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Flexibility Shouldn’t Go Backwards

Business LeadershipHRTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Take a trip back to a moment in time with me. It’s around this time last year, and you may be in the grocery store, at the mall, or catching the last few hours of Black Friday sales. Facial coverings aren’t as prevalent as they were a year prior, an era before COVID vaccines, treatments, etc., however, many people still feel more comfortable wearing masks in any public setting.

It’s sometimes hard to believe that we’re well over two-and-a-half years removed from the first days of the COVID-19 pandemic. For many of us, we can still close our eyes and recall the anxiety, the worry, and just how uneasy everything felt.

Of course, in late 2022 now, we can look back on the scariest of those times and point to them as a dawn of a new era of work, talent, and business. Future of Work accelerants were already well in play when the country (and world, for that matter) began to “shut down,” however, it was the pandemic’s quick impact that kicked many of those concepts into high gear.

Perhaps the biggest Future of Work accelerant to arise was the global notion of flexibility. With newfound measures to keep in-person contact to an absolutely minimum, those businesses that once eschewed remote work were now forced to allow their employees and contractors to telecommute and work virtually. Those enterprises that had long embraced these work models, on the other hand, found it easier to survive in chaotic times.

The first rumblings of “return to office” planning occurred at the beginning of 2021 when the United States government rolled out the biggest vaccine campaign in medical history. Many executive leaders were eager to “get back to normal” and began the process of shifting from remote-heavy environments to hybrid workplaces.

While these blended models were ideal for balancing proximity collaboration and in-person coordination with the many advantages of the remote work environment, some leaders took encouraging virus occurrences (such as lower case rates, enhanced uptake of vaccines, etc.) as a sign that the global workforce was ready to the office full-time.

As we discussed here on the Future of Work Exchange oh so many months ago, that very notion of flexibility wasn’t a fad, nor was it a temporary state of workplace thinking. The move towards enterprise flexibility was a permanent one that could not be reneged, renegotiated, or scaled back in any profound way. One of the positive outcomes regarding the workforce over the past two years was hidden under the guise of The Great Resignation; people weren’t just quitting their jobs…they were sparking a talent revolution.

In 2022, and certainly even more so in 2023, workers demand better working conditions, enhanced benefits, empathy-led mentorship and leadership, and, most importantly, flexibility. This concept of flexibility doesn’t just translate into allowing professionals to sometimes work from home or build in specific remote days around in-person office days. No, flexibility is so much more than that, and, until executive leaders understand that flexibility is a path forward that cannot be reversed, there will continue to be staffing shortages, dearths of expertise, a lack of effective skillsets, etc.

Those leaders that are clamoring for a full return-to-office plan in January (or even sooner, if you’ve purchased a social media giant and want to destroy its culture) are banking on economic uncertainty to re-balance the scales with the workforce-at-large. However, with nearly two job openings for every available candidate in today’s market (a fluctuating number based on fluid conditions), there won’t be a labor market crunch anytime soon. So, in essence, flexibility is an attribute that every worker will want now and forever, leaving business leaders in a position in which the culture of its workplace becomes ever-so-critical when engaging the top-tier talent they need to thrive.

Workplace culture cannot be forced. And this is why the realm of flexibility is so critical to enterprise success today and in the future. Enterprises that preach and practice flexible workplace conditions have embraced the transformation of work; the idea of flexibility, then, can’t be jammed back into its bottle. Workers have realized that flexibility is what they want, desire, and require…and there’s no turning back from that.

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“Being Thankful” Means Something Different This Year

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on

We hear the phrase so many times at this point in the year, with Thanksgiving only a couple of days away: “I’m thankful for [something, someone, etc.].” We all have specific things in our lives that we are thankful for: our families, our friends, our loved ones. This year is no different: entering Year Four of a disruptive pandemic, that, while no longer in its “emergency phase,” still causes concern, we are all certainly thankful for our health and the wellbeing of those in our families, our social networks, and within our network of peers and colleagues.

In 2022, however, being thankful means something different…or, at least, should mean something different.

