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Enterprise Agility Through Tribal Teams

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights by John Yuva on 12/16/2022

Most of us worked remotely during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. We adapted quickly to new ways of working and communicating. Often, we had to collaborate differently to gain transparency and complete projects. That usually meant pulling employees from other departments into team meetings or creating more diversified, cross-functional virtual teams —with enterprise agility as the objective. The need for agility since the pandemic began is now embedded within leading enterprises. So, too, is the agile concept of workplace tribes to innovate and solve business challenges.

What Is a Tribe?

Workplace tribes are comprised of 100 or fewer employees who bring interdisciplinary backgrounds to their groups. Rather than focusing on one large business objective, tribes are assigned specific aspects of a project or initiative. For example, an enterprise may be looking for new customer markets. A tribe could have members from procurement, logistics, marketing, finance, and others who are assigned a precise country to explore its viability.

Tribal Structure and Agility

Organizations are realizing the benefits of smaller, diversified teams — where the unique skillsets of the contingent workforce can also be leveraged. The goal behind tribal teams is agility through innovative thinking and diverse perspectives. Callum Sherlock, talent acquisition lead for Cyberfort Group, writes, “In agile, you break up development into smaller increments, adopt DevOps, promote open communication, and ultimately reconfigure your teams so they include people from different departments who are responsive to problems as they arise — not six months down the line.”

The tribal approach is utilized by many companies, including Amazon and Spotify. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos believes teams and meetings are less productive with more people participating. Instead, he has a unique two-pizza rule. If there are more people than two pizzas can feed, then there are too many people involved. Of Bezos’s philosophy, Richard Brandt at The Wall Street Journal wrote, “[Bezos] wanted a decentralized, even disorganized company where independent ideas would prevail over groupthink.”

The Spotify agile strategy model is extremely comprehensive with several levels and roles. Author Abhishek Mishra breaks it down nicely in his LinkedIn article. It all begins with a Squad of 6-to-12 people who are responsible for a specific area. A Squad takes a start-up business mentality to problem-solving and innovative thinking and functions autonomously.

Each Squad includes an agile coach to keep the team moving forward on its goals. Multiple Squads that work on a related project belong to a Tribe (42-150 people). A tribal leader ensures the Squads have a productive and innovative environment. Beyond the Squad and Tribe are the Chapters and Guilds, followed by the Trio, Alliance, and Chief Architect.

Employees and Enterprises Benefit

While tribal team models can follow various structures, what they achieve is very similar. Sherlock in his LinkedIn piece says enterprises empower their employees to do their best work by removing the bureaucracy that often stifles innovative and creative thinking. “Building stronger, more rounded professionals out of all of your people, because you’re combining people with different knowledge backgrounds, everyone’s career experience is enriched. People are able to see development from different perspectives because of their newfound exposure to departments that perhaps previously, they would have never engaged with,” wrote Sherlock.

The benefits are wide-ranging for both employees and enterprises. Here are several that should make organizations question whether their teams are structured in the most optimal way.

Sense of purpose and belonging. The Future of Work Exchange frequently cites the importance that employees have a sense of purpose in their work. The tribal model does exactly that by recognizing their unique skillsets and how their perspective can add value to the team. That feeling of belonging can have a significant impact on the enterprise culture.
Cost and quality control. With smaller teams, everyone takes accountability for quality. And when issues arise, they can be solved quicker with fewer bottlenecks — leading to cost savings. Through different perspectives and knowledge, team members can bring unique solutions to business challenges.
Greater efficiency and transparency. An interdisciplinary team yields transparency that may not exist with siloed groups. As a tribal team working toward a shared goal, information sharing provides enhanced clarity for what needs to be accomplished and improved efficiency for how to achieve it.
Autonomy to deliver results. A tribal team approach respects the talent on the team and provides the autonomy to forge a path toward a solution. Embracing this new team structure may not come easily for some enterprises. However, empowerment can yield outcomes that lead to additional revenue streams or customer segments.

The tribal team concept is not revolutionary. However, in today’s volatile business landscape where agility, flexibility, and resiliency are essential, tribal teams are critical to enterprise competitiveness. One can think of them as dream teams where unique skillsets are leveraged across the organization. The Future of Work is about innovative workplace strategy and tribal teams deliver at both the enterprise and employee levels.

For a deep dive into tribal models, check out the SAFe Agile Release Train and Spotify’s squad/tribe model. Both are considered leading-edge approaches to agile teams.

Consumerization Will Continue to Shape the Future of Work

Business Leadership Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/14/2022

This past weekend, my family and I had the opportunity to watch the new Pixar movie, Turning Red, in the comfort of our own home instead of in a crowded movie theater. Now, I know this isn’t a unique scenario, as many facets of film have been changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disney+ has been a forerunner of the “the premiere is my home” line of blockbuster films over the past two years (in fact, one vivid early pandemic memory I have is rewatching Onward over and over again with my kids during those early lockdown weeks), allowing its users to access new feature films on-demand and from the comforts of the living room.

Other major films, such as The Matrix Resurrections, Black Widow, and Dune, proved that the pandemic also accelerated specific elements of consumerization, mainly the concept of on-demand and digital access to entertainment. We can all remember, as well, vying for coveted Peapod and Instacart delivery slots in the spring of 2020, which was a critical element of consumerization borne from necessity: the age of social distancing meant that many of us would rather pay a slight premium for doorstep delivery of our normal groceries instead of traversing to stores in a pre-vaccine, pandemic-led world.

The very concept of “consumerization in business” is not a new idea; for the past several years, business professionals have desired the same style and accessibility of tools, technology, and applications both in a working environment and as consumers. There was a speed in which e-commerce ran that, for many years, left enterprise technology woefully behind in terms of operating capacity. The move to the cloud, combined with a digital transformation renaissance, has changed that. Consumerization has firmly entrenched itself into the most critical tenets of the Future of Work movement.

In light of and because of the pandemic’s acceleration implications, business leaders expect the speed of the consumer in how they operate the inner-workings of the enterprise. Talent should be engaged and sourced within hours, not days or weeks. Project visibility needs to be extracted in real-time. Budgets and financial data should be proactively garnered, not requested. There is a “fluidity” that we take for granted as consumers: we buy items on Amazon with just a click, we order pizza for delivery in less than a minute’s time, and we can schedule a taxi ride just as quickly.

