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What’s the Next Big Thing in Contingent Workforce Management?

Contingent WorkforceTalent 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, diversity and inclusion, 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, while diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives will 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 that 2020 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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21 Thoughts for 2021: Future of Work Edition

General InsightsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Below we have 21 thoughts for 2021 related to the Future of Work:

  1. Whether or not you despise terms such as “new normal” or “next normal,” most of 2021 for businesses will be spent dealing with 2020-esque issues on top of adapting to a “changed” world of work.
  2. To that effect, is it time for businesses to create a “Chief New Normal Officer” role?
  3. Before we even get started on technology and innovation, no business should be thinking about the optimization impact of automation without first reevaluating their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
  4. And, speaking of D&I, this idea traverses beyond merely checking a box: in 2021, more so than ever before, diversity and inclusion will be true competitive drivers in an increasingly-globalized economy.
  5. And let’s talk about that economy: businesses must know the difference between a weirdly-strong stock market and the reality of unemployment on the ground, and how this major gap will continue to affect the scalability of hiring in the first half of 2021.
  6. That word, scalability, means so much more than ever before. Businesses must equate scalability with agility if they want to thrive in yet another uncertain and unprecedented year.
  7. Procurement, meet HR. HR, meet procurement. Let’s make 2021 the year of true total talent management by blending the best attributes of each function!
  8. Pre-pandemic, direct sourcing was perhaps the hottest topic in the world of talent. Mid-pandemic, it proved to be an invaluable strategy in the face of hiring uncertainty. In 2021, direct sourcing continues this push…and every organization should implement some measure of talent pool development if they haven’t done so already.
  9. Also, on that topic: businesses should understand that direct sourcing automation (i.e., true direct sourcing platforms) and branded direct sourcing services (ala MSP-like services) will be the solutions that push direct sourcing even further in the year ahead.
  10. Supply chain disruptions were expected to occur even before the pandemic hit due to escalating trade tensions around the world. With the pandemic’s unprecedented disruptions upsetting the world’s global supply chain, there were major lessons to be learned. Old-school and traditional supply chains are now primed for touchless, agile, and AI-led processes to improve the overall flow of goods and products.
  11. Another ramification of the pandemic? “The biggest remote work experiment in global history.” Now that we’re nearly 10 months removed from the initial shock of the “work-from-anywhere” approach, businesses are finding that productivity hasn’t waned, but rather been enhanced due to a lack of unnecessary in-person meetings, long commutes, etc.
  12. And there’s so much more to the remote work revolution than just acceptance and implementation of WFH approaches: embracing the work-from-anywhere model is just the initial step. Business leaders must optimize the remote work infrastructure through unified communications and more innovative collaborative tools, like virtual reality. While I’m not advocating for every business to create video-game-like VR environments for their workplaces, slowly integrating similar technologies into the remote infrastructure should help boost the overall employee experience, even if they’re at home.
  13. Speaking of business leaders: leadership must change in 2021. It’s not an option. 2020 was an unprecedented year (take a shot, those still playing 2020 bingo!) and many facets of traditional corporate leadership were tested beyond their limits. Flexibility and empathy should be the foundational elements of business leadership not just in 2021, but also moving forward.
  14. I understand that it can be difficult for business leaders to give more of their patience in the year ahead. However, the one common element of the pandemic was that it affected everyone…meaning that white-collar and blue-collar workers alike experienced similar hardships, such as a lack of daycare due to remote or closed schools. Talent is a company’s #1 competitive differentiator, so: business leaders, do what you can to lead with an empathetic approach if you want to keep that talent.
  15. The “talent experience” was an incredible facet of the pre-pandemic business world, and, if there’s one attribute of life in 2019 that should make a return to 2021 it’s the overall experience of all types of work (both FTEs and non-employees). Individuals with unique or advanced skillsets will have amazing opportunities as the world gets back to a steady state; therefore, it is imperative that businesses do all that they can do to keep their highly-valued workers on-board through robust talent experience efforts.
  16. There’s another concept with the word “talent” in it that is oft-overlooked: talent sustainability. Businesses already understand the value of both agility and flexibility in regard to their staffing and workforce initiatives. However, what happens if principles such as talent redeployment, talent pools, and direct sourcing become even more integrated into the realm of agile talent? The answer: a sustainable, “redeployable,” and agile stream of talent that is leveraged as needed in a dynamic manner.
  17. The elephant in the conference room: do businesses mandate that their employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available for their age group (besides the front line, of course)? Can businesses even mandate something like this? Expect this conversation to occur soon if it hasn’t yet already.
  18. We haven’t even discussed data yet! Wow. Well, to no one’s surprise: data and intelligence are going to be critical in a post-COVID world. Businesses must do whatever they can, and, of course, harness the power of innovation and automation, to gain as much visibility into their total workforce as possible. Not only is “total talent intelligence” a gateway to the realm of total talent management, but it will also help business leaders (hello HR, hello procurement) understand where their workers are, what they are working on, and any compliance risks that are apparent. Also, in a public health-conscious environment, businesses can leverage total talent intelligence to move on-site work to remote if needed (and vice versa) and measure global locations in relation to virus hotspots and more.
  19. Another discussion about data: in 2019, news regarding artificial intelligence and machine learning ruled the business realm. This, of course, took a backseat over the past year. Businesses lightly understood the value of bringing AI into how they execute strategic talent, staffing, and workforce decisions, however, 2021 is the year that AI is fully ensconced into both contingent workforce management and talent acquisition. Businesses must harness the power of AI to better understand how to attract passive candidates, the markets in which to target, and the variability around skillsets and expertise around the world.
  20. If you read the news (how can you not?), the early weeks of 2021 are literally an extension of 2020. However, the one major difference: there is more hope. There is optimism. The fantastic Angela Rasmussen said on Twitter: there is a light at the top as we continue to climb up from the dark well that was 2020. There will be hard work ahead, but we must keep climbing. We know these times will soon get better, that the darkness will subside. It’ll just take some time; and, that is what business leaders around the globe must drill into their minds: that we’ve already spent nearly a year living in the strangest of times and that the end is in sight. Hope and optimism can be incredible levers when the collective personal, social, and business realms are already exhausted.
  21. Finally: if there’s anything that we learned from 2020, it’s that businesses should expect the unexpected, that the steady ground we seek from the past is still a bit shaky from the experiences of the past 12 months. Innovative thinking can be a force to get through these challenging times. Looking ahead, the Future of Work movement has so much to offer from strategic, talent, staffing, technology, and business transformation perspectives. In 2021, businesses will get back to doing what they do best: optimizing how work is done.
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The Future of Total Talent Management

