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The Link Between Mental Health and the Future of Work

Business Leadership Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/16/2021

Even though it seems as if time passed by both slowly and quickly during the past, very strange 12 months, it’s not that difficult to remember the days immediately preceding the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic (and, for us in the States, the days just prior to the President announcing a national State of Emergency). Many of us may have spent the weekend beforehand spending time with loved ones in a restaurant or movie theater, or perhaps enjoying a night out with friends at a crowded bar.

Within a matter of days, those activities were shelved and the world as we knew it was changed nearly instantaneously. For individuals with mental health issues (which affect 26% of all adults in the United States, according to the National Institute of Health), the toll was much greater: unheralded anxiety due to uncertainty, loneliness, and a constant barrage of negative headlines of the unfolding calamity.

Compounded by global economic disruption, massive layoffs and furloughs in specific industries, and a general sense of vagueness regarding the progression of the pandemic, talented workers with mental health issues needed flexibility more than ever over the past year. While it is only human to support these individuals with care and support, there is a greater link between mental health and the Future of Work…one that is founded on the limitless potential of empathy in how businesses address how work is done.

Empathy and Flexibility as Critical Future of Work Attributes

If there’s one thing that we learned over the past year (and let’s be honest: we’ve learned MANY things, from how to bake bread, the importance of video conferencing mastery, and much more), it’s that the pandemic’s disruptions lead to an interesting development: many of the Future of Work movement’s evolving principles, including remote work, digital transformation, and non-technological strategies, were accelerated.

Businesses quickly learned how to collaborate across distributed workforces/teams, while others experienced first-hand the value of automation in business locations that couldn’t allow for more than a small percentage of on-site work at a given time. In looking at the less obvious accelerants, however, there is one that has taken on greater meaning and impact in the face of the myriad changes the business world has collectively experienced: the rise of empathy and flexibility.

The collective trauma left in the pandemic’s wake affected nearly every individual in some profound manner, a joint sense of struggle that opened pathways for business leaders and managers to employ different modes of leadership. For example, working parents faced with a sudden lack of daycare or school needed both the actual and emotional support of their leaders to contend with a series of new challenges, while the dramatic shift to remote work ruptured the once-delicate work/life balance and required those same leaders to be more flexible in how they managed their staff.

Mental Health’s Role in the Future of Work

The issues detailed above sat on top of the already-critical issues faced by the tens of millions of workers with mental health issues. A worker with anxiety or depression (or both) could now contend with burnout due to taking on additional new roles in the age of social distancing, as many more workers with more severe mental health challenges are still forced to traverse the complicated pathways left behind by how to be productive while various modes of worry plague their minds, even now a year later. Too, the pandemic itself triggered a new “wave” of individuals who experienced mental illness for the first time, compounding the greater issue at-hand.

What does this mean for the Future of Work movement, you know, the set of attributes that describe how a business optimizes its talent, technology, and strategy to best get work done? Well, it all boils down to fusing mental health and employee wellbeing into greater workforce, staffing, and work optimization strategies.

Addressing mental health, as well as employee wellness and wellbeing, must be melded into other foundational workforce strategies, similar to how new technology and new talent acquisition approaches (such as direct sourcing) have become key pieces of the Future of Work puzzle. The very essence of the Future of Work movement is to optimize how work is done and enhance the productivity of both talent and technology. Mental health is a critical factor in just how productive, creative, and innovative the workforce can be in how work is addressed and ultimately optimized.

As business leaders continue to prioritize the “basics” of supporting worker mental health (via empathy and flexibility), the following actions will be critical in the year ahead:

Push employee wellbeing up the priority list for 2021.
Offer an open and inclusive culture for those workers that need to speak their minds.
Cultivate an environment in which all workers, regardless of position, feel “physiologically safe.”
Prioritize the human connections between leaders and their staff (such as scheduling more video conferences).
Institute flexible policies that discourage worker burnout and allow for enhanced productivity.
Restructure paid time off (PTO) policies to ensure that workers can take the time they need to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

The Workforce Trends that Will Shape 2021: Part Two

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/12/2021

Over the past several weeks, I’ve written about the various contingent workforce, staffing, and Future of Work attributes that could contribute to the way businesses will operate a year from now. Taking into account the very strange days of 2020, combined with the anticipated growth in the utilization of non-employee talent, businesses now understand that there are many dynamic forces at play that will shape their outlook and success in 2021 (and beyond).

