The Future of Work Exchange Podcast welcomes Rocki Howard, Chief Equity and Impact Officer at The Mom Project, to discuss the evolution of diversity and the role (and impact) of DE&I on the Future of Work movement.
In addition, this week’s podcast looks back on last month’s Future of Work Exchange LIVE event in Boston and chats about recent inflation news and its link to the volatile labor market.
In 2023, direct sourcing is more than the sum of its parts; rather, it represents near alignment with the direction of business now and in the relative future. The labor market is still unsettled, while economic uncertainty (unfortunately) still rules the day. Businesses are in a continued war for talent, as unemployment sinks to historic lows and millions of job openings remain.
In addition, the Future of Work movement and resulting transformations actively dictate that businesses shift their hiring strategies. All of these facets together represent both a new challenge and a new opportunity for direct sourcing: helping enterprises cultivate a flexible and scalable workforce that drives true talent sustainability.
Enterprises need sustainable talent most to remain competitive and enable future agility. Direct sourcing can help enterprises achieve talent sustainability through several means.
First and foremost, it’s about building a talent pipeline of potential candidates, which can be tapped into immediately. By cultivating a talent pipeline, enterprises can proactively source and develop talent, avoiding circumstances where critical roles are vacant for long periods. Often, organizations struggle to implement adequate succession plans. Direct sourcing can help make succession planning a reality — a critical component of a sustainable talent strategy.
A flexible workforce is not just associated with work models but culture as well. Fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce through direct sourcing opens the door to varying perspectives on enterprise challenges. Contingent and permanent job candidates view flexibility as a means to encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion — a driver for talent retention and enterprise innovation. Diversity-focused organizations, networks, and forums are channels for direct sourcing engagement. And by sourcing talent from diverse channels, enterprises can build a more inclusive and diverse workforce that better reflects the communities in which they operate.
One of the biggest challenges with direct sourcing is building a pipeline of quality candidates. What is the solution? Organizations must transform their engagement efforts by leveraging the very strength of direct sourcing itself — building relationships through intentional and strategic talent outreach. Engaging with talent directly helps to build relationships with candidates and to foster a sense of connection with the organization. This can lead to higher retention rates and a more immersed and committed workforce.
In some cases, HR and business leaders must cultivate relationships over a longer period. This is where talent communities can benefit. A talent community is a group of individuals who have expressed interest in working for a particular company or in a particular industry. Talent communities can take many forms, from LinkedIn groups to online forums. At their core, talent communities provide a platform for organizations to connect with candidates and nurture relationships over time. They are also ideal for expanding the employer brand to a wider audience and communicating the organizational culture — both leading to attracting top talent and creating a competitive differentiator for the enterprise.
Direct sourcing is not simply a portal for attracting potential job candidates. Instead, it’s a strategic imperative that is paramount to enterprise talent sustainability. And with sustainability comes organizational agility, flexibility, and resiliency — all of which enable an enterprise to thrive in a volatile marketplace.
When we talk about Future of Work job candidates, it’s often in the context of active recruiting through direct sourcing initiatives, talent marketplaces, or online recruiting platforms. With the transition to skills-based hiring, attracting and selecting the right candidate is even more critical in meeting enterprise goals. As such, it may be time to expand the talent pipeline and include passive job seekers. This candidate segment can lie under the recruitment radar among the hundreds of active job applicants vying for coveted organizational roles.
Who are passive job candidates? These mostly employed individuals are not currently looking for employment opportunities. Many are happy in their place of work, but should the right career opportunity present itself, they could be persuaded to leave. According to Zippia, an online job recruiting firm, 73% of potential candidates are passive job seekers. And a considerable 87% of these candidates are open to the new job opportunities provided by active recruitment.
Attracting passive job candidates relies on initiatives that are already cornerstones of the Future of Work paradigm. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs are attractive to this recruitment segment because they want to work for employers that are progressive and supportive of various causes and lifestyles. Thus, it is imperative that organizations promote their DE&I efforts and results on social media and corporate communications for wide exposure. LinkedIn shared that a total of 134.5 million users regularly uses the platform every day. In addition, more than 48% of LinkedIn users are active each month. Enterprises should be using the platform to expand their reach in the marketplace, promote programs that capture company culture, and solicit users who are interested in employment or organizational programs.