The consistent rate of innovation and transformation within the consumer world of technology has been creeping into the business arena; all the pandemic did was firmly push it into the fray. Two items stand out (amongst many) in this discussion, leading businesses to focus on these attributes of how they blend a consumerized culture with evolving technology.

Self-service configuration and the journey behind the UX.

Technology serves many, many purposes for the average business, however, at its entry point, it serves only one: that of the person using it. Automation in the world of the consumer must be fast, self-serving, and have a purpose; if it wasn’t, the average person would not utilize their mobile devices for the vast, vast majority of his or her daily processes (communications, content, commerce, entertainment, social networking, business networking, etc.). And so it must be for the business realm: enterprise technology needs to be applicable and accessible to all of its users while also supporting the “journey” (or purpose) within its overall user experience.

Every user must complete a specific task while leveraging an enterprise system. With this in mind, the consumerized aspects of today’s business technology should herald an overall UX that aligns with that “journey,” enabling professionals to harness the power of innovation at their very fingertips. In the same vein, the ability to mold technology into a more agile offering (something we’re absolutely experiencing in the world of workforce management automation) that is tailored to an individual user’s needs, wants, and preferences is what will help the typical enterprise in 2022 navigate not only the complexities of digital transformation, but truly thrive through innovation.

UX and self-service configuration are inherently linked, of course, with the two attributes of technology continuing to be optimized to benefit the user, the customer, the supplier, the partner, the hiring manager, etc.

Consumerization has, for several years now, danced with the business arena. Today, it’s not a matter of when this concept will shape the Future of Work, but rather, to what extent.

Services Procurement and the Future of Work: A Conversation with Paul Vincent, Global Head of Services Procurement at Randstad Sourceright

Contingent Workforce Procurement Solution Providers Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/16/2021

Last week, Randstad Sourceright announced the appointment of Paul Vincent as its Global Head of Services Procurement. In this Future of Work Exchange feature, Paul joins us to talk about how he views the current SOW management landscape, how this exciting topic fits into the greater Future of Work movement, and his new responsibilities at Randstad.

Christopher J. Dwyer: Hi Paul, it is great to chat with you once again, and congratulations on your new role. Pandemic aside, we’ve definitely seen some changes in the services procurement landscape over the past couple of years. Curious to hear your thoughts on these changes and how you feel MSPs can effectively tackle these challenges.

Paul Vincent: It’s good to catch up with you again, too, Chris, and let me start by commending you on the launch of the Future of Work Exchange. The site looks really smart, and I am sure it will become a valued resource for the talent industry.

The services procurement marketplace has unquestionably become more liberated during the past couple of years. Every MSP now seems to be selling some kind of SOW solution and buying organizations are clearly becoming more receptive to a proposal for help. VMS providers are building more tailored functionality into their platforms and there is a growing array of complementary digital tools which can further strengthen an MSP’s product offering if positioned correctly.

So, we are definitely entering a period where SOW-based spend is going to be increasingly supported by workforce solutions providers in some way. The $64M question is going to be: what way is the best way?

This is where I think the market gets most interesting. There is still quite a big difference between an MSP who really understands the nuances of the services procurement landscape versus one that fundamentally still treats this part of the workforce as a subset of an organization’s contingent staffing population.

For example, when you see an MSP only talking about classification, compliance, and control, then this is a tell-tale sign that they are not really thinking about how to best serve the people who have the need and budget for the services themselves. These people, who after all are the primary stakeholders for any SOW management solution, need an MSP who can give them speed, simplicity, ready access to the highest-performing and most innovative service providers, and ultimately the best bang for their budgetary buck.

CJD: One of the things I admire about your work in the market all these years is that you have a deep understanding of both the client and service provider sides of SOW and services procurement. What are two or three of the most valuable insights that this experience has given you?

PV: This is a tough question, Chris, as there are so many insights I could share. However, if you pushed me for my top three then I would probably select these ones.

Firstly, it is important to remember that price and perceived value are very different things. It is a common misconception that users of SOW-based services will want to pay as little as possible and this is a mentality trap that procurement professionals and MSPs can get themselves into. In a staff augmentation world, hiring managers typically don’t want to pay more than the prevailing market rate. In a services procurement world, business users want to pay an appropriate price and as it is their budget, then ultimately, they will need to decide on the price that most aligns with the value they perceive they are going to get from the service provider in return. The role of a good procurement advisor is to help their business stakeholders to identify and then critically evaluate the various commercial options open to them. Then they need to ensure that their stakeholder’s preferred option is properly encapsulated within a well-documented statement of work.

Secondly, whilst the SOW management triangle has three interdependent relationships (i.e., between the business user, centralized procurement, and the service provider), the most crucial relationship is always the one between whoever wants the work done and whoever is going to be doing the work. An effective SOW management solution will facilitate this relationship so that it is as commercially agile as possible. Those procurement functions and MSPs who seek to control this relationship instead will never be sustainably successful.

Finally, I passionately believe that an MSP should be delivering value throughout the entire SOW life cycle. However, in my experience, many MSPs seem to limit their boundary lines to the supplier selection and contracting phases in the process only. I have never understood this – because there is a huge amount of value that can be offered across the project definition, delivery, and evaluation phases, and this value often just gets left on the table.

CJD: These are great insights, Paul, and what resonates with me in particular are your observations about the breadth of the MSP value proposition when it comes to services procurement. So, turning to your new role and an obvious question is: what has attracted you to Randstad Sourceright?

PV: I am thrilled to be joining Randstad Sourceright and there were two main reasons why I could not let this opportunity pass me by. The first is the hugely ambitious and exciting vision that CEO Mike Smith has set for the organization, and in particular the impact and contribution that he expects services procurement to play. The more Mike talked me through his strategic intent for services procurement, the more I felt this was a journey that I wanted to be part of.

Secondly, I will have a chance to work with a very skilled team. Randstad Sourceright already has a number of sales, operations, and subject matter experts working on SOW-related activities across the organization and further recruitment activity is underway. All of this talent will now be unified globally under my leadership and a joint strategic vision focused on creating measurable business value for our clients. I am especially going to enjoy working with Scott Brewer, who will run our SOW center of excellence. Scott has laid some impressive foundations during the past 18 months and there is a strong platform to grow from.

CJD: This role sounds like the perfect fit for you. What do you see as your key priorities during the first few months?

