Transformation of Work Meet-up - KellyOCG President Tammy Browning / 2021 Workforce Agility Report

Yeah, I'm happy to be here. It's great. Thanks, John.

Well, welcome, Tammy. Thank you, John. John Healey did more justice talking about who I am than I could do for myself. I'll give you a little context about who I am and what I bring to the table, then talk about this Workforce Agility Report and some of the statistics and findings. I'll give about a 15-minute walkthrough and then leave time for questions because it will provoke thought. As John said, I am the President of OCG. I have been in the space for 22 years. I live, sit, and breathe in California, so I'm trying to avoid the sunlight coming up over my head. OCG is a global workforce solutions organization that connects organizations with people to fuel their business needs. We solve problems for any way an organization wants to procure talent. If you could, Cynthia, please jump into that first yellow slide. A couple of things I want to talk about: the Workforce Agility Report. We started asking organizations questions in Asia-Pacific in 2017 to give our local teams information about go-to-market. There were significant findings of gaps and opportunities, so we launched it globally this year across APAC, EMEA, and North America, surveying over a thousand senior executives, 20% of whom were in the C-suite or board roles across 13 countries. The 2021 report focused on the post-pandemic environment and addressed four dynamics of a resilient workforce. First, workforce fluidity: any way a company can leverage talent that is not their own full-time employees. Second, DE&I. Third, employee experience and engagement. Fourth, tech adoption—not just having a computer, but tech that enables people to work differently. The report is very actionable. If I pivot to the next slide, the pandemic triggers are a systemic shift in how and when work gets done. Our research found there is no new normal; the future of work will be defined by a continuous state of flux. Remote work has allowed employees to be more productive, providing more individualism and collaboration. This opens up a wider, diverse population of employees. More than half of respondents saw productivity improvements, and more than half saw employee satisfaction and turnover decrease. 60% of executives agree talent has never been more important as a source of competitive advantage. Despite that, most organizations recognize major gaps but take no action. If we go to the next slide, I'll share some statistics. 59% of executives say their business will adopt a hybrid model. Remote work is here to stay, and organizations need to adapt. One in four companies believe their leaders lack the skills to manage a remote workforce. 49% say they will have a clear view of the optimal mix of talent, and 25% say the workforce has a skill gap they're not sure how to address. 55% say their strategies are struggling in that space. 55% say their DE&I is underrepresented. A very small minority have leading-edge technology to address these gaps. If you go to the next slide, I'll talk about two distinct groups: the Vanguards and the Laggards. Only 10% of respondents fall in the Vanguard space. Vanguards are embracing change and enjoying better business results. 94% reported revenue growth in the last three years. Vanguards take strategic, long-term approaches to improve resiliency, agility, and well-being. Laggards report employee decline, lost revenue, and lack of engagement. Vanguards are also looking at how remote work increases innovation. They find these four dynamics critical to their agility and profitability. If you go to the comparative analysis, Vanguards have amplified workforce fluidity, with a comprehensive strategy for bridging skill gaps by employing new talent and using contingent labor. This gives them the ability to be more nimble. More than one-third of Vanguards are hiring more permanent talent, but they recognize the need for a fluid workforce. Two-thirds have employed more contingent workers in the last 18 months, and more than 52% have implemented reskilling or upskilling. 87% say improving visibility across talent is more important than ever. They're also building a far better employee experience. 91% rank improving employee experience as high as customer service expectations. They make a direct correlation between performance and business results. The Great Resignation is real. Our demand for talent is up nearly 30-40% in the contingent space and nearly 70% in full-time hiring. But you have a leaky bucket of talent going out the back door because they're not engaged. Vanguards are significantly ahead by conducting regular surveys, focus groups, and affinity groups. Only 10% of organizations are in this space. Vanguards involve employees in shaping roles and get information about their employee value propositions from the people in those roles. On DE&I, this is the number one question I've been asked in the last 18 months from every major Fortune 100 company: how can you help me become more diverse? Vanguards are embracing DE&I beyond just talking about it, with meaningful, actionable strategies. 43% of executives say they have a fully developed DE&I strategy for their permanent workforce. But only 19% are looking at DE&I within their contingent labor population. Vanguards are twice as likely to have a strategy that can be communicated effectively. On employee experience and leading-edge technology, Vanguards suggest technology is critical to managing this flux world. Laggards are overwhelmed by the amount of technology. Vanguards are adopting new technologies faster and realizing better engagement and stronger employee value propositions. The number one question in the offer process now is: what is my tech package? Vanguards use technology to gain better visibility and beat out laggards in their EVP strategies. How can you be a Vanguard? Many organizations will never return to the way it was post-COVID. Employees will continue to demand greater flexibility. The employee is interviewing the organization more than you're interviewing them. We need to shift our thinking on how we engage and stay ahead. Employees need to rethink how they find, manage, and evolve their workforce. Adapting to this uncertain future is the best way to remain resilient. If you want a copy of the report, you can go to the Kelly OCG website or connect with me on LinkedIn. John, I'll hand it back to you for questions.

