HR Archives - The Future of Work Exchange

The Future of Work 2024

Events by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/29/2023

It’s that time of year when we begin to reflect on the year that was and look ahead. For the Future of Work movement, that means we have the opportunity to chat about some of the hard-hitting concepts that have revolutionized the ways we think about work…while anticipating the transformative trends that will shape 2024.

The Future of Work Exchange is incredibly excited to host our final webcast of the year, The Future of Work 2024: Transformative Trends That Will Shape The Year Ahead, featuring an all-star lineup of panelists. I’ll be joined by Lori Hock (CEO of Opptly), Teresa Creech (Chief Corporate Development Officer at Beeline), and Amy Doyle (Global Leader, SVP at Talent Solutions TAPFIN) for a fun and engaging discussion on the technologies, solutions, strategies, and innovations that impacted 2023 and how concepts such as direct sourcing, DE&I, artificial intelligence, digital recruitment, and extended workforce management will impact how businesses optimize talent and work in 2024 (and beyond).

HR Transforms into FOW Advocate

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Procurement Talent Talent Acquisition Uncategorized by John Yuva on 07/20/2023

Human resources as a function is experiencing a transformation as the Future of Work paradigm extends into more enterprises. Previously a benefits-focused department, HR is now regarded as a strategic partner in attaining business goals and objectives. Chief human resources officers are now tasked with leading total talent management efforts across the organization, ensuring the right talent is at the right place at the right time.

Growing Priorities, Balancing Demands

The Future of Work includes many tenets from flexible works models (remote and hybrid) to work/life balance considerations to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs. HR must now balance those priorities, along with talent acquisition and talent management demands that align with the current and future needs of the enterprise. That’s no small feat!

With contingent labor comprising nearly 40% of the total workforce, according to Future of Work Exchange research, HR must collaborate cross-functionally to not only understand staffing needs but the skillsets behind those roles. HR has evolved where partnerships with business managers and executive leadership are essential to the future competitiveness of the enterprise. In many ways, HR is now becoming the central role for both workplace and enterprise strategy execution.

In an article for Forbes, Joey Price, CEO for Jumpstart: HR, writes: “What’s the secret behind high-performing organizations? They are most keenly aware of the critical role that their organization’s human resources function plays in activating its overall success. If you think human resources is just a support system (*cough* “back office” *cough*) for your business, it’s time to reimagine your relationship.”

HR Impacts on FOW

HR’s impact on the Future of Work cannot be understated. It holds the keys to the execution success of Future of Work strategies. With that in mind, let’s look at several FOW areas where HR has a growing influence.

1) Human Capital Initiatives

Human resources is a human capital-intensive function. As such, building initiatives that increase employee engagement and promote a positive work culture are critical responsibilities for HR managers and executives. At the forefront of those efforts are diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives. With more employees working remotely or in a hybrid work model, enterprises are attracting candidates on a global scale. Thus, the workforce today is a melting pot of different cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles. Leveraging such diversity means developing DE&I initiatives that provide a sense of belonging and community — leading to an engaged and supportive workforce culture.

2) Work Model Influencers

The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in remote work and transformed how and where work gets done. In the last year, however, several large corporations reversed their remote work policies and asked those employees to return to the office. HR leaders are in a position to influence and advocate for remote and hybrid work models, understanding their importance to work/life balance and inclusion issues. The essence of the Future of Work is a workplace that incorporates a variety of work models to meet the needs of a talented and global workforce. Driving such policies and using data to support remote and hybrid work models is at the core of HR.

3) Talent-Centric Mentality

How and why HR sources candidates are evolving — leading to a focus on skills-based hiring. The mentality is shifting from filling a job vacancy as if it’s a commodity to truly choosing candidates based on specific skillsets that align with the strategic growth of the business. The expanding extended workforce also places more emphasis on skills and competencies than ever before. The gig economy is an ever-increasing talent pool for HR to leverage for their organization. Thus, contingent workforce management is essential to building the appropriate talent pipeline that attracts contingent candidates and retains them for ongoing strategic initiatives.

