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What Did We Learn About the Future of Work in 2021?

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/20/2021

I’m sure that the end of any year, not just 2021, warrants some level of deep reflection. However, the year that we just collectively experienced certainly calls for some retrospective insight, doesn’t it? 2021 marked the second full year of the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes and along with it, many transformations in how we all viewed both our personal and professional lives. From the business perspective, 2021 brought a host of talent-, technology-, and forward-thinking-led shifts that have forever altered the way we conduct business. Here’s what we learned:

No matter how rooted a business leader is to pre-pandemic times, remote and hybrid work are now foundational facets of the working world. Unified communication tools, better collaboration between leaders and their staff, and the general shift towards “flexibility” are all attributes of the new world of work.
Call it “The Great Resignation” or the “The Big Quit,” but what’s really happening is a true revolution of talent. The “talent revolution” is occurring all around us, with millions of talented professional voluntarily leaving positions in search of better working conditions, more flexibility, more empathy from leadership, more inclusive workplace culture, and, of course, better pay. The talent revolution is a stark reminder that leaders must reimagine talent engagement and talent acquisition if they are to thrive in the new year.
The extended workforce drives the Future of Work. Nearly 47% of all talent today is considered part of the extended workforce, a 10% leap from where it was at the every beginning of the pandemic. It’s not just a matter of tapping into the “evolution” of contingent labor, but rather truly robust communities of talent that take various shapes, including talent pools, talent marketplaces, niche staffing suppliers, personal and private talent networks, etc. Today’s extended workforce is a key element in how work gets done.
Empathy is a key Future of Work attribute. Leaders have to be in tune with the “human” side of its staff, as workers across the globe face personal and professional challenges that continue to eat into their thinned patience after 20+ months of pandemic ramifications (including severely ill relatives, lack of daycare, remote schooling, facing COVID themselves, etc.). Empathy-led leadership is, essentially, the only way forward.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) aren’t just buzzwords, but rather truly impactful pieces of the Future of Work movement. Let’s say it again: a diverse talent pool is the deepest talent pool. Bringing in diverse talent sparks innovation by bringing in new voices to the table, including talent from various genders, cultures, and nuero-diverse backgrounds.
Direct sourcing has become a transformational means of finding, engaging, and retaining top-tier talent. By the end of 2022, nearly 30%-to-32% of all talent will be engaged and acquired via direct sourcing, according to Future of Work Exchange research. Direct sourcing isn’t just a way to segment “known” talent into talent pools, but rather a strategy, program, and set of automated tools to develop true talent sustainability via recruitment marketing, leveraging the power of enterprise branding and culture, and cultivating deeper relationships with candidates.
Services procurement strategy is due for an overhaul. Collaboration, rather than control, is the Best-in-Class way to enhancing management of an extended workforce category that sometimes (or, often) dwarfs traditional staff aug from a spend perspective. Procurement executives must reevaluate how they approach SOW management and services procurement in 2022.
Talent communities will be more critical than ever in 2022. As we wrote recently: “The power of talent communities is driven by the innovative ways businesses are leveraging talent pools, talent networks, and talent clouds, converging with the nuances of the employer brand, social and emotional connections with both active and passive candidates, the the ultimate development of omnichannel, experience-driven candidate engagement.”
Business leadership needs to change its mindset heading into a new year. The talent revolution, combined with the pressure of a new coronavirus variant in a globalized yet disruptive world, means that leaders and executive personnel cannot go into 2022 with archaic strategies for managing operations and staff. Whether it entails “reimagining” or “rebooting” core leadership strategies, aspects such as inclusion (i.e., inclusive workplace environments), flexibility, agility, and a better understanding of employee emotional wellbeing (yes, including empathy!) are all necessary moving forward.
Technology is often considered central to the Future of Work movement, and 2022 proved that many times over. From digital staffing and direct sourcing to artificial intelligence and blockchain, the pathways of technological innovation all lead back into the very idea of work optimization.

