Direct Sourcing Archives - Page 11 of 15 - The Future of Work Exchange

Revisiting the Core Tenets of Direct Sourcing

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/26/2022

Direct sourcing has a permanent place here at the Future of Work Exchange. As businesses face the massive transformations of the world of work and talent, they will continue to require advanced strategies and solutions for finding and engaging top-tier skillsets and expertise. While we’ve spent a fair amount of time discussing the next phase of direct sourcing (“Direct Sourcing 2.0”), there are still many organizations that have yet to undertake the direct sourcing journey.

In the 2020 research study, The Direct Sourcing Toolkit, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange unveiled a series of recommendations and guided strategies for successfully developing and implementing a direct sourcing program. With so many organizations yet to undertake this journey, it is imperative to revisit these guidelines for direct sourcing success:

A deep understanding of total enterprise skillsets is required. No matter the industry, each organization is comprised of a collection of skillsets that, in aggregate, contribute to how work is done. Direct sourcing programs thrive on “skillset intelligence;” without it, initiatives lose their flair. If hiring managers understand which skillsets are in abundance or in high demand and which will be needed in the near future, building initial talent attraction strategies will be much more effective.
Integrated procurement, HR, and talent acquisition competencies are necessary for early-stage direct sourcing. The capabilities of these three units are required for a direct sourcing program to succeed: 1) procurement’s influence will drive hard cost savings through talent channel optimization, 2) HR’s impact will guide hiring managers and stakeholders to engage the strongest candidates, and 3) talent acquisition will drive the strategic vision for how to source talent based upon current and expected needs.
Focus on both brand and experience. The employer brand can be powerful in today’s labor market; many candidates want to ensure that they work for organizations that share their cultural and societal values. Also, the omnipresent notion of the “candidate experience” should guide direct sourcing processes such that job recruits experience a positive journey no matter if they are merely sitting in a talent pool or actively engaged for an open position or project.
Segmentation is more valuable than it initially seems. Segmenting talent pools may seem like a basic strategy; however, it can pay incredible dividends. Talent pool segmentation, be it via geography, compensation, skill, remote or in-person, certification, etc., allows hiring managers to quickly focus in on the talent required for a highly-complex project or initiative. Taking the time during the front-end of the direct sourcing process to segment talent pools can be hugely impactful to the overall program.
In direct sourcing, selecting and utilizing the right solutions is job one. The inherent power of today’s contingent workforce, human capital, and digital staffing solutions provides enterprises with the ability to automate crucial aspects of talent pool development and integrate these sources into the business’ broader talent acquisition processes. MSP solutions, VMS technology, and direct sourcing platforms all contribute to create a human- and technology-led direct sourcing program, helping to launch the initiative and ensure that all hiring managers have the ability to quickly access available talent pools.

The Ultimate Value of Direct Sourcing

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/18/2022

Successful direct sourcing programs have made a large impact on the quality of the overall workforce by achieving better alignment between an organization’s needs and the best available talent than alternate recruiting methods. However, the competitive advantage in talent recruitment that the early adopters of direct sourcing have gained will begin to yield as more new programs are launched each year.

The 55% of businesses that are currently running some form of direct sourcing programs today are utilizing talent pools and talent communities as a viable means of building talent pipelines, reducing talent acquisition costs, ensuring strong skillsets and expertise, and structuring a truly dynamic workforce. Direct sourcing enables a business to act as its own recruitment firm and leverage the power of its brand to attract desired workers to its centralized talent pool. The process also helps enterprises engage candidates directly, increasing the chance of building stronger, longer-lasting relationships with top-tier talent.

While the pandemic has turned job interviews into a more and, sometimes fully-, virtual process, the human elements of conversation, bonding, and interpersonal connection are not completely lost. Direct sourcing bypasses intermediaries and allows the candidates to develop direct connections (hence, “direct” sourcing) with hiring decision-makers. Candidates that are not hired initially can, nonetheless, become candidates for other positions in the future. By eliminating the agency or middleman, enterprises are better able to tap into a developed bench of previously engaged talent and cut lengthy time-to-fill rates. The same holds true for other candidates that have been vetted in some form and are “known” by the hiring team (i.e., “silver medalists,” retirees, past contingent workers or freelancers, etc.), or were targeted for curation based on their current job experience.