4) Balance Through Total Talent Management

As enterprises transition to skills-based hiring, it’s a natural progression toward total talent management. HR’s workforce partnerships with cross-functional business managers must encompass the totality of a department’s budget. Partnering with procurement on talent acquisition and contingent workforce management helps ensure personnel budgets remain within scope. Understanding talent spend to truly optimize the hiring of contingent labor is critical. Total talent management brings transparency to all the elements of what goes into talent acquisition. It ultimately prevents going over budget on a hire, while ensuring the enterprise achieves its talent needs.

Human resources is now much more than an administrative department focused on benefits pricing and offerings and filling vacant positions. Rather, it’s a strategic function building partnerships enterprise-wide to better achieve workplace and organizational goals while advancing and advocating Future of Work initiatives.

Soft Skills Becoming the ‘Real Skills’ in the Workplace

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent by John Yuva on 06/19/2023

For enterprises to succeed today, it requires a focus on skills beyond the vocational. This doesn’t imply that sales, procurement, or financial expertise are unnecessary or less important to an organization’s operational success. Rather, it means that “soft skill” attributes are now equally critical as hard skills within the workforce. In the competitive marketplace, agility, flexibility, and resilience are imperative to weather ongoing volatility and uncertainty. What enables this? It is soft skills, or as Seth Godin, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and speaker, calls them — real skills.

Soft Skills Transformed

The growing criticality of soft skills seems a natural part of the Future of Work transition. Skills such as empathy, communication (oral and written), adaptability, collaboration, leadership, and strategic thinking are now table stakes for managers and executives. However, it’s no longer the higher ranks where real skills are necessary and desired. These skills are now core attributes for any role in today’s organizations. Imagine a workplace where, regardless of role, soft-skill development was an integral workforce strategy.

This means that real skills such as communication, collaboration, and strategic thinking are occurring at every enterprise level and among employees and project teams. Essentially, soft skills become core principles that drive organizational success and competitiveness. Making that vision a reality, however, requires a shift in executive behavior.

Progress Begins Today

There is evidence that much work must be done. Godin notes in an excerpt from his book The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams, that …“69% of managers are uncomfortable communicating with their employees.” This is a startling number. Communication skills at the managerial level are essential for communicating strategy, responsibilities, and performance effectiveness. Lack of communication severely impacts collaborative efforts and strategic decision-making.

Remarking on the statistic, Godin says, “Communicating with employees is uncomfortable because we’ve built systems of compliance and dominance that make it difficult. We ask people to leave their humanity at the door, then use authority to change behavior. We overlay corporate greed and short-term thinking with a human desire to create work that matters.”

Instead, the Future of Work paradigm promotes empathetic leadership that supports open communication and professional growth. The systems reliant on compliance and dominance are transitioning into workplace models that value teamwork and innovative approaches to solving enterprise challenges.

Everything Can Be Taught

It is often believed that only vocational skills can be taught. This is simply not true. Even Godin says leaders “underinvest in this [soft skills] training, fearful that these things are innate and can’t be taught.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Environmental factors as well as our own experiences with managers can shape how we communicate and problem-solve.

An enterprise that embraces an inclusive and diverse workplace can be successful in training employees in real skills. With behaviors modeled and supported by the executive suite, employees are more inclined to adapt and follow the lead of those they look to for guidance. Soft skills are real skills with real strategic impact. Model, train, and reinforce the power of soft skills in every organizational environment.

This article is one of several we’ve covered on soft skills. The Future of Work Exchange recognizes that real skills have real impacts on the Future of Work and workforce strategies. As more enterprises focus on soft skills as critical attributes to employment candidacy, it opens doors to technologies to better measure real skill competencies and performance. Those innovations will only strengthen how organizations source, hire, and retain their workers.

An Ode to the Future of Work

Business Leadership HR Talent Technology and Innovation by Andrew Bartolini on 03/28/2023

The Future of Work is a topic that has been discussed for by Ardent Partners for many years, particularly with technology rapidly evolving and transforming industries. Today, we offer a poem that takes a creative and fun approach to imagining what the future of how we work might look like.