The Key Differentiators of Best-in-Class Extended Workforce Management

Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/13/2021

Technology utilization and core competencies are the backbone of the Best-in-Class contingent and extended workforce program. However, there are other next-level differentiators that are driving innovation within these organizations and positioning them to become more agile and dynamic as the world of talent and work around them continues to shift and change:

Eighty-two percent (82%) of Best-in-Class enterprises have integrated SOW management and services procurement into their core CWM programs, a fact that reinforces the need for businesses to effectively track, monitor, and manage all elements of their extended workforce (not just staff aug). Often enabled by VMS or extended workforce solutions (and outsourced to MSP offerings), Best-in-Class businesses have integrated capabilities into their programs that include resource-tracking, milestone and delivery date visibility, full sourcing and bidding processes, and other processes required to manage what is often considered the largest chunk of non-employee workforce spend.
Nearly 75% of Best-in-Class businesses have a direct sourcing program in place today. Direct sourcing has become synonymous with the continued evolution of talent; businesses that desire true organizational and workforce agility are actively harnessing the power of talent pools (and injecting those candidates into enterprise recruitment streams) as a viable means of reducing talent acquisition costs, ensuring top-tier skillsets and expertise, and structuring a truly dynamic workforce. Direct sourcing allows a business to leverage its culture and brand to attract top-tier candidates that are easily engaged for future projects and initiatives. In a world that has become more digitized (especially in the HR and talent arenas), direct sourcing is becoming a differentiator for the Best-in-Class businesses that actively pursue workforce agility.
Seventy percent (70%) of Best-in-Class organizations are currently leveraging a “hybrid” talent acquisition model that utilizes equal parts digital and RPA-led processes (such as artificial intelligence and bots) and traditional human-led strategies and support. This hybrid approach ensures that aspects like repeatability, speed, and efficiency are top-of-mind in talent engagement efforts, while the human elements can deter unconscious bias in any digital talent acquisition initiatives. This differentiator is also a major reason why Best-in-Class businesses have thrived in challenging times; next-level digitization on the front end enables agility, while the human touch on the back end ensures that core cultural objectives are met.
Nearly 60% of Best-in-Class businesses currently have the ability to drive total talent intelligence within their programs. As explained earlier in this chapter, total talent intelligence is an incredible differentiator, as it helps businesses determine which candidates and which types of talent are the best fit for a new role, position, or project based on deep total talent data. More Best-in-Class programs are enabled with the required capabilities to execute informed and intelligence-led talent decisions in a real-time and dynamic manner…which, in essence, is the core of true business agility.

In looking at Best-in-Class organizations, the key to success is multifaceted and wide-spanning: embrace the evolution of talent, tap into both traditional and progressive platforms, and leverage next-generation strategies to best align the workplace environment with the best-fit talent and skillsets. Top-performing organizations are leading the next era of work optimization because they are actively adapting to the major shifts in the talent and work arena while also cultivating a culture of agility and flexibility.

FOWX Notes: December 10 Edition

Business Leadership General Insights HR by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/10/2021

Some picked-up pieces, news, and insights from across the evolving world of talent and work:

I’ve often written about the “human” side of the business arena, with aspects like empathy-led leadership taking center stage as an indicator that the balance between “people” and “technology” is what the Future of Work movement is founded upon. This week’s news that Better.com’s CEO fired 900 employees via a single Zoom call last week is the complete opposite of the progress leaders have made over the past two years. It’s not surprising to see several of the company’s high-profile execs leave the firm in the wake of the Vishal Garg’s blunder, and his apology for the way the terminations unfolded are actually undone by the fact that he accused hundreds of the terminated employees of “stealing” from the company by “working two hours per day.” Even though Garg and his team utilized productivity data to formulate their decisions (for roughly 250 of those 900 employees), the behavior here is exactly why more and more workers are growing disillusioned with archaic leadership traits.
The U.S. Senate, unsurprisingly, voted to repeal the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate that would take effect on January 18, 2022. As reported by NPR: “Getting vaccinated should be a decision between an individual and his or her doctor. It shouldn’t be up to any politician, especially in a mandate coming down from that highest authority, the president,” Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., who led the effort to overturn the requirement, said during the Senate debate.” The thing about vaccination mandates is this: it’s not about control or authority, it’s about workplace safety. No matter if the Omicron variant is less severe or not (it already appears to be much more transmissible than the Delta variant), the last thing employers want to deal with is another winter surge that will tax the health care system. Vaccine mandates serve two purposes: increase the overall rate of vaccination across the country, and, ensure that workers operating within in-person locations are safe from infection. It’s not an overreach, nor is it an authoritarian play by the government.
Longtime Freelancer Management System (FMS) and workforce management platform Shortlist recently rebranded to Worksuite. The solution’s new name reflects the platform’s volume of functionality, including direct sourcing and talent pool technology, global freelancer payment management, as well as all of the hallmarks of the Shortlist offering (such as SOW management, services procurement, deep workforce analytics, compliance and risk mitigation tools, etc.).
The first company-owned Starbucks store voted yesterday to unionize. While the size of the store and its workforce are small, this is a major sign that more and more workers, no matter the industry, will see 2022 as a turning point for the transformation of the traditional employer-employee relationship. “Every social justice movement has started from the ground up, from a handful of people who stepped forward to demand change,” U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, said in a statement” (and reported by The Buffalo News). The two key words there? Demand and change. The talent revolution is happening; expect similar instances as we head into 2022.
Something that’s not on the business radar for 2022 but should be: employee Net Promoter Scores (eNPS). While eNPS has been around for several years, not enough businesses are leveraging this quantitative means of capturing the qualitative aspects of the employee experience (and employee experience). The Future of Work Exchange estimates that less than 10% of businesses are actively leveraging employee Net Promoter Scores in their greater workforce planning; by understanding the perspectives and feelings of staff, business leaders can formulate the best approaches to talent retention and talent-to-project-alignment.

