Recruitment Archives - The Future of Work Exchange

Let’s Set the Record Straight on Direct Sourcing

Direct Sourcing Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/09/2024

As you may know, the Future of Work Exchange moved to a subscription format a short time ago. Ordinarily, this article would only be accessible to FOWX subscribers. However, today’s article on direct sourcing will be available to all until midnight on December 16. Given the rampant discussion on direct sourcing and its outlook, direction, etc., the FOWX felt that this piece should be accessible to all readers for a short period. Enjoy!

For nearly 20 years, I’ve seen talent trends, shifts, and “fads” come and go. There is no industry that invites divisiveness like the world of talent and work. Making contingent workforce management less tactical and more strategic was once seen as crazy, yet today the extended workforce comprises 49.8% of the average company’s total talent, and, businesses regularly rely on this top-tier labor to get work done.

Total talent management deserves a major mention, as it still (yes…still) drives executives absolutely nutty on completely opposite sides of the spectrum: it’s either the wave of the future, or, it’s a pipe dream mired in conjecture and theory. (My take: there’s incredible value in elements of total talent management, particularly total talent intelligence. The ability to make snap worker decisions based on information and data on your total talent resources is the real benefit of any total talent management strategy/program.)

Direct sourcing has reached a similar level of conjecture, and, rightfully so: since the waning days of pre-pandemic times, “direct sourcing and talent pools” have routinely been a top-three workforce strategy, according to Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research. Furthermore, during the pandemic, direct sourcing emerged as a viable, flexible strategy for businesses that 1) wanted to scale up or down based on rollercoaster-like market conditions, 2) keep those laid off during the worst of the pandemic engaged with the organization and cultivated within an easily-recruitable talent community, 3) wanted to maintain their brand (and keep it front-and-center) in front of potential candidates, 4) support burgeoning skills-based hiring efforts, and, 5) desired to centralize their total talent resources and available skills.

There is no question today regarding the value of direct sourcing; we all realize what it can do, what it can generate, etc. The real quandary (and it’s a painful one, given the discourse on social channels liked LinkedIn) is this: how does direct sourcing actually work?

There are several schools of thought here. The simplest explanation is that an enterprise can leverage its own talent acquisition and contingent workforce teams to create an internal “recruitment agency” that blends branded job portals, curation (internally-led or outsourced), and marketing-fueled engagement with VMS or ATS technology (for sourcing and management) and EOR (for payrolling and compliance) for workforce management. Add in some level of automation to place current contractors, contingent workers, retirees, alumni, silver medalists, etc. into talent pools, and, boom, a direct sourcing program is born.

This very non-intricate approach thrives on simplicity: engage candidates, curate them, and provide internal TA and recruitment teams with access to these workers. The past several years has seen a shift, however, in how direct sourcing is approached. Deeper automation, specific functionality offered by direct sourcing platforms, a sharper focus on skills-based hiring, more attention on the marketing/brand aspects, and the power of artificial intelligence are all transforming what direct sourcing truly means today in 2024.

Here’s where some of the scuttlebutt meanders and gets us to a point of “theory vs. reality” within the direct sourcing discussion. Do businesses really need point direct sourcing platforms? Is there a real role for AI? Is there even a true DEFINITION for direct sourcing? Where does VMS fit in? Is it true that direct sourcing technology is just next-gen ATS? And, finally, does direct sourcing have a place within the contemporary extended workforce program?

Let’s tackle these one-by-one, because that’s just how we do things here at FOWX.

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Artificial Intelligence Mitigates Unconscious Bias in Hiring

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 10/31/2024

Today’s remote and hybid workplaces means access to a diverse and globally connected talent pool — one where the importance of equity and inclusion is stronger than ever. Standing in the way, however, are traditional hiring processes, coupled with ongoing controversies surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that can enable rather than reduce the influence of unconscious biases in talent decision-making. The answer to overcoming these challenges and improving equity in hiring may lie in artificial intelligence (AI). AI tools can introduce impartiality into talent decisions and processes, mitigating the effects of unconscious bias.

Unconscious Bias Lives in Us All

To quell unconscious bias, one must understand it first to later recognize its presence. The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) defines unconscious biases as “social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness. Everyone holds unconscious beliefs about various social and identity groups, and these biases stem from one’s tendency to organize social worlds by categorizing.” Unconscious biases include affinity bias, confirmation bias, conformity bias, and gender bias.