With rhyming couplets and vivid imagery, we’ve tried to paint a picture of a world where AI machines take on mundane tasks, leaving more time for worker creativity and exploration. The idea of virtual offices and collaboration without borders adds a sense of excitement and wonder to the future of work as we envision a world where the limitations of physical space and language barriers no longer exist. Ultimately, the poem encourages us to embrace the future with open arms, as it holds endless possibilities for growth and innovation.

Is It Time to Reintroduce Ourselves to Total Talent Management?

Contingent Workforce HR Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 03/27/2023

For the past decade, the very concept of total talent management has been akin to the Bigfoot or Loch Ness Monster of the business arena: a mythical idea that has only seen slivers of reality across global organizations. Sure, we’ve seen dribbles of total talent programs in some enterprises, as well as specific elements of these initiatives (i.e., total talent acquisition, total talent intelligence, etc.) offered by some of the industry’s more progressive workforce management solutions.

However, on the whole, total talent management itself has still not yet experienced its true arrival as we all would have anticipated. Back in 2011, I wrote perhaps the industry’s first full research study on total talent management, which found that there was extreme desire for such a program; the caveat, however, was that the tools weren’t quite there yet…and neither were the foundational elements required to make such a program successful.

So, here were are in 2023, with a toxic workplace environment (due to many, many workplace culture issues), a volatile labor market, and a Great Resettling that represents a continued revolution of talent. There may or may not be a recession swirling around us like a dooming specter. And, above all else, enterprises realize that they require the right talent at the right time at the right cost to get work done in an efficient and optimal way.

Dare I say that we should reintroduce ourselves to the idea of total talent management? Should we truly flip this concept from theory into reality? Here a few reasons why:

The technology is finally there to support TTM. A decade ago, the phrase “extended workforce” didn’t exist…nor did the proper technology to make total talent management a reality. Contingent workforce management (CWM) was just beginning its ascent to true strategic imperative, while less than a quarter of the total workforce was considered “non-employee.” Today, the story has evolved: extended workforce systems are innovative offshoots of Vendor Management System (VMS) platforms that can easily integrate with the core human capital systems (ATS, HRIS, etc.) for true visibility, management, and oversight of both contingent and FTE labor. Point-of-entry automation for new requisitions and talent requests can access various forms of talent, including the ever-important talent communities developed by direct sourcing solutions. And, most importantly, today’s workforce management technology can easily help businesses understand their total workforce, an attribute which allows them to pinpoint the best-aligned talent (be it contingent or an FTE already on staff) for a given project or role.
Functional collaboration today is a must-have capability. Unlike in years past, it is much more common for businesses to experience core cross-functional coordination; procurement and finance tackle their problems together, for instance, for the sake of the bottom-line. HR, talent acquisition, and procurement have all experienced challenges and pressures over the past two-and-a-half years, each unit emerging from the acute pandemic phase stronger than ever before. As such, the idea of collaborative strategies is much easier to maintain in today’s business environment: in the quest for survival during those scary days of 2020, enterprise functions learned that they needed each other to thrive. And, today, these three distinct groups now understand that, in a world where talent is an incredible competitive differentiator, they must work together to bridge the gaps between extended workforce management and traditional hiring. By combining efficiencies and blending strengths, the triumvirate of HR, procurement, and talent acquisition can form a formidable backbone of total talent management.
Aspects such as purpose, flexibility, and empathy boost the importance of the candidate experience, with the notion of “engagement” playing a critical role in total talent acquisition. No longer does a great hourly rate set the tone for freelancers, contractors, and other types of non-employee talent when choosing their next destination. Workplace culture (and leadership style) are more crucial now than ever for hiring managers to hook new talent; as such, the idea behind total talent acquisition (a key phase within TTM that involves a centralized, standardized set of guidelines and processes for engaging and sourcing all types of talent) becomes one of engagement, as well. True total talent management programs harness the power of employee engagement and candidate experience tools and tactics to ensure a steady approach towards talent acquisition for both contingent and FTE talent populations.
The need for business agility, combined with the volatility of the labor market, translates into the perfect gateway for total talent management. Simply put: total talent management is needed today, now more than ever. Businesses must execute lightning-fast talent decisions to thrive in an uncertain economy; the “total talent intelligence” enabled by total talent management programs and associated platforms allow hiring managers and other leaders to understand 1) the current makeup of talent across the organization, 2) the best-fit resources (whether it’s someone in house, a current contractor, etc.) for a new project or role, and 3) provide a dynamic entryway into a truly agile workforce.

