Direct Sourcing Archives - Page 6 of 15 - The Future of Work Exchange

What’s Ahead for Extended Workforce Management?

Contingent Workforce Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/05/2023

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has recently discovered that the extended workforce (also known as the contingent workforce) now comprises 49% of all enterprise talent. This astounding figure represents nearly 15 straight years of growth and represents the agility, flexibility, and value of non-employee talent. Today, we present an exclusive infographic that not only highlights the future of extended workforce management, but also includes new Ardent and FOWX research, as well.

The Recession-Ready Enterprise

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing General Insights Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/03/2023

There has been great debate in recent months about a recession. Are we already in a recession? If a recession occurs, will it be light or something more impactful? Or will the economy be resilient and avoid a recession entirely? Enterprises in technology and media industries are already reacting to recession fears by laying off tens of thousands of workers. As we move further into 2023, how could a recession impact the extended workforce?

Business As Usual

There’s no doubt we’re experiencing challenging economic times. However, businesses must continue with mission-critical projects and initiatives that often require specialized expertise. The skills gap remains inherent in many enterprises, leading to continued demand for contingent workers. And as the Future of Work Exchange research indicates, 47.5% of the enterprise workforce is comprised of extended workers. That figure cannot be ignored, especially during times of economic distress.

Digitization Evolution and Workforce Mercenaries

Despite the recessionary climate, there is an enterprise evolution occurring: digitization. Whether it’s talent acquisition platforms, accounts payable solutions, or larger enterprise resource planning systems, businesses are transforming from tactical (manual) to strategic (digital) strategies across the operational landscape. And with digitization comes the extended workforce.

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What WorkLLama’s $50M Funding Means for the Direct Sourcing Arena

Direct Sourcing Solution Providers Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/20/2023

Direct sourcing dominates many of the talent-oriented discussions in our wonderful industry today more so than ever before. Heading into the months before the pandemic began, Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research found that direct sourcing strategies and talent pool development were the top two priorities heading into 2020.

The omniscience of those findings was on point: for the first 18 months or so of the pandemic, direct sourcing exploded due to its ability to drive real workforce scalability (in a time when it was needed most) and improve the candidate and hiring manager experiences. Now that the pandemic is waning and entering an endemic state, direct sourcing is still as vital as ever to businesses that focus on candidate centricity and a talent-led approach to workforce engagement.

Last week, WorkLLama, one of the industry’s leading direct sourcing technology platforms, announced that it had secured $50 million in funding (organized and facilitated by Fairpoint Partners). Now, funding in HR tech is not a rare event, however, within the direct sourcing space, this represents so much more than an innovative solution garnering significant funding.

WorkLLama’s suite of technology does not just fall under the greater “direct sourcing” banner, but rather reflects the “Direct Sourcing 2.0” model that Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange pioneered 18 months ago to reflect the next generation of innovation that has contributed to the future of the direct sourcing technology industry.

“I’ve been lucky to have been involved first-hand since direct sourcing was introduced to the market many years ago,” said Kevin Poll, WorkLLama’s SVP of Strategy and Business Development. “Fast forward to today and seeing the market demand for next-gen direct sourcing technology, it’s exciting and validates the market opportunity and the belief in our innovation and growth. Not only will we help all talent connect to meaningful work, but I’m also personally looking forward to how this investment will allow us to continue advancing the platform to help underrepresented communities.”

WorkLLama has become a leading direct sourcing platform not just because of their overall commitment to the arena, which has been apparent since they entered the enterprise market back in 2016, but rather because the company has leveraged progressive thinking to fuel a new era of direct sourcing, ATS, and end-to-end talent management functionality. The WorkLLama platform, including its unique Sofi bot, offers users with advanced functionality, artificial intelligence, access to superior talent, an enhanced candidate experience, and the enablement of repeatable and scalable direct sourcing processes all contribute to a more advanced direct sourcing program.

“WorkLLama was established in 2016 to solve long-standing challenges within the talent attraction, engagement, nurturing, and retention space,” said Saleem Khaja, COO and co-founder. “Since our inception, we’ve led with the most robust, client-centric, and configurable solution available, with a central mission to provide the highest-level consumer-like experience to talent. This funding is an important milestone in our journey to enable both organizations and talent to become even more successful.”

