HR needs to manage the new Pixelated Workforce with a Strategic Workforce Plan!

💡Only about a third of companies have any kind of integrated strategy for all work arrangements.

Now every job, project and opportunity can be filled with a wide variety of people, each working in different employment arrangements. The relationship between worker and employer has changed, leading us to a new world called the "Pixelated Workforce". While the "Pixelation" of work has been positive for workers and many companies, it’s time to build a more strategic focus for the future. Companies need to have committees or consultants to help business units create consistent practices to decide when to hire, when to outsource and when to use a contractor, according to a new interesting research article published in People + Strategy journal by SHRM written by Josh Bersin using data from internal clients for almost five last years.

✅Definition of "Pixelated Workforce":

Researchers defined "Pixelated Workforce" as where every job, project and opportunity can be filled with a wide variety of people, each working in different employment arrangements. We live in a world where high-performing companies operate with a “workforce ecosystem” strategy to grow.

✅How to Manage the Pixelated Workforce?

US corporation now has 47.5% of its “workers” employed in a contract, contingent or other nonemployee relationship. More than 37% of US workers operate in this model and researchers also found that 62% of full-time workers also do “side hustles” to supplement income.

The “contract employees” are often hired by business managers, and these “contracts” are stored in vendor management systems, not in the company’s HR database.

☝️That means there’s little to no opportunity to train and develop contractors, move them to new roles easily or recruit them to join full time.

✅ The Four-R model (Reskill, Redesign, Recruit, Retain)

Researchers believed that it’s time to rethink the way we define and manage our workforce. We can’t simply let the purchasing department manage all the contingent hiring.

Companies need hiring managers and recruiters to work together to decide when to hire, when to outsource and when to possibly train and recruit internally.

Researchers developed the Four-R model below to help HR departments address this issue:

1️⃣ Reskill

2️⃣ Redesign

3️⃣ Recruit

4️⃣ Retain

Whenever you want to “hire someone” to grow a team or a function, it’s important to think holistically and answers below questions:

✔️Why we need to hire?

✔️Are we hiring because of a retention problem?

✔️Can we source someone internally (reskill)?

✔️Or should we redesign the work and outsource it to a contractor?

This type of model helps hiring managers (and HR teams) rethink the need to “open a requisition and hire someone” just to fill a job.

So these kinds of models are badly needed as the workforce becomes more fragmented.

✅Hiring is going to get even tougher over time

Researchers believed that while the "Pixelation" of work has been positive for workers and many companies, it’s time to build a more strategic focus for the future.

Researchers found that there is need to have a Strategic Workforce Plan to be discussed internally in a committee or between consultants.

Imagine a world in which every hiring manager participates in a strategic discussion and the team decides if this position is a full-time job, a part-time job, a contract job or an outsourced project.

That type of framework brings many of these complex decisions together and lets the company think about speed, time to hire, and skills balanced against long-term growth, corporate culture and team development.

🚩Finally Josh strongly believed that the Pixelated Workforce is here to stay. It’s time to learn to manage this ecosystem for your company’s competitive advantage, and to bring productivity, growth and employee energy into companies in a world of rapid change.

Thank you 🙏 Josh Bersin Academy researchers team for these insightful findings: Josh Bersin

Dave Ulrich George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL SHRM Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP 

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