It’s sometimes incredibly difficult to separate “work” from “personal” life, with so many of us experiencing our career paths intertwining with the everyday routines at home. However, there is an aura to our lives today that is not only different from just a few years ago, but significantly different than it has been in decades.

We’re living in a new world of work, and, the keyword there (“living”) means that work in and of itself isn’t just a place we go for eight hours a day, but rather something that defines us as people. At the core, we are humans. And, many of us express ourselves in terms of the work we do and the skills that we have attained.

While it isn’t always healthy, there are many, many professionals that entwine their careers and personal lives in such a way that there is sometimes a vast difficulty in separating the two. This, however, is the nature of how we work today. We are always “on.” We are very frequently consumed by the content in our fields, craving information, news, and insights through social networks and communication with those within our industries.

Thus, this year, “being thankful” takes on a much different meaning, one that revolves around the concept of flexibility and the notion that we are living in a world of innovation and evolution.

Let’s be thankful that we have firmly moved into an era when remote work and hybrid workplaces are an accepted and widely-adopted means of getting work done. Let’s be thankful for those business leaders that have cultivated flexible workplace environments that rely on remote work as a viable option for their workforce.

Let’s be thankful that worker empowerment is perhaps the strongest it has ever been, with The Great Resignation giving us so much more than unhappy professionals by providing workers with the strength to stand up for themselves and each other for better working conditions, more flexibility in the workplace, and so much more.

Let’s be thankful for those business leaders preaching and practicing the art of conscious leadership. Let’s be thankful for executives and managers that lead with empathy, compassion, and understanding. Let’s be thankful to leaders that show appreciation and mentor those that they manage and work with on a daily basis.

Let’s be thankful for the folks across the workforce spectrum that are actively promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, who are striving for a more diverse workforce, more diverse talent communities, and diversity-centric hiring and talent acquisition. Let’s be thankful to those business leaders that have created and will continue to create truly inclusive workplace environments and do what they can to develop a vibrant workplace culture that reflects positive values. And let’s be thankful for those business professionals that consistently support, lobby for, and devote time and resources to equal pay initiatives, deeper collaboration, and vibrant discussions regarding DE&I.

Let’s be thankful for the technology that has helped us transform the ways we leverage talent, engage workers, and ultimately get work done. Let’s be thankful for the solution providers that consistently innovate and provide enterprises with agile automation, next-generation analytics, workforce intelligence, and progressive functionality. Let’s be thankful for the platforms that have pushed direct sourcing into new and exciting territory, and let’s be thankful for the providers that are actively embracing the Future of Work movement.

And, finally, let’s be thankful for those that think outside of the box and desire to push the envelope. Let’s be thankful for those that helped transform the ways we work. Let’s be thankful for those individuals that regard “work” as needing to be more human-centric. And let’s be thankful for everyone that believes that the Future of Work movement is how we move forward into the next great era of business history.

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Contribute to the Most Definitive Future of Work Research in the Industry

Business LeadershipDirect SourcingDiversity and InclusionHRTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange are excited to announce the launch of its annual Future of Work research survey. This comprehensive, online survey will fuel the Exchange’s research calendar for 2023 and aims to tackle progressive topics, such as:

  • The impact of innovation and new technology on work optimization, particularly the applications of artificial intelligence, blockchain, machine learning, chatbots, and digital wallets on the realm of talent engagement and talent acquisition.
  • The growth of the extended workforce and how businesses can harness the power of the contingent workforce to thrive during challenging times. (Ardent Partners and FOWX plan to publish several exciting new reports on Best-in-Class contingent workforce/extended workforce management programs, including deep-dive insights into the required capabilities, competencies, and strategies for maximizing the value of this talent.)
  • The evolution of talent acquisition, including how businesses can revolutionize the candidate experience while also enhancing the hiring manager experience through new technology, omni-channel talent engagement strategies, and advanced total talent intelligence.
  • How remote and hybrid work models will impact business operations and the total workforce in 2023.
  • The reality of total talent management and how organizations are getting closer to successfully implementing these programs.
  • The transformation of business leadership, including how today’s executives are weaving in conscious leadership styles, empathy-led directives, and enhanced worker appreciation into their greater management strategies.
  • How direct sourcing programs will evolve in the year ahead to include “Direct Sourcing 2.0” capabilities, such as digital recruitment, deeper marketing input, reflection of workplace culture and company brand, chatbots and AI, and more, and;
  • The necessary competencies that must be included in all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs in 2023 and beyond.