Contingent WorkforceTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Back in 2016, I wrote and developed a research study called The Modern Guide to Total Talent Management, which included this passage:

The very simple argument for building or developing a total talent management program (defined by Ardent as the standardized and centralized program for engaging, acquiring, sourcing, and managing all types of talent via linked procurement and human capital processes, integrated contingent workforce management and human capital management systems, and utilization of total talent intelligence) that can be stripped down to a primary advantage: the contemporary talent supply chain is diverse, multifaceted, and spread across numerous sources (both legacy and fresh). Thus, the businesses that can effectively find, engage, source, and ultimately manage this talent under a centralized program will be rewarded with the visibility to execute far superior business decisions in a real-time manner. Relative to the adoption and implementation of total talent programs, it is no wonder that while only 16% of organizations have this type of program in place today, a majority (58%) expect to make total talent management a reality within the next two years.

Over the past few years, Ardent’s deep collection of contingent workforce management (CWM) and talent acquisition research data reflects a similar refrain: companies believes in the concepts and ideals behind total workforce management (a phrase I use interchangeably with “total talent management”), understand its value and impact, and even anticipate having the ability to build such a program within a matter of just 18 months or two years.

So, here we are, in 2020 (albeit a very strange year, indeed), and Ardent’s research reflects similar messaging around the notion of total talent management. Why is this the case? A few reasons come to mind, including:

  • Most obvious: a global pandemic disrupting all HR-, talent-, and procurement-related operations.
  • A misalignment within talent engagement and talent acquisition processes (contingent workforce management included).
  • A great divide between functional units, such as procurement. HR/human capital management, and talent acquisition, and;
  • A lack of the proper solutions and technology to bring together the core pieces of total talent management.

The foundational elements of total talent management include a total talent network, integrated procurement/HR/CWM competencies, integrated contingent workforce and HR technology, and total talent intelligence (gleaned from the aforementioned integrated capabilities and platforms). The benefit: real-time decision-making when it comes to talent, resulting in a truly agile workforce.

It may be a running joke that 2020 is one of the worst years on record, however, if anything, businesses must look to the experiences of the past seven or eight months and use this knowledge to better understand how they manage the many facets of their workforce to not only get work done, but drive overall better business outcomes. Total talent management is often a polarizing topic because of what seems like its core limitations: there are serious compliance concerns for treating non-employees like FTEs, procurement-led CWM programs will never fully understand or buy into hardcore human capital concepts such as succession planning, an inability to offer across-the-board reskilling/upskilling opportunities, etc.

However, the very future of total talent management depends on how well we’ve adapted to these uncertain times, and, most importantly, how agile we can transform our businesses based on this knowledge. Total talent management isn’t the same set of ideals it was just a few years ago, but rather takes into account the innovation within the workforce management technology landscape, the new strategies that can help businesses tap into new and deeper channels of talent, and the adaptation to new staffing/workforce trends.

With this in mind, the future of total talent management hinges on:

  • The success of direct sourcing programs and initiatives and how businesses continue to drive incredible value from talent pools. (And, to a larger extent, how candidates from these talent pools are widely reflected in enterprise recruitment streams).
  • The enhancement of diversity and inclusion initiatives to bolster innovation and bring new voices into the organization.
  • Procurement and HR working together for the greater good of business agility.
  • The ability for business leaders to tap into total talent intelligence that is a true, real-time representation of the total workforce (via data gleaned from HRIS, VMS, ATS, etc. platforms).
  • Capabilities for scaling learning and development across types of workers.

I’ll reiterate a phrase I’ve been saying for years: total talent management is for real. Businesses just need to reimagine its foundational components, understand the technological aspects involved, prioritize the collection of total talent data, and, most importantly, begin to build a culture of change around all attributes of talent. We’ve learned one incredibly useful aspect from a strange 2020: agility is crucial, thus, agile talent is critical. Total talent management, for most organizations, may still be months (or years) away, however, its underlying elements are what will assist in driving true workforce agility now (in challenging times) and in the future.