Total talent management has been an oft-maligned strategy that has bordered on the hypothetical for over a decade. However, the platforms available today and the transformation of work and talent, combined with the need for such a program, positions total talent management as an innovative strategy for the months and years ahead.

HR and Procurement Align for the Future of Work

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights HR Procurement Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 02/16/2023

It makes sense to assume that the ownership of Future of Work execution rests in the hands of HR executives. With much of the focus on total talent management and talent acquisition strategies, HR spearheads much of the decision-making in those areas. However, another business function also plays a critical role in the Future of Work paradigm — procurement. Shifts in global supply chain dynamics and the transition from cost- to value-based supplier management, means Chief Procurement Officers and their teams are well-positioned to support Future of Work initiatives.

Traditionally, procurement focused on cost savings in the supply base and was measured against those numbers annually. However, over time, CPOs realized the criticality of supplier relationships and the resulting innovations that enabled greater marketplace competitiveness. Rather than squeezing pennies from suppliers, the relationships evolved into collaborative, value-added partnerships.

With a value-based approach, procurement is positioned to lead and support various aspects of Future of Work strategies. Let’s look at what both procurement and HR core enterprise contributions entail, followed by how the two functions intersect to complement Future of Work initiatives.

Procurement Brings Cross-Functional Knowledge and Expertise

In terms of its enterprise reach, procurement is a cross-functional partner to many departments, managing critical supplier contracts and relationships. New product development activities, digital transformation initiatives, and strategic sourcing measures all involve procurement’s insight and expertise. What makes procurement such a valued partner is its enterprise knowledge and involvement. Whether it’s sourcing services and raw materials or overseeing essential negotiation, contracting, and payment processes, CPOs and their teams respond to the pulse of the organization.

Procurement also provides vital market intelligence around emerging trends and supply base resources. Enterprises are now always thinking about the next innovation and associated resources. Where do those concepts come from? Which suppliers are required to execute such initiatives? Who will manage these relationships to ensure the greatest value within the budget? What supply chain considerations must be addressed? All these questions involve procurement’s input and, in many cases, direct involvement and oversight.

HR Maintains Workplace Consistency and Execution

Human capital is the competitive differentiator for today’s enterprises. And the Future of Work movement represents one of, if not the most, transformative periods in HR’s history. HR executives must balance in-house, remote, and hybrid work models alongside the essential integration of the extended workforce and the technologies to streamline those processes. Visibility into total talent management is imperative to ensure the needed skillsets, not just a headcount, are accounted for and available. This is crucial to executing next-level innovative planning.

When it comes to talent acquisition and management, HR owns this responsibility within the organization. Establishing talent pipelines using direct sourcing, talent marketplaces, digital staffing, and talent communities contributes to best-in-class recruiting. Like procurement, relationship building with in-house and contingent workers plays a major role in talent intelligence.

It is also HR’s role to establish consistency regarding onboarding processes and policy guidance. Talent retention strategies begin during the candidate experience phase and continue throughout an employee’s tenure with the enterprise. Consistency in how HR policies are communicated and enforced is also important to retention goals and healthy employee well-being.

Intersection of Procurement and Human Resources

With the essence of procurement and human resources laid out, where do these two functions intersect to leverage their strengths with Future of Work initiatives? Several areas can benefit from procurement’s involvement, allowing HR to tightly focus on its core capabilities.

Sourcing expertise allows relationship building. Human resources rely on a vast supplier network for total talent management requirements. Procurement can lead the search and selection of a managed service provider (MSP), for example. Expertise with supplier selection and relationship management pays dividends when procurement leads this effort — cost awareness, contract management, payment efficiencies, and relationship building with the MSP and other vendors.

HR can then focus on talent strategy and building relationships with candidates, full-time employees, and contingent workers who are users of the technologies. Any functional issues are reported to procurement to address with the supplier. Procurement should also collaborate with IT to ensure recruitment and talent management applications and platforms (e.g., ATS and VMS) integrate well with the larger enterprise network.