Click here to participate in the new Future of Work Exchange research survey. If you are an executive leader that works in the HR, procurement, finance, talent acquisition, or IT function of your organization, or if you’re a Chief People Officer, this survey has been designed to capture your specific experiences in addressing how work and talent are managed at your enterprise. As a thank you for participating in this crucial research effort, all research study participants will receive access to all of the Future of Work Exchange’s market research studies in 2023.

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How To Destroy Workplace Culture In Less Than One Week: An Elon Musk MasterClass

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on

If you’ve been following the news recently, erratic billionaire Elon Musk, he of Tesla and SpaceX fame, finally completed his quest to purchase social media giant Twitter for over $40B just last week. And, in typical Musk fashion, simply buying one of the most storied social media cornerstones of the past decade-plus just wasn’t enough for him: whether with intent or not, he’s already created havoc at an organization that was once lauded for its workforce flexibility.

The Future of Work Exchange, since its inception, has been a source of insights regarding the criticality of workplace culture and ramification of toxicity within corporate boundaries. In an age when resignations are rampant, uncertainty over the economy looms over businesses like a financial specter, and Year Four (yes, Year Four!) of pandemic could create massive disruptions yet again, businesses need to lean on several key factors to not only attract talent, but retain the top-tier expertise it already has.

Workplace flexibility, empathy-led leadership, attention to mental wellness, and robust wellbeing strategies, as well as a strong corporate brand that is associated with these facets, are all crucial elements in creating a positive environment that drives talent retention and boosts both talent engagement and talent acquisition initiatives. Economic downturn aside, the jobs market is still quite hot; United States employers added 261,000 jobs in October, according to The New York Times, a figure that shows that “the economy is resilient.” Furthermore, the Times also reported that:

There have been other recent signs that the labor market remains exceedingly tight. Job openings, after falling significantly in August, rose again in September to 10.7 million. That increase meant there were roughly 1.9 job openings for every unemployed worker. The number of people who quit their jobs — typically a sign that workers are confident they will find better ones — ticked down to 4.1 million but remained high. Layoffs overall have stayed low.

However, that aforementioned specter of a recession cannot be ignored. While “layoffs have stayed low,” none of us can scroll through LinkedIn without hearing news of peers’ and colleagues’ troubles with mass cuts. What does this have to do with Elon Musk and Twitter and workplace culture? Just keep the Times information in the back of your mind.

Musk has made public his desire to buy Twitter for a very, very long time and that dream was realized when the purchase went through last week. Immediately, Twitter, a company known for aspects like its company-wide mental health “holidays,” was immediately turned on its head from a workplace culture perspective. Let’s forget for a second (since the Exchange is not a political site) the “free speech” attributes of Musk’s gunning for the social media giant and instead focus on how much damage he’s done…in just a week’s time.

Musk and Twitter leadership laid off 50% of its staff late last week, with many employees receiving the news indirectly; some were denied access to critical systems, while others could not even log onto their laptops. Some heard of peers being laid off on social media and most others received emails informing them of their newfound, involuntary exits. And, this is only a peek at the culture Musk has already fostered, as beyond the layoffs, some employees found themselves literally sleeping in their offices to meet erratic deadlines:

A Twitter employee who shared a photo appearing to show his boss sleeping on the office floor has caused a stir on the platform. The image, which was tweeted by Evan Jones, a product manager at Twitter Spaces, on November 2, was captioned, “When you need something from your boss at elon twitter.” It shows a woman who has been identified as Esther Crawford, a director of product management at Twitter, wearing an eye mask and lying in a sleeping bag on the floor of what appears to be an office.