Beyond the candidate relationships, direct sourcing allows a business to leverage (and manage) its culture and brand to attract recruits that are easily engaged for future projects and initiatives. Hearing long-employed (and loyal) HR and business professionals discuss the traits and culture of their organization is a more significant and credible way to learn about a potential employer than through the words of a recruiter with a commission on the line. The informal testimonials of the internal hiring teams can effectively build engagement and ultimately, worker loyalty.

While the talent curation part of direct sourcing typically takes time to develop, most organizations possess an innate ability to identify strong cultural fits and highly-desirable skillsets. Additionally, the ability of internal recruiters, HR, and hiring managers to collaborate and tailor job searches to a unique team, manager, project, or location is unmatched when dealing with outside recruiters. The level of nuance can be akin to the difference between a surgeon and a butcher. The ability to increase recruiting precision can be particularly valuable when businesses are managing specific diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

One other notable attribute of direct sourcing is that it avoids the heavy price of fully-loaded talent acquisition costs charged by outside firms. While successful direct sourcing programs reduce talent acquisition friction and costs in the short-term, as businesses continue to devote resources to it, they will find these programs can also transform how work is done. And, in a world that has become more digitized (especially in the HR and talent arenas), direct sourcing is fast becoming table stakes for businesses that are actively pursuing workforce agility.

Why Tech is the Crux of Direct Sourcing 2.0

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/11/2022

Direct sourcing has dominated discussions around talent, work, and staffing for the past few years because, when executed well, it can deliver incredible value to the greater organization through hard benefits (such as cost savings and a quicker average time-to-fill rate) and soft benefits (greater talent quality, better engagement with highly-skilled candidate, etc.). And, as the overall HR market evolves in the wake of rising worker resignations, smart businesses will prioritize the need for deeper assessment and validation of skillsets and place a greater emphasis on the candidate and hiring manager experience.

The starting point for most will be to build on their existing direct sourcing capabilities and work to develop a true Direct Sourcing 2.0 program…which, of course, is only achievable through the convergence of strategic and automated competencies.

The path to Direct Sourcing 2.0 is paved with technology. While elements such as talent curation, talent pool development, talent pool segmentation, and recruitment stream integration are core to any direct sourcing program, HR leaders and their teams must incorporate digitization and advanced direct sourcing competencies to get to the next level of performance. Achieving Direct Sourcing 2.0 requires advanced capabilities to be coupled with digital recruitment functionality in order to boost talent quality, enhance candidate intelligence, and develop repeatable and scalable methods for reengaging talent to build a truly agile workforce.

While predictive analytics are not commonplace today, soon, a majority of enterprises will look to scenario-building as a way to enhance overall talent intelligence. Predictive analytics, in this realm, will augment the organization’s overall knowledge of its in-house skills as well as the expertise available externally (across all talent communities, including talent pools).

This level of intelligence will spark new and targeted initiatives to find better-aligned candidates with stronger talent engagement efforts and push business leaders to better understand who the strongest candidates are for future roles, positions, and projects.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of businesses plan to link the candidate experience with hiring manager experience. As discussed in the Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange Direct Sourcing 2.0 research study, transforming talent acquisition into a consumer-like journey is just one side of the Direct Sourcing 2.0 coin. The other side focuses on the hiring manager experience, which should be seamless in order to streamline the means of finding, engaging, and sourcing talent for a full spectrum of open roles and positions.

While only a third (33%) of businesses have automated candidate experience capabilities in their direct sourcing programs today, 50% more plan to do so within two years. Personalization and sharing more specific details regarding a project/role match, when automated, are repeatable and scalable to ensure that all candidates have a more positive and compelling experience when recruited.

