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Over the past several months, I’ve written extensively about the evolution of talent and work and what it means for the modern business. Today, we collect various thoughts, insights, and predictions from extended workforce, contingent workforce, digital staffing, direct sourcing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the Future of Work in the year ahead:

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

The importance of data: “The future of external workforce management is data-driven. And as the world of work continues to evolve, talent becomes more geographically dispersed, and top talent becomes even more sought-after, “five-star” data has become critical to capitalizing on both worker quality and savings opportunities worldwide. In 2022 and beyond, we will see the increasing importance of quality data within non-employee workforce programs and how it can drive significant program benefits.”

Direct sourcing and leveraging your company’s brand: “In the new era of integrated workforce management and heightened competition for key talent, organizations are adopting new processes and enabling solutions – such as direct sourcing – to maximize talent, no matter when and how that talent is sourced/engaged or how it ends up being categorized and classified. Historically, talent acquisition teams have long relied on employer branding for permanent employee hiring, while not being fully aware of its power for the other half of the workforce (contingent). In contingent direct sourcing programs, leveraging employer brand is essential to maximizing talent acquisition effectiveness and, therefore, multiplying positive financial benefits. Given this, most enterprises should be taking steps toward adopting contingent direct sourcing to meet its non-employee program and organizational goals.”

The benefits of the integrated workforce platform: “More than ever, enterprises are finding they need to address a greater and more complex set of requirements to manage their expanding multi-category, multichannel, non-employee workforces, which poses new challenges and questions for organizations. For example, the number of technology and service solutions has been significantly increasing across established and new solution categories. It’s no longer just a program management office and a Vendor Management System (VMS), which presents enterprises with the challenge of choosing between a single vendor or multi-vendor approach. Leveraging an adaptable, scalable, and fully-integrated workforce management platform provider that offers an ecosystem of software, professional services, and total talent intelligence will be key to an organization’s success.”

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“2022 is going to bring more of the same things that we saw in 2021 and that is (at least mostly!) a good thing. The extended workforce will continue to grow in importance to companies of all types and talent shortages will likely get even worse. Taken together those two things will push companies to look to expand the markets and places they find talent in, continue to reinforce the intersection of quality, time-to-fill, and cost (rather than a myopic focus on just cost savings), and underscore the importance of talent diversity (and related initiatives like upskilling and giving people second chances). Companies need to ensure that their extended workforce programs consider all of these things and that they set goals that are directly tied to company strategy.”

Neha Goel, VP of Marketing, Utmost

“Extended workforce systems must be worker-centric, making it easy to take into account the various needs and preferences of the worker, allowing them to be mobilized in a scalable way. They also need to give workers and suppliers more control over their data and how they interact with technology, providing the flexibility and configurability necessary for them to get work done.”

“Flexibility comes in many forms, both in remote vs. office settings, and includes how workers set their schedules. If you aren’t actively listening to what your workforce wants and providing the technology that makes it possible to seamlessly engage and communicate with them in this new world, you will miss out.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“While the usual priorities around cost optimization and DE&I will stay top of mind, there will be an increased focus on talent wellbeing and tools that will contribute towards that, e.g., tools that maximize efficiency while minimizing stress in the new way of doing work, tools that predict outcomes towards achieving this objective both from a talent and organizational perspective, etc.”

Sunil Bagai, CEO, Prosperix

“I predict that there will be some banner acquisitions for talent and workforce solutions in 2022. I also expect that some of the big investments that have happened this year in startups will go bust. The technologies that I expect will gain momentum are ones that tackle the end-to-end lifecycle of hiring, facilitate hybrid work, and infuse blockchain for transparency, faster outcomes and automation. 

“What 2021 showed is that there is a huge appetite for talent and workforce solutions. 2022 will carry forward that same momentum into new offerings, investments and acquisitions. The areas to keep an eye out on are consolidation of marketplaces, enterprise solutions that combine direct sourcing, VMS and ATS together, and an infusion of blockchain technology for facilitating frictionless transactions.”

