Talent acquisition has long been a critical process in the business arena. With talent as a top competitive differentiator, weak staffing initiatives can undermine the greater organization’s ability to achieve its core goals and objectives. In 2019, talent is more critical than ever, and no business can grow or scale without the right talent in place. As companies prioritize expertise and skillsets when they address work-based needs, it is crucial for businesses to understand the impact that staffing can have on the greater organization.
One of the sharp shifts in the world of work, which has been burgeoning over the past few years, is the enterprise’s desire to maintain a direct relationship and control over its workforce (both traditional and non-employee). Digital staffing platforms have emerged as a solution in the quest to engage the best-fit talent and maintain control over the acquisition process. In fact, Ardent research has been tracking the adoption and utilization of these marketplaces for the past several years and found that usage of digital staffing platforms has increased over threefold over the past three years.
Digital staffing platforms and talent marketplaces have seen their adoption rates explode over the past four years because of several reasons:
- Digital staffing providers facilitate on-demand engagement of top-tier skillsets. By far the most attractive benefit of these solutions, digital staffing providers simplify the talent acquisition process by providing an e-commerce-like gateway to find the best-fit talent for any given project. Machine learning-led algorithms produce a “percentage match” between project specifications and prerequisites against the skillsets and expertise of freelance and independent professionals. Users have the ability to engage the best-aligned talent for exactly what they need.
- These platforms are both flexible and focused in scope. Flexibility is a core element within the concept of business agility, and digital staffing platforms are built with this attribute in mind. Many providers today have industry-specific capabilities, with networks of talent curated explicitly for certain verticals (these platforms also offer region-specific support). Talent marketplace services also often provide “team-building” offerings that are more consultative in nature; providers that offer these services can assist in developing a flexible pool of talent that can be leveraged to support ongoing projects and initiatives.
- Talent marketplaces typically offer “enterprise-level” offerings that integrate with core corporate systems. One of the hallmarks of the digital staffing solution over the past few years has been the availability of the enterprise-level offering. Much like a VMS or HRIS provides a variety of functionality and tools, digital staffing outlets that offer enterprise editions of their software that include analytics, talent gap identification, project management capabilities, and more. And, too, the enterprise editions of digital staffing technology often integrate with larger-scale corporate technology to boost visibility into the business’ total talent pool.
- Digital staffing providers empower independent professionals. One of the more interesting aspects of the new world of work is that more and more enterprises are placing emphasis on the “talent experience,” a concept that converges employee engagement and the candidate experience into one idea to reflect just how much a business enhances the overall experience of its workforce. Digital staffing platforms empower the independent worker by not only connecting it to potential placement opportunities, but also allowing them to make decisions of where, when, and how they want to work, no matter their location.
- These solutions are the gateway to the truly agile workforce. At the end of the day, agility is paramount. Businesses crave the ability to be dynamic with their processes, operations, and its workforce. The “agile workforce” allows the modern enterprise to leverage top-tier skills when and where they need them, and the emergence of digital staffing outlets are the true gateway to this type of talent.
Want to learn more about the role of digital staffing in today’s contingent workforce programs? Download the State of Contingent Workforce Management research study here, and learn why digital staffing is a key component of the new world of work.
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