A centralized, single-view supply base adds efficiencies. Centralizing the supply base by integrating HR’s suppliers provides procurement transparency into those vendors, leading to cost efficiencies in scale and scope, as well as providing consistency in supplier management. This strategy is particularly important for global enterprises where regional locations may contract for the same technologies with the same or different vendors.
Expand talent intelligence in the enterprise. For procurement to best serve HR in technology selection and supplier negotiations, CPOs and their teams must have workforce intelligence as part of those processes. Thus, collaborate with HR to understand the talent needs of the enterprise. Where are there gaps in specific departments? Are there major initiatives with vacancies in key roles? Does the organization need additional support for promotional or seasonal purposes. Procurement complements HR in this effort because of its cross-functional relationships and deep understanding of operations and ongoing product development. Leverage those relationships to glean insight into talent issues and where the organization could use support. Talent committees with representation from various business units can also transform talent intelligence into an enterprise-wide strategy.
Share risk mitigation responsibilities (and harness the collective power of artificial intelligence). A close collaboration between HR and procurement means sharing information to mitigate risk. Much of HR is technology driven — for example, utilizing digital platforms for total talent management/intelligence as well as Industry 4.0 technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive analytics) to anticipate potential workforce challenges. HR is becoming more proactive in assessing and planning against those risk scenarios. Procurement is also well-versed in the use and potential of AI and predictive analytics. Sharing how each department utilizes technology applications and platforms for risk mitigation is essential. Where do opportunities exist to further leverage AI to achieve talent management objectives? How far can predictive analytics provide mitigation against critical talent shortages or succession dilemmas? Imagine using a digital twin to simulate the workforce needs in the next decade. With both HR and procurement accountable for risk mitigation, it becomes an enterprise imperative that spreads across the organization.

Ultimately, HR and procurement need to deliver on enterprise objectives. HR must secure the talent to deliver competitive workforce outcomes, while procurement produces supplier results based on value-added solutions. Both HR and procurement have complementary goals and objectives that span the enterprise and supply base. It’s only natural that these two business units collaborate. Alignment is inevitable. Success is essential.

Is It Time to Reintroduce Ourselves to Total Talent Management?

Contingent Workforce HR Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 01/16/2023

So, here were are in 2023, with a toxic workplace environment (due to so-called “quiet quitting” and “quiet firing”), a volatile labor market, and a Great Resettling that represents a continued revolution of talent. There may or may not be a recession swirling around us like a dooming specter. And, above all else, enterprises realize that they require the right talent at the right time at the right cost to get work done in an efficient and optimal way.

Dare I say that we should reintroduce ourselves to the idea of total talent management? Should we truly flip this concept from theory into reality? Here a few reasons why:

The technology is finally there to support TTM. A decade ago, the phrase “extended workforce” didn’t exist…nor did the proper technology to make total talent management a reality. Contingent workforce management (CWM) was just beginning its ascent to true strategic imperative, while less than a quarter of the total workforce was considered “non-employee.” Today, the story has evolved: extended workforce systems are innovative offshoots of Vendor Management System (VMS) platforms that can easily integrate with the core human capital systems (ATS, HRIS, etc.) for true visibility, management, and oversight of both contingent and FTE labor. Point-of-entry automation for new requisitions and talent requests can access various forms of talent, including the ever-important talent communities developed by direct sourcing solutions. And, most importantly, today’s workforce management technology can easily help businesses understand their total workforce, an attribute which allows them to pinpoint the best-aligned talent (be it contingent or an FTE already on staff) for a given project or role.
Functional collaboration today is a must-have capability. Unlike in years past, it is much more common for businesses to experience core cross-functional coordination; procurement and finance tackle their problems together, for instance, for the sake of the bottom-line. HR, talent acquisition, and procurement have all experienced challenges and pressures over the past two-and-a-half years, each unit emerging from the acute pandemic phase stronger than ever before. As such, the idea of collaborative strategies is much easier to maintain in today’s business environment: in the quest for survival during those scary days of 2020, enterprise functions learned that they needed each other to thrive. And, today, these three distinct groups now understand that, in a world where talent is an incredible competitive differentiator, they must work together to bridge the gaps between extended workforce management and traditional hiring. By combining efficiencies and blending strengths, the triumvirate of HR, procurement, and talent acquisition can form a formidable backbone of total talent management.
Aspects such as purpose, flexibility, and empathy boost the importance of the candidate experience, with the notion of “engagement” playing a critical role in total talent acquisition. No longer does a great hourly rate set the tone for freelancers, contractors, and other types of non-employee talent when choosing their next destination. Workplace culture (and leadership style) are more crucial now than ever for hiring managers to hook new talent; as such, the idea behind total talent acquisition (a key phase within TTM that involves a centralized, standardized set of guidelines and processes for engaging and sourcing all types of talent) becomes one of engagement, as well. True total talent management programs harness the power of employee engagement and candidate experience tools and tactics to ensure a steady approach towards talent acquisition for both contingent and FTE talent populations.
The need for business agility, combined with the volatility of the labor market, translates into the perfect gateway for total talent management. Simply put: total talent management is needed today, now more than ever. Businesses must execute lightning-fast talent decisions to thrive in an uncertain economy; the “total talent intelligence” enabled by total talent management programs and associated platforms allow hiring managers and other leaders to understand 1) the current makeup of talent across the organization, 2) the best-fit resources (whether it’s someone in house, a current contractor, etc.) for a new project or role, and 3) provide a dynamic entryway into a truly agile workforce.