Allison Robinson, Co-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.”

“The end of 2021 marks a critical moment as talent – and moms specifically – re-enter the workforce, but they are not looking to go back to how it was before. They are looking to continue fueling progress with a more flexible, supportive and more human Future of Work.”

Wayne Crowley, SVP Talent Solutions RPO, Manpower Group

“We’ve realized a seismic shift in employment control away from employers to the talent these employers need. Rigidity in hiring processes, work location, compensation, and work schedules will severely limit employers’ choices for finding candidates with the skills they require. Employers of all sizes, brands, and industries should revisit their employee value propositions to make sure there is resonance with the talent they seek.”

Sam Bright, Chief Product & Experience Officer at Upwork

“We’ve seen monumental disruption occur in the workforce over the last two years. The Great Resignation has shown us that generations-old beliefs about the world of work have been upended. ‘Remote natives’ have become the norm, just as digital natives before them. Remote freelancing has become an essential part of the U.S. labor market and economy – contributing $1.3 trillion in 2021 alone – and we’ve seen firsthand how organizations effectively use marketplaces like Upwork to engage highly-skilled independent professionals to grow, scale and reinforce their teams. 

“Our 2021 Freelance Forward report found that freelancing increased to the highest share of the labor force in the eight years that we’ve been surveying, and we see this continuing into 2022. Hybrid, distributed, flexible work models are the future of work. To succeed, business leaders must shift how they look at their workforce and create hybrid teams made up of full-time employees and independent professionals, so they can be appropriately resourced to charge ahead on their critical business initiatives, no matter how complex or tight the timeline is.”

Tammy Browning, President, KellyOCG

“Heading into 2022, a trend that we’re watching closely is employee experience. As the labor market tightens, building a comprehensive and positive employee experience is critical for greater retention, productivity, and engagement and translates to better business results. Organizations that want an edge on their competition and are driven to succeed in the war for talent are focused on employee experience. In fact, our research finds 91% of leading companies say that improving the employee experience is as high a business priority as improving the customer experience.”

“We expect 2022 will bring a greater need for organizations to adopt a single robust talent management platform. According to our research, 72% of executives say they should adopt a talent management platform and use predictive analytics to determine future talent needs, but less than a third are using technologies to achieve these goals. As more employers embrace all forms of talent, hiring managers will require a tool that provides a complete view of their contingent and third-party workforce as well as relevant workforce analytics to make strategic decisions about future workforce needs.”

Matt Pietsch, Chief Strategy Officer, High5

“Organizations need to be ready to embrace managed direct sourcing by forming strategic partnerships, not simple vendor or supplier relationships, with partners that can execute on a strategy that incorporates People, Processes and Technology in order to win the war for talent.”

“Work with a workforce solution company that understands the importance of leveraging your brand and working as a seamless extension of your talent acquisition program, regardless if it is full-time, contingent, EOR/payroll, etc. This is one way to ensure an effective candidate experience and a much more efficient recruitment program.”

Taylor Ramchandani, Vice President of Strategy, VectorVMS

“In 2022 I believe that the candidate experience for the contingent workforce is going to be paramount. With the power sitting with the worker, regardless of employment determination, organizations need to prioritize being a desirable place to work. The need for a positive candidate experience will drive greater adoption of direct sourcing platforms, diversity initiatives across the workforce, learning opportunities and more for the extended workforce.”

Jenna Dobbins, VP, Human Resources at Pontoon Solutions

Prioritize the value of employee wellness. “For talent providers like Pontoon and our customers, worker wellbeing will be a core tenant in 2022. Talent attraction and retention will be directly correlated with how workers are cared for and how employers meet their needs. We all have a responsibility to put mental health, wellbeing, and inclusivity above all else.”

Cultivate an ecosystem of talent sustainability. “At Pontoon, we have put a focus on employee learning and development in 2021. Our continuous learning culture has resulted in over 78,340 learning hours completed across our colleague population this year. In 2022, we have challenged ourselves to break this record as we continue to upskill our colleagues across Pontoon.”