With more enterprises restricting remote work, it is job flexibility and remote/hybrid models that continue to resonate with employees and many job seekers. Now is the time to capitalize on that fact and emphasize that the enterprise fully supports work/life balance and remote/flexible scheduling. Employees who previously enjoyed those benefits but are facing restrictions or revised policies may be more open to recruitment inquiries. At the very least, now is the time to communicate with current and potential employees about the intent to remain a remote/hybrid workplace.
Shifting now from attracting passive candidates to actively recruiting them, there are several strategies identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to accomplish that objective.
Whether it’s LinkedIn, Facebook, or association online job boards, social media’s reach is unparalleled. LinkedIn for example, offers recruiter subscriptions to best leverage the platform’s community. According to SHRM, “Another way to find passive job seekers on LinkedIn is to use the ‘advanced people search’ tool and enter your criteria for the ideal candidate for a job that is or will be available at your organization.”
Establish a company blog to share industry trends and information that business professionals in the field can turn to. It positions the enterprise as thought-leading and engaged with the sector, which can attract passive job candidates looking for best-in-class employers.
When passive job candidates are identified, the enterprise can target specific materials to them that speak to programs or benefits candidates would find attractive. Market those DE&I initiatives or hybrid work models as a reason to consider working for the enterprise.
Employees can serve as a critical extension of an organization’s recruitment strategy. With an employee referral program, outreach can occur via social media channels or through personal communication. Often, there are perks, such as a bonus for referrals that result in a hire. More importantly, an employee referral program promotes employee engagement and can lead to recruitment cost and time savings.
Passive does not mean uninterested. It is the responsibility of HR and business leaders to seek out recruitment opportunities and cultivate relationships with job candidates who possess skills and capabilities that could be a competitive differentiator for the organization. In my own professional life, I was a passive job candidate who received a LinkedIn invitation from Ardent Partners’ founder and chief research officer Andrew Bartolini to explore a potential job opportunity with his firm. I was not actively applying or networking for new employment opportunities. However, after two months of casual conversations with Andrew and his team, the position we discussed was an ideal fit with my background and professional passions. And here we are. Passive candidates need a reason to walk through the door. Show them the reasons why.
The Future of Work Exchange (FOWX) and Ardent Partners recently hosted their complimentary webinar, The Five Things You MUST KNOW About the Future of Work, which discussed the critical capabilities that enterprises can unlock to truly optimize the way they address talent acquisition, extended workforce management, and, most importantly, work optimization.
Over the next five weeks, we’ll be recapping each of the five things discussed during the event.
In our fourth installment this week, we’ll be exploring artificial intelligence as a Future of Work centerpiece.
AI and the Rise of Total Talent Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the fourth thing to know about the Future of Work. If there was an informal poll asking to name the leading Future of Work technology, about 90% would say artificial intelligence (a not-so-surprising answer). Of all the technologies available to enterprises that help automate key workforce processes, AI is the pure representation of the Future of Work.
However, there are different shades of artificial intelligence helping organizations optimize the way they get work done and how they think about talent. It’s more than having an artificial persona to help figure things out and make decisions — instead, it’s enabling smarter decisions.
Consider the rise of total talent intelligence. Today, an enterprise’s workforce may consist of 35%, 40%, or 45% non-employees and extended talent. For some, those numbers may be lower, but for others, they’re also higher. Earlier this year, Future of Work Exchange research found that 47.5% of the average company’s total workforce was considered extended, non-employee, contingent, or contract (this figure also includes freelancers, contractors, temporary workers, gig workers, consultants, etc.).
Total talent intelligence is a gateway to understanding the totality of the workforce; a gateway stimulant, so to speak, for total talent management. It’s the idea that enterprises have enough information and data on the entirety of their workforce – including skills, performance, and productivity levels. All of this information allows business leaders and hiring managers to make near-instantaneous, real-time decisions about the talent they need for a new role, project, or initiative.
Total talent intelligence enables smarter, more perceptive hiring. And AI is the way to get there.