Key Providers for 2022: Worksome

Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/28/2022

The Background:

The extended workforce, according to Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research, comprises over 47% of the average organization’s total talent. This is a far cry from even the beginning the decade, when the contingent workforce was a smaller portion of enterprise talent.

One of the hallmarks of the modern extended workforce is the dynamic makeup of this type of labor, heralded by businesses being enabled with an omni-channel experience that traverses beyond staffing suppliers and agencies. Freelancers, independent contractors, and gig workers all encompass the powerful skills and expertise represented by non-employee talent, and, not all of these workers are managed correctly, accounted for, or engaged seamlessly in today’s volatile business climate.

Enter Worksome.

Why They Were Selected:

The Future of Work Exchange colloquially uses the phrase “digital staffing” to define a wide array of solutions that don’t fit neatly into traditional workforce technology (such as MSP or VMS). Digital staffing platforms typically offer VMS-like functionality with additional “flavors” that make them appealing for businesses that need specialty offerings for initiatives related to freelancer management, direct sourcing, digital recruitment, and more.

In a very, very short amount of time, Worksome has grown from a Freelancer Management System (FMS) with a talent marketplace foundation to an agile workforce management platform that offers end-to-end functionality for HR, extended workforce management, compliance and risk mitigation (particularly worker classification), workforce intelligence, etc.

In Their Own Words:

Worksome is the new standard in external workforce management, providing a faster, more agile way for companies to work with freelancers and contractors–with less admin, less risk, and a better experience for everyone–trusted by 1,500+ companies worldwide. Worksome offers streamlined administrative operations so businesses can find, contract and pay external workers in one click, while giving the insights needed to continuously optimize external workforce operations. With Worksome’s award-winning compliance solution, customers benefit from built-in background checks, instant worker classification, and automated contracts – as well as automated payments and integrated billing to ensure efficiency. Visit www.worksome.com for more information.

The Outlook:

This summer, Worksome reported 3x year-over-year growth, proving that the solution has become a true player in the extended workforce management technology market. And, with the recent news that the platform has expanded into seven new markets, including Germany, France, Australia, Singapore, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates, Worksome is positioned for even bigger things in the months and years ahead.

The utilization of freelancers and independent contractors has grown considerably, especially in a business arena that demands workforce agility, top-tier skillsets, and on-demand access to Best-in-Class talent. Worksome’s powerful functionality enables progressive, end-to-end automation for all facets of freelancer and contractor management while improving the overall candidate experience for these types of non-employee workers. As an “all-in-one FMS” solution, Worksome is built for the Future of Work era. As more and more enterprises require real-time visibility into the deeper elements of their workforce, aim to engage and source external workers much more quickly, and crave the necessary automation to handle both tactical and strategic workforce management processes, Worksome will continue to shine as a robust platform that provides dynamic value.