Let’s Not Forget About Contingent Workforce Management (CWM)

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/01/2021

The extended workforce has revolutionized the ways work gets done, giving businesses an opportunity to react dynamically to real-world problems and challenges while leaning on an agile network of top-tier skillsets and expertise. Future of Work Exchange research has consistently found that enterprises drive incredible value from the utilization of the extended workforce, especially in the face of a continued global pandemic that has reinforced the need for flexible talent, the ability to scale staff, and align mission-critical projects with all-world expertise.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange define the extended workforce as “the evolution of contingent labor and accounts for major transformations and talent shifts happening in today’s world of work and talent. The extended workforce’s strategic value and impact are driven by the utilization of contractors, freelancers, gig workers, talent pool candidates, professional services, and other forms of non-employee talent, and is enabled by innovation within talent acquisition (such as digital staffing, direct sourcing, and talent marketplaces).”

There’s a big piece of the extended workforce value proposition that cannot be ignored: contingent workforce management (CWM). The extended workforce represents evolution and progression, and CWM reinforces the need to apply both tactical and strategic capabilities, as well as the right technology, to drive many layers of value from this growing bucket of talent (which now represents nearly 47% of the average company’s total talent).

The non-employee workforce represents something entirely different than it did years ago. Today’s non-employee talent is a core element to organizational success, enabling businesses with the level of workforce agility required to become more dynamic in response customer, competitor, and market actions. With nearly half of the total workforce considered contingent in some sense, it is incumbent upon businesses to drive maximum value from their extended workforce. Ignoring this area of talent is essentially ignoring almost half of the people running the enterprise – executives that ignore the extended workforce in 2021 are guilty of human capital management malpractice.

There are several nuances to contingent workforce management in 2021, some of which are progressive concepts that reinforce the shifting links between talent and the way work is addressed and done. Other distinctions inherent in today’s extended workforce are direct ramifications of a challenging 2020 and reflect the major shifts in 1) how enterprises now perceive their skillsets and expertise, 2) how these workers support mission-critical projects and initiatives, and 3) how the impact of crucial changes (societal changes, progression of technology, etc.) in the talent acquisition arena will continue to transform how work is done.

In 2021, the average business is actively addressing critical organizational endeavors with a variety of non-employee skillsets and talent, choosing to converge their traditional full-time workers with the unique expertise inherent in the extended talent pool. Future of Work Exchange research finds that the typical business, however, must leverage a series of tool, solutions, and strategies to derive the true value of this workforce:

Contingent workforce management practices have long followed a robust blend of technology, process, and strategy orientation that is marked by efficiencies across the end-to-end spectrum of talent and work. Best-in-Class programs are built on core capabilities that drive consistent talent acquisition approaches, proper optimization of talent channels and sources, and cross-functional coordination between key internal stakeholders.
Technology and innovation are central to the Future of Work movement. As businesses transform the way they engage and leverage talent, and as they undergo major shifts in work optimization, automation will be the ultimate linchpin for these strategies. Best-in-Class organizations are actively relying on several key technology platforms to better engage talent, enhance workforce management, and drive flexibility and agility, such as VMS platforms, extended workforce solutions, digital and on-demand staffing, MSPs, and direct sourcing technology.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of Best-in-Class enterprises have integrated SOW management and services procurement into their core CWM programs, a fact that reinforces the need for businesses to effectively track, monitor, and manage all elements of their extended workforce (not just the contingent laborers). Often augmented by VMS or extended workforce solutions, Best-in-Class businesses have integrated capabilities into their programs that include resource-tracking, milestone and delivery date visibility, full sourcing and bidding processes, and other processes required to manage what is often considered the largest chunk of non-employee workforce spend.