PV: Well, like in any new role there are going to be many people that I will need to get to know across the organization. But I expect the bulk of my time will be spent getting a really good understanding of our current SOW proposition and what we are delivering across the active client programs. From what I have seen, I think the offering is already pretty compelling, particularly from an analytics point of view, but as I finalize our new team structure and future ways of working, I will get a feel for the areas which might have scope for further development.

CJD: Maybe it’s because I’ve known you for so long, but I have to imagine that you already have some ideas as to how you would like to see RSR’s SOW offering evolve…am I correct?

PV: You’re right, you know me well and I do have some ideas already germinating, but it’s important that I take the time to really understand the current offering first and to gather a range of input from across the organization. What I can tell you is that Mike has set me a very clear objective – which is for Randstad Sourceright to be regarded as the undisputed market leader driving services procurement value for our customers. I am very energized by this goal, and I have every intention of delivering it!

CJD: I am very sure you will, Paul, and we look forward to hearing more from you here on the Future of Work Exchange. Best wishes on your new role at Randstad Sourceright, and thanks again for taking the time so soon after your new appointment.

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn, or visit Randstad Sourceright for more information on their solutions and offerings.

The Permanence of Workplace and Workforce Transformation

Business Leadership General Insights HR Talent Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/11/2021

Around this time last year, there was a spirit of optimism that had been missing for over six months. The waning weeks of 2020’s winter brought disruption like never before, with the spring months forever etched into our minds as a period of uncertainty, fear, and anxiety. The summer of 2020 brought a sliver of hope that coronavirus cases would recede in anticipation of a better fall. We unfortunately know how the story goes from there: inching cases from September through the end of November brought one of the globe biggest’s winter surge before millions of COVID vaccines were administered through the late weeks of winter 2021 and through the spring. And yes, now we’re living a Delta variant world, but there’s at least some science-led expectancy that its enhanced transmissibility will result in a shorter surge than the ones earlier in the year.

If we look back to last summer, though, for just a moment, there was an aura of variability that sparked a temporary wave of thinking in how businesses managed their workforce and structured their workplace environments. “At some point, hopefully soon, we’ll get back to normal.” We’ve been saying it for months since then, hoping that there will be some sort of signal that it’s okay to get back to full office, cluttered highways, and crowded meeting rooms. Maybe there’ll be a point in time when those carefree, pre-pandemic days will once again be a steadfast reality, right?

Wrong.

If there’s anything that we should be discussing now, it’s the permanence of transformation. The pandemic left an indelible mark on how we get work done, from the way we engage talent to the means of aligning skillsets with specific roles and projects. In our personal worlds, we think, act, and move differently. Even those of us who are vaccinated routinely wear masks in grocery stores and other crowded areas. While there will absolutely be a day that we can battle COVID as an endemic piece of our seasonal virus gauntlet (much like the flu or the common cold), the truth is that we are all different from the collective experience of the past 18 months, which will soon be “the past two years” and then the “past 36 months.” We’re looking at a future of on-and-off mask mandates, vaccine boosters, and “embers” of hotspots where inoculation is low. We’re standing up against a continued fight against a “goldilocks” of a virus that will be with us forever.

That modicum of permanence, that we’ve been fundamentally changed…why can’t we accept that in how we conduct business? Do we really think that there will be a day sometime soon when we throw out all of the productivity gains we’ve seen from a shift to remote work? What about the realization that businesses can effectively engage top-tier talent no matter the location? And is there a point in time when enterprises suddenly stop relying on the extended workforce?

Well, no, of course not. Which means that the evolution we’ve collectively experienced as business professionals over the past 18 months is permanent, a series of uniform changes to how we think about talent and how we think about how work gets done. Consider that:

Nearly half (47%) of the total workforce is considered “non-employee,” another sharp increase from the year before and likely a result of the workforce agility gained from tapping into this on-demand, top-tier talent.
75% of businesses state that the pandemic forced them to reimagine how they apply skillsets to projects and how they structure their workforce.
70% of enterprises believe that the extended workforce effectively allowed them to be more adaptive during the challenging times of 2020.
82% of businesses expect worker flexibility and related issues (such as empathy) to permanently transform how work is done.

Look at how fast the past year-and-a-half went by and the major talent/work shifts during that time period: remote and hybrid work as fundamental layers of survival, executive leaders managing with empathy and flexibility, the agile workforce becoming even more of a tool for thriving in changing times, etc. Change can be relative in most cases, but today, it is certainly not. We’ve all collectively experienced change in our personal and professional lives, and now the permanence of workforce and workplace transformation needs to be embraced as the current and future state of work. Businesses that don’t adapt and don’t buy into the foundational revolution of change will not only be left behind, but may find themselves never being able to catch up. Everything that’s happened in the greater world of work and talent, be it the viability of hybrid work or the massive shift to worker flexibility, is part of a permanent fixture of change and progression.

Workers understand what’s at stake and it’s the main reason why resignations are at an all-time high in the scope of business history. Worker experience (what we call the “talent experience” here at FOWX) is paramount for career development and work/life balance. Flexibility has cascaded down into the very fabric of the workforce and will forever become a crucial piece of the overall talent experience.

Given the uptick in extended talent utilization, the workforce has changed. Given the uptick in remote and hybrid work, the workplace has changed. Given the requirements and criticality of flexibility and the employee experience, the worker has changed. Permanently.

Talent Intelligence and the Future of Work: A Conversation With Joe Hanna, Chief Strategy Officer at Workforce Logiq

Contingent Workforce HR Solution Providers Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/04/2021

In the world of talent and work, intelligence must be on every executive’s agenda. “Business intelligence” as a pure strategic asset has, for years, been a core objective for many an enterprise leader. In the workforce management arena, however, the realm of business intelligence traverses far beyond simple data and information regarding the organization’s current utilization of talent. The power of artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics, and other progress forms of business intelligence tools can support enterprises in their ultimate quest for true workforce agility.

Veteran Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Vendor Management System (VMS) provider Workforce Logiq has been one of the industry’s forerunners in regards to talent intelligence through its unique suite of offerings that power deeper workforce visibility. I had the opportunity to chat with the company’s Chief Strategy Officer, Joe Hanna, about the criticality of AI in the Future of Work, the strength of total talent intelligence, and the future of the agile workforce.