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How Will Chat GPT-4o Impact Talent Technology?

Business Leadership HR Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 05/14/2024

“The new voice (and video) mode is the best compute interface I’ve ever used,” said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman yesterday at the company’s launch of its latest AI model, GPT-4o (“omni”). “It feels like AI from the movies; and it’s still a bit surprising to me that it’s real. Getting to human-level response times and expressiveness turns out to be a big change.”

OpenAI’s latest model, GPT-4o, seamlessly blends voice, video, and text to redefine the AI interaction experience, striving for a natural and intuitive engagement. Beyond mere text processing, this model comprehends and reacts to both audio and visual inputs, ushering in a more human-like interaction. Moreover, OpenAI’s efforts in enhancing responsiveness are evident as GPT-4o boasts reaction times in milliseconds, mirroring the pace of a genuine conversation.

There’s a ton to unpack in Altman’s excitement, but there’s a key word in there that means so much for the world of talent technology: expressiveness. And it will take artificial intelligence to the next level in regards to how businesses find, engage, source, manage, and retain talent.

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AI in Talent Acquisition Coming into Its Own

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce General Insights HR Solution Providers Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by John Yuva on 04/22/2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is omnipresent, impacting all businesses and industries. However, where AI is showing immense potential is in the greater world of work and talent — specifically, talent acquisition. Few technologies in history can affect everyone, but AI’s capabilities are doing just that whether you’re an HR leader, recruiter, business manager, employee, or job candidate. AI brings revolutionary and transformative change to the Future of Work. A rising tide of enrichment is here and here to stay.

Research from Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange reveals that 80% of businesses expect to begin or increase their utilization of AI tools and technology through 2024. A staggering statistic. Thus, within the next four to six months, the vast majority of enterprises will be utilizing AI technology.

The Rising Tide of AI in Talent Acquisition

The impact of AI on business and its growing influence on talent acquisition was the topic of discussion during a recent Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange webinar featuring special guest Opptly, titled “The Rising Tide of AI in Talent Acquisition.”

Speakers Christopher Dwyer, managing director of Future of Work Exchange; Opptly’s Lori Hock, CEO, and Rebecca Valladares, head of operations, addressed how AI is changing the talent acquisition landscape. Dwyer shared that within the next 18 months, 74% of enterprises plan to leverage AI to improve the candidate experience. This is a sign of how much AI will play a critical role in attracting job candidates in the near future.

The following includes several key points shared during the webinar that show AI is not only here, but here to stay.

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Elevate Your Future of Work Processes with Blockchain

Business Leadership Contingent Workforce Direct Sourcing Technology and Innovation Uncategorized by John Yuva on 02/12/2024

One of blockchain’s chief benefits is the ability to authenticate and protect information. With today’s decentralized workforces, there is a variety of information possibly at risk, including payroll, insurance, health, and personnel data. Similarly, HR and enterprise recruiters want assurance that potential job candidates and their résumés are authentic and accurate. Blockchain technology has the potential to provide the necessary verification and protection of such sensitive workplace data.

Here are three Future of Work areas where blockchain technology could provide critical verifications and safeguards, particularly for the contingent and gig workforce — from the recruitment to the contracting and payment process.

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How Opptly Is Reimagining AI in Talent Acquisition

Direct Sourcing Solution Providers Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 12/13/2023

In the greater world of talent and work, there is a convergence at hand. The growing focus on skills-based hiring is merging with business-led utilization of artificial intelligence to present a refreshing means of talent engagement and talent acquisition that promises to cut through the ever-raging “war for talent” that has been encompassing the corporate arena for years.

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has found that nearly 75% of enterprises currently struggle with finding the best-aligned skillsets for open positions, an alarming statistic that proves that businesses will continue to grapple with a volatile labor market. The application of AI within the business stratosphere (especially over the past 18 months) has served as a veritable catalyst for recruiters, hiring managers, HR, and talent acquisition leaders to thrive in this environment.

Amidst the sweeping changes of the Future of Work movement, it’s evident that talent curation needs a profound shift. Traditional approaches no longer suffice in a world where versatility and adaptability reign supreme. As automation, innovation, and next-generation technology redefine talent acquisition, the “art” of talent curation has been reimagined; this transformation in talent curation is vital to foster a dynamic workforce capable of thriving in the ever-evolving workplace of the future.