Yes, we’ve all had to pull all-nighters before. We’ve all had to burn some midnight oil to get a particular project or two done in our career history. It’s just that these things are adding up and it does not look good for a global organization that is a household brand…especially one that has a career page that says this:

We put people first. Be you, really. That’s how we build trust. Together we’re creating a culture that’s supportive, respectful, and a pretty cool vibe. Sure, we’re not perfect, we’re people. But we’re open and honest about who we are and what we do.

We’re all about flexibility and equity. At Twitter, we do our work where it makes the most sense. Most roles can be done from home. But some positions take place in the office. Either way, we believe in giving all Tweeps maximum flexibility whenever we can.

There’s no doubt that there is a barrage of negativity surrounding Musk’s Twitter takeover. As reported by Vox:

In the days after Musk took over, he booted top executives, slashed rank-and-file headcount, pushed engineers to work harder, and began fast-tracking a hodgepodge of potentially revenue-generating features, including charging users to get or keep a verification check mark.

It’s not new for a new business owner and executive leader to catalyze immediate change. Again, it’s 1) the pace at which these changes are happening, 2) the disregard of existing positive culture across the workplace, and 3) the abhorrent attitude in which Musk is displaying while transforming the social media giant. Here are more nuggets from the Vox piece:

One Twitter employee described the morale at the company after the layoffs as low, and said that many colleagues who survived this round of cuts wish they had gotten laid off and gotten severance instead. Twitter is giving many laid-off employees full pay and benefits through at least January, although it’s not clear if this applied to all employees, particularly those outside the US, sources said.

Twitter staff have received little official communication, such as emails or corporate-wide Slack messages, so far from Twitter’s executive leadership since Musk officially took over. One employee who spoke with Recode on the condition of anonymity called it an “information vacuum.” That’s been an adjustment for many Twitter employees who are used to a more measured, communicative, and structured work culture. One anonymous Twitter employee told the Washington Post that the work atmosphere under Elon was like “working in Trump’s White House.”

And, to top it all off, Musk eliminated the “work-from-anywhere” policy that Twitter developed earlier this year, and terminated its beloved “days of rest” monthly holidays, two attributes that were solid pieces of the workplace culture at Twitter.

Musk has been seen a brash innovator who leads in a differentiated way. He wants to implement at “24/7” work culture that, unfortunately, does not align with where workers are right now mentally and physically. The fear here is that business leaders who look up to Musk as an example of how to lead will mimic his policies and strategies, most of which will introduce toxicity into workplace culture in a time when it’d be the absolutely last thing an enterprise needs in this volatile market.

Over the weekend, news broke that Twitter asked some of its laid off employees to return to the company, realizing that some of their layoffs were mistakes. According to Fortune:

After laying off roughly half the company on Friday following Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, is now reaching out to dozens of employees who lost their jobs and asking them to return. Some of those who are being asked to return were laid off by mistake, according to two people familiar with the moves. Others were let go before management realized that their work and experience may be necessary to build the new features Musk envisions, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information…The requests for employees to return demonstrate how rushed and chaotic the process was.

In less than a week, Musk’s takeover of Twitter included the elimination of flexible work policies, termination of monthly wellness days, a mass layoff in which nearly 50% of the company’s staff was cut, and a reachout to some of those let go because the process was rushed and chaotic. A once-lauded organization for its incredible workplace culture, Twitter will now reflect the very toxic nature of a new owner who destroyed this foundation in less than a week.

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Is Waning Productivity a Worker Problem…or a Leadership Problem?

Business Leadership by Christopher J. Dwyer on

What do tech CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichail, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Microsft’s Satya Nadella all have in common? These three, amongst many other high-profile executive leaders, are calling into question whether their workers are working hard enough. Nadella has even coined a term, “productivity paranoia,” that translates into heightened corporate anxiety over whether or not their teams are producing as much as they should.