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The Next Evolution of the Agile Workforce

Contingent WorkforceTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The concept of business agility is not a new ideal, but in fact an evolving set of attributes that describe a company’s overall dynamic responses to real-world pressures and barriers of all sizes and types (economic, supply chain, internal, etc.). Business agility, in essence, translates into the modern business’ overall ability to react in real-time to the challenges that they face on a daily basis. And, in 2020, the very notion of agility is something that has been embraced by enterprises across the world as a key facilitator of survival in these strange times.

Just a few years ago, the contingent workforce was (still) in the midst of its years-long trajectory of growth and impact, as it continues to be today (Ardent Partners research finds that 43% of the average workforce is considered contingent/non-employee, including temporary workers, gig workers, freelancers, independent contractors, and professional services). As the reliance on non-employee labor continued to increase, so did its link to true business agility. Thus, the natural evolution of the contingent workforce was its transformation into the agile workforce.

The agile workforce can be described by its four key benefits: 1) natural cost flexibility, 2) speed-to-hire and speed of engagement), 3) adaptability of expertise, and 4) its productivity gains. However, during the current business climate, there is one attribute of the agile workforce that represents its next natural evolution: its progressive skillsets and how they fit into the ongoing transformation of the modern business.

The next evolution of the agile workforce will help businesses build:

  • A more dynamic talent acquisition strategy that focuses on skills and expertise gaps. The number one reason for leveraging agile talent today aren’t the cost savings that long were associated with this workforce, but rather the depth of skillsets and expertise it brings to the average organization. Businesses can build talent acquisition strategies that are enhanced with skillset-led tactics to develop the best-aligned, deepest bench of workers.
  • A workforce that does not have to account for traditional barriers in engaging new talent. The remote work angle has always been a piece of contemporary businesses, however, in 2020, it’s become the norm. Eschewing location and traditional barriers will allow businesses to expand their relative talent pools, expand active and passive recruitment, and promote expertise ahead of “where” a potential candidate is located. Too, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and predictive analytics will enable contingent workforce, HR, and talent acquisition leaders with the ability to develop more expansive recruitment marketing strategies that are not limited by traditional barriers.
  • A more diverse workforce that will spark innovation and new ideas. Diversity and inclusion initiatives are an idealistic means for businesses to bring in new and fresh voices to its functional units as a way to spark innovation across key enterprise strategies. A truly agile mindset towards talent acquisition and contingent workforce management translates into the ability to find, engage, and source talent that can bring more dynamic ideas into the greater organization.
  • A way to shift resources as both market conditions and corporate competition evolve. “Adaptability” has become a common refrain, especially nearly seven months into a global pandemic that has caused economic and business disruptions across the world. A truly agile workforce and skillset-led talent management strategies will allow businesses to “shift” their workers based on current market conditions, as well as enable them to position necessary expertise to where it is needed as products and services evolve. Talent pools can be further segmented, while both FTEs and non-employee workers can align their unique expertise to the functional areas that need them based on how the business progresses in regards to market, economic, and competitive factors.
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The Value of Total Talent Intelligence

Contingent WorkforceTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Back in early 2012, I began work on what would be perhaps the industry’s first large-scale research study on “total talent management,” an initiative that is also known as “total workforce management.” Back then, while businesses understood the true value proposition of such a program, the vast majority of enterprises could not picture a way to tightly-integrate core human capital and contingent workforce capabilities and systems in such a way to make the program viable. Eight years may have passed since I formulated those initial thoughts on TTM/TWM, however, the underlying principles remain the same: there is clearly a need for total talent management, but its components are akin to organizational and technological puzzle pieces.

Ardent Partners defines total talent management and total workforce management as the standardized and centralized means for engaging, sourcing, and managing all types of enterprise talent under a single banner program. The fundamental principles of total workforce management include integrated procurement and HR competencies and systems, prioritization of visibility into the total talent pool (FTEs, contingent workers, gig workers, freelancers, independent contractors, professional services, etc.), and streamlined and standardized means for engaging and acquiring all types of talent. As the contingent workforce continues to rise (43% of all talent today is considered non-employee or contingent, according to Ardent’s State of Contingent Workforce Management research study), total workforce management initiatives, of course, become more critical.

Thinking about integrations, cross-functional coordination, blending core HR and contingent workforce management competencies, etc. can be maddening, for sure. This is why, especially in today’s strange 2020, businesses should consider taking a much more streamlined path and prioritize total talent intelligence as an initial cornerstone for what could blossom into full-blown total talent management in the months and years to come. In essence, total talent intelligence gleans valuable worker-based insights from both FTEs and non-employees by harnessing collective data from Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), Vendor Management Systems (VMS), time and attendance solutions, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), Freelancer Management System (FMS), and similar platforms to gain the deepest possible view into an organization’s total talent pool. There are several reasons to prioritize total talent intelligence today:

  • In an age when worker health and safety is paramount, businesses need to know where you workers are at all times. Although many portions of the globe are in much different situations now than they were months ago, the initial weeks of the pandemic caused many an executive to panic regarding where their workers were situated, what they were working on, and, most importantly, their relative health and safety. Total talent intelligence allows businesses to pinpoint which workers are currently sitting in hotspots (or geographical locations that might soon become high-risk zones) and act accordingly (shifting work to different regions, placing workers in remote work setups, etc.).
  • Total talent intelligence begets workforce agility. Sometimes lost in the overarching discussion of total talent management is the very underlying purpose of this program: driving towards the ability to make workforce- and talent-related decisions in near-real-time. Having intelligence into the business’ total talent pool allows business leaders and hiring managers to very quickly understand how to approach a new project or initiative given the depth of expertise and skillsets within the greater organization (including, yes, both FTEs and non-employees). This level of intelligence and its associated, enhanced reactions are paramount in the quest for true workforce agility.
  • Businesses can better understand the true complexity of its workforce’s expertise. Pertinent to the above bullet, we are living in a skillset-led world. Ardent’s upcoming Direct Sourcing Toolkit research study finds that 72% of businesses are fixated on new and evolving skills. Executives today understand that the next influential project or initiative may not be completely supported, driven, and/or managed by existing full-time workers or other in-house resources, especially considering the quick-paced advancements occurring in the world of technology and automation. Total talent intelligence enables business leaders to truly understand the depth of its total available resources and expertise, allowing them to begin developing an approach for the evolving skillsets that they may need in the future.
  • Total talent intelligence can enhance diversity and inclusion initiatives. Enterprises are (finally) learning that the deepest talent pool is a diverse talent pool. Diversity and inclusion initiatives often involve several pieces of the organization working in unison, however, a key strategy in understanding a business’ true diversity is harnessing total talent intelligence to understand the relative makeup of the organization’s total workforce (such as employee demographics). This intelligence, of course, must be leveraged into talent-based decision-making to enhance future D&I initiatives.
  • Businesses that have experienced (and will continue to experience) massive shifts in remote work will require deeper intelligence for workforce planning and performance measurement. Although the world will soon return to some semblance of traditional office life, today’s workplace environment is still mired in social distancing measures (some pundits peg that metropolis-level offices, such as those in New York City, are average 7%-to-10% capacity today, with those in suburban locales at twice that level). This can be incredibly difficult on managers and executives that are used to in-person interactions to gauge worker performance. As more one-on-ones and reviews shift to a remote setting, these leaders will have to become more reliant on “business outcomes” for performance measurement in lieu of traditional benchmarks. Total talent intelligence can provide excellent perspectives on total worker output and the work performed by both FTEs and non-employees.

Total talent management and total workforce management are still incredibly valuable concepts that will one day become widely-adopted. In fact, Ardent’s research finds that upwards of 75% of businesses today expect to implement such a program within the next five years. Businesses must look at total talent intelligence as a critical area from which to start and an arena from which to drive short- and long-term value independent of bigger total talent management initiatives.

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Even in a Remote World, Workplace Culture is More Important Than Ever

Business LeadershipTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Many friends and family, upon hearing about my remote work habits, may not understand how I can be so productive. There’s often music playing in the background, or, sometimes, like this week, television simulcasts of popular sports radio shows. The truth is this: background noise isn’t just noise but serves a sometimes-interesting link between our business world and other arenas. Today’s article, in fact, was sparked by overhearing a sports radio show that was, up until that point, serving as a mere backdrop to pouring over new research data.

Last week, sports radio icon Colin Cowherd, on his daily “The Herd” show (simulcast on Fox Sports One), brought in legendary NFL wide receiver Greg Jennings (former standout wideout for the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings) to talk about the cultural fit between high-paid free agent players and their respective new franchises.

Cowherd brought up several examples of unique team culture, such as Green Bay’s “lunch pail” mindset of “show up everyday and work hard” to my hometown New England Patriots’ mantra of “do your job.” Jennings, a Super Bowl-winning wide receiver when he was with the Packers in 2010, signed a big money deal with division rivals (Minnesota Vikings) in early 2013. Cowherd pressed him on the balance between being a big-name, highly-paid free agent star and adapting to a new team’s overall culture.

Jennings’ response echoed the same sentiments as many of us in the business world feel when it comes to talent and culture: it doesn’t matter the depth of a player’s skillset nor their pedigree or experience; if the culture isn’t a proper fit, the player will not be productive. No, we need not traverse through the very, very long lists of sports free agents who were hailed as franchise saviors and ended up hurting their teams more than helping.

It is quite true that workplace culture plays a pivotal role in the ultimate success of a new worker or candidate. In-person onboarding, frequent chats with cubicle mates, and proximity collaboration around the water cooler or in the office kitchen are all very valuable elements in indoctrinating a candidate to an organization’s workplace environment and culture. Even though an anticipated “fourth wave” of COVID-19 cases is predicted for the spring, there seems to be a heavy balance between businesses that are slowly welcoming workers back to the office and those that continue to offer a fully-remote workplace structure.

