Missed opportunities are one of the biggest challenges to career advancement, and employers are feeling the impact. Lacking visibility into vacancies within an enterprise, employees leave the organization for new offers. Likewise, full-time, contingent workers, and contractors often start looking for their next gig in other companies because they are unaware that their services are needed in another division or location within their current employer.
The culprits behind these missed opportunities are silos of data that provide limited visibility into opportunities for employees or current contractors. Often, once someone becomes employed by an organization, the only information about the worker is tucked away in the HR system. As a result, a hiring manager for a new assignment or vacancy may never be aware of the person’s availability or qualification. If you are a contractor, you are only seen through the VMS, and if you are a freelancer, your digital presence may only be in the payroll system that processes your check. In other words, if you’re a worker, you’re invisible to managers who may need your services.
Bridging the Silos of Talent
To stay engaged with the employer, flexible workers want a system to provide visibility to managers and opportunities, and that’s a problem we’re helping companies solve on an enterprise scale. The solution, delivered through our QUANTUMWORK strategy and technology platform, gives non-employee workers, recruiters, and managers a view to all opportunities across a company, and it gives managers a look into the flexible talent at work in their organization. For example, knowing the end-date of their project is approaching in several months, workers can check the system to see what opportunities are available in other areas, giving them a chance to book their next gig without looking outside the current employer.
For the manager, QUANTUMWORK solves the visibility problem by intelligently organizing talent. The hiring manager can search and match across the entire enterprise. The system provides access to available people, as well as insight on the work that needs to be done. It’s not always about connecting one professional to one role. It could be a project that requires two contractors, a contingent worker, and two full-time or traditional employees.
Through the system, recruiters or managers can assess the body of work to accomplish and then look at the whole pool of available talent to arrive at a solution.
The Employer Vision: From Job Provider to Career Ecosystem
Moving forward, platforms such as QUANTUMWORK will become an anticipated part of the employee and flexible worker experience, where workers can start treating employers as an ecosystem of career opportunities rather than the provider of a single job. The employer that doesn’t step up to this expectation will likely lose workers who move to employers that do. Career mapping, success planning, skills development, and matching all forms of work to all forms of talent — it’s all part of the vision of a truly connected employee experience. By eliminating the silos of data and barriers to opportunity, we are bringing that vision to life.
(This article originally appeared in “Smart Power: A Glance at Evolving Talent Technologies.” The report shares how advances in technology across talent evaluation, selection, and onboarding, as well as employee development and retention, translate to a real advantage for employers and workers. Click here to download your free copy.)