In looking at the role of the extended workforce, the key to success is multifaceted and wide-spanning: embrace the evolution of talent, tap into both traditional and progressive platforms, and leverage next-generation strategies to best align the workplace environment with the ideal-fit talent and skillsets. Top-performing organizations are leading the next era of work optimization because they are actively adapting to the major shifts in the talent and work arena while also cultivating a culture of agility and flexibility.

Key Providers for 2021: Workforce Logiq

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/12/2021

The Background:

Several years ago, Ardent Partners predicted in its annual State of Contingent Workforce Management research series (now re-titled under the banner of the Future of Work Exchange) that the world would eventually experience a workforce in which 50% was comprised of non-employee talent (including freelancers, temporary workers, independent contractors, gig workers, and professional services). Today, that number sits at 47% and shows no signs of slowing down in terms of growth and impact, meaning that the “50% threshold” is fast approaching the world of business.

As the ever-evolving attributes of the Future of Work movement cascade into how businesses find, engage, source, and manage their total talent, it is critical that they leverage the next-generation solutions that can effectively transform workforce intelligence and drive long-term value from the agile workforce.

Enter Workforce Logiq.

Why They Were Selected:

Workforce Logiq has come a long way since its days under the ZeroChaos brand, a Managed Service Provider (MSP)/Vendor Management System (VMS) hybrid that had massive staying power across various global regions and large sectors and industries. The rebrand to Workforce Logiq in early 2019 wasn’t just a simple swap of corporate names, but rather a true technological transformation that heralded a new age of total talent intelligence and workforce management innovation.

Today, Workforce Logiq is a leading workforce management solution provider that effectively blends deep human expertise with next-level artificial intelligence and total talent insights. Its predictive analytics engine is an industry differentiator, enabling their customers to leverage on-demand data to execute more educated talent-based decisions in a time when agility is paramount. In fact, Future of Work Exchange research finds that 64% of businesses plan to leverage AI-led tools to support talent retention and related issues within the next two years.

In Their Own Words:

Workforce Logiq provides predictive workforce management solutions powered by an unmatched combination of human and data-driven intelligence. We help organizations reimagine and transform how they achieve greater management, performance, and financial control over their global workforce and talent supply chains.

Our global solution portfolio includes: Managed Service Provider (MSP), Vendor Management System (VMS), Statement of Work (SOW), Employer of Record (EoR), Direct Sourcing, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), and Employment Screening.

The Workforce Logiq Total Talent Intelligence® platform is a proprietary combination of predictive analytics, expert guides, and proprietary technology powered by sixteen patented and patent-pending innovations, including:

Talent Retention Risk (TRR) Score: benchmarks employment volatility within a company, and potential worker interest in unsolicited recruiting approaches.
IQ Location Optimizer: identifies the best and biggest pool of available contingent and full-time talent – at the best cost.
IQ Rate Optimizer: benchmarks how much an organization needs to pay to attract and win contingent and full-time talent based on unique, company-specific workplace characteristics.
IQ Talent Diversity: predicts gender and ethnic statistics on our recruiting database of 100 million professional and knowledge worker candidates – helping organizations make smarter, confident, and more proactive decisions on how to boost employee representation.
And more!

In today’s hyper-competitive talent market, we are committed to helping companies make more informed talent decisions faster, earlier, and more cost-effectively.

The Outlook:

One of the most impressive pieces of Workforce Logiq’s deep technology stack is its ENGAGE Talent offering, which provides real predictive intelligence regarding active and passive candidates while allowing users a real-time picture of how talent is situated across the world. Combined with Workforce Logiq’s longstanding commitment to workforce and data insights (which permeate throughout the entirety of both its MSP services and VMS platform), the solution will continue its reign as a mature and powerful workforce management solution.

