“The Future of Work is many things: technology, innovation, evolution, and transformation. But most importantly, the Future of Work is human.”
It was a bold statement but one I was comfortable making during the welcome address at the Future of Work Exchange LIVE executive roundtable in Boston last week (at the historic and elegant Harvard Club venue), the third annual event (hosted by Ardent Partners) that brought together swaths of procurement, HR, talent acquisition, contingent workforce, and recruitment professionals.
Given the audience, as well as the natural Future of Work undercurrent permeating the event’s core sessions, it only appropriate to view “the human factor” as a natural link to the day’s core themes and topics, such as AI in talent acquisition, skills-based hiring, direct sourcing, extended workforce management, DE&I, and the evolving workplace.
Highlights of the event include:
- Some wonderful commentary on artificial intelligence and its place in the evolving concept of skills-based hiring by Lori Hock and Rebecca Valladares (Opptly) and Raleen Gagnon (TalentEdge AI). The three longtime industry thought leaders took the audience through moving from role-based to skills-based hiring and highlighted the criticality of AI as the foundation for this transformation; Hock and Valladares provided real-world context around the continued evolution and influence of artificial intelligence (and how AI is a “rising tide” in today’s fast-paced talent acquisition arena), while Gagnon gave some robust commentary on AI in action for talent acquisition and workforce management.
- A riveting panel discussion on the data-driven evolution of extended workforce management, courtesy of Beeline’s Craig Coe and Benjie Hanson and TalentProcure’s Dawnette Cooke. Hanson illuminated the power of data-infused extended workforce management (with Coe adding Beeline customer examples of this in action), while Cooke provided some incredible commentary from her deep expertise as a solutions leader.
- A compelling look at direct sourcing and its future, heralded by Guidant Global’s Robin Sanders, WorkLLama’s Kevin Leete, and Splunk’s CWM program lead, Ashley Wilson. Sanders gave an incredible perspective of direct sourcing from the MSP purview, buoyed by years of Guidant’s stance as a pioneer in the field. Wilson provided real-world context around her current experiences with direct sourcing within Splunk’s extended workforce program. Leete, as he has done in years past (this is his third appearance at FOWX Live), converged progressive direct sourcing commentary with technology- and innovation-led examples of how the strategy (and its associated functionality) can revolutionize hiring.
As always with FOWX Live events, a highlight of the day was the opportunity for the conference’s attendees to not only engage and interact with each other, but share best practices, discuss challenges, and learn from each other at interactive roundtable conversations on topics like extended workforce management, direct sourcing, artificial intelligence, DE&I, technology and innovation, and new hiring strategies.
And, too, another endearing attribute of that “human factor”: the ability to converse, engage, and network with so many incredible leaders across the talent technology ecosystem, as well as the HR, talent acquisition, and procurement professionals who live the Future of Work 24/7.
At the end of the day, it’s the connections we make with our colleague. It’s the handshakes and hugs, the smiles and conversations. It’s meeting people in-person for the first time after only hearing voices and seeing faces on a screen. It’s the feeling of knowing that this industry, for all of the incredible innovation and technological advancements happening almost daily, is about the human connections we make with each other.