I once again had the opportunity chat with various contingent workforce, staffing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the year ahead:

Kathy Hardy, Vice President, Kelly Discover (KellyOCG)

“Over the past several years, D&I has been talked about as an HR goal, or project and the initiatives surrounding it have been largely internally focused. Since COVID-19 and the social unrest, D&I ideation has become more of a company-wide conversation than an HR objective alone, and the general level of empathy has seemed to increase as well. It is easy to engage any number of c-suite and leadership members in a conversation regarding their thoughts on what their organization needs to do in regard to change in this area. Their answers are thoughtful, empathetic, and full of reflection. Organizations seem to be interested in making incremental changes in their hiring practices as well as discussing long term holistic changes to their systems. When we incorporate the unique skills and availability of all the under-utilized talent with our current business challenges, we are not only moving forward, but we are also jumping ahead.”

Donna Wilczek, SVP of Product Strategy and Innovation, Coupa Software

“A key part of our customers’ strategic goals for 2021 is the ability to flex their workforce based on continually changing supply chain demand signals. We will ensure their success through best-of-breed contingent workforce capabilities wrapped around AI-supported decision modeling using trillions of dollars in community data to help our customers be smarter together.”

Rich Oakes, President, GigSmart

“The current labor market is showing that alignment is increasing between companies and workers. Last year, over 50 million Americans completed a “gig” or a “side-hustle.” More and more workers are seeking flexibility and control in their work. Companies are also looking for more flex labor solutions. These two wants/needs between workers and companies is the very reason the gig economy is one of the fastest growing segments of the labor market.”

“The days of only embracing the W2 hiring model are over. To remain fully staffed, companies need to embrace multiple types of labor: W2 employees, 1099 contractors, as well as third-party outsourced solutions to assist in their labor strategy. Missing deadlines and falling short of customer expectations are consistent results of companies not implementing a comprehensive talent strategy. Companies with a total talent staffing strategy will save money, fill positions faster, experience less turnover, and out produce their competitors who haven’t adjusted to the current times.”

Marlon Rosenzweig, CEO and Co-Founder, WorkGenius

“Companies became comfortable with remote work during the pandemic and they became uncomfortable with fix-costs, such as payroll. Now companies consider freelancers for more roles than before. This trend existed pre-pandemic but was significantly accelerated and will drive demand for technology solutions to source and manage this part of a modern agile workforce.”

“Remote workforces in combination with merit-based performance data can be considered without the previous regional bias which often correlates with other biases due to homogenous neighborhoods.”

Diana Doro, VP of Sales, Workspend

“The non-employee workforce was always growing, but the exponential growth we’ve seen in such a short time is really telling in the way employees want to engage employers, and the employer response to that change. This shift tells a story of workers wanting more flexibility in how they use their skills, and the dramatic shift to work-from-home brought on by stay-in-place orders simply accelerated that shift. It will be interesting to see if that shifts back post-COVID, but it’s likely here to stay for a few reasons: First, a contingent workforce can quickly flex up or down, and companies, once they realize they have this new-found agility, likely will not let it go. Second, employees are now growing accustomed to the convenience of being able to do their jobs from anywhere, which is in part why there have been so many articles on the evacuation of cities in recent months, and many of those workers likely won’t return if they don’t have to, so companies that are prepared to work with employees who prefer remote are going to win that talent.”

Nina Vaca, CEO and Founder, Pinnacle Group

“As we began to realize in March/April, the quarantines and social distancing represented the first stage of a significant realignment of the global workforce. Today, many sectors continue to struggle, while others prosper. Automation and data analytics have become even more critical; and virtualization combined with cyber security has become table stakes.”