Direct Sourcing 2.0 and the Hiring Manager Experience

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/20/2022

Beyond deeper and more meaningful candidate relationships, direct sourcing allows a business to leverage (and manage) its culture and brand to attract recruits that are easily engaged for future projects and initiatives. Hearing long-employed (and loyal) HR and business professionals discuss the traits and culture of their organization is a more significant and credible way to learn about a potential employer than through the words of a recruiter with a commission on the line. The informal testimonials of the internal hiring teams can effectively build engagement and ultimately, worker loyalty.

The level of nuance can be akin to the difference between a surgeon and a butcher. The ability to increase recruiting precision can be particularly valuable when businesses are managing specific diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

Given the current challenges to find and retain top talent, leading HR organizations are investing in ways to improve the “candidate experience” (similar to the “customer experience”), where every aspect is designed to be positive, engaging, and beneficial to the recruit.

In a market where the candidate holds more power than ever before, compensation and benefits, employment perks, AND the employer’s credentials (i.e., brand, culture, vision, values, etc.) can play a major role in attracting a qualified candidates. This will continue to be true as an increasing number of candidates are incorporating their personal views on an organization’s culture and brand into their decision-making.

While the candidate experience is critical, the hiring manager experience should also be considered. Hiring managers are often on the front lines of the war for talent and must account for:

The specific needs of each role, position, and project.
The intricate requirements of a multifaceted talent acquisition strategy that balances direct hire, job boards, talent marketplaces, staffing suppliers, etc.
The necessary data and intelligence to make faster, more educated talent and hiring decisions.
The proper balance between the human touch, automation, and third-party services, etc. that can be used to find, engage, and source high-quality talent.

Traditional recruitment is not typically seen as scalable due to the manual work often associated with it, while direct sourcing relies heavily on hiring teams to drive activity, scalability, and value. Just as HR leaders are realizing that candidates should be treated like customers, hiring managers also need an experience that is seamless and boundaryless.

Business and HR leaders must also arm their hiring managers with the necessary resources, technologies, and capabilities to effectively tap into different talent pools without the worry of internal barriers or archaic inertia. To achieve this, digitization of key direct sourcing processes is vital.

AI, Direct Sourcing, and the Future of Talent

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/06/2022

The path to Direct Sourcing 2.0 is rooted in the idea that data should drive talent-led decision-making. Most next-generation direct sourcing programs leverage AI-driven functionality to enable a more robust picture of available skillsets, improve the matching of available skills with open positions and project requirements, streamline the assessment of candidate skills and expertise, and enhance worker intelligence. The majority of businesses see AI and advanced analytics as a catalyst for Direct Sourcing 2.0 over the next two years, as discovered by Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange.

An employer’s brand can be a catalyst for talent transformation because it can be used to attract talent and maintain an allure as non-FTE workers shift in and out of enterprise projects. Direct Sourcing 2.0 builds on brand concepts and pushes them to a higher level by using AI and analytics on candidate data to improve messaging, increase support for diversity initiatives, and gain a clearer picture of the worker expertise available in the market. Our research shows that:

Nearly 70% of businesses plan to leverage AI-based tools for candidate assessment within two years. Candidate fraud has not grabbed headlines yet, but it is a risk for businesses, particularly those that require specific skills and certifications. With more candidates operating in a remote environment, businesses require better means to ensure that their potential hires actually possess what is represented in their resumes and history. AI-fueled candidate assessment tools support the validation of competencies and skills, helping to ensure that the talent pipeline is filled with candidates who can succeed in their placements.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of enterprises plan to use AI to solve talent retention issues. The labor market over the past two years has been anything but stable and certain: within the span of 12 months, the market has experienced a dramatic increase in, and, the largest tallies ever in history, of worker resignations. There are more open positions in the United States than at any other time this century. HR, talent acquisition, and procurement leaders and their teams need the insights required to more accurately forecast what their workforce will look like in the future, given economic and organizational changes. Predictive retention data, modeled within direct sourcing programs, can augment how and when businesses engage talent pool candidates and what skillsets should be targeted in upcoming recruiting marketing campaigns.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives will be boosted with next-level intelligence over the next two years. DE&I remains a critical piece of direct sourcing and talent acquisition overall. In 2022, roughly a quarter of all businesses utilize AI within direct sourcing for DE&I purposes (27% for worker diversity data and 24% for general diversity and inclusion insights). More than half of all enterprises plan to use AI to drive these initiatives over the next 24 months. Businesses that invest in developing AI-led data collection will be able to cast a wider net within the realm of diversity, capturing gender, culture, background, neurodiversity, etc. These insights can provide hiring managers and executives with the intelligence needed to monitor and improve DE&I initiatives.

