Riding the next wave of Talent

As the ‘gig economy’ becomes an increasing norm, we are already gearing for the next big tectonic shift in the Talent landscape. And, here is how.

I recently had an opportunity to host Bin Wolfe, Global Deputy Talent at EY along with many HR Leaders in India in a roundtable on re-imagining Talent. The conversation that took centre-stage was the changing DNA of our workforce. While the change is rapid and exciting, it is in no way unpredictable. There are distinct patterns and trends emerging which are key to tapping the next wave of Talent.

Tech and Talent

Tech leaps have already powered a generation of on-demand apps like Uber, Airbnb, Instacart, Lyft, TaskRabbit amongst a host of other success stories, capturing the collective imagination of the business world – across industries and geographies. These new age organizations do not just turn the business model upside down, but they have also fundamentally altered the nature of work, the workforce structure and simply the way we approach Talent.

As I wrote in my last blog, tech is an enabler - a solution waiting to be tapped – what we need is the creativity and vision to see the possibilities. An area where tech has powered a radical shift is the gig-workforce.

Gig economy

Contingent workforce is not a new concept. But the possibilities unravelled by technology and a complementing shift in the mindset of the new age workforce, provides innumerable opportunities - for organizations and workers alike.  

• Gig is the new norm: Gig work is becoming increasingly acceptable for the new age work force, as it provides better flexibility and control in shaping one’s career. People can choose the work the excites them, experience culture across many organizations and control their learning and growth. How do we find candidates with niche skills, drive industry-oriented evaluation or assessment? Finding contingent workforce is not an alternate sourcing option. It’s about building an ecosystem, for a different mindset, to approach work. EY’s GigNow spearheads our efforts to match niche skills with gigs.
• Right and left brained synergy on micro-skills: Also interesting is the emergence of unique skill sets. Today applying psychology while discerning data or understanding art in designer user experience are a norm. This is largely due to our ability to view work by output needed, rather than as a job. 
• Cloud has no borders: Another challenge we faced for long is tackling information security. As regular workplaces are becoming increasingly mobile – our infrastructure is becoming better equipped to handle the gig workforce, both on and off premise. 
• Micro tasks in an agile environment: When we use the agile approach, we can break the work into micro tasks roping in specialists to deliver the best possible results. This creates a collaborative ecosystem and allows you to innovate as there is a hyper focus on tasks.
• Democratizing participation: Today we can crowdsource solutions for better timelines, bringing in the much-needed diversity in thought – an element of workforce diversity. This to me is very critical in building a new age team. We already have ample options in the market to crowd code, test, innovate and collaborate. We have made headway in setting micro and meso tasks.

All these along with cost benefits to the organizations as they manage a more agile workforce, is ensuring that the gig economy is here to stay.

So, what are the things organizations need to focus on?

• We need to acknowledge micro skills and approach work within the agile framework. This is crucial in traditionally non-tech domains like Talent.
• Create a seamless infrastructure to bring together the gig workers, vendor ecosystem, tech solutions to achieve a single vision.
• Create a sense of belonging. Belonging is what defines an organization. Will a contingent workforce feel motivated to walk the extra mile for you? Here, I truly believe an exceptional experience can be crafted for every person who works for the organization immaterial of the length of association. In fact, at EY we believe “whenever you join, however long you stay, the exceptional EY experience lasts a lifetime”.  

The Talent re-imagination effort I am driving at EY is an effort to connect all these dots. I will keep you posted on updates from this journey through these posts. And I would love to hear about the work you have done in this space.

Sreekanth Arimanithaya has over two and half decades of experience in managing varied functions but, HR has been passion and focus through the years. As the Global Talent Leaders at EY Global Delivery Services he leads the Talent re-imagination initiative to realign HR with the business. He is a part of the Global D&I Steering Committee, Global Talent Leadership at EY and the GDS Executive Committee.