The New Talent Ecosystem

Since the great recession, many analysts have taken notice of the gig economy. A labour market characterized by workers who do not have a traditional, long-term employee-employer relationship. for HR executives and other organizational leaders, these unconventional relationships between employees and workers come with new opportunities and challenges such as; How do I engage a temporary or an on-call workforce? What do contingent workers expect from our organization? How can we effectively deliver on our brand promise and distinctive culture with gig workers? What does this disruptive system mean for recruitment? This week I will be focussing on the impact of the gig economy on recruitment.

When a company recruits a person who is engaging in the gig economy, then it is highly likely that he/she will be highly skilful compared to an employee who spent entire carrier on the same job. these freelancers and contingent workers act as their own boss and by practising these contract jobs they acquire unique skills like project management, budgeting, marketing, problem-solving, negotiating and customer service. in addition they are likely to be exposed to broader businesses and industries. this fresh perspective can often prompt creative ideas that help a business to grow. Another advantage that the businesses have on contingent workers is that it requires a little effort to motivate those workers to get the job done. as they are hired on for a period of time or to complete a particular task. so, rather than fearing a mass exodus of employees moving to the gig economy, recruitment firms should see it as an opportunity to pull in the most highly-skilled and enthusiastic individuals out there who can help the business move forward in both the short and long-term (Meister and Mulcahy, 2016).

Ellevate network

A talent ecosystem reflects a borderless world of talent acquisition and management with multiple sources of acquiring people. it consists of an extended and evolving series of relationships that goes beyond a traditional talent pool and conventional employee-employer arrangements. A talent ecosystem involves having a pool that is available to any business as an extended, dynamic and evolving network of relationships, instead of as a single static pool. It reflects the disparate and multi-layered market for talent that has become the norm for many firms, particularly those with rapidly changing skills requirements, those in cyclical industries or where talent may move fluidly across regions or countries.

According to research, the current job market is 90% candidate driven. that means you don't pick talent anymore. talent picks you. consequently finding and hiring ideal job candidates especially those with in-demand skills, has become an extremely hard expensive and time-consuming (Sackett, 2018). let's take a look into how we can attract these highly skilled candidates from the talent ecosystem. Research by Linkedin has proven that more than 75% of job seekers research about the company's reputation and employer brand before applying. companies with a bad reputation not only struggle to attract candidates, but they also struggle to retain employees (Miller, 2018). This is why employer branding is one of the emerging recruitment trends. Another important aspect of talent hiring is using data-driven metrics, which can give you great insights on which parts of your hiring strategy work well, and which ones have room for improvement. Paying attention to your HR analytics and using data-driven recruiting has proven to improve some of the most important hiring metrics such as time to hire, cost to hire and quality of hire. Finally, recruitment automation tools are in much need to acquire the best talents. these automation tools help in finding, attracting, engaging, nurturing and converting candidates into applicants. They also streamline, simplify and automate the hiring process, making it faster and more efficient. Technological advances such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learnings are already in place to assist businesses to make the best use of the new disruptive workforce.

References:

Center for Creative Leadership. (2019). Creating a Dynamic and Sustainable Talent Ecosystem - Center for Creative Leadership. [online] Available at: https://www.ccl.org/articles/white-papers/creating-dynamic-sustainable-talent-ecosystem/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2019].

John Boudreau, J. (2019). MANAGING PEOPLE IN A ‘BOUNDARY-LESS’ TALENT ECOSYSTEM. Human Resource Executive.

Meister, J. and Mulcahy, K. (2016). The future workplace experience. McGraw-Hill Education.

Miller, M. (2018). Talent Magnet. Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.

Mrinetwork.com. (2019). RECRUITER SENTIMENT STUDY. [online] Available at: https://www.mrinetwork.com/media/1036/2015_recruiter_sentiment_study_2nd_half.pdf [Accessed 17 Apr. 2019].

Sackett, T. (2018). The Talent Fix: A Leader's Guide to Recruiting Great Talent. SHRM.