The massive level of funding here speaks volumes about the direct sourcing technology industry for several reasons:

Direct sourcing has moved beyond the “peripheral platform” spectrum within the talent technology ecosystem. Just a few years ago, direct sourcing solutions were considered peripheral technology; that is, platforms that contributed to extended workforce management and talent acquisition without the standing of Vendor Management Systems and HRIS solutions. Today, that has changed. WorkLLama’s funding is a direct reflection of the criticality of these platforms in driving better candidate outcomes and optimizing talent engagement and recruitment.
Artificial intelligence is now table-stakes for any technology in the workforce solutions market. One of WorkLLama’s leading-edge innovations is the application of AI and machine learning throughout the platform, which shines in its candidate nurture functionality and particularly its Sofi conversational bot. Sofi harnesses the power of AI to automate and facilitate candidate communication and engagement; the WorkLLama platform also leverages AI to catalyze digital recruitment and referral management, two attributes of direct sourcing that are crucial for programmatic success.
The candidate experience and the hiring manager experience are paramount. One of the more interesting developments in the direct sourcing technology arena is the commitment to and focus on “experience-led” aspects of talent acquisition. With a volatile labor market, the candidate experience is, of course, critical (something that WorkLLama achieves through its deep nurture and engagement functionality). What has also become important, however, is the hiring manager experience by arming these professionals (and other talent acquisition leaders) with robust offerings that can facilitate skills assessment, develop deep talent communities, and streamline talent engagement and hiring.

“CEO, CHRO, and CPO leaders face unprecedented challenges as they evaluate new workforce strategies to find and engage talent in today’s market,” said WorkLLama’s CEO and co-founder, Sudhakar Maruvada. “WorkLLama’s growth, especially in direct sourcing, shows that these leaders are invested in innovative solutions to keep up with the changing landscape of work and workers. This investment will allow us to continue to build on our key differentiators and mission of treating candidates like customers.”

The Age of Omni-Channel Talent Acquisition Is Here

Uncategorized by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/13/2023

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange have written extensively about the shifts happening in the greater world of work and talent. One such transformation, omni-channel talent acquisition, revolves around the concept of enterprises are enabled with a variety of candidate sources that can be converged to drive real-time skills alignment, on-demand hiring, and enhanced visibility into deeper attributes of candidates. While traditional staffing suppliers are still a critical piece of the contingent workforce, the “omni-channel experience” represents a new era in which enterprises can expand their talent searches through the advent of innovation, direct sourcing automation, new candidate channels, and next-generation and AI-fueled technology.

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Exchange hosted an exclusive webcast focused on the evolution of the omni-channel talent acquisition experience and its expected impact in 2023 and beyond. If you happened to miss the live event, check out an on-demand edition of the webinar below.

The Top Talent Challenges of 2023 (So Far)

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Talent Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/07/2023

The business arena is shrouded in disruption and uncertainty, given the volatility of the labor market, supply chain risks, and economic challenges that are plaguing a variety of industries across the globe. With talent as the modern enterprise’s top competitive differentiator, it is no wonder that these external factors are placing pressure on talent-specific operations within the average organization, particularly workforce oversight, extended and contingent workforce management, skills analysis, talent engagement, talent acquisition, services procurement, etc.

In another exclusive Future of Work Exchange infographic, we highlight some brand new Ardent Partners research and unveil the top talent-oriented challenges for businesses (thus far) in 2023.

FOWX Notes, March 3 Edition

Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/03/2023

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

Direct sourcing and workforce solutions platform WorkLLama announced a series of $50M strategic investments. The new funds will enable the innovative tool with a variety of advantages, including possible acquisitions, a continued commitment to direct sourcing innovation, etc. This level of investment translates into the ability for WorkLLama to continue its long track record of progressive automation in the digital recruitment and total talent management arena.
Opptly announced that it is has completed its the integration of its platform with major extended workforce and VMS solutions provider Beeline. The integration with Beeline’s direct sourcing API suite will deliver an advanced, seamless means of connecting enterprises with the best-aligned, best-fit talent via Opptly’s industry-leading AI-fueled functionality.
Talent management platform LiveHire announced its acquisition of Arrived Workforce Connections, Inc. Arrived’s shift management and mobile-led matching application will be powerful addition to LiveHire’s already-robust suite of offerings. In corresponding news, Arrived’s CEO, Jennifer Byrne, will join LiveHire as its Global Chief Product and Technology Officer. Antonluigi “Gigi” Gozzi, LiveHire’s co-founder, Executive Director, and Chief Product and Technology Officer, will transition out of his executive role.
The Fed’s record rate hikes have done little to cool the hot job market, as unemployment claims dropped once again. A seventh straight week of claims under 200,000 means that unemployment has remained at a level not experienced since 1969.
Thoma Bravo, a Chicago-based software investment firm, has officially completed its acquisition of business spend management (BSM) platform Coupa Software. Announced back in September, Thoma Bravo has finalized the massive $8B transaction. Coupa’s wide range of spend management offerings includes Coupa Contingent Workforce, its dedicated VMS tool for the extended workforce industry.