Building on top of already-robust SOW management, services procurement, and direct sourcing offerings, Workforce Logiq was already primed for continued success in the months and years ahead before it was acquired by PRO Unlimited over the summer. The two organizations, together, will provide an even deeper end-to-end solution that truly encapsulates the evolution of the Future of Work movement.

Key Providers for 2021: Beeline

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/07/2021

The Background:

As the Future of Work continues to accelerate how work is addressed and done, it is critical that businesses harness the power of robust VMS technology that can drive visibility into total talent, support control over contingent workforce spend, and serve as an effective extension of the enterprise’s overall extended workforce management strategy.

Enter Beeline.

Why They Were Selected:

Beeline represents the forward-thinking VMS that has consistently evolved alongside the customers it has been serving for over two decades. As the greater contingent workforce industry shifted from “commodity-led” to “talent-led,” Beeline made the necessary advancements to help its users adapt to changing industry standards. And, as the market continued to evolve to include Future of Work-era innovations such as artificial intelligence, direct sourcing, advanced analytics, and extended workforce management, Beeline transformed its end-to-end solution suite to map directly to these new requirements.

Beeline’s sheer breadth of offerings represent an ideal mix of functionality for managing the nuances of today’s growing and thriving agile workforce, including SOW management, services procurement, talent acquisition, talent pools, and total workforce management.

In Their Own Words:

For most companies, human capital constitutes the largest single cost of doing business. Organizations that once relied on internal workforces of direct employees are increasingly supplementing their full-time staff with an agile extended workforce of contingent workers, independent contractors, consultants, and service providers, allowing these companies to adapt quickly and flexibly to market threats and opportunities.

To connect businesses to the rich diversity of talent within the global extended workforce, Beeline creates and implements innovative and sophisticated contingent workforce management solutions. Beyond simply tracking and managing a company’s non-employee workers, Beeline Extended Workforce Platform automates the entire process, sourcing and managing all categories of non-employee talent while providing advanced analytic tools, augmented by artificial intelligence (AI), to deliver the insights organizations need to make better staffing and business decisions.

In the last 20 years, Beeline has become the world’s largest independent provider of solutions for sourcing and managing the complex world of contingent labor. With the deepest, most seasoned team of contingent workforce solution professionals, Beeline delivers innovative technology, end-to-end global and localized customer engagement services, and value-added capabilities which help many of the world’s largest enterprises, including more than 300 Global 2000 clients worldwide, meet their most critical talent needs.

The Outlook:

Beeline has long been a dominant player in the workforce solutions market, often owing its long-term success to dedicated talent-first functionality that supports the overarching goal of true enterprise agility. Even before the company announced its Extended Workforce Platform earlier this year, Beeline was already on a crisp path towards harnessing the full technological potential of the Future of Work movement through an industry-leading talent tech partner ecosystem, an overlay of AI and machine learning to boost the depth of real-time analytics, and a continued commitment to the high-impact realm of services procurement.

As a provider of next-generation agile workforce functionality, Beeline will continue to evolve, adapt, and transform the way its clients harness its powerful solutions to effectively optimize how work is done in 2022 and beyond.

Key Providers for 2021: GRI

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 09/30/2021

The Background:

The Managed Service Provider (MSP) model has long been a powerful solution in the workforce management industry, its longevity owed to decades of success in transforming how companies think about their talent, how they structure contingent workforce management (CWM) initiatives, and how they ultimately drive value from their extended workforce.

Today’s MSP offerings have evolved mightily in recent years to provide their clients with a slew of services designed to facilitate end-to-end management of SOW/services procurement, direct sourcing, payrolling, talent acquisition, and more. In fact, many leading MSP solutions are reimagining their services suites to reflect the dynamic changes occurring in the greater world of work and talent.

GRI is one of those solutions.

Why They Were Selected:

Many of the globe’s market-leading managed services offerings have a similar slew of products that are only slighted differentiated based on such attributes like service model delivery and sector-specific aspects. One key differentiator of those MSPs that stand out from the pack is the ability to provide its customers with not just traditional value, but true workforce and business agility through a focus on talent, technology, and transformative thinking.

Geometric Results, Inc. (GRI) has long been a household name in the MSP space, and for good reason: its Envision Analytics is a self-service portal that blends powerful business intelligence with real-time talent data. Predictive analytics, neural machine learning models, and hundreds of data sources position Envision Analytics as one of the contingent workforce industry’s deepest, most robust reporting-led offerings.