Christopher J. Dwyer: Joe, thanks for taking the time to speak with me. The last time you and I were in a public forum together, we were fresh off the heels of Workforce Logiq acquiring ENGAGE Talent. Safe to say that a lot has happened since then!

Joe Hanna: Thank you for having me, Chris. Workforce Logiq has certainly been busy since we last spoke, and we wouldn’t have it any other way! For starters, we’ve rolled out our proprietary Total Talent Intelligence platform® globally to the US, UK, Sweden, India, Germany, and France and have more geographic expansions planned throughout 2021. And, you should know our platform is powered by the analytics, benchmarks, and insights delivered by what the ENGAGE team developed prior to – and after the acquisition by Workforce Logiq.

We’ve also innovated and developed several new offerings to help employers attract and retain talent during this transformative time for the industry. We launched IQ Talent Diversity^SM, an AI-powered tool that enables organizations to build bigger pipelines of diverse talent faster by predicting candidates most likely to have diverse backgrounds. Employers can use the intelligence to drive progress toward their diversity and inclusion (D&I) goals and compare their company’s diversity hiring performance against industry, competitor, and national benchmarks.

To support companies through the shift to remote work and in making return to office decisions, we released our IQ Location Optimizer^SM last summer. The solution enables data-driven decisions on the best markets from which to source talent and whether remote arrangements make sense for a given role.

We also recently teamed up with LinkUp to offer the market’s first 360-degree predictive view of both talent supply and demand. We’re very excited about this partnership because the unique picture gives employers deep, strategic insight into the competitiveness of specific markets that they can use to gain a tangible edge, especially as we continue to navigate through this period of ‘Great Resignation.’

Other updates include the release of our IQ Supplier Optimizer^SM which marked our sixteenth patent filing, and IQ Rate Optimizer^SM which benchmarks how much an organization needs to pay to attract and win contingent and full-time talent based on unique, company-specific factors.

CJD: Workforce Logiq is known for their innovation within the talent intelligence arena, something that is critical in today’s evolving world of work. Why is this such a differentiator?

JH: Today’s labor market is incredibly dynamic – and hyper-uncertain. One day can look drastically different from the next, especially during global shocks like COVID. Proactivity and the ability to make confident, fast, data-based decisions about talent are what sets companies apart and helps them build an optimal workforce to navigate the uncertainty. Leveraging predictive intelligence is what creates that differentiator for organizations so that they stay one – or multiple steps ahead of their competitors.

At Workforce Logiq we’re committed to delivering those advanced and predictive capabilities and continuously innovating to help our clients solve both today and tomorrow’s workforce management challenges. We’re able to do this because of our talented and dedicated data science and talent economist team. This team designed our existing sixteen patented and patent-pending innovations and built our Total Talent Intelligence platform®, which is the most complete, modular, and integrated workforce management technology solution on the market.

CJD: Exciting news about the exclusive data partnership with LinkUp! Tell us a little more about it.

JH: Absolutely! LinkUp’s proprietary demand data and analytics, which are a perfect complement to Workforce Logiq’s patented supply intelligence, now integrate directly into our Total Talent Intelligence® platform. This means that clients get the first 360-degree predictive view of both talent supply and demand within the labor market.

The alliance gives clients deep insight into the competitiveness of specific markets, the full-time and contingent roles competitors are actively looking for, the skills most in-demand, and more. It’s a major development that enables employers to uncover their biggest talent-related risks and opportunities, and equips them with even more data-driven insight to win the talent they need for an optimal workforce.

The partnership is mutually beneficial. LinkUp’s insights enhance our algorithms and enable our clients to make impactful and cost-effective talent decisions. LinkUp’s financial and capital market customers get special access to our anonymized volatility, job, skills, and company-level data which are based on one billion data points, 40,000 sources, and analytics on over 19 million global companies. This puts them in an even better position to drive forward their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies.

We chose to partner with LinkUp because their mission around predictive intelligence aligns very well with our own, and unlike other job search engines, LinkUp is the only to index jobs solely posted by companies on their own websites. This makes LinkUp the highest quality index of global job postings on the market.

CJD: “Workforce agility” has become paramount, especially in a business world that relies on on-demand data to make more educated, real-time talent decisions. How can Workforce Logiq clients tap into your multiple intelligence-led offerings to become more agile?

JH: All our offerings are built to give employers the real-time and forward-looking insight they need to be agile. Having predictive data and insights at your fingertips is key for making smart decisions quickly and acting confidently under pressure.

Consider the current ‘Great Resignation’ trend that is impacting all sectors. Navigating this dramatic increase in resignations means quickly winning over external candidates who are eager to make a move, while simultaneously identifying and getting out in front of internal retention issues.

From a talent acquisition perspective, our predictive tools identify the best markets to look for new talent and competitors’ employees open to jumping jobs so that employers can sustain a strong talent pipeline and fill future skills gaps. On the retention side, our algorithms surface insight on employees most at risk of quitting and why they might be inclined to resign by identifying the workplace attributes most important to these workers. This enables employers to proactively address attrition before it impacts the business.

This is just one powerful example of how technology can help organizations be agile, resilient, and equipped with an optimal workforce.

CJD: Do you feel that the LinkUp partnership is a seismic event for our industry? The Managed Service Provider (MSP) model has evolved so much over the past few years.

JH: Yes, we consider this partnership a significant industry development. The truly unique combination of predictive talent supply and demand intelligence gives Workforce Logiq expert advisors even better and more strategic insights to help clients with their recruitment and retention strategies.

The MSP-client relationship is significantly evolving. Providers are increasingly stepping up to help clients through the fundamentally changing talent landscape. Workforce Logiq is committed to developing our technology and service offerings in the ways that best support our global clients and help them meet their goals, whether that’s navigating the hybrid work transition, building rich and diverse talent pipelines, optimizing candidate searches, or another strategic imperative.

CJD: What does the Future of Work look like over the second half of 2021? What’s in store for the greater world of talent and work?

JH: We expect more workers to be receptive to changing jobs and unsolicited recruiting calls well into the Fall. Data from our recent benchmark flash report shows a nearly 70% quarterly increase in volatility (i.e., workers interested in exploring other job opportunities or unsolicited recruiting messages in the next 60-to-90 days) across the top 35 job categories that we track.

