it easier to compare candidate abilities without being influenced by superficial traits. It is also helpful to ask behavioral questions to see how candidates have reacted in the past to assess possible future situations.

Additionally, try to have many pairs of eyes on the interview, either with a transcript or with a panel interview. You could even try to have live or recorded phone or video interviews so that more people can hear the candidate and weigh in on the matter.After conducting the interview, take a minute to see if you are dismissing or pushing forward a specific candidate. Is this action based on actual concrete data from their resume, skills test, or interview, or is it based on something else like a gut feeling or a physical characteristic? If it’s the latter, then you are being biased. Once you recognize a bias, you need to get back on track for an objective analysis. You need to train yourself out of making decisions based on superficial traits (appearance, culture, comfort level during the interview, etc.) and look deeper. If you still have issues, you need to ask better questions during the interview or look into interview training. You need to avoid making snap decisions since they are not the best way to hire someone. Don’t forget to test your conclusions. This is where reference checks come in. Always verify that the candidate is who and what they say they are.

Explore Digital Solutions to Curb Hiring Bias

Just as we can’t remove emotions from people, we can’t suppress their biases. However, by deploying the right digital workforce solutions, businesses can eliminate hiring biases to a great extent. Prosperix aims to help businesses identify and conquer all forms of hiring biases to onboard exceptional professionals — regardless of who they are or where they came from. Our solution is a combination of the latest technology catalyzed with our white glove MSP/VMS services that guarantee organizations the best hiring outcomes. We reinforce technology with active human curation to handpick and thoroughly vet candidates before presenting them to businesses. Since we are a certified tier 1 diverse supplier, all hires made through Prosperix’s VMS count towards tier 1 diversity spend, and our built-in AI makes hiring outstanding candidates easy, matching you to the most capable suppliers and candidates in real-time.

Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Need to Be Core Future of Work Tenets, Part III

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 06/02/2021

Over the past two weeks, we’ve discussed why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) should be considered core tenets of the Future of Work movement. Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the strategy-led Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become top-of-mind priorities for businesses in regard to their workforce. New and exclusive Ardent Partners research finds that:

94% of businesses are focused on transforming their workplaces to be more flexible and inclusive.
62% of businesses have injected DE&I and workforce culture into their plans for future innovation.
Nearly 65% of businesses plan to, over the next two years, create a “Chief Diversity Officer” role within their enterprise.

I once again spoke with several technology leaders across the contingent workforce, digital staffing, and HR arenas for their unique perspectives on DE&I as core Future of Work tenets:

Dan Beck, COO and Co-Founder, Utmost

“I’ll take this one step further: DEI needs to be more than just a future of work tenet, but it needs to be a core business strategy. In the same way that enterprises have focused on purchasing from diverse suppliers, we’re seeing a trend of enterprises looking at the DEI composition of the workers themselves.

While HR certainly plays a role, DEI is an overall organizational initiative that requires investment from all teams and especially leadership. To truly reap the performance gains of an inclusive workplace, it needs widespread adoption and not just from the workforce management side of an enterprise.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“When we have conversations about DE&I, I begin with questions, a lot of questions. First: “What is the core problem we trying to address?” Once an organization hones in on the problem statement, a plan can be developed to move forward. The most common problem statements include “How do we hire diverse talent, treat diverse talent equally, or ensure we are inclusive?”, “Is the new generation of workforce going to evaluate an organization based on the organization’s approach to DE&I?” Therefore, to be successful organizations must make DE&I core tenets of their culture and policy. Is awareness one of the problems to solve? Immersive training for all employees with scorecards to measure progress is key.

DE&I is more of a people, process, culture, and policy problem to solve as opposed to a technology problem if you exclude reporting, delivery, or training/measuring, and eliminating bias in AI.

From that standpoint, I am also having a lot of conversations around bridging the income gap.  Regardless, if it is this question or one I have already mentioned, I believe addressing the supply of diverse talent starting at ground zero is at the core. Building, nurturing, and growing a diverse talent pipeline should be a key pillar in an organization’s DE&I strategy. This means making investments in facilities and infrastructure; providing affordable access to education and training; etc. Hiring diverse talent contributes towards this, but at that point an organization is dealing with qualified talent – finished product, so to speak. Impactful DE&I strategies focus on talent at its origin and not just the finished product.”