In addition, its “Managed Direct Sourcing” approach allows customers to build flexible direct sourcing programs and strategies that traverse beyond simple talent pools; GRI’s MDS product is one of the market’s most forward-thinking direct sourcing offerings and positions clients’ direct sourcing programs with a 360-degree brilliance of agility through a strong convergence of industry expertise, human-led processes, and Best-in-Class automation.

In Their Own Words:

GRI works exclusively for our customers and transcends the industry standards. The client comes first and our role as an exclusive advocate is absolute and unbiased. We are the only MSP that is (1) singularly focused (2) vendor-neutral, (3) free of all channel conflict, and (4) not controlled by a staffing company.

GRI focuses solely on delivering innovative, Best-in-Class workforce solutions as an independent MSP provider. And in an industry that largely lacks transparency, and is steeped with channel-conflict, no other workforce solutions company can back up this claim!

We offer a direct sourcing solution that is native to our MSP. It creates meaningful cost savings and reduced time-to-fill beyond the typical program while improving worker quality. It works well because we are motivated and incentivized by its success; no other MSP can confidently stake that claim.

We actually innovate — it’s not just an overused and largely misunderstood word at GRI. The ‘box’ doesn’t direct us, and therefore it’s much easier for us to think outside of it. And to think instead about technologies, talent acquisition models and processes as well as the collective ecosystem that will most benefit our clients.

The Outlook:

GRI is positioned as an MSP that will thrive in the years ahead due to its commitments to flexibility, innovation, and the Future of Work. Its unique Managed Direct Sourcing offering balances the necessary human elements with a deep technology stack and platform ecosystem, while its Envision Analytics tool is one of the industry’s finest talent intelligence solutions.

As the world of talent and work continues to evolve and adapt and require talent- and intelligence-led offerings, GRI will continue to establish itself as a preeminent source of workforce management innovation.

Key Providers for 2021: nextSource

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 09/22/2021

The Background:

With non-employee talent workforce comprising 47% of the total global workforce, businesses across the globe are actively finding that they require advanced tools and next-gen solutions to effectively manage a sector of talent that is growing in both size and prominence. The Managed Service Provider (MSP) model has long been the veteran presence in the contingent workforce management (CWM) solutions market, an “old standby” that has long delivered value in terms of cost savings, workforce visibility, and better access to top-tier talent. MSPs have long been a trusted solution in the operational and strategic management of extended talent, as many businesses have outsourced the day-to-day management of contingent labor to these offerings, who, in turn, facilitate talent acquisition, services procurement (and SOW management), staffing supplier optimization, etc

However, as businesses became more advanced in how they structure their workforce, how they leveraged self-service functionality, and how they tapped into alternative talent channels, the MSP model needed to evolve alongside their customers to continue driving that effective level of wide-scoping value across all facets of workforce management. In fact, some MSPs are placing innovation within its core and cascading a progressive mindset into the fabric of its offerings.

Enter nextSource.

Why They Were Selected:

Service-based offerings are often required to do more to stand out from the progressive technology platforms in today’s complex solutions marketplace. The MSP model has long relied on traditional services (such as payrolling, staff augmentation, supplier management, etc.) to provide immediate value to the world’s biggest CWM programs. However, today’s programs are much, much more intricate now than they were even just a few years ago, considering the criticality of direct sourcing, the complexities of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), and the overall need for CWM leaders to be able to tap into on-demand, top-tier talent.

nextSource has over 20 years of experience as a leading provider of managed services, but it is their unique blend of data science and forward-thinking, intelligence-driven offerings (that sit on top of its end-to-end MSP model) that enables the solution as a key provider for Future of Work-era talent programs.

In Their Own Words:

For more than two decades, the mission of nextSource has remained unchanged: advance the ways companies connect with talent. Today’s uncertain business environment is marked by talent scarcity in the midst of high unemployment, shifting demographics, increased talent acquisition and compensation costs, and technology that enhances and eliminates jobs at all skills levels. We navigate these workforce challenges to help our clients find, manage, and keep talent.

