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Digital Staffing

Digital Staffing, Talent Marketplaces, and the “Elastic Workforce”

TalentTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

It’s no great secret that the many layers of talent acquisition and talent engagement have been transformed over the past two years. Businesses, dealing with both a “Talent Revolution” and “The Great Resignation,” continue wage war for skillsets and expertise in an on-demand economy that demands agility and flexibility.

Digital staffing solutions and talent marketplaces have been augmenting talent engagement for a number of years. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research have been covering, evaluating, and following these platforms for nearly a decade; we have discovered that adoption of these solutions has increased nearly 725% since 2015, a surefire marker of the high-impact, top-tier benefits of these platforms.

There’s a reason why talent marketplaces have become such critical pieces of the Future of Work puzzle: they drive true workforce agility, scalability, and flexibility. Future of Work Exchange research found that, in 2021, nearly 84% of digital staffing and talent marketplace users stated that their extended workforce drove true scalability and flexibility in the face of challenging times. Being able to plug-and-play talent as the market dictates is a powerful competency that can empower enterprises of all sizes with an ability to engage with many of the best and brightest minds in an on-demand manner. Throughout the toughest days of 2020 when uncertainty reigned, companies were constantly reshuffling their workforce strategies.

In 2021, those businesses that could effectively harness the power of a scalable workforce were the ones that entered 2022 with the ability to thrive during evolving labor market conditions. Best-in-Class organizations are 32% more likely to tap into digital staffing outlets for talent acquisition needs. These offerings are often considered enterprise-grade solutions that facilitate real-time and on-demand talent engagement with independent, freelance, or contract workers via a web-based network or portal. Talent marketplaces typically offer “white-glove” or high-touch talent management services (akin to Managed Service Providers) to help their clients source the best-fit talent for their project requirements as well as the automation of core workforce management processes (such as requisition management, talent pool development, and back-end financial operations).

I encourage you to join Bluecrew, Ardent Partners, and the Future of Work Exchange on Thursday, February 24 at 1pm CT for an exclusive webcast on the advantages of the talent marketplace model, its impact on building an “elastic workforce,” and the core workforce strategies required for successful extended workforce management. Click here on or on the image below to register.

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FOWX Notes: January 7 Edition

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

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

  • According to the United States Department of Labor, a record 4.5 million individuals resigned from their jobs/positions in November 2021, a figure that is a touch higher than the previous high (September 2021, in which 4.4 million workers quit). As I discussed yesterday on the latest episode of the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, there’s so much more to the so-called “Great Resignation” than just workers leaving their jobs over compensation concerns. Plenty of individuals are worried about workplace conditions and equitable treatment, disillusionment with career trajectories and company culture, and a general unhappiness given the stakes of the pandemic. It’s no longer a question of when workers will come back, but rather how: two questions must have the proper response for workers in 2022: 1) “Is this what I want?”, and, 2) “Is this what I need?”
  • Instagram’s former Global VP of Marketing, Melissa Waters, joined Upwork as its new Chief Marketing Officer. Exciting times continue for the digital staffing giant as they continue to innovate around the evolving world of work and talent, especially on the heels of several new executive additions last month to its product and experience (PEX) and engineering teams.
  • It’s refreshing to see some new takes on the workforce management technology industry, especially from tech veterans like Utmost’s Annrai O’Toole. Annrai’s recent “2021 recap” included a thought that the Future of Work Exchange is incredibly passionate about: getting work done. “You need to step back and think about the core problem: a manager is simply looking for the best way to get work done. What is the fastest, most cost-effective way to get a task performed?”
  • Vaccine mandate legal drama takes center stage again today as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments (after cutting their holiday period short) on two separate accounts. There’s not so much clarity on exactly how these short-term cases will proceed given that they are part of the court’s “shadow docket” and not its regular calendar of hearings/issues, but rather, as succinctly stated by CNN, how “the ruling may provide a window into the court’s thinking that may be instructive to lower courts and serve as a precursor of what will happen when the court is faced with the same or a similar issue in the future.” In short: action coming out of these two arguments may influence how other court and legal systems around the country deal with vaccine mandates when they face their delayed rollout next month.
  • Pediatric hospitalizations and COVID cases in children are on a worrisome trajectory, meaning that the specter of remote school still hangs in the air. Some school districts across the United States are shuffling between remote and traditional in-person learning, with some major universities delayed a return to live classes until late January (many, many elementary, middle, and high schools have also delayed post-holiday returns to the classroom). While I don’t believe that we will see full-scale, longer-term remote learning as we did throughout the 2020-2021 school year, there is something here for every business leader to keep an eye on. Working parents are already stressed over exposure in the classroom; adding the pressure of a possible return to remote learning is, frankly, devastating. Business leaders must be prepared to offer more flexible working environments in the event that schooling changes ebb-and-flow over the next several weeks as Omicron blazes through the population.
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Key Providers for 2021: Toptal