In a feature published in The Washington Post yesterday (and posted by Boston.com), news of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ work on tracking productivity has businesses rightfully worried about their teams:

Employers across the country are worried that workers are getting less done – and there’s evidence they’re right to be spooked. In the first half of 2022, productivity – the measure of how much output in goods and services an employee can produce in an hour – plunged by the sharpest rate on record going back to 1947, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What’s incredibly interesting about this turn of events is that, just last year, these productivity figures sparked to their highest level in decades. The Post, in the August 2021 article, attributed these gains to better working conditions, enhanced access to remote and hybrid work models, and other factors. So…what changed?

A return to “normalcy,” even if it can be considered that (more like “semi-normalcy”?), is most likely a culprit after two-plus years of living in pandemic-led conditions. After all of the discussions in 2020 and 2021 (and into this year) regarding the permanent shifts in how we work, it is shocking to see figures like the ones the BLS revealed this week.

The one thing that we are missing here, apparently, is just how permanent the shifts in how we lead truly are. Were the transformations towards empathy, compassion, emotional wellbeing, and better working conditions just a mirage? Or were they for real?

Conscious leadership isn’t just a mindset; it’s a state of being that cascades into how our workforce is treated, how we value them, how we support them, and how we show appreciation. There’s an incredible gap today between the way business leaders are leading and the way they should lead, and that’s reflected in how we are more likely to hear about enterprises failing to provide sick leave, proper maternity or paternity leave, or dynamic support for emotional and physical wellbeing.

Leadership is often broken. And so are some of the ways we work.

Employee engagement is a real and powerful attribute of the modern-day enterprise. The concept at its core is so very, very simple: ensure your workers are engaged, and, in return, they will dedicated to the organization, which, of course…results in increased productivity. Unfortunately, however, we are not fully living in that world today. Worker burnout is all-too common in nearly every company. Emotional wellbeing is not being prioritized at the scale that it should be. Extended vacation and sick leave benefits only exist in a small percentage of organizations.

If a business puts more stock in a free company lunch than it does its overall workplace culture, it’s a serious problem. The issues with productivity, as found by the BLS, can be attributed to a seismic failure at the leadership level of businesses across the country. Does this mean that 100% of the blame falls at the feet of executive leaders? Well, no. Those employees and workers that have engaged in “quiet quitting” are certainly guilty of waning productivity due to taking their collective foot off the gas and producing the bare minimum.

However, there’s a reason for the vast majority of quiet quitting instances that does, indeed, link back to failures at the leadership level. Are leaders being unreasonable with productivity requests? Are there putting more and more pressure on already-stressed workers? Although not many organizations are the same size (or bigger) as Twitter is, the recent takeover by Elon Musk has reportedly resulted in the controversial billionaire asking engineers to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week to meet deadlines. Musk already created a firestorm during the process leading up to his ownership of the social media platform, and seems intent on bringing that attitude into its day-to-day operations.

Over the past two years, we’ve seen (and heard) high-profile CEOs and executives eschew remote work as “aberrations” and being wholly unsustainable. There’s been a major tug-of-war between workers and leaders over return-to-office plans. And, to top it all off, some leaders even believe that flexibility isn’t a foundation of their workplace culture.

There are certainly many workers out there that aren’t pulling their weight. However, there are many, many more workers that are burnt out, disengaged, and disconnected from their workplace’s culture and vision. This is a signal that the problem of waning productivity starts at the top, with business leadership needing even more transformation than it ever has before. Lost in all of this dialogue is the fact that workers are humans, and humans experience feelings, emotions, and desires that can be affected by toxic attributes of their roles.

While economists have no clear answers on why productivity may be tumbling, looking at the rollercoaster transformation of business leadership may be the first clue. It doesn’t matter if an employee works from home, works in a hybrid model, or is in the office full-time; having leaders that lead with empathy and consciousness is the linchpin to sparking real engagement…and avoiding dips in productivity.