The Second Thing You Must Know About The Future of Work

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 10/25/2022

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 second installment this week, we’ll be diving into the “first-mover advantage” and what that means for innovation and resiliency.

Adoption of Future of Work Accelerants

The number two must-know about the Future of Work is that the first-mover advantage (in this case, early adopters of Future of Work-era strategies and solutions) translates into urgency for innovation. During the scary early days of the pandemic, businesses were either struggling for survival…or were thriving. When we think about where we are today, let’s look at the organizations that adopted some of these Future of Work accelerants: they tapped into remote work, became more diverse and inclusive with their workforce and in their workplace, while also improving their workplace culture and overall work optimization strategies.

Businesses also embraced aspects like artificial intelligence and used their technology more expansively. For example, a Vendor Management System (VMS) wasn’t used just for requisitions, but also to build scenarios and leverage predictive analytics to scale the workforce and understand what could happen tomorrow based on today’s numbers. Doing so could lead to smarter and more educated and intelligent-led talent decisions. Thus, there is an urgency for innovation.

This is not simply about thriving, but surviving as well. Those businesses that have adopted some of these accelerants, whether they’re strategic or technology-led, are much more likely to thrive in the months ahead. The first-mover advantage sets these organizations up very nicely for the future.

Thrive Through Understanding and Embracement

The Future of Work Exchange’s architect, Christopher J. Dwyer, highlighted a discussion he had with a director of talent acquisition, who said it was easy for her company to transition to a remote workforce because it was already a hybrid workplace. The company took what it learned in pre-pandemic times over so many years that it was fairly simple to transition to remote work. It already leveraged both HR and contingent workforce technology and had those systems integrated, so it knew where its workers were across the globe — a company with approximately 300 global locations. She said the company had the capability to know who was working on what projects, where they were located, when their assignments ended, and what locations were being hit hard by a COVID-19 surge, which allowed them to react in real time. Speaking with her months later, said Dwyer, the company was thriving because of the lessons learned and its embrace of Future of Work accelerants during the early days of the pandemic.

This is not to say that a business struggling in 2020 couldn’t be thriving today. The first-mover advantage means that enterprises shouldn’t sit back and watch others pass them by in terms of what they’re adopting and embracing from Future of Work, innovation, and progression perspectives. What else is happening out there? What are their peers and competitors adopting from a technology perspective? How are their business leaders managing the workforce? How are they treating their workforce? Why are they losing talent to other organizations? Why are they getting hit harder by The Great Resignation than others?

The next economic recession will be unique because of existing inflation; however, many industries are doing well and thriving because of lessons learned and the collective trauma experienced over the last three years from the pandemic. During the next downturn, companies are likely to weather the storm much better because of the technology they’ve adopted and the new strategies they’ve embraced. The innovative thinking that comes from those decisions makes companies better suited to handle the challenges of today.

Flexibility Cannot be Underestimated

What does this mean for the workplace? In many respects, hybrid is the ideal workplace model because of the flexibility that workers crave. Obviously, many workers are unable to work remotely because of their job description. And, some businesses look at remote and hybrid work models with concerns about productivity and workforce control. However, time and time again, workers have proved that avoiding a 90-minute commute to and from work allows them to be more productive each day.

It also speaks to the flexibility of taking care of life events. The ability to go to the dentist or pick up a sick child from daycare or school can mean a great deal to workers. Workers are humans, not just numbers on a spreadsheet. It doesn’t matter if you’re a contractor that worked 4.5 hours or an employee who has been with the company for 40 years. These are not faceless workers. We are humans and humans crave flexibility. We want the ability to feel connected to the organization.

A famous CEO of the world’s largest search engine said that “the Future of Work is flexibility.” We’ve been saying this for a long time on FOWX and it’s true: the Future of Work is built on flexibility.

Beeline to Acquire Utmost: Extended Workforce Tech as a Future of Work Nexus

Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 10/19/2022

When Stone Point Capital acquired Vendor Management System (VMS) giant and extended workforce platform Beeline back in the spring, CEO Doug Leeby alluded to the fact that the transaction and new ownership would allow the most mature independent provider of VMS technology to be more active and more aggressive in the software acquisition market.