Prosperity and Disruption: Prosperix’s VMS Network is a Future of Work Innovation

Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/04/2022

Vendor Management System (VMS) technology, along with Managed Service Providers (MSP), are typically considered the two most traditional and widely-used solutions in the greater workforce management technology market. Rightfully so: each of these on their own drive services-based (MSP) and end-to-end automation (VMS) for their clients in such a way that there may never be a time when Best-in-Class organizations aren’t utilizing one of the two (or, in many cases, both) to gain visibility and control, and, of course, optimize, the way extended talent is brought into the organization and ultimately managed.

Today, the landscape looks much different than it did even a couple of years ago. The pandemic brought about revolutionary change in how executive leaders perceive their operating structures, finances, technology utilization, and, critically, their workforce. The talent acquisition arena has been permanently altered, with enterprises finding that there is so much more to engaging top-tier talent than simply filling out a job requisition and expecting candidates to flock to open roles.

“To remain competitive, businesses must brace for more dramatic changes than ever before,” said Sunil Bagai, CEO of Prosperix. “The rapidly-evolving landscape requires new solutions and ways of thinking that allow businesses to become more agile, resilient, and more capable of meeting the seemingly endless demands today’s business landscape presents.”

When we examine the talent technology market today, there are many variables that have accelerated just as quickly as those Future of Work attributes (such as remote work, hybrid workplaces, etc.) that were quickened due to the pandemic’s far-reaching grasp. Talent marketplaces and digital staffing platforms enable users with on-demand and real-time access to pre-vetted, top-tier talent that align with dozens of project- and role-based perquisites.

Direct sourcing solutions actively assist enterprises with the ability to curate known and new talent into talent communities, nurture those communities with relevant and engaging content, and ensure that all recruitment streams leverage these talent pools. “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” a concept heralded by the Future of Work Exchange as the next iteration of direct sourcing, involves the application of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other innovative functionality to drive repeatability and scalability of core direct sourcing mechanisms.

Within 2022’s evolving world of work and talent, San Jose-based Prosperix is taking all of the above into consideration as it launches its new “VMS Network” offering. Prosperix’s core VMS solution is not just a standalone VMS platform, but rather an extended workforce management tool that enables a dynamic connection between enterprises and talent via a robust, on-demand network of suppliers, candidates, and businesses.

“When we built our VMS Network solution, we understood that providing exponentially greater access to talent would be a game changer. And that’s proving to be the case,” Sunil said. “Clients become a node in an open, connected network where their jobs are matched to a network of suppliers and talent pools. This network effect enables jobs to be filled in record time, with amazing quality, and at lower costs. Additionally, the interconnectedness of the network allows us to leverage data and algorithms in ways that were not possible with siloed VMS systems. This is revolutionary for the industry, and we are excited to be the first to bring this compelling new technology to market.”

The Prosperix VMS Network is unique in the sense that it effectively blends a fully-digital talent network (akin to what most talent marketplaces offer) with a powerful, end-to-end series of functionality that leverages modernized reporting, analytics, and intelligence that drive better business outcomes and better matches between candidates and open positions/projects.

And, on top of those features, Prosperix leverages a candidate-centric approach that provides, among other things, candidates with their own career dashboard where they can apply to matched jobs across an ecosystem of clients and stay up-up-to-date on their job applications. This is aligned with the company’s overall purpose as a technology platform: to fuel human, workforce, and business prosperity.

As we wrote about the solution in 2021 upon its rebranding: “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.”