This high number isn’t surprising. Employees are actively looking for more flexibility, work/life balance, money, and career advancement opportunities. As talent continues to rethink job and career choices, employers also need to adapt and hone their workforce strategies, processes, and technology infrastructure to effectively attract and retain talent and foster appealing work environments.

The Impact of the Delta Variant on the World of Talent and Work

Business Leadership General Insights Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 08/02/2021

Throughout 2020, businesses across the globe waited with bated breath for the development of a medical marvel to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Up until late year, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) were the best (and only) way to stop the spread of the coronavirus. When Pfizer was the first Big Pharma firm to hit its vaccine home run, both the business and personal sides of our personas were exalted with joy and relief.

We’re now seven months into the most critical vaccination campaign in history, and, once again, the slithering coronavirus is continuing to wreak havoc. Once a “variant of interest,” the “Delta variant,” much like its predecessors (Alpha, etc.) has become the dominant strain of the virus across the world. In the United States, which just recently experienced an incredible decline in cases alongside millions of vaccinations per day, has now seen yet another sharp uptick in cases and hospitalizations due to the increased transmissibility of the Delta variant, which suggests is as easily spreadable as the chicken pox (which is, in non-scientific terms, not good). Just a little over a month ago, the seven-day moving average of cases hovered around 12,000. Today, that same seven-day moving average has hit 72,000.

All of this essentially means one thing: within the next several weeks, people are either 1) going to be vaccinated, or, 2) going to contract the Delta variant. The big ideas around the summer being a time of reopening, celebration, and a return to normalcy have all been thrown into a tailspin, especially knowing that this variant results in more frequent breakthrough cases and can possibly be spread by even the vaccinated population. The question, though, remains: what does it mean for business?

Many organizations have been pivoting and adapting for so long that it remains an easy decision on how to spin their reopening or “return to the office” plans; these enterprises can effectively continue doing whatever they have been doing, whether it’s continuing a fully-remote work model or leveraging the power of the hybrid model. In most cases, these business leaders have already have the foundational tools to weather the next several weeks. However, for those businesses that have struggled or have spent the past few weeks touting a “big return,” what should be the plan of attack?

First and foremost, base whichever workplace strategy on science and data. It’s too easy for executives to base summer strategies on country or global data and make decisions from there. The CDC did have a more pointed line of thinking with mask mandates, though, as it relates to the spread of the Delta variant: for individuals in “high prevalence” areas, masks should be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status. In those counties with “low prevalence,” masks for vaccinated persons can be left up to the individual. The same should apply for the business mindset with a pinch of salt: utilize the county-level, data-based approach but understand that workers may be traveling from further regions that are in areas of higher prevalence. And, also understand that with cases surging in nearly 70% of the United States, it may only be a matter of time before we’re all re-masking in indoor settings once again.
Safety must be paramount, no matter the strategy. It can be incredibly disheartening (and exhausting) to have to reissue mask mandates and social distancing awareness within an office after a few months of relaxed guidelines. The good news throughout all of this (as I read in a New York Times newsletter on Friday morning) is that the Delta variant’s anticipated surge in the UK never truly occurred, petering out at 25% of its estimated peak before settling back to the mean. Owed to increased transmissibility, the sheer volume of inoculated individuals, and the continued mysteries around this novel coronavirus, we may (hopefully) not experience the same type of surge we saw in the winter months (when cases were hitting 250,000/day). However, workplace safety must be paramount, and if business leaders must reissue mask mandates even for those vaccinated, or, alternatively, continue in remote or hybrid settings, it will ensure that physical well-being remains a priority.
Focus on empathy and flexibility as continued strategies. For some regions, working parents are about to send their kids back to the second school year under pandemic culture. For others, the Delta variant remains a cause for concern for workers that are immunocompromised or live with immunocompromised individuals. Adding in yet another layer of stress can be deficient to worker productivity if there is unease regarding a return to a physical location, so business leaders and managers must continue to focus on their empathy-led direction and be flexible in how units and professionals choose to get work done. It’s been nearly 18 months of adaptability…what’s a few more weeks? Or a couple more months? By now, we know what works in remote settings and what does not. For many professionals, even being around disruptive home life has resulted in the best possible levels of productivity and an enhanced work-life balance. This mode of thinking must cascade up to the leadership suite: continue being flexible in how work gets done, continue to lead with empathy, and, most importantly, be aware of worker well-being and their emotions.
Broach the great vaccination debate and stick to a plan. It has been proven that privately-owned businesses can mandate vaccinations for their workers. Before the emergency use-authorized vaccines were actually available, this was a discussion that had started to gain steam by both those who believed that vaccinations were the only way out of this pandemic versus those who were vehemently against a series of vaccines that were developed in record time. This debate has raged on for months now, with many individuals wary of the three EUA-approved jabs or downright against the very concept of them due to longstanding (and incorrect) beliefs that COVID-19 was nothing more than a hoax. With so many heartbreaking stories of younger individuals being intubated and realizing that it did not have to come to such measures if they had only been vaccinated, the scientific truth is that Delta’s transmissibility will seek out those who are not inoculated and wreak havoc. Business leaders are in a tough position: do they mandate vaccinations as a condition of employment for the sake of science and safety but risk alienating workers that do not want to be told to be vaccinated, or, allow workers to decide for themselves and possibly risk a local surge that could be incredibly disruptive to business operations? No matter the decision here, leaders cannot waffle; if the mandate is the best way to move forward, stick to this plan and ensure that workers have all of the support they need, be it time off to receive the shot, an extra day to deal with possible side effects, etc. Empathy here, as always, will be helpful in executing such a plan.
Above all else, the power of communication will be key. Throughout the entirety of the pandemic, one of the worst ramifications on professionals and workers was an overwhelming feeling of anxiety sparked by uncertainty. Business leaders cannot muddle through decision-making and cause panic or worry amongst the workforce. They need to use this time, especially as science continues to uncover the continued possibilities of vaccination breakthroughs (and whether those who have been jabbed can spread the virus as robustly as those who are unvaccinated), and clearly communicate short-term plans with their teams. Inform that changing environments may delay reopening plans and that the executive team is keen on science and data in designing the next wave of back-to-office planning. For workers, knowing that they will be in a remote or hybrid environment for several more weeks can alleviate some of that anxiety and ensure that they can focus on being productive.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to throw curveballs at us. It’s a novel virus that has mysterious consequences and an uncertain origin. The last thing anyone should expect at this point is a premature declaration of victory. What’s so much different today than last year is that we have actual tools in highly-efficacious vaccines that prevent the worst possible scenarios of COVID while allowing those who are vaccinated some small semblance of normalcy.