Opptly, a proprietary AI platform company providing direct sourcing solutions as well as custom AI models and applications for both the contingent and full-time workforce to enhance talent-matching, and next-generation talent acquisition, recently announced the launch of its “Opptly.Curate” application, which promises to reshape how artificial intelligence and talent curation intersect.

“Opptly.Curate was designed and developed to further our mission to remove friction between talent and work by putting the power of our AI directly in the hands of the curator,” said Lori Hock, CEO of Opptly. “With Opptly.Curate, we have achieved our goal to deliver an intuitive user experience for curators to accelerate the most accurate talent matches.”

Opptly.Curate’s purpose-built and agile curator interface facilitates advanced interactions with the platform’s robust AI capabilities, providing curators with a streamlined, efficient solution for aligning talent with work opportunities.

The platform aids recruiters and other talent leaders with enhanced efficiency and precision, ensuring that every connection made between job seekers and job recommendations possibilities is not just seamless, but optimized for success based on numerous factors, from which curators can leverage into decision-making, most critically, the alignment between skills and expertise. Opptly.Curate’s commitment to facilitating such precise and efficient matches is a testament to its dedication in revolutionizing the talent curation landscape with its robust, skills-centered AI functionality.

Opptly.Curate offers supercharged functionality that enables the use of a success profile to interpret the contextual nature of the use of skills required, talent matching, search and refine capabilities and more. Users can tailor job descriptions and search requirements, achieving direct and immediate results, enhancing the overall talent acquisition process. In a skills-based business environment, Opptly.Curate presents an idyllic platform that represents the future of hiring. With artificial intelligence as an agile backdrop, the solution enables enterprises with the ability to transform talent acquisition; the offering’s progressive, “skills DNA” analytical capabilities allow business leaders to configure next-level talent matches based on hundreds of variables.

Skills-based hiring has become a cornerstone of the Future of Work movement, along with the digital transformation inherent within the talent acquisition arena. Opptly’s commitment to the art of talent curation, along with a powerful array of AI-fueled functionality, represents a synergy of skills-based hiring, next-generation talent engagement, and Future of Work-era strategies.

The Convergence of Soft Skills and Skills-Based Hiring (and the [Near] Future of Recruitment)

Talent Acquisition by Christopher J. Dwyer on 11/27/2023

Over the past several years, there has been a raging debate around what is seemingly more important for a business’ overall success regarding its workforce: “hard skills” or “soft skills.” The longstanding argument for top-billing between hard skills and soft skills has been a defining narrative in the realms of talent acquisition, recruitment, talent management, and overall workforce planning.

An Evolving Workplace Shifts Traditional Skills Requirements

Historically, hard skills, encompassing specific technical proficiencies and measurable expertise, have often taken precedence in hiring decisions. These skills (think areas such as coding, data analysis, or engineering) were traditionally deemed as tangible indicators of overall alignment between pure job prerequisites and the ability (or potential) for a candidate to meet those requirements.

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Five Ways AI Can Transform Talent Management

Business Leadership Talent Talent Acquisition Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 07/18/2023

Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform the many ways businesses find, engage, source, and manage talent, as well as how they structure business operations in a candidate-centric world. Today on the Future of Work Exchange, we present another exclusive infographic, “Five Ways AI Can Transform Talent Management,” that reflects how AI is primed to not only disrupt talent acquisition, but also influence, impact, and revolutionize the Future of Work movement.

A New Era of Innovation, Part II: Inside the Workforce Technology Revolution

Contingent Workforce Solution Providers Technology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on 07/17/2023

Last week, the Future of Work Exchange featured a discussion about the technological revolution happening within the greater world of talent and work. In a world combining economic uncertainty, a candidate-centric focus, and continued evolutionary change in a post-pandemic business landscape, an organization’s workforce solution reliance is often what sets it apart from the competition.

Today, we focus on perhaps the most mature of all workforce solutions: Managed Service Providers (MSPs).

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Avoid Passing on Passive Job Candidates

Business Leadership Diversity and Inclusion General Insights HR Talent Acquisition by John Yuva on 04/06/2023

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.

Passive but Silently Active

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.

Attract an Active Response

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.

Actively Recruit Passive Candidates

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.

Social Media

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.”

Content Exposure

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.

Targeted Marketing Collateral

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.

Employee Referral Programs

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.

Seek What You Need

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.