In 2019, talent is more critical than ever, and no business can grow, scale, or win without the right talent in place. As companies prioritize expertise and skillsets when they address work-based needs, it is essential for businesses to understand the impact that staffing can have on business operations and business results. One of the hard shifts in the world of work is the enterprise’s desire to maintain a direct relationship and control over its entire 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 Partners research has been tracking the utilization of these marketplaces for the past several years and found that usage of digital staffing platforms has more than tripled since 2015.

The digital staffing solutions of 2019 offer robust functionality to power the Future of Work. As businesses continue to embrace the non-employee workforce and pursue organizational agility, the utilization of on-demand talent platforms will continue to rise and ultimately expand into new and exciting areas of workforce management. And, as more top-tier, independent workers become more important to drive mission-critical projects and assignments, these digital staffing outlets will become a crucial means of developing a robust “pipeline” of specialized, highly-skilled talent that can be tapped in near-real-time and effectively managed through true workforce management functionality.

The Digital Staffing Technology Advisor report was designed with one goal in mind: guide procurement, HR, human capital, and talent acquisition executives in better understanding the intricate (and crowded) digital staffing solutions market and, ultimately, help them make the best-fit technology choice for their organizations. The Technology Advisor evaluated eleven providers of digital and on-demand staffing technology, including Adepto, Crowdstaffing, Field Nation, Genesys Talent, Kalo, Shiftgig, Shortlist, TalentNet, TalonFMS, Toptal, and Upwork. These solutions were evaluated across several main criteria, including:

• Talent engagement and talent pool curation. How do the aforementioned providers automate curation of freelancers, contractors, and professional services into private talent clouds? Regarding access to a network of qualified candidates and workers, how deep is the talent pool? The Digital Staffing Technology Advisor evaluates both “top-down” providers (which are focused on talent curation) and “bottom-up” solutions (which provide networks of ready-to-be-engaged talent).
• Reporting and analytics. While digital staffing solutions have not been historically associated with “deep” access to talent data, today’s on-demand platforms are actively offering reporting functionality to help businesses understand skills gaps and talent depth, while also providing traditional spend- and supplier-related information.
• Long-term product “vision.” Ardent placed the utmost emphasis on the long-term product roadmaps for the solutions evaluated in the Digital Staffing Technology Advisor, given that these platforms are not only growing in both utilization and impact, but also considering that they are a key attribute of the Future of Work movement. How do these solutions plan to expand their offerings to account for the major talent shifts expected to occur over the next several years?
• Operational functionality, including screening and compliance. Background checks, certifications, insurance, and worker-vetting are all incredibly critical aspects for businesses leveraging agile talent. The Digital Staffing Technology Advisor evaluated the breadth and effectiveness of each provider’s operational functionality, including compliance and risk mitigation.

Ardent’s analysis also accounted for how well these platforms integrate with contingent workforce management (CWM) technology, breadth of functionality for managing SOW-based projects/services, and also considered factors such as usability, functionality, and each solution’s ability to support key staffing and workforce management tasks, activities, and processes.

Click here to download the new Digital Staffing Technology Advisor report. If your organization is currently considering adopting a digital or on-demand staffing solution, the Technology Advisor will help you select the best-fit platform for your requirements.

Tagged in: Ardent Partners Research, Christopher Dwyer, Complex Categories, Contingent Workforce, Innovation, Lists, Solution Providers, Strategy, Technology