“Demand for IT professionals continues to be relatively strong. While labor demand overall declined from its pre-pandemic peak, the declines have been less significant within the IT sector, particularly for those with skills in virtualization, cyber security, and anything cloud-related. Any roles that can be performed remotely have been largely unaffected.”

“The third quarter represented a significant recovery for many after the historically low second quarter results. Major events always carry with them both risk and opportunities. It is the job of every business leader to find and invest in those opportunities. For CEOs and other industry leaders, now is the time to demonstrate confidence, embrace new ways of working together, and continue to make critical foundational investments in what appears to be yet another “new normal.””

Sandeep Dhillon, CEO, Talmix

“We’re probably not alone amongst platforms for non-employee talent in seeing growth during recent months as companies needed to keep the wheels turning, while being nervous about committing to full-time hiring. This has really been another flavor of talent on demand, as a fast way to solve a problem for a hiring manager. What we’re now seeing is that companies want to move away from ad hoc usage, and into a more structured plan to get the best talent mix, particularly as transformation initiatives are accelerated. Within the Talmix customer base, we’re seeing the first stage of this planning, as companies centrally build talent pools for the profiles that will be required across their business. The pressing focus is still speed, needing to rapidly build and deploy this talent into more flexible teams. A secondary trend is the desire to upskill/reskill, again heavily influenced by the transformation agenda, but as one client put it, reskilling/upskilling the existing workforce frequently needs leadership from outside the organization to drive these programs through at scale. Overall as we move into 2021, we’re seeing plenty of examples that the non-employee workforce is going to be more embedded, shifting from talent on demand, to adoption of the extended workforce.”

The Workforce Trends that Will Shape 2021: Part One

Talent by Christopher J. Dwyer on 04/09/2021

I had the opportunity chat with various contingent workforce, staffing, and HR technology leaders about the key trends that will shape the year ahead:

Brian Hoffmeyer, SVP of Market Strategies, Beeline

“After the crazy year that was 2020, it’s hard to predict what 2021 will hold, and, if I could do so accurately, I’d likely be a talking head on a network news show! Anyway, that said, I do think that we will continue to see growth in the contingent workforce, that’s already happening now and there’s no reason for that not to continue; companies realize that they can get the talent that they need faster and in a less-risky way; that’s incredibly important right now.”

Neha Goel, VP of Marketing, Utmost

“I think most people in HR, Procurement, and IT realize that COVID has been a disruptive force that has accelerated workforce trends that were already in play: greater digitization and automation, more demand for external workers, and an increased reliance on remote work. These themes, combined with (likely) continued market uncertainty, mean that organizations need a more holistic view of their workforce options, i.e. their entire talent base (skills, capabilities, locations, costs, availability) so they can make informed decisions about the best resources to get work done. I think in 2021, enterprises will make investments in these areas to drive, in the short-term, agility, resilience, operational efficiency, and cost savings. In the long-term, these investments will have the potential to deliver better experiences for the workers themselves and increased productivity for the business.”

Allison Robinson, CEO and Founder, The Mom Project

“Obviously the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of the modern workplace indefinitely. Employees have more flexibility than ever before, and it’s the responsibility of the employer to continue to support and facilitate productivity and communication across all facets of the organization in this new remote workforce.”

“The increase in remote work has been a welcome shift for many, but has also added burdens to some, especially for those juggling a myriad of responsibilities ranging from childcare to virtual schooling. Organizations must remain empathetic and supportive of this ‘new normal’ by creating clear and effective means of communication, so all employees are encouraged to speak up and feel supported having their voice heard.”

“The ongoing coronavirus pandemic is something no one predicted, and no one has experience trying to navigate, so it’s more important now than ever that organizations and business leaders lead with empathy first and foremost. Employees are balancing an endless list of responsibilities all within their homes, so organizations and managers need to remain flexible in order to allow employees to meet all of the demands amidst this ‘new normal.’”