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The New Definition of “Team” in a Future Of Work-Led World

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsTalentTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

What does the concept of “team” mean for today’s remote and hybrid enterprises? Many workplaces now operate with dispersed teams. With the criticality of teamwork to execute company initiatives and projects, how teams function in the evolving Future of Work environment will likely have lasting implications on work culture and business success. Thus, it is imperative that organizations consider how their teams are designed and how collaboration occurs. Coupling team systematics with technologies that facilitate and encourage collaboration helps unify remote and in-person team members. Let’s take a closer look at what that means.

A Growth in Interdependence and Unity

The pandemic helped propel a shift in how employees work together and collaborate. With most people working from home for more than two years now, there was a need to almost over-communicate. Workers found themselves frequently video conferencing with team members whom they had only exchanged emails with in the past. Yet, despite the circumstances, teams accomplished their projects successfully and executed their goals.

A byproduct of this experience was greater team interdependence and cohesion. There was a feeling of “we’re all in this together” — a necessity for today’s dispersed teams post-pandemic. However, it is one thing when nearly everyone in the company is remote, compared to being one of a few working virtually. Without that sense of team interdependence and belonging, it can feel as if you’re working on an island. Companies and business leaders must recognize that the Future of Work means maintaining team unity regardless of where members are located.

So much of our work is team based. The pandemic already demonstrated that all-remote teams can be successful. Whether it’s remote or hybrid, we’re all individuals contributing to the collective success of the team. During an interview with Protocol Workplace, Kat Holmes, senior vice president of UX and product design at Salesforce, shared, “The way we reward employees or recognize employees is still very much built on this individual model of, ‘What impact did you have this quarter? What individual outcome did you accomplish?’

“The truth of it is, ‘Where did people contribute to you, and how did you contribute to other people’s success?’ That’s a shift that’s deeper than just the language of it. It’s really in framing what it means to be a successful team in a virtual environment,” Holmes said.

Bridge Remote and In-Person Team Members  

How can teams build interdependence and unity among remote and hybrid team members? Here are a few ideas.

  • Schedule time when everyone meets. For many teams, especially those that are cross functional, it can be challenging to schedule meetings that work for everyone’s calendar. However, the opportunity to interact virtually and be visible cannot be understated. For large teams, strive for a once-per-month all-team meeting to communicate progress, challenges, and upcoming milestones. Recognize those contributors who went above and beyond to help the team achieve its goals. Smaller teams or those specific to certain aspects of a project or business unit are known to meet daily or weekly for briefings. Communication should be deliberate and concise to ensure discussions remain relevant and within the specified timeframe.
  • Meet in-person as a team or company. Having the opportunity to meet in-person with team members enhances that sense of connectedness. A Canadian company, for example, had several employees based in Phoenix. Those workers often met for in-person collaboration and activities. Another company that was fully remote held two staff retreats (for those employees located east and west of the Mississippi). The company paid for the flights and accommodations for all employees citing that in-person retreats were essential to unify workers and build community among the staff.
  • Decide on a communication system. Regardless of team size, it is important to have a hierarchy of how information is communicated and prioritized. Gregory Ciotti from Help Scout shared how the company prioritizes and communicates specific messages. When do you use Slack versus email? Quick messages with questions or project updates are done as a chat message in Slack. For questions that require a longer explanation or supporting material and are not time-sensitive are communicated through email. Any lengthy team updates regarding bi-weekly or monthly metrics are posted on Slack’s virtual bulletin board. The communication hierarchy ensures that inboxes are not overloaded and that critical information is not overlooked.
  • Spark spontaneity. One aspect of in-person interaction now gaining attention is that of social spontaneity. Serendipitous moments walking by a team member or meeting at the water cooler leading to insightful conversations are lost for remote employees. Or are they? In an interview with Sococo, Pilar Orti, director of the remote work training company Virtual, not Distant, promoted the idea of social rituals to build team culture. Whether it’s a virtual coffee break or lunch, or an activity where everyone participates is an opportunity to socialize and share ideas. “Having ideas and innovating are slightly different. We can have spontaneous idea generation,” Orti says. “The online world is much better for that than the co-located because you can have asynchronous online spaces where people can post their ideas as they come up.”
  • Choose technology tools that solve a business need. There are technologies for nearly every aspect of communication and collaboration. However, choose technology that solves your specific business need. For example, need a collaborative solution where all team members can track project progress and review associated files? Then Basecamp could be the answer. Looking for a video-sharing solution with collaborative tools? GoTo Meeting may be an option. Virtual whiteboards like MURAL bring remote and in-person team members together for innovative ideas.