Really interesting. The wage conversation is a real one for the coming years. For workers under $17 an hour, we are really struggling, particularly in manufacturing and light industrial, to attract talent. Yes, it has an implication if your wage rates are far below the competitive landscape. Many organizations are looking more holistically at total compensation packages and determining variable comp differently. For example, some organizations with bonus structures are removing the bonus and increasing the pay rate because surveys show people would rather have the pay. The report breaks down regionally, so you can triple-click into dynamics in APAC, EMEA, and North America. There are different dynamics in each region.

The report doesn't tell you that, but from my seat, yes. Many organizations are looking at what diversity truly means. A few years ago, it was about spend under management. Today, it's more about talent: specific worker populations like inner city, opportunity youth, African Americans, Asians. It depends on the organization, the skills they need, and where they want to bring them in. They're also looking at attracting talent at a younger age. We used to groom talent from high school levels, and we're seeing that again across labor categories, including manufacturing and light industrial, with upskilling and reskilling for the future of work.

I think everybody is experiencing the talent dynamic, whether in a global organization or a restaurant. In North America, stimulus packages drove some of that. Organizations couldn't sustain the last year, so their revenue bases were low. Most stimulus money is now done. We're seeing talent pools go from a 1:3 submit ratio to 1:12, so people are coming back. I hope for these employers that this leaky bucket slows quickly. It's heartbreaking to watch. There's no statistic or report that will solve this; it's about getting people back into the workforce and encouraging them to grow in their careers.

There are a lot of dynamics. If we could do real education on what co-employment means and how to mitigate it, we'd be far ahead. In the contingent space, we have very little visibility and control until the worker goes to work. We'd love to get more involved in educating employers on what they can do to make people more productive and listen to the contingent labor population. Organizations are not surveying contingent workers. We can have deeper conversations about how to get into the heads of people who will likely become full-time employees. From a pure play perspective, there are a few technologies from an ATS perspective that track the life of a contingent worker, their training, and development. We're seeing that technology enter the temp labor space, and we can help educate organizations on what they can do in their ATS or HRIS to track contingent labor.

The generational information is fascinating. It's not just baby boomers; it's women leaving the workforce in a big way because of the pandemic. Generationally, only 32% of millennials are engaged in their job. That's why the Great Resignation is real. This generation doesn't have loyalty to anyone. Your employee value proposition has to be deep, and engagement strategies must address the four dynamics. Millennials make up the greatest population of the workforce, and the next generation has a whole set of other priorities. Tech adoption, making people's jobs easier, and giving them meaningful work is more important than ever. People want to connect what they do to meaningful output. You have to explain why they're doing the job and the impact they're having on the company.

Yes, underrepresented talent includes neurodiverse, opportunity youth, inner city kids, and people with minor criminal offenses. Our data goes deeper into that. We're ruling out talent that shouldn't be ruled out based on background checks. The data is very specific on how to address diversity and bridge skill gaps. We're working on something secondary because the future of work and post-pandemic are mutually exclusive but have merged in conversation. We need to understand our diversity strategies for the future of work because that talent can bridge gaps quicker.

I am seeing it evolve, but I'll be extremely honest. Everybody is talking about it, saying help me understand how to bring in underrepresented talent. The problem is that we give the requisition to hiring managers, and there are still so many biases in the hiring process. Some corporate policies don't even allow people with certain backgrounds to go through to the hiring manager. So we have a multi-pronged issue. Conversations are happening, but they need to adjust risk tolerance, train hiring managers on removing biases, and watch that talent through the life of their assignments. Diverse talent is more likely to leave in the first year because they don't feel engaged or feel like an island.

I think older generations would appreciate your question. They do feel ruled out. Their resumes are often deeper, and they're ruled out as overqualified, but they still want meaningful work. I haven't seen it manifest as its own diverse population, but I see it as an opportunity for every organization to have metrics and goals in their DE&I strategies to address all ways a person identifies. That needs to be one of them, in addition to getting women back to work.

I was just going to say there are a couple of other questions in the chat. Brandon, if you want to forward those to me, I'll answer them in an email. I'll be happy to do that.