The Rise of On-Demand Solutions in Talent Acquisition and Beyond

Introduction: – Business Agility – The TUNA landscape

In today’s RUPT landscape, riddled by Rapid, Unpredictable, Paradoxical, and Tangled scenarios, productivity gains are questionable and the cost of labour is not abating. Organizations are being tested in new ways, and solving for business agility and people sustainability is critical. 

Only 46% of executives are confident their organization can meet customer demand with its current talent model, and only 27% strongly agree that their workforce models are agile enough to pivot talent from one area to another.

Clearly, there is a need for an agile talent model, which brings forth both dynamism and resilience. 

Talent Agility as a core skill for the Talent War : On demand workforce + Blended workforce strategy

Rapid technological advancements (including the rise of AI and Gen AI), shifting skill needs and global competition for top talent are some of the factors which is making the War for Talent cut throat. Skills are overtaking degrees, career stereotypes are collapsing as businesses face cyclical ups and downs. The organizational talent strategy should accordingly align with these upas and downs. Building an on demand workforce strategy or blended workforce strategy can help cater to this undulating scenario; in fact, it is already happening –  

Many leaders (60%) reported it was “highly” or “somewhat” possible that their core workforce in the future would be much smaller. Similarly, 60% expected they would increasingly prefer to “rent,” “borrow,” or “share” talent with other companies.

What are On-demand talent solutions?

On demand talent solutions touch upon various touchpoints in the employee life cycle and candidate life cycle: 

•     On demand Talent Acquisition: A recruiting solution that helps businesses find the right talent at the right time. Such an agile recruiting model helps plug the skill gaps and access expertise when needed, and can scale up or scale down talent as needed. This model taps into the flexibility and contractual availability of on demand workforce, including on-demand recruiters, and hires such talent on flexible work formats, such as project consultants, subject matter experts, strategic advisors, domain experts, short term talent, interim talent, gig talent, apprentices, returnships, freelancers and even fractional CXOs. 

•     On demand Learning and Development: Skills-forward learning initiatives which help meet the business need and deliver business outcomes on a needs basis. For example, an employee who faces a challenge in the day to day task, can learn through on demand learning resources, apply the learnings to address the problem, and solve it to benefit the business.  Just in time learning is one of the ways to go about this. Ideally, a blended learning strategy which is heavy on self-paced, anytime-anywhere learning content such as microlearning and gamification works well. 

•     On demand HR strategy: For organizations to truly unlock the “on demand advantage”, they must incorporate this model throughout the HR processes. This requires crafting a holistic on demand workforce strategy, incorporating talent acquisition, talent management and HR leadership. Organizations must carry out a thorough assessment of their talent milieu and skills landscape, in association with talent experts, to arrive that this. 

The need for On-demand solutions

While many companies do realize the value of building an on demand workforce, the challenge lies in the actual execution. Unlocking access to such niche talent, especially senior level and mature talent, is not easy, thanks to lack of talent aggregation, lack of places where such talent pool is seen, and inadequate assessment tools for such niche talent. Moreover, even if companies do find such seasoned, global talent, high costs of hiring such experts on a full time basis, along with the operational hassles of engaging such talent for contracts and legal may deter them from actual implementation. Even from an on demand L&D perspective, upskilling or reskilling the workforce just in time, is a cost-heavy action, and sometimes it may not be feasible to develop these capabilities inhouse from an ROI perspective. Even if it is, organizations may not have the inhouse expertise to set up and manage such on demand HR processes and practices in the first place, making it a cumbersome and long drawn process.

The solution is to opt for on demand solutions in talent acquisition, learning and development, strategic workforce planning, and even people strategy at large. Outsourcing on demand strategy-to-execution to experts who have the resources, capabilities, insight and foresight can help build a business-centred on demand HR strategy aligning with clear business outcomes.  This is already happening – 

Since 2009 to 2020, the number of digital talent platforms has grown from 80 to more than 330. More than 30% of business leaders reported using new talent platforms extensively, while another 30% reported medium usage. Also, Nearly 50% of respondents expected their use of new digital platforms to increase significantly in the future.

How do On-demand talent solutions work? 

On demand solutions work in a roll on – roll off model, or an engage-disengage model. An organization consults an on demand service provider and consults with talent experts to assess the talent needs and devise their required on demand talent solutions. The service/s or solution/s are then assigned, either through tech-first or people-first, or a blend of both. For example, for on demand hiring, clients may be given access to an online talent platform to Source-Shortlist-Select on demand talent. Client may also be assigned a relationship manager or human who intervenes to carry out a deeper assessment, or to curate a better “human experience”. Once the goal is achieved, the client may choose to disengage or continue the association with the service provider, as per the business need. 

Who should opt for On-demand talent solutions? 

Businesses which are dynamic and uncertain in nature, high growth phase enterprises, scaling up start-ups, cost-saving lean corporations, are some of the organizations that can benefit substantially from on demand talent solutions. In general, all organizations today must prepare themselves for agility and resilience, hence on demand talent solutions can add value to almost all organizations.  

The Solvecube Way to Unlock On-Demand Solutions

Solvecube offers both platform-led and people-led on demand people solutions, across a range of HR processes, from Talent Acquisition to HR Policy to HR Processes, to the overarching people strategy. 

•     Platform-led hiring and talent engagement: The AI-powered, self-service talent platform enables access to a wider talent pool – on demand talent pool of 20,000+ and an aggregated talent pool of 580+ million. What makes this unique is that these are mostly senior to CXO level mature global talent, with deep expertise across domains and industries, available either remotely or in person. The platform empowers enterprises by allowing them to hire talent such as Recruiters on Demand (RoD), Experts on Demand, Strategic Growth Partners, and Employer of Records for as long as the business needs them, in the work format the business needs them. AI capabilities power the “right fit” by carrying out data-driven Sourcing-Shortlisting-Selection and generating rank-orders, using multidimensional assessments around skill-role-fit-location-type of engagement, and culture. This ensures clients get what they exactly want, for how long they want, in the format they want.
•     People-led hiring and talent engagement: Solvecube complements this platform-driven talent hiring and engagement with real human touch. We understand that not everyone may want to go 100% tech, hence assigning carefully selected and vetted Relationship Managers (RMs) and Recruiters on Demand adds human capability to help clients fructify their on demand journeys. For example, for sudden ramp ups or special projects, Solvecube’s  strong leadership team advises on the ideal talent mix for setting up Ninja teams or Rapid Team Assembly.
•     On demand HR Process Diagnostics: Ready-to-use talent diagnostics through standardized, cost-effective, and easy-to-use online talent diagnostic tools, ice.cube and p.three . Ice.cube helps carry out a deep assessment of HR processes within 3 hours, providing companies a clear direction for their people strategy. On the other hand, p.three enables a quick (within 12 minutes) assessment of the maturity of people practices relative to business requirements and presents the gaps in the HR framework.
•     On demand HR Policy: Organizations who are looking to build or revamp their HR policies can avail Solvecube’s ready to use, country specific HR policies templates called hr.ready.
•     Solvecube Advisory services: Solvecube’s founders and leaders bring together decades of talent expertise and experience, and offer advisory on building the blueprint for the People Strategy, from devising the most suitable strategic workforce plan to culture building, HR transformation, and beyond. 

Closing Lines

In the digital era, we are seeing the rise of many on demand talent solutions. However, it is important to choose the right on demand solutions for your business. Leaders must don the holistic business lens and look at talent from a business-first perspective. This will help them realize the right benefits are ROI from the on demand solutions, be it in talent acquisition, talent management or beyond to core business.