Businesses have been stuck in a perpetual cycle of change, adaptation, and uncertainty. Looking across the country (and other regions around the glove), tourism is nearly back to where it was pre-pandemic. The global economy is nearing early 2020 levels, as well. The speed of destruction caused by the Delta variant, however, could very well result in some rigid restrictions that we thought were gone for good. However, if the path ahead, especially over the course of the next month or two, means that businesses have to pause office reopenings and stick to what has worked best over the past 18 months, well, then, they know exactly what to do and how to do it.

The Future of Work movement has long been predicated on evolution, flexibility, and change. The concepts behind the Future of Work’s core principles were ideal accelerants for a business world begging for change and progression. Delta is taking its best shot right now and flaring up cases across the world and especially within the United States. It’s certainly exasperating to go from the highs of millions of vaccinations per day to a 700% increase in daily cases, however, businesses have been resilient throughout the past several months and there should be no expectation that this will change however long Delta continues to blaze through the hopeful final months of the biggest public health crisis of our lifetime.

With the Workforce at a Breaking Point, What is the Role of Agile Talent?

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 07/09/2021

The United States is at an interesting crossroads in relation to its total workforce: after historic unemployment and severe staffing disruption at a year ago at this time, most labor rates concerning FTEs would (typically) indicate that business is as close to a normal state. However, according to The Atlantic and stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “more Americans quit in May than any other month on record going back to the beginning of the century.”

A choice to move away from a steady, paying job in the midst of a global pandemic may not seem like the best of moves. Back in the earliest days of the crisis, I remember telling some close friends (as well as a family member) that were unhappy in their current roles to look past the undesirable aspects of their positions until there was more clarity regarding the continued effects of the pandemic on the global workforce. (Please note: in any other circumstance, I would never offer this once-in-a-lifetime sage advice, namely because I’m a proponent of the talent experience, employee engagement, and both contingent and full-time workers enjoying a positive familiarity with their roles and where they fit into their current organizations rather than gutting out and trudging along in a business that leaves them and their skillsets unfulfilled.)

The US is in an enviable state when compared to the rest of the world. The vast, vast majority of the country has removed coronavirus restrictions, dropped mask mandates (minus medical and specific facilities, as well as public transportation), and generally celebrating a return to normalcy (even though there are still hundreds of deaths daily and an average of ~10,000 new cases a day, but I digress). The culmination of 16 months’ worth of workforce evolution (not all of it positive) has left workers at an odd tipping point: they are not afraid to leave behind less-than-desirable roles anymore.

There are clear delineations in the overall perspectives of today’s workers that could have major ramifications in the months ahead. First off, the majority of businesses are slowly figuring out the best approach (be it hybrid, fully remote, etc.) for its workplace environment. This will surely affect how businesses view corporate real estate, and, to a larger extent, how they strategize around which modes of work result in the most productive business outcomes. Businesses are at a tipping point regarding the value of new work models; no one executive fully knows what is best for its organization after a year of uncertainty. These leaders must experiment and leverage various models until the one, screaming best result is there…and then adopt it for good.

One of the major reasons why the workforce is facing a “quitting crisis” is because so many workers became accustomed to a workplace culture that fostered empathy, flexibility, and evolving ways of measuring productivity. Going back to a 9-to-5 grind, including brutal commutes on both ends, isn’t going to cut it for those workers that thrived during the pandemic and know that their top-tier skills are in-demand. Furthermore, business leaders cannot suddenly shift their emotional attitudes from “supportive” to “drill sergeant” just because it’s safer to welcome workers back to office.

A major fallout from these aspects could be a “reawakening” to the value of the extended workforce vis a vie the realization that workers don’t need to be in the corporation’s backyard to have a critical impact, nor do talented workers have to stay put in an environment that they do not desire. Simply put: the move to remote work (and additional workplace flexibility) opened many doors for non-employee talent and its influence on how work gets done. Take direct sourcing, for example; more and more businesses were willing to invite larger numbers of candidates into their talent pools for the sheer purpose of planning for a future when things were better. When economic conditions recovered, hiring managers could scale up their workforce by tapping into talent communities or talent pools.

Agile talent will play a critical role in the future of the global workforce. Labor market data may look promising on the surface, however, digging deeper only uncovers the fact more and more workers will choose flexibility and independence over a return to pre-pandemic workplace culture. Contingent labor has always been a strategic asset, and, as it continued to evolve into a truly dynamic means of getting work done, the post-pandemic workforce will shine as a direct result of an increased reliance on agile talent.

What Does 2021 Hold for the Agile Workforce and the Future of Work? (Part II)

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/24/2021

Last week, we discussed the many tenets of the Future of Work that will play invaluable roles in 2021, including diversity and inclusion, direct sourcing, new talent channels, the depth of transformational business thinking, flexibility- and empathy-led leadership, and the overall impact of new technology and innovative solutions.

I once again spoke with several contingent workforce, HR, and talent acquisition technology leaders over the past week to gain their perspectives on what’s in store for the Future of Work and the agile/extended workforce in the months ahead:

Murali Mazhavanchery, VP of Product, Utmost

“The Future of Work is here. Clearly, we now know that new business models and workforce dynamics are needed – and that means almost all of what we know is not useful. Agility in all dimensions is the only certainty – and that starts with the talent to run these businesses. What is the talent profile I need, how much, when, and where do I need them, and what do they cost? The organizations that thrive in 2021 and beyond will be the ones that embrace flexibility in talent – using a mix of employees and extended workforce, direct employment, direct sourcing, staff augmentation, and strategic services – and have extreme elasticity in logistics such as location, hours, and qualifications. This requires enterprises to define a continuous, always-on process that involves multiple channels, pipelines, and worker scenarios. To enable this transformation, there’s an acute need right now for modern, purpose-built technology that manages large ecosystems of workers and worker channels that each look and act very differently.”

Geoff Dubiski, Chief Solutions Officer, Workforce Logiq

“Leveraging a unified brand, remote and agile work engagements, and the prospect of a boundary-less talent pool – Contingent, FT, and Gig – allows organizations to challenge traditional hiring mindsets; the benefits of total talent acquisition is closer than you think.”