The Future of Work movement dictates that teams are going to have distributed members that need a feeling of connection and belonging. Business leaders must recognize this fact or risk having an environment that lacks accountability and cohesion. Now is the time to design a team atmosphere with success as its cornerstone.

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The Second Thing You Must Know About The Future of Work

Business LeadershipContingent WorkforceDiversity and InclusionGeneral InsightsHRTalentTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

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.

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Supporting the Future of Work Through Innovative Technology

Direct SourcingGeneral InsightsHRSolution ProvidersTalentTechnology and Innovation by John Yuva on

One of the defining characteristics of the Future of Work is digitization. Enterprises are now operating with more remote and hybrid workplaces. Thus, technology is imperative to a cohesive and efficient workforce. What this means for the individual employee is more daily immersion in various technological platforms and solutions. Upskilling will be a critical aspect for workers as they harness more advanced technologies to communicate, collaborate, and execute their roles.

Digital employee experience (DEX) is a term that describes how effective workers are in using digital tools. DEX is a growing area of interest as companies adopt a plethora of digital tools to augment their dispersed workforces. Companies want to ensure the tools they have integrated into the workplace are intuitive and enhance worker productivity.

Tom Haak, director at the HR Trend Institute, says, “Technology offers enormous opportunities to improve the life of people in and around organizations. In HR, the focus is still too much on control and process improvement, not enough on really improving the employee experience.”

Today, with remote and in-person workers, enterprises must bridge those two environments and focus on technologies that both attract and retain workers regardless of where they work. Technology that supports the Future of Work comes in a variety of forms. Often, artificial intelligence (AI) permeates many digital solutions, providing automated processes and data outputs for better workforce decision-making.

Throughout the remainder of the year, the Future of Work Exchange will be highlighting several technologies from blockchain to e-wallets, and how they impact Future of Work strategies. However, the following are technologies that business leaders and employees are using now and, in the future, to enhance the DEX and drive workplace efficiency and community.

Communication and collaboration. The COVID-19 pandemic put communication and collaboration to the ultimate test. Enterprises and employees experienced first-hand the potential of digital communication as they grew accustomed to using Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams. These platforms proved that remote work could, in fact, be accomplished with the same productive and strategic outcomes as in-person work models. It is one of the major reasons why remote and hybrid workforce options were embraced by enterprises post-pandemic.

There are several communication and collaborative tools to serve the enterprise and its remote and in-person workforce. Basecamp provides both a communication and collaborative platform to keep projects on schedule and lines of communication open. Trello also makes project management run smoothly regardless of where an employee is based.

Beyond these more common collaborative solutions, companies are utilizing chatbots for internal use for collaborative purposes and employee support. ServiceNOW, for example, offers its Virtual Agent solution to bring people to the same collaborative workspace or provide answers to employee questions.

Another evolving collaborative offering is the virtual whiteboard for use during company and team meetings. Companies such as Miro, MURAL, and Stormboard provide effective tools for diagramming and presenting in real time.

Big data (predictive and people analytics). Volumes of data flood enterprises from a variety of sources. For HR and other business leaders, big data is crucial to their Future of Work strategies, generating analytics across the talent acquisition and talent management landscape. Predictive analytics, for example, will grow as a key component of direct sourcing initiatives to curate a pipeline of potential job candidates.

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

Where predictive analytics will help prepare the enterprise for its future talent needs, people analytics are necessary to understand how employees are embracing digital tools and applications. Are shared applications being utilized by the workforce? Is there participation in virtual workspaces? What are employee sentiments around an enterprise’s digital transformation? People analytics help answer these questions and provide key insights into employee productivity, well-being, and digital adoption.