Patrick Dunn, Chief People Officer, Bluecrew

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion remain an essential component of any elastic workforce strategy. These qualities reinforce a culture that attracts and retains quality talent, the foundational catalyst to drive forward looking innovation and strategy. For an elastic workforce, the diversity of perspectives that come from strong DEI initiatives can ensure the workforce prioritizes the right work and delivers productive results. The studies that offer compelling evidence that DEI improves team performance have reinforced personal experiences where monocultural teams suffered from blind spots and tone-deaf messaging. And because anti-diversity forces are so pernicious and self-reinforcing, you can’t make progress without conscientious commitment to DEI. Only prioritizing these goals with a core tenet encompassing empathy and DEI, will set an organization up to do the right thing and maximize opportunities.

It is also important to recognize that diverse hiring is impacted at every level by unconscious bias. Data-driven hiring practices, which de-emphasize traditional human-to-human interviews, put everyone on an even playing field and leverage the data that workers provide as part of their behavioral assessments and screening questions to evaluate their potential. Scientifically crafted assessments have proven to be better at determining worker performance than human interviews and using these techniques can remove bias and interference in the hiring process. In doing so, workers are judged only on their performance with the complete removal of factors like race, gender, or other protected class. We are proud that Bluecrew is made up of Crew Members with a wide range of skills, experiences, cultures, and viewpoints. The diversity that they represent is a genuine strength that can only be leveraged when they can bring their authentic selves to work everyday.”

Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Need to Be Core Future of Work Tenets, Part II

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/28/2021

Last week’s article discussed why diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) should be considered core tenets of the Future of Work movement. Although the Future of Work is often synonymous with automation- and innovation-led attributes, the truth is that strategy-fueled principles are just as critical as their technological counterparts. As we wrote last week:

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of these strategy-led Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community.”

I once again spoke with several technology leaders across the contingent workforce, digital staffing, and HR arenas for their unique perspectives on DE&I as core Future of Work tenets:

Jody Mohammed, Vice President, Partnerships and Solutions, Geometric Results, Inc. (GRI)

“DE&I is no longer considered buzzword bingo but rather this important initiative has elevated to a business imperative. This essential, crucial focus has the attention of the C-Suite and we see enormous investment in hiring not only DE&I leaders to establish policies but the importance of partnering with talent partner organizations that deliver against the goals. Companies now expect their partners to deliver a diversified workforce and provide the data to demonstrate trends/progress. Simultaneously, top talent is assessing an organization’s DE&I DNA and when evidence is presented, it is much easier to attract and retain talent. We see significant investment dollars in this important area and know it’s a journey. By engaging with talent partners who are committed and have a mature strategy of attracting and hiring diverse talent, we are contributing to the client’s goals and objectives. Clients’ internal focus, commitment, and training on DE&I means they are better equipped to recognize signs of bias and exclusion and act. This concerted effort to design policies within our clients is delivering teams that diverse in their thoughts which is netting greater innovation, a positive brand and culture.”

Judy Ellis, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory (Americas), AMS

“There’s no denying that business leaders are placing a greater emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) within their workforces. When we consider the future of work, leaders will need to adapt and evolve their talent acquisition strategies to take into account not only the make-up of the workforce of tomorrow, but also what each segment seeks from a potential employer. Changing demographics will be an extremely important consideration in the ‘Future of Work’ movement and, as a result, dynamic workplace strategies will be needed to manage the changing expectations of future talent which will skew across each new generation. Younger generations, for example, are more in tune with an employers’ brand, mission and vision, and a commitment to DEI will be a key influencer in affinity for prospective employers. And if we look at demographic predictions from the Economic Policy Institute, which predicts that by 2032 people of color will become a majority of the American working class, employers will also have to adapt their strategies to reflect this. As groups that were once underrepresented look likely to become the majority of the workforce, their unique needs, perspectives, and contributions will have even more importance and therefore must be considered in future talent acquisition strategies.”

“With the rise of contingent populations, business leaders will also need to take this growing segment of the workforce into consideration when developing future strategies. Many of our clients are actively doing so and there is certainly a deeper appreciation for how diversity within contingent populations can positively impact diversity within permanent employee groups. This is not only because of the propensity for contractor conversion – which allows workers to almost ‘test’ a company’s culture – but also because in some leading organizations there are more contingent resources than permanent employees. Consequently, at a time when different segments of the workforce – including emerging generations and underrepresented groups – are undoubtedly placing culture and a clear commitment to DEI as key requisites of a future employer, employers must ensure that their workplace strategies reflect this.”