“I don’t think any business is standing still today. Most are adapting just to survive, and those that embrace change as the norm have the potential to thrive. Our VMS Network makes it possible for businesses to achieve greater scalability, agility and resilience, so they can more easily manage the expected while being better-prepared for the unexpected. And they can do all of this while attaining extraordinary hiring outcomes,” Sunil said.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange believe that there is still much, much more change ahead for the world of talent and work. As “The Great Resignation” continues its rampage and the “Talent Revolution” becomes a foundational element of the Future of Work movement, solutions like Prosperix will be a guiding light for enterprises that not only want to tap into the power of the extended workforce, but also leverage next-generation technology to drive workforce prosperity.

Where Does the Extended Workforce Go From Here?

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/31/2022

The Future of Work is many things: technology, transformation, work optimization, innovation, collaboration, and, of course, talent. Depending on who you’re talking to, the Future of Work movement’s nexus could be defined as any of those previous attributes, and rightfully so: technology and innovation drive the optimization of how work is done, while the transformation of business leadership translates into an enhanced ability to retain top talent while attracting new skillsets and expertise.

The extended workforce has long been a critical realm within the concept of the Future of Work, fueling a strategic approach towards talent management that has a variety of key benefits ranging from shorter-term engagement, more focused projects and initiatives, access to the world’s deepest skillsets, and the traditional cost savings that have long been associated with this type of labor.

And, speaking of the “traditional” aspects of the extended workforce: the Future of Work Exchange defines this talent as the natural evolution of the contingent workforce, meaning that, at its core, this workforce is still comprised of non-employee talent, however, its impact, value, flexibility, purpose, and accessibility have all progressed to become key elements of the Future of Work movement (even more so than ever before).

There has been so much transformation over the past two-plus years regarding the way work is done, from the absolute domination of remote and hybrid work to massive changes within the realm of business and executive leadership. We’re now two years deep into a pandemic that is finally (hopefully?) just beginning its escape from its “emergency” phase into one that is, again, hopefully more livable. Other aspects of the Future of Work, specifically changes in leadership and the realm of innovation and new tech, have clear pathways ahead of them.

The question remains, then: where does the extended workforce go from here?

The extended workforce of 2022 and beyond is a force that will continue to grow in size, scope, impact, and value. Future of Work Exchange research pegs contingent labor at 47% of the average company’s total workforce, a statistic that is only expected to grow in the months and years ahead. When we’re talking about nearly half of all talent that is found, engaged, and sourced via this realm, we’re essentially discussing a critical piece of the Future of Work puzzle that should be considered the contemporary nexus of all things related to how work is addressed and done.

Consider that business leaders are experiencing the most volatile labor market of their careers, with a dearth of options for filling critical positions as The Great Resignation continues its rampage. And, too, the Talent Revolution is becoming more of a reality for enterprises as workers fight for better conditions, more flexibility, and enhanced benefits. The extended workforce already sits within the crucial inner-workings of the Future of Work movement and will continue to drive value if enterprises:

Leverage the extended workforce as a primary means of getting work done.
Transform the “hiring manager experience” to make it simpler and easier to align enterprise needs with open talent across talent pools, talent communities, supplier networks, and alternative talent channels.
Harness the inherent flexibility of the extended workforce to navigate a challenging, evolving, and frustrating labor market.
Utilize total talent intelligence to configure how the extended workforce will influence future hiring initiatives, and;
Lean on the extended workforce’s top-tier skillsets and expertise to “future-proof” the greater enterprise at scale.

Perhaps the most interesting facet of today’s extended workforce is the fact that technology and innovation are abound: only several years ago, the technology landscape for managing the contingent workforce focused more on the tactical elements of this realm of talent. Today, it’s a much different story.

Platforms like Utmost are bringing a Future of Work-first focus to how business leverage their non-employee workforce to get work done. Beeline continues to progress its technology to match the evolving needs of HR, procurement, and talent acquisition practitioners. PRO Unlimited (who just made another major move this week) continues to expand its innovative platform philosophy. Prosperix just unveiled its VMS Network solution, which seamlessly connects businesses, talent suppliers, and job candidates together in its unique ecosystem. VMS solutions like Eqip, VectorVMS, FlexTrack, Pixid, and ELEVATE are also offering technological differentiators to the extended workforce solutions marketplace.