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Background:

Well before the pandemic, the agile workforce was a transformational way of getting work done. Businesses were afforded with on-demand means of engaging and sourcing top-tier expertise and skillsets without the laborious processes of old standing in the way. While talent marketplaces and digital staffing outlets aren’t necessarily new to the Future of Work scene, their value has never been more apparent in a business world that craves the dynamic value that the extended workforce brings to the contemporary organization.

Today, businesses require digital staffing channels that can connect businesses with highly-skilled talent in near-real-time, helping to build truly agile workforces that can support and augment the critical ways work is done. Talent marketplaces have experienced incredible (over 700%) growth over the past five years, due to their ability to plug-and-play extended talent directly into the enterprise whilst fully-aligning with the core elements of projects and positions.

Enter Toptal.

Why They Were Selected:

Future of Work Exchange research finds that the pandemic forced 75% of businesses to reimagine how they applied skillsets and expertise to core projects and initiatives given the many shifts happening within the greater world of work. Without access to traditional in-person hiring and requiring solutions that would augment workforce scalability, businesses turned to digital and on-demand staffing platforms to quickly channel top-tier talent into their organizations’ mission-critical endeavors.

The Toptal Enterprise solution is a multi-faceted, services-oriented offering that allows users a range of nimble talent engagement models; by building on its deep talent marketplace and talent community, Toptal has the ability to helps its clients in a variety of ways, leveraging the power of the solution’s network to fill short-term, single-use talent needs or build a fully-scalable team of distributed talent.

In Their Own Words:

Toptal LLC operates a curated network of highly skilled freelance talent with business, design, and technology expertise that allows companies to scale their teams on-demand. Founded in 2010, the company now has the world’s largest fully remote workforce. Toptal has served more than 10,000 clients with a global network of talent exceeding 6,000 people in 100+ countries. For more information, please visit Toptal.com.

The Outlook:

By offering one of the market’s deepest and strongest talent networks through a mix of concierge-like, high-touch services and a client model that drives workforce agility, Toptal is well-positioned to thrive in today’s evolving labor market. Businesses actively crave extended talent that can serve as dynamic responses to continued market challenges; Toptal’s long track record of success in delivering on-demand, top-shelf talent and expertise achieves that goal.

Toptal was an early pioneer in the remote work movement; the company itself operates within a remote infrastructure and has become the world’s largest fully-remote organization. This first-hand experience has allowed the solution to help clients achieve their talent-based goals in the ever-evolving remote and hybrid work workplace. The company even offers deep guidance and consulting to assist customers in building and developing truly agile and successful remote work environments.

Based on these unique advantages and offerings, Toptal is a talent marketplace solution that is tailored for the Future of Work movement.

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FOWX Notes: November 5 Edition.

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Some picked-up pieces from across the exciting world of talent and work:

  • Yesterday morning, the Biden administration announced more details regarding sweeping vaccine mandates for businesses with over 100 employees. In short, employees that are not fully-vaccinated by January 4 will have to produce a verified negative test on a weekly basis and wear masks in the workplace beginning December 5. Positive cases must be removed from the workforce. Fines are hefty: approximately $13,653 for a single violation, and nearly ten-times that amount ($136,532) for businesses that “willfully violate standards.” There is no clarity on the burden of testing costs, however, it is noted that some unions may negotiate employer-paid testing.
  • Employers must provide paid time off for employees to receive vaccines and for any potential side effects. This is an encouraging rule, as there are many, many workers across the country that were vaccine-hesitant only because of the inability to take paid time off. This opens up, potentially, the opportunity for millions of people to comfortably schedule vaccine appointments and not be forced to worry about an unpaid day off.
  • Great quote on the future of hybrid work by Zoom CMO Janine Pelosi during an interview with Digiday: “That word is getting thrown around a lot, but it goes back to the consumer having choice in when or where they spend their time physically or virtually. It’s taking breaks. It’s understanding, at this point in the pandemic, what I do with my time. If I’m going to have a really early start and I know I’ve got some later things, you can bet I’m going to workout in the middle of the afternoon and I’m not going to have a stitch of guilt about it. It’s taking time to go for a walk, have meetings over Zoom phone. I don’t feel that everything always has to be on video. I prefer video, because you miss those connections and it definitely helps to bring those together. But it’s thinking about your day a little bit differently than what you would have if you had been in an office, physical environment.”
  • Congratulations are in order for Talmix, who recently celebrated their five-year anniversary. The solution provider, one the market’s leading digital staffing marketplaces, were recently featured here on the Future of Work Exchange. Check out some highlights from their five years in a blog post by Talmix CEO Sandeep Dhillon.
  • Many businesses often forget that independent contractors and freelance professionals are attempting to get their own businesses off the ground. HoneyBook’s $250 million in Series E funding will go a long way towards contributing to the platform’s main objectives, such as enabling these workers with automation for workflows, client list management, and, most critically, payment and cash flow management.
  • Fiverr continues its reach deeper into the B2B realm by acquiring Tel Aviv-based Stoke Talent, a Freelancer Management System (FMS) that specializes in providing users with both online and “offline” freelancer management benches. The $95M transaction will allow Stoke Talent to operate independently while subsequently supporting (and vice versa) Fiverr’s new products and services regarding agile talent.
  • I’ll be presenting (virtually) on Day Two of the Checkr Forward conference next week. “Are You Missing Half of the U.S. Workforce?” will feature commentary from both Scott Jennings (Checkr’s Director of Industry Strategy & Market Development) and me, as well as some new Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research on the evolution of the agile/extended workforce. Do check it out!
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Upwork’s New “Virtual Talent Bench” is the Convergence of Direct Sourcing and Digital Staffing

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

As the Exchange frequently defines, the Future of Work movement is based on three core interconnected principles: 1) the evolution of talent engagement (and talent acquisition), 2) the advent of new and innovative technology and automation, and 3) the transformation of business thinking. While each of these attributes on its own serves a powerful purpose in the progressive world of work and talent, it’s when they intersect that businesses can drive enhanced value.

Upwork, one of the industry’s largest and market-leading digital staffing players, recently introduced its “Virtual Talent Bench” offering, which essentially converges the full spectrum of Future of Work attributes into a solution that enables real workforce scalability while optimizing how businesses get work done. The Virtual Talent Bench is a powerful offering that blends key elements of the digital staffing model (talent marketplace functionality and deep candidate networks) with direct sourcing (curated talent “benches” that can be engaged and hired in an on-demand fashion).

“Our goal is to help businesses and independent talent get work done, and done well. We know independent talent want to build long-lasting work relationships with clients, and businesses want an easy way to work with the talent they love time and time again,” said Sam Bright, chief product and experience officer, Upwork. “We launched Virtual Talent Bench to help businesses find and engage a fleet of highly-skilled independent professionals through an easier way to discover, access and organize their go-to freelancers. From sign-up to superuser, we’ve designed and created a simple experience for clients to not only find new, talented freelancers, but also remember their strengths, flag their special skills, and organize them however they like.”

Upwork’s multifaceted approach towards talent engagement and contingent workforce management allows its users to leverage the Virtual Talent Bench to develop talent pool-like “benches” of freelancers and non-employee workers that can be tapped into in an on-demand manner. The VTB places scalability firmly within its core by allowing Upwork clients to quickly reengage high-quality talent in an agile fashion. This is functionality akin to direct sourcing automation, only with Upwork’s vast talent marketplace powering the candidate engagement process and seamlessly integrating “curation-like” functionality into the Virtual Talent Bench. And, by surfacing individual talent profiles and projects based on past searches and job needs, Upwork users can derive more value from the solution’s “Discovery” module, with these results embedded within the Virtual Talent Bench for direct access when building freelance teams for future projects.

With this new solution, Upwork is firmly entrenching itself as a forward-looking platform that embraces the Future of Work. The convergence of direct sourcing and digital staffing, combined with the ways talent engagement is evolving, is one major reason why the Virtual Talent Bench is an ideal feature for the transformative world of work and talent.