Catherine Candland, President, nextSource

As a certified woman-owned business enterprise, diversity and inclusion is always front of mind at nextSource. We strive to provide an inclusive culture within nextSource, where 45% of our staff identify themselves as being members of a diversity category. We actively recruit MWBE, Disadvantaged Small Business, and Veteran-Owned suppliers. nextSource has for many years conducted a supplier diversity nurturing program in which we leverage our buying power to increase the competitiveness of minority suppliers, encourage customers to automatically include diversity suppliers for Tier 1 distribution, and we share market intelligence data and business development leads. To ensure candidate diversity, we launched a Community Workforce Development program to recruit and place workers from within disadvantaged neighborhoods. We assign a community liaison who partners with representatives from community/civic organizations, business groups, churches, technology centers, educational institutions, cultural centers, local media, and government agencies. And, we work closely with each client to ensure the smooth transition of minority candidates into their workforce.

However, we recognize that achieving a truly diverse, inclusive culture does not happen without continuous focus and innovative initiatives. We conduct internal training to ensure that our staff has the knowledge and skills needed to manage culturally and demographically diverse groups. We then serve as diversity advocates with our clients, helping to build programs that work effectively across differences and support diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Rasmus Pedersen, VP Customer Experience, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, Pontoon

“At Pontoon, we help our customers activate their Diversity, Equity and Inclusion strategies by providing candidates who are representative of the communities our customers serve. When our customers have an inclusive culture where people can truly bring their full self to work, our ability to attract diverse talent increases dramatically, as does our customers’ ability to innovate.”

“You cannot talk about innovation without also discussing diversity. At its core, innovation is about serving the unmet need of your customer base, current or future. To enable innovation, you must ensure your workforce is representative of the communities you serve and the customer base you pursue.”

Kevin Poll, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, D&I Champion, WillHire

“By 2023, over 52% of the workforce will be made up of freelancers. With this being such a large portion of an organization’s total workforce, those organizations which are committed to D&I must consider their diversity and inclusion strategies across all categories of workers.”

“Millennials will dominate the workforce by 2025 (75%) and most of them prioritize diversity when evaluating work engagements. We have all heard the phrase “war for talent” and recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusion to the talent supply chain is critical to attract and engage great talent.”

Nina G. Vaca, Chairman and CEO, Pinnacle Group

“In addition to DE&I being the right thing to do – always and forever – there are three critical reasons to include it as a core tenet in the Future of Work movement. First, it upgrades your talent. Second, it makes you a more desirable place to work. Third, more diverse organizations consistently outperform their peers. I simply can’t think of a more obvious strategic imperative for any organization than to elevate its DE&I strategy.”

Why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Need to Be Core Future of Work Tenets, Part I

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/26/2021

If you’ve listened to the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast over the past few years, you may have heard me utter this phrase many times: when it comes to the Future of Work movement, non-technological attributes are just as critical as technology and innovation. Aspects like flexible business thinking, transformative leadership, and an overall agile culture can be just as crucial to an enterprise as the new technology they leverage to get work done.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of these strategy-led Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community.

I spoke with several technology leaders across the contingent workforce, digital staffing, and HR arenas for their unique perspectives on DE&I as core Future of Work tenets:

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“Leaders should place the same (or – frankly – more) emphasis on DE&I when compared to other Future of Work topics because, first and foremost, it is the right thing to do; we believe that companies and individuals have an imperative to ensure that historically underrepresented people are treated inclusively and equitably. Second, diverse teams win – study after study shows that more diverse teams and companies out-innovate and outperform those who are not. Finally, based on the first two reasons, there is so much opportunity to drive DE&I initiatives in the extended workforce as these programs often lag their full-time counterparts and companies can more quickly hit their DE&I goals due to the transitive nature of this critical part of the workforce.”

Allison Robinson, Founder and CEO, The Mom Project

“By 2025, millennials will make up 75% of the workforce, and they are the most diverse in American history. If you aren’t actively creating a diverse and inclusive environment for future talent that is front and center in every aspect of your business and culture, you will miss out on this talent. Technology investment and digital transformations mean little without the commitment to a more diverse workforce behind them to drive results.”

David Trachtenberg, Chief Marketing Officer, Workforce Logiq

“For too long, organizations have focused their DE&I programs on dollar diversity – their percentage of spend with diverse suppliers. While important, there must be equality of focus on an organization’s most critical asset: its people. An organization’s talent, both contingent and full-time, must reflect the broader sense of community in which it works – and from which it recruits. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s good for business. For example, our proprietary AI-powered insights quantify how visibility in the workplace impacts employee retention: women are over 1.5X more at risk and open to leaving their current role vs. their male counterparts when there are fewer women colleagues represented in their workplace. So, while technology, innovation and other Future of Work aspects are key areas of focus – DE&I is a proven investment to ensure organizations have the engaged talent with which to succeed.”