WorkSuite has a powerful engine from its Shortlist days (and a business outcome-focused variety of technology), while once-traditional talent marketplaces such as Upwork, Toptal, Bluecrew, and Talmix offer enterprise-grade innovations that represent the fluidity, flexibility, and long-range strengths of the extended workforce and freelance talent.

Moving from Direct Sourcing 1.0 to Direct Sourcing 2.0

Direct Sourcing by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/09/2022

As the overall labor market evolves in the wake of rising worker resignations, smart businesses will prioritize the need for deeper assessment and validation of skillsets and place a greater emphasis on the candidate and hiring manager experience. The starting point for most will be to build on their existing direct sourcing capabilities and work to develop Direct Sourcing 2.0 capabilities, such as:

Leverage digital recruiting processes to engage and communicate with candidates. Recruitment marketing has been a key tool for talent acquisition teams that target both active and passive candidates with specific messaging regarding open positions. Digital recruitment marketing leverages this same thinking but also invites active and passive candidates to join branded portals (and talent pools) by crafting distinctive communications that speak to career paths, worker values, desired cultures, etc.
Harness the power of AI to more effectively validate candidates’ skill, expertise, fit, and overall alignment. Candidate assessment can be enhanced and improved by adding AI capabilities into the mix. Managers simply do not have the time, resources, or energy (especially in today’s frenetic market) to deal with a “bad hire.” Virtual recruiting has made skills validation more difficult and candidate fraud more commonplace. AI-led direct sourcing tools can augment the way that enterprises gain peace of mind over who and how they engage candidates before hiring.
Nurture talent pool candidates with next-generation strategies that take into account timing, trust, and mobile-enabled messaging. Sometimes it is not just how frequently hiring managers communicate with their talent pool candidates, but when they do so that can make a world of difference in the ability to “close” a candidate. Talent nurturing within Direct Sourcing 2.0 programs entails more advanced approaches including text-first messaging, better and deeper communication with candidates, and outreach that can build trust between employer and worker.
Scale direct sourcing to become a repeatable set of processes that can drive value across the full enterprise. Direct sourcing programs typically start small, with a specific segment of worker categories before expanding into other critical areas of the enterprise. Direct Sourcing 2.0 is the culmination of expansive, innovative strategies and solutions that can take direct sourcing to the next level by increasing the number of high-impact, talent-based positions that fall under the scope of the program.

The path to Direct Sourcing 2.0 is also rooted in the idea that data should drive talent-led decision-making. Most next-generation direct sourcing programs leverage AI-driven functionality to enable a more robust picture of available skillsets, improve the matching of available skills with open positions and project requirements, streamline the assessment of candidate skills and expertise, and enhance worker intelligence. The majority of businesses see AI and advanced analytics as a catalyst for Direct Sourcing 2.0 over the next two years.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange make the case that an employer’s brand can be a catalyst for talent transformation because it can be used to attract talent and maintain an allure as non-FTE workers shift in and out of enterprise projects. Direct Sourcing 2.0 builds on brand concepts and pushes them to a higher level by using AI and analytics on candidate data to improve messaging, increase support for diversity initiatives, and gain a clearer picture of the worker expertise available in today’s transformative labor market.