“In our recent Future Workforce Report stemming from a survey of U.S. hiring managers, we uncovered that 40.7 million Americans expect to be fully remote in the next five years. What’s more, 53% of businesses say that remote work has increased their willingness to use freelancers and 71% of hiring managers plan to maintain or increase their use of freelancers in the next six months, creating more hybrid workforces,” said Bright. “Offices have reopened, but many professionals aren’t willing to give up the flexibility of working remotely. Over one-third (34%) of workers who were remote are not excited about returning to the office, and of the 10 million Americans currently considering freelancing, 73% cite the ability to work remotely or flexibly as a reason why.”

“As remote work projections remain strong and businesses plan to continue engaging more independent talent, we’re already planning to expand features in Virtual Talent Bench to enable more collaboration and better organization in the months to come, including features allowing clients to invite an entire talent bench to submit a job proposal.”

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Key Providers for 2021: Prosperix

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Background:

There is no doubt that the events of the past 18 months brought about a level of change to business the likes that had never been seen before. The very attributes of the Future of Work movement were accelerated, including the power of remote and hybrid work, advancements in talent engagement and talent acquisition, and the transformation of how business leaders structured their work-based strategies and approaches.

Given the symbiotic relationship between talent, technology, and evolutionary business thinking, there is added weight to how the many aspects of the Future of Work were accelerated in the face of global business disruption. As organizational leaders continue to reimagine what workforce management means to their enterprises, the accompany technology must work harmoniously with the alterations across the greater economic and labor markets.

Enter Prosperix.

Why They Were Selected:

A little less than a year ago, Prosperix operated under the “Crowdstaffing” brand; this solution was known for many of its industry-leading pieces of functionality that promoted a powerful “user experience” regarding applicant and candidate data tracking, analysis, comparison, and presentation, built on top of the solution’s foundational hiring marketplace (a built-in network of thousands of ready-to-hire talent suppliers).

The newly-rebranded Prosperix solution not only builds on these strengths, but also offers technology that truly allows its users to harness the power of the Future of Work movement and tap into the greater value of the agile workforce.

In Their Own Words:

Prosperix is a Silicon Valley-based workforce innovation company developing software for the Future of Work. Our contingent workforce and total talent management solutions enable businesses to build a powerful workforce that delivers extraordinary outcomes. The main tenets that drive the company’s philosophy are:

  • Today’s workforce must be global, empowered, agile, transparent, high-performing, and diverse.
  • The right people can dramatically impact the success of an organization.
  • When individuals and organizations are aligned, great results and outcomes are possible.
  • Innovation that combines technology and people in a meaningful way is the path to the future.

With our technology, businesses can access amazing talent from anywhere and everywhere, on-demand and without limitations, allowing them to grow exponentially by scaling their workforce quickly and easily. Our end-to-end solution includes applicant tracking, vendor management, connected talent pools, direct sourcing, artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, personal curation, and easy-to-use technology in a single, cloud-based, fully-integrated software suite.

The Outlook:

Prosperix’s messaging is incredibly unique in today’s workforce solutions market, leading with an edge that differentiates the company from others in the space. Understanding that it is the convergence between the “human” and “technology” elements of workforce management that will help both candidates and businesses prosper in the face of continued evolution across the greater world of talent and work.

Prosperix is positioned for incredible growth and impact heading into 2022, with offerings that traverse beyond mere workforce management. On top of an already-industry-leading hiring marketplace, the solution’s direct sourcing, talent pools, and VMS offerings are aligned with the company’s overall vision and purpose: provide human, workforce, and business prosperity in a time when the Future of Work movement is table stakes for organizations that want to thrive during these changing times.

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The Mom Project’s $80M Series C Funding Represents Opportunity for Both Moms and the Digital Staffing Industry

Diversity and InclusionSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Several weeks ago here at the Future of Work Exchange, we recognized The Mom Project as one of our select “Key Providers for 2021,” an exclusive set of solutions and platforms that are disrupting the workforce technology spectrum and impacting how work is addressed and done. In that feature, we wrote:

“The Mom Project is uniquely positioned to continue its rampant growth in the market from three perspectives: 1) it is one of the most visible workforce management platforms that is actively prioritizing and truly aligning DE&I within the very fabric of its functionality, 2) it offers one of the industry’s deepest communities of gender- and ethnically-diverse skillsets and talent, and, 3) its progressive technology platform enables a spectrum of innovative talent acquisition, talent engagement, and workforce management solutions that harness the incredible power of artificial intelligence and machine learning while forming a foundation of total talent management automation.”