Rebecca Perrault, Senior Director, Diversity and Inclusion, PRO Unlimited

“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) has been a topic for the traditional workforce for decades. Research has shown that a diverse and inclusive workplace increases revenue growth and the ability to innovate gives you access to highly qualified talent. Ultimately, we are talking about dynamics that impact people and will see the same amazing results from a focus on DE&I in the workforce of the future. It is long overdue that the contingent workforce be included. The workforce of the future is rapidly expanding and presents a huge opportunity for organizations as they consider their business strategies. Now is the time to embed DE&I — not after the processes have been instituted. To fully realize all the many benefits of DE&I, we need to seize this opportunity.”

Brooke Stovall, Inclusion and Diversity Marketplace Manager, Allegis Global Solutions

“A strong DEI strategy is vital to an organization’s ability to attract and retain great talent. And in the Future of Work, your ability to leverage technology, innovate and evolve at today’s accelerated pace of change hinges on your ability to attract and retain a talented and engaged workforce.

The challenge that arises from bringing DEI into the conversation as a core tenet of the Future of Work movement is that unlike a lot of conversations around technology and innovation, DEI cannot be automated. Developing, nurturing and prioritizing a truly inclusive culture that prioritizes belonging takes sweat equity. It involves conversations and evaluating processes and cultural norms, and bringing DEI into more conversations beyond HR.

Globally, the DEI conversation has expanded from a focus on talent attraction – sourcing, networking, recruiting – to talent retention. It is not enough to bring diverse hires through the door, if the environment and culture they’re coming into isn’t one that prioritizes inclusion and belonging, which are core to the employee experience. It is a financial and time investment to hire someone, you want (and need) them to be successful.

A challenge to business leaders emphasizing DEI like other aspects of the Future of Work, is that you can’t automate or purchase a technology to do all of the work for you. While quantitative and qualitative data and analysis is required to identify gaps and opportunities, and help you track progress, the real work on inclusion and belonging in the workplace requires sweat equity from people across the organization. Inclusion and belonging is everyone’s responsibility, requiring active participation from the highest levels of the company to people a few desks over.”

Maria Luoni, President, RightSourcing

“The past few years have brought to the forefront that a focus on diversity is only part of the equation. Inclusion is another. Both of these concepts will remain a top focus for organizations in years to come. Equity is something altogether different. Many innovative organizations are also focusing on the idea of “equity” as part of their overall strategy. This focus in the workplace will be a magnified topic as organizations are being called to operate with a deeper level of transparency around compensation reporting, board representation, harassment reporting, advancement and other talent management practices.”

Why Diversity and Inclusion Should Be Core Future of Work Tenets

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/14/2021

Years ago, the concept of “diversity” in contingent workforce management (CWM) was unfortunately too often a supplier-related aspect that was meant to certify specific suppliers as part of wider federal or business mandate to include organizations that were owned by groups in the women, minority, veteran (or service-disabled veteran), LGBT+, neurodiverse, and disabled demographics. Although “supplier diversity” dates back to the 1950s, for far too many organizations, it was merely another box to check and another quota to meet when it came to supply management.

Over the past several years, however, diversity and inclusion have (thankfully!) broken out of the box of mandated initiatives and thrust into a truly strategic stratosphere. That is not to say that there weren’t many businesses that already considered these initiatives as strategic and impactful (and kudos to those organizations, of course), it is that the conversations around D&I have broken out of supplier-based discussions and into the Future of Work movement. In fact, there are several key reasons why D&I initiatives must be considered core tenets of the Future of Work today, in 2021, and beyond:

Businesses building progressive corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives benefit from D&I strategies. Whether it is the drive to support local businesses or contribute to enterprise CSR strategies, D&I initiatives help boost the overall allure of a business when it comes to attracting new customers AND new talent. A commitment to not only sustainability, but also dedication to cultural, gender, and racial equality, bolsters the enterprise’s devotion to ethical causes and positions it highly amongst the competition.
“A diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool.” I’ve often repeated this phrase when speaking at industry conferences, on webinars, and frequently on the Contingent Workforce Weekly Talent pools have revolutionized the way businesses structure their recruitment and hiring strategies, curating segments of candidates that are typically more “known” (i.e. silver medalists, alumni, retirees, etc.) for inclusion in greater enterprise recruitment streams. Diverse talent pools that are inclusive in nature are more apt to offer the top-tier level of skillsets and expertise required to complete complex projects and manage intricate initiatives. A diverse talent pool is most certainly the deepest talent pool (there, I said it again!).
The Future of Work movement thrives on innovation, and diverse workforces bring exactly that to the modern business. As business competition becomes more fierce (especially in 2020 and 2021), innovation is what will drive organizations to truly thrive in an increasingly globalized corporate world. How this relates to D&I is quite simple: the more diverse voices within a business, the more opportunity for new ideas, new strategies, and new approaches towards product development, sales and marketing, internal operations, and, of course, innovation.
Inclusion is the foundation of the 2021 workforce. Inclusion also includes the concept of flexibility. Companies have learned that remote workers and the “work-from-anywhere” approach foster just as much productivity and output as traditional workforce structures. As the global pandemic taught us, this type of environment can be advantageous when faced with uncertain circumstances. What it means for 2021 (and beyond), however, is that businesses can (and should) be more inclusive of candidates that require flexibility within their roles. At the end of the day, if strong and robust business outcomes are the key objective, then inclusion is the pathway to getting there.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) Lessons That We Can Learn from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/07/2021

