1. 3
e Tru Files
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
8
5.0
TRU HEAT
INDEX
@BillBoorman and Dinette Koolhaas
2. 10 /02
EVENTS
8,000field of recruiting. 48
We scoured
presentations and
conversations from
the last twelve
months of TRU
events to bring you
the best forward-looking
ideas in the
ATTENDEES BIG IDEAS
3. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /03
IN THE FUTURE, PAYING FOR WORK BY
THE OUTCOME WILL BE THE NORM.
GET READY TO HIRE
A NEW BREED OF
TRANSIENT WORKERS.
4. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /04
TRU uncovered an idea so radical it will dramatically disrupt
the field of recruiting over the next 18 months.
And yet, the concept is still so new that most recruiters are not aware of it.
But before we set out to change your mind, we must sketch in some context. In particular,
to understand the changing future of recruiting, we must take a detour to study the growing
power and influence of the knowledge worker.
UNDERSTANDING OUTSOURCING MARKETPLACES
Companies like Elance and
oDesk—which recently
completed their merger—
match freelancers (e.g. web
development, writing, designers
and translators) with companies
seeking short-term, on-demand
talent. Hiring companies can
view examples of freelancers’
work and evaluations by previous
hiring companies.
As well, freelancers review
hiring companies, disclosing
such things as whether the client
treated them fairly and paid
them on time.
As these types of marketplaces
become more mainstream,
companies will engage
for “work” rather than
“workers”. Talent Supply Chain
Management will become a more
integral component of traditional
staffing companies.
A global chemical company
may engage Kelly to retool their
sales and marketing efforts in
Eastern Europe. Rather than
asking for specific roles, the
company will simply ask for
specific outcomes, and a
staffing company will mobilize
the right mix of employees,
consultants and freelancers to
complete the project.
5. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /05
RISE OF THE
KNOWLEDGE WORKER
Across every business and every industry is a potent demand
for professionals whose job it is to aggregate, analyze and report
information—or said another way, those who think for a living.
These include traditional professionals such as attorneys, physicians, engineers and scientists,
as well as the newer, high-demand jobs in the STEM field such as UX developers, data analysts
and designers.
What drives the relentless demand for knowledge workers? They are innovation engines for
companies large and small. No longer is competitive advantage dictated by brute scale or
capital; companies now gain an edge by out-designing, out-forecasting, out-strategizing – that
is, out-thinking their competitors.
6. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /06
This insatiable demand for knowledge workers runs in parallel to a raft of other
interesting trends:
Growing acceptance and prevalence of virtual work and mobility.
To remain agile and support innovation, global organizations increasingly view mobility as a
key competence; mobility ensures top-talent is at the ready to staff critical projects, regardless
of geography. Global companies allow employees to work remotely, encourage teams to
collaborate across borders, and more and more rely on contingent labor for knowledge work.
IDC projects the worldwide mobile worker population will increase from about 1 billion in 2010
to more than 1.3 billion by 2015—and the company hypothesizes this shift will be a critical
factor for companies to achieve greater productivity.1
Massive gains in technology to support virtual/mobile workers.
This trend hardly needs explaining. The advent of cloud-based computing, near-ubiquity of
broadband in developed markets, and the low cost of powerful, portable devices have removed
the last barriers to working remotely. IBM, for example, allows 45 percent of its 400,000
contractors and employees to work remotely.2
Scaling these types
of alternative work
relationships is
cumbersome and
inefficient unless the
work is standardized in
some way (e.g. project
pricing vs. payment
by labor hour), and
workers are easier to
access and evaluate.
1 IDC, Mobile Enterprise Group. Statistic taken from Deloitte’s report, “Making virtual work business as usual.”
2 HBR: The Third Wave of Virtual Work.
7. /07
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
Expanding cadre of free agents. Working independently—outside of the confines
of a traditional employer/employee relationship—has become mainstream. In the United States
alone, there are an estimated 10 million self-employed individuals, as well as almost 22 million
non-employer firms (i.e. businesses with no payroll, which means solo practices).
Knowledge workers—with their position of power and influence—seek to work on their own
terms. They want to live in certain regions, report to work on a flexible schedule, work remotely
when convenient, and are more likely to work as free agents.
Yet scaling these types of alternative work relationships is cumbersome and inefficient unless
the work is standardized in some way (e.g. project pricing vs. payment by labor hour), and
workers are easier to access and evaluate.
Outsourcing marketplaces such as oDesk, Elance, Freelancer.com, Guru, Contently and GLG
Research point to a future of free agency. These platforms connect independent workers
and micro-practices with large companies seeking specialized knowledge areas and skills.
Engagement types range from the simple (e.g. translation and copywriting from Elance) to the
complex (e.g. supply chain consultants and forensic accountants from GLG Research).
8. /08
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
But in order for a large global organization to rely on independent workers for a growing
portion of their talent needs, these marketplaces will need to offer more standardized
“packages” to corporate clients. Knowledge workers will need to be paid based on outcomes
rather than hours. Or said another way, companies will pay for work rather than the worker. Fast-moving
global organizations will plan a project with an 18-month timeline, and pull in a diverse
team of independent experts to deliver results—an undertaking that will resemble supply chain
management more than staffing or hiring.
9. /09
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
IF COMPANIES SEEK WORK
AND NOT WORKERS,
WHAT WILL THE ROLE
OF RECRUITERS BE?
In a world in which companies are interested in hiring this
type of flexible, on-demand labor, recruiting must adapt
targeted strategies for free agents.