Sunil Bagai, CEO, Crowdstaffing

“We are seeing trends that businesses are increasing their use of direct sourcing to take advantage of their existing talent pools like their Career Website, ATS, Alumni and Referral Networks, and Silver Medalists, as well as extend their reach into additional talent pools like online marketplaces, job boards and other digital sources to more effectively search for the right candidates across a variety of available talent pools. Not only does direct sourcing improve hiring outcomes, but it provides tangible cost savings.”

Mike Wachholz, CEO, Geometric Results, Inc. (GRI)

“As organizations wrestle with the “post-pandemic” work paradigm, those companies that are best positioned to bring relevant jobs at the right moment to candidates will win the competition for top talent. In addition to flexibility in work location, and perhaps more importantly, is how organizations find, engage, vet, and attract the right talent. By leveraging a Direct Sourcing model and proactively developing and cultivating private talent pools, companies will be on the front foot in 2021 when it comes to talent engagement.”

Chris Johnson, Director of Industry Strategy, Checkr

“Jeff Bezos once said, “Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf.”

This intense focus and desire to meet our growing consumer expectations has conditioned the world to expect access to instant data driven results in the palm of their hands. The most successful retailers have sophisticated systems that enable real time access to availability, pricing, peer reviews, and additional product recommendations that give us insights that simply can’t be had in the brick-and-mortar experience.

This expectation has become table stakes for all of us in almost everything we do from ordering food to finding a vacation rental. Think about names like Uber, Amazon, and AirBnB…now think about how integrated these brands are in our daily life. We “Uber” to work, we “Prime” a red dress, and we stay at an “AirBnB” on vacation.

You can use any of these services with just a few clicks and in less time than it takes to order a coffee. They have compressed processes that took multiple steps and people into ones that take minutes and are now self-service – This is the “Sign up Culture” and what the modern candidate expects.

Staffing agencies are now adapting to this world of dissatisfied consumers. The growth of signup culture combined with the unprecedented digital shift of 2020 has changed the job market forever. Agencies that want to keep up need to understand what has changed and how it impacts them. You have a split second to capture a candidate’s interest. That means staffing recruiters have to think like marketers.”

Tim Meehan, Global Head, Innovation Lab at Pontoon Solutions

“When it comes to talent pools or, Talent Rivers, as we call them at Pontoon, finding talent with a just-in-time approach is the most effective way to proactively establish, develop and maintain a selection of screened, pre-selected candidates for our clients. Talent Rivers incorporate workforce demand, D&I targets and strategic routes to new candidate markets.”

Joey Frasier, Co-Founder and CEO, Shortlist

“Shortlist has always been a family-first organization out of necessity but also believe that in order for our talent to bring the best to our customers they first needed to be ‘whole’ themselves – mentally and physically. The challenges of 2020 demonstrated more than ever that getting the best out of people isn’t about balancing work and life but instead integrating our family into our work. The pandemic, economic crisis, social injustice debates have made it clearer than ever that organizations can’t treat people as ‘just workers’ but need to focus on talent as whole individuals. I feel confident that the organizations that will be most successful in the year(s) ahead will be those that decide that a family-first culture, where health is the top priority, and that is a manager’s top focus day-to-day.”

“The past year has unfortunately shown us how “at risk” contingent labor can be as most organizations made quick cuts to contractors as they were the easiest line item in the budget to reduce spend in. That said, there is a new recognition that global health crises, global social unrest and related or unrelated global economic disruptions can all affect businesses and their supply chains more rapidly than ever before. Therefore, in the year(s) ahead, I believe that organizations are going to be more focused on improving their Capital Workforce Agility – or simply stated, the amount of total talent spend that is flexible and agile (contingent) vs fixed (full-time employees) is going to continue to increase in favour of flexibility and agility. This isn’t a negative but a positive for talent. Organizations will need to enhance their focus on improving how they engage with this non-full-time workforce and how they ensure mutually beneficial relationships with this talent as they’ll want to be the “first choice” or talent when multiple opportunities come up. Workforce capital agility and overall workforce capital efficiency will be a top C-Suite priority across all functions with a priority place on HR and finance.”

Taylor Ramchandani, Product Manager, VectorVMS

“Something we have been asked more frequently about by our clients is how to move from having diverse suppliers to having a more diverse candidate base. I foresee over the next year increasingly more interest in tracking and measuring diversity and inclusion in the contingent workforce and using that data to identify gaps in not only engagement but attraction of candidates.”

“We have seen organizations work in interesting ways over the past year to keep up with the changes that have been thrown at us. We have seen our clients turn to talent pools to help them manage furloughed staff, create pools of pre-credentialed healthcare staff, and bring back alumni talent to reduce ramp-up time and save cost.”

Bernie Caputo, President of Contingent Workforce Solutions, Atrium

“Imagine the strength of talent acquisition when you connect our dedicated recruiters to your brand influence and existing resources to rapidly fill temporary roles — without additional overhead, but with significant cost savings.”

Kelly Couto, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions, Atrium

“As the rise of remote work removes sourcing barriers, and social responsibility shifts corporate mindsets from value streams to valuing the people who influence them, the possibilities of a flexible workforce are boundless.”

Marlon Rosenzweig, CEO and Co-Founder, WorkGenius

“Digital staffing and traditional staffing models are converging. Talent is working remotely and online platforms process W2s just as well these days. Finding the right talent is key and while humans may have an edge at it, that edge is declining as technology gets better and better. Hybrid models of humans and machines provide for a smooth transition in the meantime.”

“Fractional employment requires new models for mortgage underwriting, health insurance pricing and more. While some of this will be taken care of by the free market, governments should ensure not to get in the way of providing freelancers with the freedom they sought in the first place when becoming freelancers.”

Jan Alexander Jedlinski, Founder and CEO, Gustav

“The staffing agency and recruiter market will see a massive digital transformation. Staffing agencies and their talent supply will become more accessible online through deployment platforms. Staffing agencies and recruiters who will adapt to this shift will look more like talent curators and use technology to provide faster access to available talent for their end clients.”

“Staffing agencies and recruiters will have a massive opportunity to put millions of people back to work. You will see technology and services around the traditional staffing agency model evolve. The agency will become a talent curator and technology platforms and services like EOR will play a dominant role driving the operations for the agency in the background.”