Today, that first domino fell for Beeline, as they have announced plans to acquire fellow extended workforce solution provider, Utmost.

Utmost, founded in 2018, became a growing force in the VMS solutions market over the past couple of years due to its progressive and strategic approach towards extended workforce management and the convergence of HR- and procurement-led functionality, buoyed by its dynamic technology architecture. The Utmost platform boasts a wealth of innovative modules, including an omni-channel talent sourcing solution (“Front Door”), Global Workforce Intelligence (enabling true total talent intelligence), a reimagined services procurement tool, and a burgeoning talent technology ecosystem. For Beeline, this represents a robust opportunity to capture small- and mid-sized extended and contingent workforce programs by tapping into the unique nature of Utmost’s progressive functionality.

“The Future of Work is built on the technology that delivers on the evolution of talent engagement, talent acquisition, and talent management,” said Doug Leeby, CEO of Beeline. “Bringing Utmost’s innovative offerings into the Beeline umbrella of solutions will complement our extended workforce technology and provide our clients with even more value as they optimize they ways they get work done.”

Utmost’s hallmarks, including its ease-of-use automation, frictionless integrations, and quick implementations, will enable Beeline with the ability to tap into the small- and mid-sized markets by offering a nimble foundation of offerings that link directly with these organizations’ key pain points. “Companies in the mid-market require more agile solutions at a lower cost with enhanced access points,” said Leeby. “Beeline is a fantastic “work engine” with massive functionality; Utmost will help us meet the evolving needs of this specific market while keeping our main vision in scope with the ways talent and work are evolving.”

At the center of this major market acquisition are the core constituents of the new world of work: the HR, procurement, and talent acquisition executives that run extended and contingent workforce programs, the suppliers and partners that fulfill their needs for skillsets and expertise, and the talent that drives it all.

“Acquiring Utmost is a representation of the future of extended workforce management technology,” said Colleen Tiner, Beeline’s SVP Strategy. “The transformation of both platforms has been highly complementary from business and functionality perspectives. Combining our market experience with Utmost’s solutions will help Beeline to provide Future of Work-oriented and talent-centric technology to our clients and the market.”

Tiner added that one major result of the acquisition is harnessing the power of Utmost’s strong onboarding and provisioning workflows, as well as the solution’s unique services, and bringing those into Beeline’s extended workforce platform.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange analysis of the acquisition:

While there are several redundancies in functionality, the Utmost acquisition represents a way for Beeline to continue doing what is best known for: innovating. There were many logical acquisition targets for Beeline in the wake of Stone Point Capital’s purchase of the company earlier this year, including direct sourcing platforms and specialist solutions (such as AI-fueled software), however, the company chose to go big with the Utmost move. The core of this acquisition is actually quite simple: it will allow Beeline to continue its long track record of being a pioneer and innovator while expanding its existing scope of Best-in-Class extended workforce management technology.
“Total Talent Intelligence” becomes “Global Workforce Intelligence.” In the 2022 VMS Technology Advisor, we wrote: “Utmost offers the market’s deepest total talent intelligence through agile and dynamic dashboards that present users with the ability to pinpoint (with regional- and location-specific accuracy) the makeup of FTEs, contingent workers, professional services, independent contractors, etc. and make decisions and take action in real-time (i.e., anomalies regarding compliance, etc.).” Beeline will expand the realm of total talent intelligence through its powerful analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities to bring its clients “Global Workforce Intelligence,” taking TTI a step or two further.
Beeline will have a clear pathway into the HR and talent acquisition markets. Contingent workforce management has never been a pure procurement play, but there was a time when the function dominated how the extended workforce was ultimately managed. Today, as the world of work and talent becomes more candidate-centric, technology platforms must place workers at the center of their models. The Utmost acquisition enables Beeline with crucial HR intellectual property and functionality, not to mention Utmost’s expected influence on Beeline’s greater product roadmap. The infusion of HR-oriented functionality into Beeline’s array of offerings, combined with a global workforce intelligence play that will surely draw the attention of C-suite leaders, make this deal a groundbreaking one for the industry.