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the course of the past year, it’s that workplace culture permeates within even those organizations that maintain a work-from-home environment. In fact, we could even argue that culture is more important than ever given the unique circumstances of today’s work setups, the majority of which are following a remote-lead environment:

  • Businesses that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion are more apt to drive true innovation…even remotely. DE&I initiatives aren’t just limited to supplier diversity, but rather a larger movement that pushes for equity across the entirety of the talent supply chain. Businesses must spark innovation across all functions and roles, and the only way to do that is by instituting boundaryless structures that are inclusive and open to voices of all genders, cultures, and backgrounds. The deepest talent pool is a diverse talent pool…and because we are (mostly) working remotely today, that shouldn’t change a bit.
  • The “moments” that we relied on in-person, even transferred to video- and conferencing-led collaboration, are still critically important. Imagine being a new worker (FTE or contractor) at a new organization during pre-pandemic times. You’d wander the halls, the kitchen, the break rooms, the conference rooms, etc. and run into a variety of voices, with each positive interaction, be it a smile or some words of encouragement, helping you feel more comfortable with your role in the organization. It is critically important that businesses push a culture of openness regardless of it is in-person or via a remote infrastructure. Even the best and brightest workers can feel their productivity drain if they don’t feel like they’re a valued player on the team. Fostering a culture of connection, communication, and collaboration is the key.
  • Culture permeates along the lines of every facet of management, so, leaders take note. As I noted much earlier in this article, culture in sports boils down to a teamwide “feeling” that is experienced across the board. Some teams have their own unique spirit that players either buy into…or not. This is why it is so crucial for business leaders, no matter their functional role, to promote a positive “talent experience” for all of their workers (both FTEs and non-employees). The further on down the line that culture and positivity is experienced, the better off the business will be. And, that shouldn’t be paused because of a remote work environment. An enterprise’s workers are essentially its brand ambassadors. Just like a major sports team doesn’t want a current or ex-player complaining about a toxic environment, not does a business when it pertains to the overall level of employee experience and engagement of its workforce.
  • The adoption of work models that promote productivity, growth, and balance will be the ones that are ideal in a remote environment. Business leaders must be flexible in how they push their workers to be productive; work/life balance has never been more complicated than it was over the past year. It is important for executives to create an environment, even in a remote setting, in which their workers feel like they are enabled to take the personal time they need while also having the space, equipment, and communication necessary to get work done. Similarly, there must be opportunities for growth. Just because traditional performance reviews have been on pause does not mean that hardworking individuals shouldn’t have a clear path to the next steps ahead. Self-directed learning, reskilling, and upskilling should all be critical elements of the remote workplace handbook.
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The Link Between Mental Health and the Future of Work

Business LeadershipTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Even though it seems as if time passed by both slowly and quickly during the past, very strange 12 months, it’s not that difficult to remember the days immediately preceding the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic (and, for us in the States, the days just prior to the President announcing a national State of Emergency). Many of us may have spent the weekend beforehand spending time with loved ones in a restaurant or movie theater, or perhaps enjoying a night out with friends at a crowded bar.

Within a matter of days, those activities were shelved and the world as we knew it was changed nearly instantaneously. For individuals with mental health issues (which affect 26% of all adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Health), the toll was much greater: unheralded anxiety due to uncertainty, loneliness, and a constant barrage of negative headlines of the unfolding calamity.

Compounded by global economic disruption, massive layoffs and furloughs in specific industries, and a general sense of vagueness regarding the progression of the pandemic, talented workers with mental health issues needed flexibility more than ever over the past year. While it is only human to support these individuals with care and support, there is a greater link between mental health and the Future of Work…one that is founded on the limitless potential of empathy in how businesses address how work is done.

Empathy and Flexibility as Critical Future of Work Attributes

If there’s one thing that we learned over the past year (and let’s be honest: we’ve learned MANY things, from how to bake bread, the importance of video conferencing mastery, and much more), it’s that the pandemic’s disruptions lead to an interesting development: many of the Future of Work movement’s evolving principles, including remote work, digital transformation, and non-technological strategies, were accelerated.

Businesses quickly learned how to collaborate across distributed workforces/teams, while others experienced first-hand the value of automation in business locations that couldn’t allow for more than a small percentage of on-site work at a given time. In looking at the less obvious accelerants, however, there is one that has taken on greater meaning and impact in the face of the myriad changes the business world has collectively experienced: the rise of empathy and flexibility.

The collective trauma left in the pandemic’s wake affected nearly every individual in some profound manner, a joint sense of struggle that opened pathways for business leaders and managers to employ different modes of leadership. For example, working parents faced with a sudden lack of daycare or school needed both the actual and emotional support of their leaders to contend with a series of new challenges, while the dramatic shift to remote work ruptured the once-delicate work/life balance and required those same leaders to be more flexible in how they managed their staff.

Mental Health’s Role in the Future of Work

The issues detailed above sat on top of the already-critical issues faced by the tens of millions of workers with mental health issues. A worker with anxiety or depression (or both) could now contend with burnout due to taking on additional new roles in the age of social distancing, as many more workers with more severe mental health challenges are still forced to traverse the complicated pathways left behind by how to be productive while various modes of worry plague their minds, even now a year later. Too, the pandemic itself triggered a new “wave” of individuals who experienced mental illness for the first time, compounding the greater issue at-hand.