Fang Chang, SVP of Product, Coupa Software

“Procurement organizations around the world are working with their valued service providers and contingent labor pools to prepare for 2021. We are seeing elevated levels of empathy for factors such as increasing spend to other service providers and the need to work from anywhere. While empathetic, customers also recognize the importance of being diligent throughout 2021 and beyond in the continual assessment of risk factors that may negatively impact their business brand or bottom line.”

Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, PRO Unlimited

“There will be a continued preference of knowledge, specialized-skilled, white-collared workers to work on a contingent basis and not FTE. In most industries, this is already at 40% of the total workforce, and most Fortune 1000 companies have strategies to get that to 50%-to-60% in the next several years. This will be a career choice for millions of high-end members of the workforce, which will radically accelerate the complexities and importance of this segment. Companies will need to not only navigate these evolving areas at a rapid pace, but to also expertly address localization, globalization, changing regulatory and labor laws, remote work, and D&I, among others.

The notion of things like the “Gig Economy” are going to dramatically expand across virtually all categories of the skilled workforce, and in many industries, those leaders will have more contingent workers than FTEs. In addition, as the spend under management continues to expand, representing hundreds of billions of dollars per year with double-digit inefficiencies/over-payment, it will be mission critical for the C-suite to be more involved. This literally already is, and will become more so, a massive Earnings Per Share driver. Historically, the selection and management of outsourcing a company’s contingent workforce management program has been relegated as “tactical” and pushed fairly far down the organization’s org chart. This is radically and rapidly changing as the CHRO, CFO, CPO, and CIO are now playing a much greater role in the decision to not only outsource the non-employee management function, but also to deploy a technological ecosystem to harness software, machine-based learning, data, and intelligence to drive their businesses forward as part of their overall Future of the Workforce and Human Capital strategies.”

Catherine Candland, President, nextSource

“Since COVID, we have seen approximately 30-to-40% freelancer population increase in our client accounts. While our clients tell us that they originally engaged these individuals to achieve more flexibility and reduce costs in a period of uncertainty, they also cite a higher level of up-to-date skills and ready availability as reasons for continuing to drive towards a higher mix of freelancers in their overall workforce composition.”

“The notion that individuals accept temporary work as a means to get their foot in the door has been proven to no longer apply. In this unsettled environment, non-employee professionals, such as IT workers, are frequently engaged on multi-year assignments. Recent research indicates that a quarter of traditional employees remain with the same firm for less than that. Surveys of our EOR Associate employees indicate that many choose to work as non-employees for higher pay while their spouse works for healthcare benefits and lower pay.”

Jody Greenstone Miller, Founder and CEO, Business Talent Group

“Workforce agility and a holistic approach to talent management are more important than ever before, as companies pivot from ad-hoc solutions put in place at the start of the pandemic toward long-term recovery and growth. Establishing and easily accessible and reliable pool of skilled talent at the ready—like BTG’s marketplace of on-demand management consultants, subject matter experts, and project managers—positions companies to take advantage of fleeting opportunities and tackle urgent short-term needs while staying focused on the bigger picture.”

Praneeth Patlola, Chief Product Officer, WillHire

“In recent years, the HR tech industry has gone through a huge transformation to adopt people analytics and bring a data-driven approach. The latest technologies of internal talent mobility have enabled organizations with better intelligence to increase retention and enabling the workforce to shift roles internally. Not surprisingly, many organizations still have challenges for accuracy around headcount and have never tracked talent breadth in the non-employee workforce. Even a bigger challenge is the non-employee workforce masked under SOW; there is less information on skill and other metrics. In 2020, we have seen enterprises recognizing the importance of total talent analytics, which includes the non-employee workforce to address this gap on metrics and centralized talent pools, while building the pathway for total talent intelligence. Given the pace at which the HR tech industry is moving, and the contingent labor space has picked the heat on direct sourcing, there is a definite possibility for seeing several uses cases in 2021 for total talent intelligence.”