Welcome to CPO Rising’s all-new feature, the Future of Work Influencer series, which will highlight innovative voices in the evolving world of work. This exciting new series will be a go-to spot for progressive thoughts on how technology, transformational thinking, and revolutionary ideas are changing how work gets done. Be sure to check out past articles in this series here.
Peter Oreb, CEO of CXC Global, joins us for this week’s Future of Work Influencer feature and chats about how he got into the contingent workforce industry, ways the world of work will continue to evolve, and the exciting things ahead for CXC.
Christopher J. Dwyer: Thanks for joining us, Peter. Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this industry.
Peter Oreb: I was born in Sydney, Australia and started at CXC fresh out of university in 2000. Grown through the ranks, I became a director of the Australian business in 2008 and became the global CEO by 2016. I co-founded and started several businesses in the financial services space in Australia and held a board position at Aftercare, a non-governmental organization (NGO) providing mental health social services. I’m married, with three children under the age of eight, and moved to Singapore in mid-2018 to focus on expanding the global business, already operating in over 30 countries. I have been an active member of the Entrepreneurs Organisation (EO) since 2010, having a passion for learning. What’s kept me in the industry for over 19 years is the constant change of how organizations, workers, and other parties in the ecosystem are evolving and living out the Future of Work.
CJD: One of our recent conversations revolved around just how much the concepts of “work” and “talent” are changing. Given your global perspective, how does the idea of the Future of Work vary from, say, a place like North America compared to Asia or Australia?
PO: I believe its evolving across the entire globe, but it’s just happening at a faster rate in the more mature markets than the emerging ones. The United States is obviously the most mature market, followed by the UK, then Australia, some Asian countries like Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. European countries like Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Poland are emerging, followed by the Latin American countries. Interestingly, some of the less mature markets are more open to adopting more innovative models than the United States. Client contingent direct sourcing seems to be recently picking up momentum in the US, but we have seen many total talent programs in countries like the UK and Australia already for quite some time now, where the compliance payroll component is centralized to one specialist supplier.
CJD: When I had the pleasure of chatting in-person with you at the recent Beeline Conference, we discussed the evolution of digital staffing. How do you feel this is transforming the way businesses find and acquire talent?
PO: We are seeing a lot more interest in direct sourcing programs globally, clients wanting to leverage their internal permanent recruitment teams/systems/process to commence to focus on contingent, and with this interest, the digital staffing market is growing in appeal and I believe in the next few years this will become much larger than what is today. Traditionally, only true “gig work” (one-off, very short projects) have been sourced through the digital platforms but now starting to see professional and strategic roles being acquired. I think organizations in general are slow to adjust their habits for sourcing and do things the way they have always done it; once they recognize the speed, savings, and quality of the talent that can be achieved, the growth will come. I feel also that a lot of the digital staffing firms just perceive themselves as technology companies and try hard to disrupt with their innovative pricing models; I believe they would get a lot more success and adoption if they try to fit into the existing sourcing process of organizations and stick to pricing models that are known.
CJD: CXC Global, for years, was known for its payrolling and risk mitigation services. The solution has certainly evolved, even over the past few years. Tell us about how CXC is actively changing the dynamics of talent and work for its clients.
PO: We are taking a flexible approach to dealing with clients to the way they want to source, engage, and manage their contingent workforces across the globe. Whilst we started out with risk, compliance, and payroll, we have now been offering (for 10+ years now) an unbundled traditional MSP service and have built up a very strong partnership ecosystem to design, implement, and deliver the program that meets the client’s challenges and objectives. Some clients want different services/solutions depending on business unit, or by country, or both. Knowing that we cannot be all things to all people has allowed us to forge strong relationships with partners, which has been very well-received from the market.
CJD: How do you see the world of work continuing to evolve? Any predictions for 2020?
PO:
- As predicted, the percentage of contingent workers will become an increasingly larger proportion of the workforce, especially as more millennials enter the workforce.
- More direct sourcing and total talent management programs to be implemented on a local and global level.
- More acquisitions in the VMS, ATS, FMS, and digital staffing spaces.
- Many more employees turning to become independent contingent workers, engaging organizations remotely and in different countries, to their work colleagues trying to achieve a greater work-life integration and happiness.
Connect with Peter on LinkedIn, or visit www.cxcglobal.com for more information on CXC Global.
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