So, in essence, it may not be so surprising that last week, The Mom Project secured $80M in Series C funding that will bolster the solution’s standing in the digital staffing marketplace, help it enhance its already-robust suite of functionality, and, most importantly, continue to connect talented mothers with open jobs, roles, and positions. This top-tier level of funding will augment the company’s teams and add additional headcount while boosting product development, a critical factor in an ever-evolving industry.

“We’ve demonstrated to the market that betting on moms is good business,” said Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder of The Mom Project. “We’ve seen 20x growth over the last three years and are eager to leverage this momentum and the trust and equity we’ve earned with moms and our customers and partners to continue building and expanding the reach of category-defining solutions that reshape how work evolves to meet the needs of modern families.”

FOWX analysis of this major market activity finds that the Leeds Illuminate-led funding (with participation from existing investors  7GC, Initialized Capital, OCA Ventures, Citi, High Alpha, Grotech Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank) for The Mom Project is both an opportunity for both moms and the digital staffing industry at-large:

  • This sizable level of funding, more than anything else, puts the focus on getting talented mothers, women, and diverse candidates back into the workforce. Just a couple of days ago, we wrote that 309,000 women left the workforce in September alone (on top of the tens of thousands of job losses across other backgrounds and races). The Future of Work Exchange fully expects The Mom Project to boost the power of its deep and diverse talent community, which was already a sizable component of its overall offering. With thousands of new and talented individuals added each day, the added investment will certainly help the platform expand its global reach, as well.
  • The Mom Project will be able to enhance its market-leading functionality in 2022 and beyond. AI-led neural network engine, equitable self-learning technology, functionality that takes into account DE&I and customer culture in candidate-matching and workforce planning…the Series C level of funding will allow The Mom Project to build on these innovative features as well as its unique WerkLabs solution, which harnesses the power of predictive analytics, workplace data, and talent experience intelligence to help enterprises design and develop the most inclusive and productive workplace environments.
  • This investment reflects the continued growth and impact of the digital staffing industry, which includes both digital staffing platforms and on-demand talent marketplaces. Ardent Partners, which has been covering the digital staffing space for nearly a decade, has found that there has been a 7x increase in the utilization of digital staffing solutions over the past six years, with more and more businesses opting to augment their greater talent acquisition strategies with on-demand talent channels that provide highly-qualified, pre-vetted, and project-aligned workers. A digital staffing outlet such as The Mom Project (which offers both workforce management functionality and a deep community of talent) securing $80 million in funding reinforces just how powerful digital staffing can be in the evolving world of talent and work. As businesses develop more flexibility into how they structure their workforce, digital staffing will become a relied-upon range of technology to enhance talent engagement.
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Key Providers for 2021: Talmix

Solution Providers by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Background:

The global talent acquisition and HR markets have collectively experienced a near-700% increase in the adoption of digital and on-demand staffing solutions over the past five years, a direct response to the evolution of talent engagement, shifts in how businesses view their contingent workforce, and the overall transformation of how work is addressed and done.

For today’s businesses that crave true workforce agility and aim to engage top-tier talent in an on-demand manner, talent marketplace and digital staffing solutions have emerged as go-to platforms. However, while these solutions offer deep networks of vetted talent, businesses also require functionality that can ensure alignment with key projects, roles, and positions while developing true collaboration between independent talent and enterprise hiring managers.

Enter Talmix.

Why They Were Selected:

Talmix offers one of the deepest channels of strategic talent across the globe and is primed for fast growth in the years ahead due to its robust candidate-matching functionality (fueled by true artificial intelligence), robust analytics and reporting, and commitment to direct sourcing. The solution’s “Talent Passport” offering is a unique module that automatically updates each candidate’s core skillsets (including soft skills) based on the evolution of career paths, projects completed, and answers to dynamic screening questions.

The Talmix solution is one of few platforms that provides a deep service-layer offering on top of a robust technology system and global marketplace of top-tier, in-demand skillsets and expertise.