Five Reasons Why Direct Sourcing Can Supercharge Hiring

Direct Sourcing Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/01/2023

The Future of Work Exchange has long discussed the value, impact, and power of direct sourcing. Over the past three years, direct sourcing has dominated discussions across the world of talent and work, and rightfully so: Direct sourcing represents a dynamic entry-point to talent sustainability. Considering its impact on the candidate experience (transforming how workers engage with potential employers), referral management (automated, mobile-optimized referrals), and talent community development (boosting talent curation and progressing into a new stratosphere of on-demand talent pools), direct sourcing is a robust strategy to developing real workforce scalability…and talent sustainability.

Today, we are excited to present an exclusive infographic, Five Reasons Why Direct Sourcing Can Supercharge Hiring.

The Future of Work is Now: Top Trends for 2023 (New Research!)

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/14/2023

2023 promises to be a year unlike any other. With rampant inflation, economic uncertainty, and a volatile labor market, enterprises must balance agility, flexibility, and dynamic strategies to thrive in these uncertain times. The year ahead will surely challenge enterprises, with the specter of an economic downturn lingering overhead as well as continued uncertainty regarding the volatility of the labor market. However, as businesses have done over the past three years, they will persevere, they will thrive, and, most critically, they will innovate.

In the spirit of looking ahead, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange developed a brand new research study: The Future of Work Is Now: Top Trends for 2023. Sponsored by Guidant Global, this exciting new research study highlights the key trends of today’s dynamic world of work and their implications on business operations in the year ahead. Click here to download the new report.

We identified seven key trends that will shape the way businesses find, engage, and source talent, manage their extended workforce, and optimize they ways they get work done. Download the new research study today!

The Elements That Will Shape the Skills-Based Organization

Talent Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 02/06/2023

Here’s a phrase that’ll be mentioned many times throughout 2023: the skills-based organization will be the one that thrives during what could be an uneven and uncertain year ahead. Skills is akin to currency in today’s volatile market in such a way that it seemingly creates a have/have not business society. Those with top-tier skills will flourish, and, those who don’t, well…

The latest United States jobs report was rosy from a certain perspective (adding 517,000 jobs in January alone), one that reflects not only the lowest unemployment figures in nearly 55 years, but also an awkward juxtaposition of the discussions around an economic downturn and the continued fight against inflation.

For all the talk about a blooming-yet-complicated job market, there’s another side to this positive news. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research finds that 73% of businesses currently face a critical challenge in the months ahead: a lack of candidates with the required skillsets for open positions. This is yet another representation of why the skills-based organization (SBO) is a true opportunity to, essentially, reimagine the ways they think about talent acquisition and the role of talent in getting work done.

The most progressive way of thinking here is to apply agility-led principles to the realm of talent acquisition and talent engagement by 1) harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to revamp the candidate-matching process, 2) expanding “known” skills taxonomy in an automated manner to account for innovative and future roles, 3) developing a central, on-demand database of skillsets across talent communities (talent pools, talent networks, current employees, etc.), and, 4) leveraging a multi-dimensional nexus of skillsets and expertise from which to address new and evolving requirements based on the trajectory of the greater organization.

The foundational elements of the skills-based organization revolve around the concepts of rethinking the parallels between talent and work; thus, the very future of the skills-based organization depends on forward-thinking strategies, ideas, and, of course technology. Here are the crucial elements that will shape the SBO in the months ahead:

Digital credentialing will emerge as a powerful disruptor in the skills validation market. Even in the technologically-advanced days in which we live, validating skillsets and expertise is largely a manual game. Talent acquisition execs and hiring managers (as well as other core HR leaders) must review portfolios, speak to references, confirm education and backgrounds, etc. to ensure that a candidate holds the proper skillsets for the role in which it is applying. Digital credentialing platforms remove nearly all of the guesswork and the tactical elements of skills validation and provide a veritable gateway into verified skillsets, strengths, certifications, etc. that candidates can maintain throughout the duration of their career. Solutions like Credly, Sertifier, Accredible, and Certifier are revolutionizing both the candidate-facing and hiring-led aspects of digital credentialing.
Blockchain realizes its potential and becomes a gateway for talent. Across the business spectrum, blockchain has so many potential paths: augmenting data warehousing, tightening legal and financial intelligence, and, yes, reinventing the ways enterprises find and connect with talent. In a hyper-competitive and globalized talent marketplace, the power of blockchain truly shines through; by defragmenting traditional barriers to talent acquisition, blockchain-fueled candidate networks enable hiring managers (and similar leaders) with the ability, in real-time, to view candidate profiles, validate expertise, and confirm career data and portfolios. Candidates own their information, and, subsequently, their career pathways, an important factor in today’s labor market from the worker perspective. The speed in which blockchain presents a match and a connection can dwarf that of traditional hiring. Platforms like the non-profit Velocity Network and innovative solution Braintrust are helping businesses reboot their talent strategies.
AI moves firmly into the talent acquisition arena. Artificial intelligence has become, particularly over the past several years, a formidable means of visualizing workforce data through dynamic analytics. Predictive analytics and scenario-building capabilities within workforce management suites and VMS platforms have changed the way HR, procurement, and talent acquisition leaders access total talent intelligence and supercharge their talent-decision making with that data. However, 2023 is the year of AI in talent acquisition; it is imperative that businesses drive real workforce scalability and boost their skills-oriented approach by leveraging artificial intelligence to better validate candidate profiles, enhance skillset-to-job matching, and improve the overall hiring process. Talent acquisition is entering a new, AI-charged era in part because of the advanced technology that can seamlessly streamline the ways businesses not only engage candidates, but also the ways they catalyze the skills-matching experience. Platforms like Opptly represent this exciting new generation of technology, along with solutions like Phenom, Gem, and Gloat, as well as Magnit and both its ENGAGE Talent tool and total talent intelligence offering. Too, solutions such as Glider.ai (robust skills verification and candidate assessment), Fuel50 (recalibrating workforce intelligence), and HiredScore (next-generation, proactive talent-fueled AI) will also disrupt the concept of AI in talent acquisition.

One other factor that could play a pivotal role in the evolution of the skills-based organization is direct sourcing and its impact on digital recruitment, an arena that is founded on the ability to better match open positions with top-tier skillsets. Today’s direct sourcing platforms are a key cog in developing a skills-oriented approach towards talent acquisition, with solutions such as WorkLLama, whose AI-fueled recruitment tools revolutionize candidate collaboration and boost talent acquisition strategies, and LiveHire, whose end-to-end recruitment and direct sourcing technology facilitates a dynamic and holistic approach towards total talent management,

The Recession-Ready Enterprise

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing General Insights Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 01/26/2023

There has been great debate in recent months about a recession. Are we already in a recession? If a recession occurs, will it be light or something more impactful? Or will the economy be resilient and avoid a recession entirely? Enterprises in technology and media industries are already reacting to recession fears by laying off tens of thousands of workers. As we move through the first quarter of 2023, how could a recession impact the extended workforce?

Business As Usual

Digitization Evolution and Workforce Mercenaries

As more enterprises pursue digitization, mission-critical hyper-specific skillsets and expertise are not only preferred but required. Transforming into the digital era means companies are implementing new technologies that leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and other Industry 4.0 automation. Enterprise integration of these technologies requires specific skill sets and competencies that are often outside the capabilities of existing permanent employees.

Hiring full-time employees for digitization projects and initiatives does not make fiscal sense (particularly during a recession) unless the role is a data analyst or scientist critical to interpreting daily analytical outputs. Otherwise, contingent workers specializing in digital transformation integration and implementation are the ideal choices — aligning contractual agreements with workforce budgets. Hyper-skilled talent is the future for enterprises expanding their product and service offerings through automation.

Supply chain and procurement are fields that employ hyper-skilled talent. Enterprises will hire a chief procurement officer to transform the procurement department through digitization and eliminate manual processes. A timeline may last two years, but once the project is complete, the individual seeks out other organizations with transformation as a critical initiative. These types of workforce mercenaries are much more abundant today than a decade ago. Their sole purpose is the execution of strategically detailed operational initiatives to elevate the enterprise competitively before taking on a new assignment elsewhere.

Sourcing such talent is already available to many organizations through workforce platforms and processes.

The Recession-Ready Enterprise

Direct sourcing and talent marketplaces are now table stakes for enterprise competitiveness. The use of these channels is necessary to source extended workers and hyper-skilled talent with current, specialized competencies. Recent Future of Work Exchange research found that 82% of businesses utilized more extended talent in 2022 than in 2021. During a recession, organizations can specify specific hours for extended workers who are already accustomed to flexible schedules or defined project timelines.

The workforce mercenary is likely to find an abundance of opportunities in a recession with 73% of businesses planning to divert external talent to mission-critical type initiatives and projects over the next six months. This is a clear sign that organizations are taking a more proactive stance against a possible recession than in the past. It appears quite possible that talent acquisition strategies will also shift during a recessionary period as the extended workforce closes critical skill gaps.

Enterprises with the ability to scale their extended workforce before, during, and after a recession are best positioned to weather an economic downturn. Seek workforce mercenaries for those transformational initiatives, while leveraging external talent for skills gap challenges. It’s a critical balance, but one that separates the modern enterprise from those still operating at a tactical level.