Traditional approaches to contingent workforce management produce poor results in this new competitive environment. As a vendor-neutral provider of solutions, we partner with the industry’s best staffing agencies, providing the support needed for them to deliver the talent needed by our clients. We augment their capabilities through the establishment of nextSourcing™ talent communities that draw from sources not reached through traditional sourcing channels to increase engagement of women and minorities. Working with our clients, we create a worker experience that is based on pay equity, revalued work, caregiving, and opportunities for challenging, career-building assignments.

Every Managed Services Provider, Employer of Record, and Agency of Record program applies our Entry Point Methodology, giving clients choice regarding their preferred level of service. And, annual Program Agility Assessments ensure that every program continuous innovates and evolves.

The Outlook:

It’s no secret that the world of work and talent has been permanently transformed. Hiring managers must leverage nuanced tools and strategies to find the best-fit, best-aligned talent, while both procurement and HR executives are forced to reimagine how they manage their total workforce in the face of foundational change. The Future of Work Exchange Report for 2021 research study found that Best-in-Class organizations are 66% more likely to leverage MSPs than all other businesses, a statistic that reinforces the continue value these models bring to the world of agile workforce management.

nextSource offers both traditional and forward-thinking solutions for its clients, with its Program Agility Assessments serving as an incredible differentiator in the application of data science and true workforce intelligence to drive educated and transformative recommendations for long-term contingent workforce management success. With its end-to-end approach balanced with dynamic offerings, nextSource is well-positioned to continue delivering progressive value in the evolving world of work and talent.

Key Providers for 2021: RightSourcing

Contingent Workforce General Insights Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on 09/13/2021

The Background:

The healthcare industry often operates very differently from other key verticals, independent of major global trends and the challenges that plague the average business. The COVID-19 pandemic hit this sector the hardest in terms of staff shortages, worker burnout, safety and health concerns, etc. Future of Work Exchange research finds that while 90% of businesses believe that a semblance of “business normalcy” will be within reach sometime in early 2022, executives within the healthcare industry are not as convinced: 98% of healthcare businesses believe that normality is, at the earliest, two years away.

The extended workforce has long been a high-impact, high-value generator of true business agility. However, prior to 2020, the healthcare industry lagged behind their peers in regards to utilizing this type of labor to its maximum value, perhaps owed to insufficient supply channels, internal barriers due to archaic thinking, and the complexities in finding the right skillsets and expertise. The past eighteen months have brought about a change in thinking, largely due to the pressure put on healthcare facilities to shift talent to different locations, bring in on-demand talent when staffing shortages arise, and better plan for a quickly-evolving pandemic that continues to strain resources. FOWX research indicates that 98% of enterprises in this industry believe their non-employee workforce will be critical in the months and years ahead.

Enter RightSourcing.

Why They Were Selected:

RightSourcing, the healthcare-focused MSP arm of PRO Unlimited, has long been a dominant player in this industry due to its unique blend of managed services augmented with the power of the Wand VMS platform. RightSourcing may operate as a “specialty provider” in regard to its healthcare focus, however, the solution reflects the innovative approaches of its parent company in how it provides a wide range of services to its customers, including SOW management and services procurement, direct sourcing, DE&I support, and payrolling.

In addition to these offerings, RightSourcing also leverages a robust advantage through its data-driven analytics and market rate intelligence capabilities, two differentiators that are tailored for a complex and evolving healthcare workforce.

In Their Own Words:

RightSourcing provides a single, integrated platform of high-touch services and innovative technology solutions to help healthcare and higher education organizations increase cost savings, improve talent quality, mitigate risk and drive effectiveness within their contingent workforce program.

We are NOT a staffing company. We are not owned by, or affiliated with, a staffing company. We are PURELY vendor-neutral, which ensures true goal alignment with our clients. This vendor-neutral MSP approach leverages a nationwide network of clinical, IT, and business/professional staffing partners to provide the broadest access to talent at competitive market rates.

We provide clients with accurate, up-to-date labor market rate guidance. Historically, a lack of market labor rate intelligence has prevented healthcare organizations and higher ed from fully optimizing their hiring decisions. This results in significant unnecessary spend by paying higher market rates by role and/or location.

Bundling RightSourcing’s MSP experience with our industry-leading Wand VMS technology and actionable analytics makes RightSourcing fully accountable for the entire scope of an organization’s non-employee workforce. An integrated workforce management platform is more cost-effective, more agile, and maximizes efficiency to ensure the success of the program.