In Their Own Words:

It’s five years since Talmix launched and our purpose is unchanged – we want to unlock the power of the extended workforce. We have built a talent marketplace and global talent network focused on Business Talent. Companies use Talmix to create an extended workforce which can address skills and operational requirements, and get critical work done.

Our platform automates the heavy lifting for both the client and the talent, so they benefit from a first-class experience in terms of using the platform, and because this is high-end business talent and high-value projects, we don’t forget the service layer to enhance that experience.  Being global provides more flexibility to our clients and talent – the opportunity to have the best talent working on projects, regardless of location.

As more companies turn to the extended workforce, we want to make sure that our platform continues to develop and support those companies with the fastest and most precise way to reach that workforce. For example, this week we’re launching tagging capabilities, meaning more data points on the Talent Passport for talent, and easier ways of defining projects for client.

And our name tells it all –  we believe that with the right mix of talent, anything is possible.

The Outlook:

The Talmix solution enables a deeper understanding of worker demographics, micro-experiences, soft skills, feedback, work style preferences, and other key worker attributes, which are dynamically updated as candidates complete new jobs and projects. This innovative approach towards talent marketplace functionality, especially in a business world that is evolving seemingly overnight, can be incredibly crucial for those HR and talent acquisition executives that require a specific level of expertise for mission-critical projects and initiatives.

And, with its direct sourcing and talent pool functionality, Talmix will be positioned to help global businesses engage, build, and develop a truly agile workforce in the face of massive transformation within the greater world of work.

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Key Providers for 2021: Bluecrew

Contingent WorkforceSolution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Background:

With 47% of the average company’s total workforce now comprised of “contingent” or “non-employee” workers, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has discovered that the power of the Gig Economy has traversed beyond a specific set of verticals and industries. Sectors such as light industrial, health care, and the realm of blue-collar and hourly work have all realized the inherent value of an agile workforce that was essentially designed to help in an era when dynamic workplace structures are what separates businesses from the competition.

One of the challenges faced by these sectors in the past was the sheer complexity of talent acquisition prowess required to effectively engage talent based on variable demand and the unique inner-workings of shift-based and hourly work.

Enter Bluecrew.

Why They Were Selected:

Bluecrew’s unique value proposition, which centers around a “Gig Economy meets traditional contingent labor” approach, allows the company to enable a truly “elastic workforce” within its client base by tapping into Bluecrew’s liquid base of vetted workers. Augmented with industry-leading candidate matching technology that is driven by machine learning, Bluecrew provides its clients with a fully-automated administrative portal that balances both talent acquisition and workforce management.

In a business world that now runs on flexibility, the Bluecrew marketplace and workforce management platform are solutions that are actively helping enterprises tap into on-demand talent and develop true workforce agility.

In Their Own Words:

Founded in 2015, acquired by InterActive Corp (IAC) in 2018, and recognized by Fast Company in 2020 as one of the most innovative workplace companies, Bluecrew is disrupting traditional hourly staffing (a $130 billion addressable market, almost exclusively offline) by pioneering “Gig 2.0”. 

Hourly workers – we call them Crew Members – are Bluecrew’s lifeblood. We employ thousands of W-2 workers who are dependable, looking for flexibility, and ready to accept short- or long-term jobs, which they are intelligently matched with by our Elastic Hourly Workforce (EHW) platform. Bluecrew’s EHW combines multiple products and services into an end-to-end, intuitive solution for Crew Members to manage their work lives, and for our workplace customers to manage their hourly workforce.

Our workplace customers are challenged with variable demand; longer term, more predictable variability such as seasonal and cyclical, and less predictable, shorter-term variability like absenteeism and large, unexpected customer orders. This variability in demand creates complex challenges to effectively and efficiently manage hourly labor which until Bluecrew, has been left unsolved.

The Outlook:

Sectors such as light industrial, retail, hospitality, and other hourly-based industries are anticipated to experience upwards of 35%-to-40% growth in the utilization of non-employee labor over the next few years, reinforcing the need for both on-demand access to vertical-specific talent marketplaces (and other on-demand channels of skillsets) and end-to-end workforce management. This expected growth will result in more headaches for hiring managers that are seeking to fill roles quickly, efficiently, and with data-driven approaches at the helm to result in the best-aligned fit between workers and open jobs.