Virtual reality. In a previous post, FOWX explored the possibilities of the metaverse. Virtual reality will stretch the limits of employee interaction and community. Virtual workspaces where employee avatars can converse and strategize are likely to come to fruition in the coming years. It levels the playing field for remote and in-person employees by creating a setting for everyone regardless of location.

Artificial intelligence is also a major piece of the virtual reality offering. Currently, employees can create an avatar to complete repetitive tasks using AI or communicate with customers to answer product questions. As technology advances, the potential influence of virtual reality on the Future of Work will only increase. Today’s chatbots are just the beginning of how enterprises can leverage the virtual world and bridge humans with AI.

Just as the Future of Work evolves, so too will the technologies that support it. There are dozens of software applications on the horizon to benefit business leaders and their employees. Explore the options and how they align with your workforce strategy.

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On-Demand Webinar: The Five Things You Must Know About the Future of Work

Events by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Last week, Ardent Partners and the Future of Work Exchange hosted an exclusive webcast, The Five Things You MUST KNOW About the Future of Work. During the event, we discussed how the Exchange defines the Future of Work movement, the innerworkings of work optimization, the technology-fueled and non-technological attributes of the Future of Work, and so much more. If you happened to miss the event, we’ve got you covered. Check out The Five Things You MUST KNOW About the Future of Work on-demand webinar below, and stay tuned for details about our next exclusive event.

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Key Providers for 2022: Toptal

Solution ProvidersTechnology and Innovation by Christopher J. Dwyer on

The Background:

One of the key attributes of the Future of Work movement revolves around the concept of “talent evolution.” Businesses across the globe have realized that, in a world that requires agility to be truly competitive, they require real-time access to top-tier talent and skillsets. Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has routinely discovered that the utilization of alternative talent channels, particularly digital staffing and talent marketplaces, have experienced upwards of 10x adoption over the past several years.

Why such an extreme uptick in utilization? The answer is quite simple: in order for enterprises to tap into a global market of Best-in-Class talent without the restrictions of archaic talent acquisition capabilities, they need to tap into solutions that offer on-demand talent that reinforces the Future of Work-led world we live in…especially attributes such as remote work.

Enter Toptal.

Why They Were Selected:

Ardent Partners and Future of Work Exchange research has found that nearly 70% of executives leaders anticipated increasing their reliance on talent marketplaces and digital staffing platforms over the next two years, an astounding fact that reflects the dynamic benefits of such models. For over 12 years, Toptal has been a market leader in the digital staffing space, owed to its top-tier network of skillsets and expertise, as well as an on-demand foundation that allows business users to scale their workforce remotely in near-real-time fashion.

Toptal’s Enterprise offering is a services-oriented solution that enables a wide range of agile talent acquisition models. Toptal is well-known for leveraging its deep talent marketplace, talent community, and expanded freelancer network to enable true workforce agility and flexibility in its client base. And, what sets this solution apart from others in the industry is its ability to offer its clients the ability to build a fully-scalable team of distributed talent.

In Their Own Words:

Toptal is an international network of highly skilled freelancers in technology, design, and business that enables companies to innovate, meet business challenges and scale their teams, on demand. The company serves thousands of clients from hyper-growth start-ups to the Fortune 500, connecting them with top software engineers, product and project managers, designers, and finance experts from more than 100 countries. Founded in 2010 by CEO Taso Du Val,  Toptal has the world’s largest fully remote workforce. Toptal is also regularly recognized as one of the world’s top companies hiring for work-from-anywhere jobs.

The Outlook:

Toptal continues to be a pioneer in the talent marketplace industry; as such, their years-long commitment to remote work was an idyllic means of combating the many challenges during the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a trailblazer in assisting business leaders and hiring managers across the world with building and developing fully-scalable teams of top-tier, remote talent, Toptal has positioned itself as a continued market leader in the digital and on-demand staffing realm.

Toptal’s long track record of success in delivering on-demand, top-shelf talent and expertise to clients across the world position the solution as an ideal platform in a world driven by Future of Work accelerants.

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