For example, if it’s true a company will want to engage, terminate and re-engage a single
worker multiple times over the course of their career, then the recruiter’s focus will no longer
be on one-time hires or one-time projects.. Instead, recruiters must forge lasting relationships
with high-value prospects, and keep those individuals engaged over many years. (An idea we
explore in the New Role of the Recruiter ebook.) Recruiting programs may come to resemble
university alumni programs: organizing ongoing events, providing education, and constantly
communicating with free agents regardless of whether the recruiter has an opening for that
person or not.
10. /10
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
We predict that within the field of recruiting, an important new role will take shape: the
Talent Attractor. This new breed of recruiter won’t be responsible for sourcing any individual
candidate, but rather building long-term relationships with professionals who either may
become candidates in the future or who may influence future candidates. Talent Attractors will
borrow lessons from so-called content marketers and behave more as publishers. Rather than
promote their own brand, they will answer questions and publish educational information to
help would-be job seekers and the types of transient workers described here.
Recruiting will become less a function of hiring John Smith for a specific job, and more about
keeping an eye on John over a lifetime of work, engaging him in conversation if he’s deemed
to be a high-value passive candidate, and understanding what types of opportunities he’s
interested in at different stages of his career.
11. /11
HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS:
ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
GET YOUR
FACTS
To hire flexible, on-demand
labor, recruiting must
adapt targeted strategies
for free agents. Recruiters
should no longer focus on
one-time hires or one-time
projects. Instead, they will
forge lasting relationships
with high-value prospects,
and keep those individuals
engaged over many years.
(An idea we explore in the
New Role of the Recruiter
ebook.) To get started:
Assess the need. While the
idea of hiring for work rather
than the worker sounds
promising, your organization
may not be ready to make
the leap. First assess the
need for on-demand labor.
Survey hiring managers and
senior business leadership.
Does your company use
contingent and freelance
labor as part of a purposeful
strategy, or simply to fill
short-term needs? Would
the company be served by
increasing reliance on free
agents? In which fields?
Identify low-hanging
fruit. Many organizations
hire tomorrow’s workers
based on how they hired
yesterday’s workers. Which
is to say, if they previously
hired engineers as full-time
employees, they will likely
continue to do so.
Study your organization’s
mission-critical talent, and
explore which roles may be
better filled by free agents
rather than employees
(based on how workers in
that field prefer to work,
time-limited assignments,
and other relevant factors).
Consider a pilot. Identify a
new project that requires a
fast-moving, interdisciplinary
team. Use the project as a
pilot to test whether mixing
free agents and employees
in a single working team
makes sense. How well did
free agents work in concert
with employees. Was the
“on-demand” nature of
the independent workers
a benefit? Did the hiring
manager also think so?
Share results. Share results
of the pilot study with
other hiring managers and
leadership. Assess whether
the program makes sense
to duplicate on a larger
scale, and how to adapt the
recruiting team to support it.
12. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /12
THE #TRU STORY
I first discovered the Unconference concept when I led a track at #RecruitFest in Toronto in
1999. I was taken aback by the way discussion flowed and how different the format was to a
traditional conference. I led a track all day under a tree and learnt far more than I gave.
Two months later and back in the UK, we ran the first #truLondon at Canary Wharf in November
2009. Today, we’re running dozens of #tru events a year across Europe, North America, Africa
and the Asia-Pacific. Thousands of recruiters, HR leaders and providers come together in an
informal spirit of information sharing and networking.
#tru is based on the BarCamp principle, which means that everybody can be an active
participant instead of listening to speakers and watching presentations all day. The emphasis is
on communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences where the participants fuel
the conversations.
BILL BOORMAN
13. HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS /13
THERE’S A SEISMIC SHIFT TAKING PLACE
WITHIN THE WORLD OF WORK
Companies aren’t hiring workers anymore; they are hiring work / Talent and want to pay for
an outcome rather than an hourly rate. Leading companies need an agile and innovative
workforce, and massive gains in technology which allow for virtual and mobile workers make
this possible, a trend which hardly needs explaining.
Working independently, as a free agent, outside of the confines of a traditional employer/
employee relationship is becoming part of the mainstream. But despite this massive shift, there
continues to be an important place for recruiters to help source, manage and communicate with
free agents. For example, who will keep track of the best workers operating in an industry?
We predict that within the field of recruiting, the role of the Talent Attractor will emerge,
who won’t be responsible for sourcing any individual candidate, but instead build long-term
relationships with professionals who either may become candidates or influence other
candidates. They will also have an important role in the formation and management of online
talent communities.
Recruiters should no longer focus on one-time hires or one-time projects. Instead they will
forge lasting relationships with high-value prospects and keep those individuals engaged
over many years.
DINETTE KOOLHAAS
DINETTE KOOLHAAS
VP Operations Leader EMEA
Dinette who leads EMEA
operations joined Kelly in June
2008 as VP Regional General
Manager Western Europe.
Since 2013, as VP Operations
Leader EMEA, she is responsible
for leading the operations to
execute our growth strategy. She
started her career as Consultant
at a logistic consultancy agency
in Holland. In 1997 she moved
to USG People and started
her career in staffing as Sales
Executive. Within USG Group
she was General Manager for
both specialized niche brands
Unique and Secretary Plus as
well as generalist and large
account player Start People.
Dinette holds a Master degree in
Business Administration. In her
leisure time, Dinette likes playing
golf, cooking for friends and
family and reading.