Bluecrew’s innovative “elastic workforce” approach to the hourly workforce market positions the solution to thrive in evolving times, especially considering the expansion of workforce agility into industries that are expecting to increase their utilization of non-employee talent in the months and years ahead. As these sectors continue to realize the hard-line benefits of the extended workforce, it will be platforms such as Bluecrew that will help fuel the ultimate optimization of how work is done.

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Key Providers for 2021: The Mom Project

Diversity and InclusionSolution ProvidersTalentTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

[Editor’s Note: Over the next several weeks, the Future of Work Exchange will unveil its “21 for 2021” list of key solution providers that are shaping the Future of Work through innovative technology, progressive functionality, and overall impact on the evolving world of talent and work. On deck for today: The Mom Project.]

The Background:

In the world of “digital staffing,” which is a wide-encompassing industry that includes talent marketplaces, talent clouds, talent communities, on-demand staffing outlets, freelancer management systems (even though “FMS” as an acronym is seemingly defunct), as well as direct sourcing technology, it’s not often that businesses have access to an end-to-end workforce management platform that also prioritizes talent engagement with a deep community of gender- and ethnically-diverse professionals.

Future of Work Exchange research finds that 62% of businesses expect more focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives over the next year, proving that the technology spectrum within workforce management needs to evolve to meet this expected shift moving forward.

Enter The Mom Project.

Why They Were Selected:

The world for working parents has dynamically shifted…again. The Mom Project’s Greg Robinson (COO and co-founder), who appeared on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast earlier this year, said that he and his team fear that we will see another mass exodus of women from the workforce due to the pandemic and its wide-sweeping ramifications. The Mom Project is looking to change that through its unique ability to connect enterprises with qualified and diverse candidates in a nimble, agile, and on-demand manner. That alone warrants selection as a solution that is shaping the Future of Work, but there’s more to the story.

On top of its 500,000+ (and growing) network of diverse candidates, The Mom Project also offers progressive workforce management technology such as true total talent management functionality, an AI neural network learning engine (that incorporates customer culture and DE&I attributes) that helps users identify key DE&I trends and patterns, and automation that assists enterprises in building ready-to-engage, pre-vetted talent from both non-employee/contingent and direct hire/FTE perspectives.

The Mom Project is one of the most progressive and innovative workforce/talent solutions in today’s evolving technology landscape.

In Their Own Words:

More than one million American women will become parents this year, joining the ranks of the working parenthood — a vital segment of the workforce. Simultaneously, businesses are challenged to retain talented employees as they navigate through this period of life, and struggle to find the experienced talent they need to grow.

The Mom Project is the expert partner helping companies create stronger, more diverse workforces that are well-prepared for the Future of Work. These are the big picture problems that C-suites, boards, investors and hiring managers across the country are focused on. We’re proud to be the consultative, action-oriented partner working hand-in-hand with our customers to drive lasting change.

  • Our platform drives community engagement and trust, driving a premium pipeline of over 500,000 members, growing by 20,000 members a month.
  • Our thought leadership and hands-on collaboration with hiring managers and recruiters ensures talent doesn’t get stuck mid-way, and that mom is primed to thrive in her new role.
  • Giving back to our 501.3(c) nonprofit, RISE, ensures that we’re continuously preparing the candidates of the future.
  • Co-branding drives talent perception and pipeline, and each hire becomes a story to further elevate partners as employers of choice for working families.

Women staying engaged in the workforce on their terms is good for families. It’s good for business. It’s good for everyone. .

The Outlook:

Over the next two years, 62% of businesses expect to address DE&I objectives and initiatives with workforce management technology and similar automation, according to Future of Work Exchange research. This statistic reflects just how critical diversity, equity, and inclusion truly is within the digital staffing solutions arena and its crucial place as part of greater talent management strategies.

The Mom Project is uniquely positioned to continue its rampant growth in the market from three perspectives: 1) it is one of the most visible workforce management platforms that is actively prioritizing and truly aligning DE&I within the very fabric of its functionality, 2) it offers one of the industry’s deepest communities of gender- and ethnically-diverse skillsets and talent, and, 3) its progressive technology platform enables a spectrum of innovative talent acquisition, talent engagement, and workforce management solutions that harness the incredible power of artificial intelligence and machine learning while forming a foundation of total talent management automation.

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