What Does 2021 Hold for the Agile Workforce and the Future of Work? (Part I)

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/21/2021

If you caught last week’s Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, we chatted about several distinct attributes of the world of work and talent that will be transformed in the year ahead. In the span of just under 30 minutes, we just barely scratched the surface of the vast possibilities that the Future of Work movement will have on businesses across the globe over the next 12 months, given the many “accelerants” that contributed to work optimization in 2020.

There are many tenets of the Future of Work that will play invaluable roles in 2021, including diversity and inclusion, direct sourcing, new talent channels, the depth of transformational business thinking, flexibility- and empathy-led leadership, and the overall impact of new technology and innovative solutions.

I spoke with several contingent workforce, HR, and talent acquisition technology leaders over the past week to gain their perspectives on what’s in store for the Future of Work and the agile/extended workforce in the months ahead:

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“The events of 2020 make me a bit reticent to make any predictions for 2021, but I’ll try! As the pandemic comes to an end due to a combination of vaccine distribution and herd immunity, I think we’ll see companies adopt a blended in office and remote work strategy for their entire workforces. Some jobs will be 100% in the office and others will be 100% remote but, for a large number of professional workers, we’ll see a mix where key activities return to being in person. At the same time, specifically as it relates to the extended workforce, companies will continue to engage workers in locations where they don’t have a physical presence as they’ve learned that they can grow their talent pools and drive down both time-to-fill and costs by doing so.”

William T. Rolack, Sr., VP of Diversity and Inclusion, Workforce Logiq

“With real incentives for tangible results, D&I leaders are in a better position to move beyond tracking diverse supply chain expenditures to drive real impact on overall employee representation. And, those often overlooked contingent workers must be a part of the diversity dialogue. With the call for workplace equity, regardless of worker type, and because contingent workers are strong talent pool for full time positions, organizations risk missing the mark if they focus their D&I efforts solely on their full-time workforce.”

“Diversity and inclusion isn’t a “program.” Too many organizations today treat it as an ad-hoc initiative. Employers that have fostered real cultures of belonging understand D&I needs to permeate the organization at the core, and be a lens through which senior leaders invest, act, and make decisions. Real progress can only occur when employers understand this interconnectivity and link D&I initiatives with their larger business objectives.”

Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder, The Mom Project

“We are seeing more and more companies turn to The Mom Project for help building diverse talent communities. That signals to me that, while there’s a real commitment and willingness to invest in diversity and inclusion, many companies are still trying to identify the right partners that will actually help them move the needle. We developed our Diverse Talent Cloud offering to connect our partners and customers with the best talent communities of diverse candidates. I think you’ll see more companies look for solutions like The Mom Project as they get serious and strategic about converting their diversity objectives into impact.”

“Forty percent of our community of 400,000 working parents are women of color. When I see stats saying approximately 60 percent of the jobs eliminated the first months of the pandemic were held by women and that women of color were disproportionately affected, I am reminded that our mission of finding moms jobs is more important than ever. One of the things we’re doing beyond connecting diverse talent with flexible, professional work is funding initiatives like RISE, an upskilling and opportunity-creation program for women and families. It’s a virtuous circle that bolsters the program and the mission benefiting everyone involved.”

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

“A world where more than 50% of the workforce is not FTE is not too far into the distant future. In fact, the contingent workforce landscape is growing at an unprecedented rate – with approximately over 40% of all skilled workers being contingent vs. full-time. As employers begin to augment their human capital strategies to accommodate for this shift in the market, many leading organizations are supplementing traditional sourcing channels by creating private talent pools of known (alumni, silver medalists, referrals, retirees) and unknown (brand-attracted) talent. Done correctly, direct sourcing powers significant cost savings, improved talent quality and faster time to fill. However, some organizations are finding the execution of direct-sourcing programs more difficult than anticipated and struggling to realize the full benefits. Often, the use of multiple vendors is the culprit, creating bottlenecks, discontinuity and inefficiencies. When powered by cutting-edge technology and human expertise, a single direct-sourcing platform eliminates disjointed communication between parties, reduces confusion and inefficiency created by overlapping responsibilities, and aligns all interactions to one service team.”

Jim McCoy, SVP of Talent Solutions, ManpowerGroup

“Increasing DE&I in existing markets where local demographics do not align with targeted skill sets has limited success unless remote sourcing is leveraged properly. Increasing candidate diversity is best achieved in markets where diverse candidates actually reside. 52% of school age children are learning remotely at least part-time and 1/3 of children under 12 years old lack adult supervision. To attract diverse candidates, accommodating the priority needs of workers, such as childcare, is increasingly critical.”

“In 2020, many employers had to contend with employees who had to log off or step away from their jobs for 10-to-14 days at a time, requiring them to reallocate skills to their remaining workforce or assign managers to take on additional responsibilities. The willingness of workers to take on dual roles is a short-term reality as competitors seek to hire singular skills, increasing risk and rate of turnover, and the trend of overperformers taking on extra work will not continue indefinitely.”

In industries such as IT, where the demand for talent increased due to COVID-19, competitive pay has been critical. There was little to no unemployment for IT workers, who shouldered essential responsibilities of helping companies deploy most of their employees to work from home while also maintaining the highest levels of cyber security. As long as IT workers are receiving appropriate compensation, they are less inclined to switch jobs and move to a new company where they will have less tenure.”

Saleem Khaja, COO and Co-Founder, WorkLLama

“While the usual priorities around cost optimization and DEI 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.”

Vanessa Janus, Vice President, Enterprise Solutions, DZConneX (A Yoh Company)

“Direct sourcing and proactive talent pools have quickly become a critical component to a total talent strategy as organizations seek ways to provide a unified high level candidate experience and strong employee value proposition regardless of labor type. Direct Sourcing, as part of a holistic vision of your talent acquisition program, is more important than ever in order to attract the most qualified and diverse talent faster and more cost effectively.”

“The challenge going forward will be to ensure a company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are happening for all labor types and talent acquisition streams. Thus, the rise in direct sourcing and total talent management to help not only increase visibility but to also unify and maximize D&I efforts.”

Dave Putt, SVP Sales and Marketing Strategies, ELEVATE

“We see the adoption of direct talent sourcing has been slow and steady. More importantly, there is an on-going appetite from customers and partners to include talent pooling and other direct sourcing capabilities into our ELEVATE VMS.”

The Next Evolution of the Agile Workforce

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/28/2021

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.