The Outlook:

The majority of healthcare staffing and healthcare HR/talent acquisition executives plan to invest more time, resources, and energy into optimizing the impact of the extended workforce, including tapping into direct sourcing (and talent pool), alternative talent channels, and talent marketplaces. With the continued weight of the pandemic forcing staffing shortages and worker burnout, healthcare enterprises must drive true workforce agility through today’s evolving contingent workforce.

RightSourcing is well-positioned as a powerful MSP that can blend progressive service offerings, a nimble VMS platform, and forward-looking, data-fueled solutions to transform the way the healthcare industry finds, engages, and manages its contingent workforce.

Continuing its Unlimited Evolution, PRO Unlimited Announces Acquisition by EQT Partners

Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Diversity and Inclusion HR Procurement Solution Providers Talent Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 07/01/2021

Earlier this week, contingent workforce management (CWM) solution PRO Unlimited announced that it has partnered with EQT Partners, who will acquire the company from Harvest Partners and Investcorp. When the acquisition officially closes in the second half of 2021, EQT Private Equity will be the majority shareholder, with Harvest Partners continuing as a large shareholder and management retaining a minority stake in the company.

This major transaction follows a year of aggressive market activity by the veteran MSP and VMS suite of solutions, which has undergone a seismic transformation since mid-2020. A longtime leader in the CWM technology arena, PRO continues to deliver on its promise to reimagine the end-to-end offerings of its core services and automation and become a true “platform” for agile workforce management activity.

“The team at EQT has been following the macro trends around the world of talent and work. They, much like us, see the contingent workforce segment growing at a rapid rate and becoming more and more strategic,” said Kevin Akeroyd, CEO of PRO Unlimited. “PRO was uniquely positioned here because we have the technology, the data, the analytics, coupled with the people / service assets in place, which has been a cornerstone of our MSP business, to not only satisfy the elements of what enterprises need today to manage their agile talent, but also having all of those critical elements inside the same platform.”

In several discussions with Akeroyd over the past several months, PRO’s CEO outlined an assertive range of objectives that mainly included a technological revamp, more dedicated offerings within the diversity and inclusion arena, and on-demand facilitation of data, intelligence, and workforce agility. The acquisition by EQT will allow PRO’s executive team to capitalize on an evolving market while enabling quicker time-to-market for burgeoning offerings for SOW/services procurement and direct sourcing, as well as its unique RatePoint solution.

“This is going to allow PRO to do what we want to do much faster and on a larger, global stage,” Akeroyd told CPO Rising. “EQT didn’t come here to change us or alter the fundamentals of who we are or what we want to accomplish. The vision that we had last year (becoming an end-to-end platform for all things contingent labor) can be realized much quicker with the investment from EQT.”

Historically, PRO Unlimited has not been known for major M&A activity, but that line of thinking changed when Akeroyd joined the organization last year, setting off a string of market-shifting moves that positioned the veteran solution for a major transformation in the months afterwards.

“Our organization went nearly 30 years without a major acquisition. It wasn’t until recently [Editor’s note: PRO acquired PeopleTicker and the Brainnet Group in 2020 and 2021, respectively] that the company started to shift its acquisition strategy,” Akeroyd said. “With EQT as a partner, we can accelerate M&A activity much more aggressively. If we need to buy, we can do that. If we need to build, they’ll support us. And we’ll have the power to partner with those solutions that are complementary to PRO’s end-to-end suite.”

The acquisition is certainly timely, as upcoming Ardent Partners research finds that the agile workforce continues to grow in size, impact, utilization, and prominence: nearly 47% of the average organization’s total workforce is now considered “extended” or “non-employee,” reinforcing the notion that businesses require more comprehensive, dynamic tools to effectively converge traditional aspects of contingent workforce management with the deeper elements (such as direct sourcing, services procurement, etc.) required to maximize the inherent value of the agile workforce.

“The contingent workforce is going to lead the economic recovery. If you look at the numbers and employment data regarding traditional workers and FTEs, they aren’t going up…but the agile workforce is,” said Akeroyd. “The Global 2000 enterprise is alive and well, and they’re largely thriving in this market due to their reliance on white-collar, remote, highly-skilled extended talent. PRO is enabling the average enterprise to achieve this level of success on the contingent workforce front; we are a leader in this solutions industry and what EQT has done is allow us to be a bigger, more impactful part of how businesses harness the power of their agile workforce across the globe.”

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