What does this mean for the Future of Work movement, you know, the set of attributes that describe how a business optimizes its talent, technology, and strategy to best get work done? Well, it all boils down to fusing mental health and employee wellbeing into greater workforce, staffing, and work optimization strategies, much like how diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are becoming table stakes for how business address projects, staff roles, and find top-tier talent.

Addressing mental health, as well as employee wellness and wellbeing, must be melded into other foundational workforce strategies, similar to how new technology and new talent acquisition approaches (such as direct sourcing) have become key pieces of the Future of Work puzzle. The very essence of the Future of Work movement is to optimize how work is done and enhance the productivity of both talent and technology. Mental health is a critical factor in just how productive, creative, and innovative the workforce can be in how work is addressed and ultimately optimized.

As business leaders continue to prioritize the “basics” of supporting worker mental health (via empathy and flexibility), the following actions will be critical in the year ahead:

  • Push employee wellbeing up the priority list for 2021.
  • Offer an open and inclusive culture for those workers that need to speak their minds.
  • Cultivate an environment in which all workers, regardless of position, feel “physiologically safe.”
  • Prioritize the human connections between leaders and their staff (such as scheduling more video conferences).
  • Institute flexible policies that discourage worker burnout and allow for enhanced productivity.
  • Restructure paid time off (PTO) policies to ensure that workers can take the time they need to maintain a healthy work/life balance.
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The Workforce Trends that Will Shape 2021: Part Two

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past several weeks, I’ve written about the various contingent workforce, staffing, and Future of Work attributes that could contribute to the way businesses will operate a year from now. Taking into account the very strange days of 2020, combined with the anticipated growth in the utilization of non-employee talent, businesses now understand that there are many dynamic forces at play that will shape their outlook and success in 2021 (and beyond).

I once again had the opportunity chat with various contingent workforce, staffing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the year ahead:

Kathy Hardy, Vice President, Kelly Discover (KellyOCG)

“Over the past several years, D&I has been talked about as an HR goal, or project and the initiatives surrounding it have been largely internally focused. Since COVID-19 and the social unrest, D&I ideation has become more of a company-wide conversation than an HR objective alone, and the general level of empathy has seemed to increase as well.  It is easy to engage any number of c-suite and leadership members in a conversation regarding their thoughts on what their organization needs to do in regard to change in this area. Their answers are thoughtful, empathetic, and full of reflection. Organizations seem to be interested in making incremental changes in their hiring practices as well as discussing long term holistic changes to their systems.  They are coupling current business challenges with potential diversity hiring practices rather than looking at them separately, and that change may make the real difference in 2021.  When we incorporate the unique skills and availability of all the under-utilized talent with our current business challenges, we are not only moving forward, but we are also jumping ahead.”

Donna Wilczek, SVP of Product Strategy and Innovation, Coupa Software

“A key part of our customers’ strategic goals for 2021 is the ability to flex their workforce based on continually changing supply chain demand signals. We will ensure their success through best-of-breed contingent workforce capabilities wrapped around AI-supported decision modeling using trillions of dollars in community data to help our customers be smarter together.”

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

“We have been working with procurement and HR leaders in organizations of all sizes as they are beginning to recognize the importance of having a diverse workforce and inclusive culture, not just because it’s good for business, it’s good for their workforce. Overwhelmingly, they are realizing that they need to broaden their focus on DE&I; beyond just supplier diversity for procurement and employee diversity and inclusion for HR.  By looking at D&I of just their full-time employees, they are missing a very large segment of their workforce, thus not recognizing as much impact as possible. As they consider the importance of total talent diversity to their business, they must set a clear direction starting at the executive level and carrying that throughout the organization to every level and category of worker for it to be the culture of the company.  They then must put action into place to attract, engage, and retain diverse talent in all categories and continually measure and monitor the impacts of their diversity and inclusion strategies. By building bridges throughout the organization and understanding this is a journey, companies have the opportunity to truly make an impact on their business, their workforce, and their community.”

Rich Oakes, President, GigSmart

“The current labor market is showing that alignment is increasing between companies and workers. Last year, over 50 million Americans completed a “gig” or a “side-hustle.”  More and more workers are seeking flexibility and control in their work. Companies are also looking for more flex labor solutions. These two wants/needs between workers and companies is the very reason the gig economy is one of the fastest growing segments of the labor market.”

“The days of only embracing the W2 hiring model are over. To remain fully staffed, companies need to embrace multiple types of labor: W2 employees, 1099 contractors, as well as third-party outsourced solutions to assist in their labor strategy.  Missing deadlines and falling short of customer expectations are consistent results of companies not implementing a comprehensive talent strategy. Companies with a total talent staffing strategy will save money, fill positions faster, experience less turnover, and out produce their competitors who haven’t adjusted to the current times.”

Marlon Rosenzweig, CEO and Co-Founder, WorkGenius

“Companies became comfortable with remote work during the pandemic and they became uncomfortable with fix-costs, such as payroll.  Now companies consider freelancers for more roles than before. This trend existed pre-pandemic but was significantly accelerated and will drive demand for technology solutions to source and manage this part of a modern agile workforce.”

“Remote workforces in combination with merit based performance data, allow for more diversity in the remote workforce as talent from other parts of the country can be considered, without the previous regional bias which often correlates with other biases due to homogenous neighborhoods.”