In early December, my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas. Being an avid gamer, I have had my share of the “typical” games on PlayStation or Xbox, like first-person shooters or open-world role-playing adventures, so I was looking for something different. Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I said, which elicited a “Isn’t that a kids game?” response from my wife.

It took a couple of months, but in due time, I was sucked into its laid back, island-living, sunny, and, most of all, relaxing, video game journeys. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a different game than what most kids or adults would play: there’s no “end boss,” no quests to fulfill, no objects or treasures to hunt, no grinding for experience points, and no enemies to shoot. It’s a spirited adventure on a tropical island that puts you, as a getaway ambassador, in control of how your island looks and feels.

Naturally, with most things in life when you’re passionate about your career, the worlds of Animal Crossing and business collided. Tom Nook (your island’s head honcho), an anthropomorphic raccoon, meets the Future of Work. Sounds weird, right? Well, after months of obsessively playing this game and, during the day (and most nights!) research and analyzing the evolving world of talent and work, I’ve found that there are major lessons to learned from Animal Crossing regarding a key Future of Work tenet: diversity, equity, and inclusion:

Your main character (which is YOU) isn’t tied down by gender or appearance. In the game, your initial setup involves picking a gender, hairstyle, facial features, clothing, etc. In most games, these initial character settings set the stage for how you build experience points, which tools you have access to, and how the game ultimately is framed from a story perspective. In Animal Crossing, your appearance or gender has no ramifications on gameplay, story, or access to in-story objectives or items. As in the real world (aka business world), no talented individual should lose access or consideration to a job role due to anything besides their skillsets and expertise.
The game encourages equity-minded collaboration with all of the island’s residents. Part of the game’s achievement center, “Nook Miles” can be used to purchase new clothes, decorations, furniture, tools, etc. Players earn miles by completing tasks, much like other video games. However, one key component in earning Nook Miles is collaborating with all of the island’s residents, including anthropomorphic camels, monkeys, cows, chickens, lizards, and more. Animal Crossing wants its players to chat with other island residents and help everyone with their tasks, missing items, etc. It’s a perfect representation of how businesses should look at the composition of its workforce: equity abound that drives collaboration between diverse groups of talent to spark innovation, growth, and discovery.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons promotes empathy-led interactions that take into account each island resident’s emotions and character-specific traits. If a character is sad, frustrated, or confused, they are marked with a specific emoji-like icon. Your character can discuss what’s wrong, help with their issues, and, most importantly, show emotional reactions that can help other island residents feel like they are heard and seen.
The game’s island ambassadorship goals are centered on building an inclusive environment. Your character’s main objective is to invite other residents to the island. You have the option to travel to various other islands, meet diverse characters, and invite them to experience your locale. There are no limitations on the types of characters that can be invited, nor are there restrictions on the “character makeup” that leader Tom Nook wants your character to build and develop. The main focus is creating an inclusive environment in which all feel welcome and at home, and, new characters often unlock new ideas, new ways of building the island, and assist your character in many modes of play. This mirrors business thinking in that leaders that promote inclusivity are more likely to build deeper teams of top-tier talent that can showcase their specialized expertise and skillsets. Inclusivity benefits the business.
The game’s foundation was borne of diversity, as its predecessor entry, New Leaf, was designed by a diverse team. Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the prequel to New Horizons, was developed by a diverse team of video game engineers. At a video game conference in 2014, game producer Katsuya Eguchi stated that the diverse team behind the entry “had an effect…communication was smoother, and the team was more social, more collaborative, more creative, and less stressed out.” Eguchi also said that having younger designers, as well as more female voices, contributed to more innovation and helping the larger team learn and realize how to make a game that would appeal to more people. This is a pure representation of why DE&I need to be core Future of Work tenets: the end result, the end business outcome, and the ultimate products and results all benefit from having deeper and more expansive voices from different cultures, genders, and backgrounds.

The FOWX Fifteen: Opptly

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

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

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.

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Diversity Is Critical to CWM Results

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