FOWX Notes: March 4 Edition

General Insights by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/04/2022

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

Filtered bolsters its leadership team and drives $10M in funding. The Boston-based Direct Sourcing 2.0 and automated technical interview platform announced this week that former Yahoo!, HotJobs, and Jobvite CEO, Dan Finnagan, has joined the solution as its Chief Executive Officer. Finnagan will oversee the platform’s expected surge in growth in the months and years ahead as Filtered continues to win new Fortune 500 business. The company also announced a $10 million round of financing financing led by AI Fund, Silicon Valley Data Capital, and TDF Ventures, as well as appointing Usama Fayyad, Executive Director of the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University and Chairman at Open Insights, to its Board of Directors.
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped to 215,000 for the week ending February 26. The 18,000-claim drop marks the lowest weekly figure since January 1 and an optimistic stat heading into the end of Q1 2022. Although there are nearly 11 million job openings across the United States, there is hope that the economic upswing in the year’s early months will result in bigger job gains. However, as “The Great Resignation” and the “Talent Revolution” continue to hang overhead, we will cautiously await the latest BLS report on voluntary quits to SOMETHING.
Workflow automation platform Catalytic was acquired by PagerDuty, Inc. this week. Congrats to Sean Chou and the Catalytic team, who founded an intelligent automation solution in 2018 that blends efficient AI-fueled optimization and RPA-led process automation. The Catalytic platform will be an interesting addition to PagerDuty’s robust digital operations management offerings; Catalytic’s “no code” software will bring a seamless means of managing and automating collaborative, workflow, purchasing, onboarding, and many other processes across the business spectrum.
LiveHire recently announced partnerships with Tundra Technical Solutions and Broadleaf. The Live Hire-Broadleaf partnership, announced last week, will enable both solutions to build on direct sourcing optimization through LH’s Best-in-Class platform and Broadleaf’s longstanding MSP services, respectively. And, this week, Live Hire also announced its partnership with Tundra Technical Solutions, a union that will converge LH’s direct sourcing automation with Tundra’s talent curation expertise.

Just a reminder, as well, that Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange announced the publication of its 2022 MSP Solution Advisor earlier this week. If you are interested in learning more about our deep evaluations and assessments of the industry’s Managed Service Provider (MSP) solutions market, this report is your go-to guide. Click here or on the image below to download the new research study.

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange Launch Definitive MSP Report

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/01/2022

New Study Evaluates the Leading Managed Service Providers (MSPs) for the Workforce Solutions Market

BOSTON, MA, March 1, 2021 – Ardent Partners, a leading research and advisory firm, along with the Future of Work Exchange, a top destination for executives focused on the evolution of work and talent, announced today that its new 2022 MSP Solution Advisor report, which evaluates the Managed Service Provider (MSP) marketplace, is now available. MSPs, as the most mature offering in the greater workforce management solutions market, are continue to drive innovation in the rapidly shifting labor market and Future of Work landscape and tailor their services to suit the needs of a dynamic, agile, and extended workforce.

“The world of talent and work has changed tremendously over the past two years, forcing enterprises to reimagine their core talent engagement, talent acquisition, and extended workforce management strategies,” said Christopher J. Dwyer, senior vice president of research, managing director of the Future of Work Exchange, and author of the new MSP Solution Advisor report. “This report will help readers identify the MSP provider that best-fits the needs of their agile workforce and educate them on the different approaches that each provider takes towards key workforce management areas, including direct sourcing, SOW management, services procurement, DE&I, and reporting and analytics.”

The 2022 MSP Solution Advisor is the leading assessment report for MSPs that guides HR, procurement, human capital management, and talent acquisition leaders through a deep solutions landscape by discussing the key functionality, capabilities, competencies, offerings, and performance of the main providers in the MSP industry. The new report highlights dozens of feature-specific offerings and market differentiators from which Ardent and the Future of Work Exchange evaluated the industry’s top MSP solutions.

The Ardent analyst team identified and selected eleven key providers – Atrium, Evaluent, GRI, Guidant Global, KellyOCG, nextSource, Pontoon Solutions, PRO Unlimited, Randstad Sourceright, RightSourcing, and Talent Solutions TAPFIN – in the MSP solutions market for inclusion in this research study.

“Since 2010, Ardent Partners has been a guiding voice for professionals managing their extended workforce management programs and the solutions that they use to drive them,” said Ardent’s Chief Research Officer, Andrew Bartolini. “The new MSP Solution Advisor report is a reflection of this expertise and delivers a clear and insightful report that is a must-read for leaders seeking to optimize their extended workforce.”

Click here to download the new MSP Solution Advisor study (or click on the image below), which will be followed by the VMS Technology Advisor in the spring.