Diana Doro, VP of Sales, Workspend

“It’s always been the case that companies with diversity and inclusion strategies are more admired and have better culture, but now that may also include being more successful, especially as it relates to talent – a diverse pool of talent is the widest pool, and in the changing landscape of hiring we’re seeing today, this strategy could be the “win or lose” for businesses to get through and beyond COVID. This is especially true as it relates to contingent work, which is the most flexible but also becoming the most competitive workforce available – without including the contingent workforce in these diversity strategies, companies could make a huge miss. Creating a contingent workforce strategy that has those risks in mind will set companies up for success in reaching the best talent and avoid the pitfalls of only thinking about diversity once it’s too late.

The non-employee workforce was always growing, but the exponential growth we’ve seen in such a short time is really telling in the way employees want to engage employers, and the employer response to that change. This shift tells a story of workers wanting more flexibility in how they use their skills, and the dramatic shift to work-from-home brought on by stay-in-place orders simply accelerated that shift. It will be interesting to see if that shifts back post-COVID, but it’s likely here to stay for a few reasons: First, a contingent workforce can quickly flex up or down, and companies, once they realize they have this new-found agility, likely will not let it go. Second, employees are now growing accustomed to the convenience of being able to do their jobs from anywhere, which is in part why there have been so many articles on the evacuation of cities in recent months, and many of those workers likely won’t return if they don’t have to, so companies that are prepared to work with employees who prefer remote are going to win that talent.”

Nina Vaca, CEO and Founder, Pinnacle Group

“As we began to realize in March/April, the quarantines and social distancing represented the first stage of a significant realignment of the global workforce. Today, many sectors continue to struggle, while others prosper. Automation and data analytics have become even more critical; and virtualization combined with cyber security has become table stakes.”

“Demand for IT professionals continues to be relatively strong.  While labor demand overall declined from its pre-pandemic peak, the declines have been less significant within the IT sector, particularly for those with skills in virtualization, cyber security, and anything cloud-related. Any roles that can be performed remotely have been largely unaffected.”

“The third quarter represented a significant recovery for many after the historically low second quarter results. Major events always carry with them both risk and opportunities. It is the job of every business leader to find and invest in those opportunities. For CEOs and other industry leaders, now is the time to demonstrate confidence, embrace new ways of working together, and continue to make critical foundational investments in what appears to be yet another “new normal.””

Sandeep Dhillon, CEO, Talmix

“We’re probably not alone amongst platforms for non-employee talent in seeing growth during recent months as companies needed to keep the wheels turning, while being nervous about committing to full-time hiring. This has really been another flavor of talent on demand, as a fast way to solve a problem for a hiring manager. What we’re now seeing is that companies want to move away from ad hoc usage, and into a more structured plan to get the best talent mix, particularly as transformation initiatives are accelerated. Within the Talmix customer base, we’re seeing the first stage of this planning, as companies centrally build talent pools for the profiles that will be required across their business. The pressing focus is still speed, needing to rapidly build and deploy this talent into more flexible teams. A secondary trend is the desire to upskill/reskill, again heavily influenced by the transformation agenda, but as one client put it, reskilling/upskilling  the existing workforce frequently needs leadership from outside the organization to drive these programs through at scale. Overall as we move into 2021, we’re seeing plenty of examples that the non-employee workforce is going to be more embedded, shifting from talent on demand, to adoption of the extended workforce.”

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The Workforce Trends that Will Shape 2021: Part One

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Over the past several weeks, I’ve written about the various contingent workforce, staffing, and Future of Work attributes that could contribute to the way businesses will operate a year from now. Taking into account the very strange days of 2020, combined with the anticipated growth in the utilization of non-employee talent, businesses now understand that there are many dynamic forces at play that will shape their outlook and success in 2021 (and beyond).

I had the opportunity chat with various contingent workforce, staffing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the year ahead:

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“After the crazy year that was 2020, it’s hard to predict what 2021 will hold, and, if I could do so accurately, I’d likely be a talking head on a network news show! Anyway, that said, I do think that we will continue to see growth in the contingent workforce, that’s already happening now and there’s no reason for that not to continue; companies realize that they can get the talent that they need faster and in a less-risky way; that’s incredibly important right now. The other trend that we’re seeing – and one that is imperative – is the need to create a contingent diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative. D, E, and I matter – and drives better business performance – so you need to set goals for your contingent labor program (including workers on your statements of work!) and measure your performance against them.”

Neha Goel, VP of Marketing, Utmost

“I think most people in HR, Procurement, and IT realize that COVID has been a disruptive force that has accelerated workforce trends that were already in play: greater digitization and automation, more demand for external workers, a growing prioritization of diversity, and an increased reliance on remote work. These themes, combined with (likely) continued market uncertainty, mean that organizations need a more holistic view of their workforce options, i.e. their entire talent base (skills, capabilities, locations, costs, availability) so they can make informed decisions about the best resources to get work done. I think in 2021, enterprises will make investments in these areas to drive, in the short-term, agility, resilience, operational efficiency, and cost savings. In the long-term, these investments will have the potential to deliver better experiences for the workers themselves and increased productivity for the business.”

Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder, The Mom Project

“Obviously the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of the modern workplace indefinitely. Employees have more flexibility than ever before, and it’s the responsibility of the employer to continue to support and facilitate productivity and communication across all facets of the organization in this new remote workforce.”

“The increase in remote work has been a welcome shift for many, but has also added burdens to some, especially for those juggling a myriad of responsibilities ranging from childcare to virtual schooling. Organizations must remain empathetic and supportive of this ‘new normal’ by creating clear and effective means of communication, so all employees are encouraged to speak up and feel supported having their voice heard.”

“The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is something no one predicted, and no one has experience trying to navigate, so it’s more important now than ever that organizations and business leaders lead with empathy first and foremost. Employees are balancing an endless list of responsibilities all within their homes, so organizations and managers need to remain flexible in order to allow employees to meet all of the demands amidst this ‘new normal.’”

Fang Chang, SVP of Product, Coupa Software

“Procurement organizations around the world are working with their valued service providers and contingent labor pools to prepare for 2021. We are seeing elevated levels of empathy for factors such as increasing spend to diverse service providers and the need to work from anywhere. While empathetic, customers also recognize the importance of being diligent throughout 2021 and beyond in the continual assessment of risk factors that may negatively impact their business brand or bottom line.”

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

“There will be a continued preference of knowledge, specialized-skilled, white-collared workers to work on a contingent basis and not FTE. In most industries, this is already at 40% of the total workforce, and most Fortune 1000 companies have strategies to get that to 50%-to-60% in the next several years. This will be a career choice for millions of high-end members of the workforce, which will radically accelerate the complexities and importance of this segment. Companies will need to not only navigate these evolving areas at a rapid pace, but to also expertly address localization, globalization, changing regulatory and labor laws, remote work, and D&I, among others.

The notion of things like the “Gig Economy” are going to dramatically expand across virtually all categories of the skilled workforce, and in many industries, those leaders will have more contingent workers than FTEs. In addition, as the spend under management continues to expand, representing hundreds of billions of dollars per year with double-digit inefficiencies/over-payment, it will be mission critical for the C-suite to be more involved. This literally already is, and will become more so, a massive Earnings Per Share driver. Historically, the selection and management of outsourcing a company’s contingent workforce management program has been relegated as “tactical” and pushed fairly far down the organization’s org chart. This is radically and rapidly changing as the CHRO, CFO, CPO, and CIO are now playing a much greater role in the decision to not only outsource the non-employee management function, but also to deploy a technological ecosystem to harness software, machine-based learning, data, and intelligence to drive their businesses forward as part of their overall Future of the Workforce and Human Capital strategies.”

Catherine Candland, President, nextSource

“Since COVID, we have seen approximately 30-to-40% freelancer population increase in our client accounts. While our clients tell us that they originally engaged these individuals to achieve more flexibility and reduce costs in a period of uncertainty, they also cite a higher level of up-to-date skills and ready availability as reasons for continuing to drive towards a higher mix of freelancers in their overall workforce composition.”

“The notion that individuals accept temporary work as a means to get their foot in the door has been proven to no longer apply. In this unsettled environment, non-employee professionals, such as IT workers, are frequently engaged on multi-year assignments. Recent research indicates that a quarter of traditional employees remain with the same firm for less than that. Surveys of our EOR Associate employees indicate that many choose to work as non-employees for higher pay while their spouse works for healthcare benefits and lower pay.”

Jody Greenstone Miller, Founder and CEO, Business Talent Group

“Workforce agility and a holistic approach to talent management are more important than ever before, as companies pivot from ad-hoc solutions put in place at the start of the pandemic toward long-term recovery and growth. Establishing and easily accessible and reliable pool of skilled talent at the ready—like BTG’s marketplace of on-demand management consultants, subject matter experts, and project managers—positions companies to take advantage of fleeting opportunities and tackle urgent short-term needs while staying focused on the bigger picture.”

“The combination of project-based work, remote work, and on-demand talent provides a faster way to impact diversity within your organization. We are seeing that a remote work environment allows companies to access a wider candidate pool while reducing location bias. Project-based engagements focus heavily on the specific skills needed for success and provide a lower-risk way to bring talent on board, and, thus, can be an effective part of a diversity and inclusion initiative.”

Praneeth Patlola, Chief Product Officer, WillHire

“In recent years, the HR tech industry has gone through a huge transformation to adopt people analytics and bring a data-driven approach. The latest technologies of internal talent mobility have enabled organizations with better intelligence to increase retention and enabling the workforce to shift roles internally. While enterprises have invested in DE&I strategies, and also build metrics from sourcing to offboarding and re-engagements, most of it seems to have covered only for the full-time employee workforce and completely leaving out the contract workforce. Not surprisingly, many organizations still have challenges for accuracy around headcount and have never tracked talent diversity in the non-employee workforce. Even a bigger challenge is the non-employee workforce masked under SOW; there is less information on skill and other metrics. In 2020, we have seen enterprises recognizing the importance of total talent analytics, which includes the non-employee workforce to address this gap on metrics and centralized talent pools, while building the pathway for total talent intelligence. Given the pace at which the HR tech industry is moving, and the contingent labor space has picked the heat on direct sourcing, there is a definite possibility for seeing several uses cases in 2021 for total talent intelligence.”

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