Challenging the way technology is built for the future of work, and no not all technology is useful or necessary. Read why in my write up about 3 key basics and 2 clear types of tech.
With the advances in technology within HR & Recruitment, and the new agenda being drawn out in the gig or sharing economy where workforces, tasks, projects, and teams are subjected to become open sourced and shared, it is still a slower moving transition for large businesses, and rightly so. Whilst enterprises of any size, but mainly larger, have to be flexible, innovative and adaptable, there is also merit to the timing of the change and how the adoption is processed. I recently read in a PWC report and agree that integration is a lot better, and key than siloed systems. You can view the 10 principles they share here as it makes an interesting read.
Change is as important as the “timing of it” for major shifting priorities of workers, workforces and teams. So here are some suggestions for businesses currently in the midst of the hype of future of work, growth in gig workers, sharing economy and more, to help them identify and differentiate between useful technology vs. hyped up technology.
Firstly, let me define the difference between the two types of technologies that buyers always get a tug of war going between, because buyers, especially in larger businesses although innovation focused, are seldom guilty of risk aversion which may be in larger or smaller percentage based on the regional execution.
Type 1: Technology that solves a real problem which is both scalable and flexible. This type of technology may not always look the best and mostly can be found with start-ups or small niche tech but will be a lot smarter in execution. If the buyers focused on the future or road map of “what else” they may be able to do a lot more with it as the trends keep setting and changing. Buyers don’t always have to know the extent of trends but we all have a pretty clear instinct and so it’s ok to rely on that or the visionary team behind the technology. Trust, of course, is key and accepting that even with best intentions it may fail because of the need to push further and experiment.
Type 2: Technology that is hyped up either because it is already successful with a 20-year-old model and slightly tweaked way of working which they class “innovation” every few years. Or let’s just say it is “built” for certain specification and you either buy and use it as it is or leave it. These may not always be so scalable and flexible technologies may need weeks and months to integrate and may not serve the sustainable growth for the future of work especially with the ever-changing trends and sometimes not so easy traditional platforms to work parallel with. Dare I say but our contingent workforce sector is currently inundated with these technologies, including FMS’s that do not actually serve the purpose for the total talent management challenge that enterprises face.
It is important to stress about InteriMarket at this stage because when we set out to build the tech about 2.5 years ago, we focused on 3 key things:
1.) Flexibility – From business models like plug and play where our business users can use the platform completely free and only incur a small fee at new hire or rehire stage, greatly reducing costs and issues related to speed, compliance and management, and several third-party preferred suppliers lists (which is completely useless in most cases). To co-creating model where we are able to pick the best feedback and build technology including features and functionality if it matches with the vision of the future of work, truly optimising an open source world of talent and teams.
2.) Scalability – Day 1 we knew that our vision for iM was to grow globally and support businesses everywhere, without much delay, so we built the tech with scalability in mind. So even if we are in the UK at present if our customers wanted to take us elsewhere it would take us literally a few hours, dare I say, or a few days to set up and implement… that easy! But scalability also means integration and ecosystem building, which we do with our API driven technology, so integrations into multiple systems to enhance our users’ journey is quick and a must have, following the integration and ecosystem model, at least 2.5 years before PWC wrote about it recently as shared in this article.
3.) Design thinking – finally, I have been hearing a lot about design thinking in HR these days and rightly so. We are best placed in HR and people teams, including hiring managers to help with enhancing machine learning and deep technology-driven products to build the sort of AI that is useful, ethical and unbiased. Design thinking was the motivation that helped us truly understand the enterprise level solution and whilst we may be small to start with, but our ethos of ensuring we understand, pivot and build as per the trends and enterprise needs truly sets us apart from our competition.
Now, these may seem pretty logical and easy to follow but as a startup or early business with limited resources and proof points, before you run out of gas, these are quite difficult to both adopt and consistently work with due to various reasons including lack of faith and time from bigger players in the early days. Despite the hype of innovation in businesses and CIO roles in enterprises believe it or not, but the tech that emerges and wins over the sentiment of users is not the one that is hyped, or traditional, or backed by larger businesses, but instead the one that solves a real problem with ease and simplifies the toughest challenge and of course does not repeat falsely claimed “AI” and “Blockchain” status after every few words, if you know what I mean. If you would like to learn more, have a chat or debate about the future of work please get in touch. We are always keen to hear views and trends as others see it as it clearly works with our ethos.
And if you want to dip your toes into a future of work platform that practically solves more than one headache, you may want to try us out. And please know that if you have several third-party agencies managing your contingent workforces for you currently, YOU ARE NOT DOING OK! You may feel that you are doing ok and that you are in control but once you audit your business you will know the wasted repeat costs, lost time and opportunities, empty benches and loss of revenue costs of your business which is way more than just the crazy high agency percentage fee of placements. Innovation and automation means the difference between being proactively pushing ahead vs being dragged by your feet into change.