AI as a Conduit for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Assessments in Recruited Marketing
If bias can be removed from decision-making and technology, and AI is set up in such a way that there is no unconscious bias, then it is possible to understand how diverse the workforce truly is. The Exchange has long said (including many years ago) that a diverse workforce is the deepest workforce. Being able to bring in different voices from different cultures allows businesses to be more innovative and think outside the box. And AI is a perfect conduit for that.
With regard to candidate assessments, there is wonderful technology out there that helps organizations better understand how efficient and effective a worker can be. It helps the business that went through an AI-fueled candidate assessment tool to source the best talent.There are similar solutions for recruitment marketing that have robust AI capabilities. These solutions are more than chatbots; they’re ubiquitous in how they help a candidate feel more comfortable and engaged. A candidate can use a mobile app and understand how to apply for a job. Likewise, the process for onboarding is clear, especially as it relates to healthcare benefits, time off, and open shifts. It’s these solutions that benefit the recruitment and onboarding side of extended workforce management.
On the workforce management side, AI helps with recruitment marketing. The idea that enterprises can program a bot to fill their talent pipeline overnight is quite amazing. Beyond just providing data, artificial intelligence can spark some of these processes that are beneficial to the business.
Turning to the volatile economy and its potential impact on the workforce, predictive analytics and scenario building are about managing these uncertain times. If enterprises are preparing for a recession, it is important to understand where they’ll be in six months. Data can be fed into a solution to help enterprises build a scenario and predict their financial picture or the state of global markets. The same type of data can model where the workforce is headed based on rates of resignations and retirements. Will there need to be cuts based on finances? Artificial intelligence is the perfect fighter against volatility by providing a clearer understanding of the future and how the workforce may look.
In 2022, diversity is no longer a “check-a-box” factor for many enterprises around the world; rather, it has become a cultural movement within business that emphasizes the depth of talent pools, talent communities, and talent networks without bias or barriers. The truth regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) is that direct sourcing programs (and contingent workforce management (CWM) programs) that are diverse tend to be more successful. If businesses can embed a spirit of inclusion within their direct sourcing processes and act in accordance with this mindset, they can broaden the existing talent landscape and improve upon it with new ideas and opportunity.
And, while established diversity programs previously existed in many enterprises, the events and civil unrest of the past two years drove many businesses to develop and communicate more purpose-driven goals, which are linked to societal, economic, technological, and sustainable shifts. To achieve these goals, a large number of businesses are trying to harness the power of a diverse workforce.
Using direct sourcing to hire diverse talent gives HR teams a direct ability to link purpose with DE&I efforts. For example, businesses can opt to tap into professional networks that were already designed for diverse workers from various backgrounds, cultures, and genders and link these to talent curation efforts. Direct sourcing initiatives can also benefit from “diversity automation” that is enabled from direct sourcing platforms that have partnerships and integrations with diverse job boards and networks. They can also offer anonymizing functionality that can hide specific information about different candidates.
Layering DE&I into direct sourcing is about changing behaviors and removing hiring barriers and unconscious bias from talent engagement and talent acquisition. Utilizing technology to help guide and enforce a new mindset can be extremely valuable and create awareness that the deepest talent pools are diverse talent pools.
Future of Work Exchange research finds that DE&I initiatives will be boosted with next-level intelligence over the next year-and-a-half. DE&I remains a critical piece of direct sourcing and talent acquisition overall. Today, 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 18 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.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion represent, perhaps, the most important of the “strategy-led” Future of Work tenets and deserve a rightful place in the pantheon of work optimization approaches. Diverse workforces, inclusive workplaces, and an overall environment of equity can pay massive dividends for businesses seeking to spark innovation within their total talent community, especially in an unsettled labor market that will see a hopeful end to the so-called “Great Resignation” in early 2022.
Reminder: Join WorkLLama, Ardent Partners, and the Future of Work Exchange this coming Thursday (12pm ET) for an exclusive webcast on “Direct Sourcing 2.0,” which will highlight how businesses can develop powerful, repeatable, and scalable direct sourcing processes to drive next-generation talent acquisition and recruitment strategies. Click here or on the image below to register.
