There have been many issues with using open talent pools though. But more on that later.

From a firm’s point of view, open talent pools bring in a lot of opportunities. Sometimes, a project-based task might not justify hiring a full-time employee and going through the costly process of screening, training, and monitoring them before they begin working.

Open talent pools give HR professionals and managers the chance to pick and choose, globally, from numerous freelancers and part-time workers whose skills and knowledge align the best with the job at hand. This access to international talent manifests in the workplace becoming more collaborative.

An on-demand workforce also gives another advantage of multiple cost savings to firms. Here, costs that are related to recruitment, training, social security, and idle time are considerably reduced.

Consultants are of course available but many circumstances require specialised implementation over expert advice.

Points to consider for firms:

Open talent pools might prove to be more effective for tasks where specialized skills that are not available internally are needed.

Open talent pools are a great way to supplement core teams.

Where brilliant results have the potential to give high profits to the firm, hiring from an open talent pool instead of depending on fixed teams can enable a firm to have increased choices in terms of skills, experience, efficiency, and knowledge.

When hiring an outsider is more economical than training and spending on overtime and other expenses of a fixed employee for a one-time project, a flexible model is a way to go.

While these new employment systems become increasingly approved and adopted by the corporate world, they come with their own set of challenges.

For starters, remote and hybrid work give firms many concerns about IP and risks related to security. Integrating independent professionals and an on-demand workforce with core teams is a task too. Management might be worried about company culture and organizational structure.

But with the right tools and solutions, these dilemmas can be addressed to a point better than they were earlier. Communicating company values to remote employees can be tricky waters, but with the right management approach, communication and policies this can be easily dealt with.

Also, prioritizing performance over surveillance can prove more advantageous when a firm aims for better integration of remote employees.

If firms can move past these obstacles, the benefits of flexible employment models are many.

In fact, one of the best returns from an investment in a remote or hybrid work structure is to enhance and integrate the usage of open talent pools.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A senior banker from the complex global markets space, Mr Nishant Shah has worked for more than two decades across Citibank, Standard Chartered and JPMorgan Chase before taking over as our Managing Partner. Passionate with word and pen about finance, technology, macroeconomics and future trends, he is a Chartered Accountant by education and the winner of various prestigious awards during his career, including the ‘India Awards for Excellence’.

The post How New Employment Models Like Open Talent Pools Introduce Better Opportunities For Firms appeared first on Jackstien Practices, India.

<quote>

The global experiment in remote working has proven to be a resounding success. However, two roles in today’s organizations have been impacted significantly – the Chief Technology Officer and the Chief Human Resources Officer.

While the CTOs have a playbook that is somewhat ready to use, CHROs are struggling with unprecedented challenges; from lack of over-arching policies, structures, processes, compliances and performance metrics to adapting the work force to work in the new normal.

The disconnect between the younger generation’s loathing for the ‘babu-culture’ has only served to widen this rift and heighten the preference for remote work.

To start with, CHROs need to think about the impact of remote work on the plethora of Labour Laws across the Centre, States and UTs that require hundreds of different filings. The impact spreads across the statutory records under various acts that regulate hours of work, remuneration, holidays, leaves, terms of employment and other conditions and the statutory records rolls and registers that require to be maintained. Obviously none of the underlying processes for any of these  account for remote work.

“The Indian government has recognised this and is working on a long-term strategy to enable remote work but a structured and automated process will be essential to sustain the long term”, says Nishant Shah.

Nishant Shah is Founder and Managing Partner of Jackstien Practices and Consulting International, leaders in remote and hybrid work consulting.

“Remote work needs to be approached from the ground-up with scientific rigour that scopes in the specific organization’s industry, work-force, macro-economic standing, revenue, technology, legal and statutory environment. Piece-meal approaches just land up shifting the problems instead of solving them. That said, here at Jackstien Practices, we start evaluation of all other aspects at the same time as we start revamping processes around employment regulations and Labour Codes” says Nishant.

Thereafter come the issues with people training. Distributed teams unable to work well together has always been an issue but gets a whole new meaning with remote work. With some employees considering remote work as an excuse to lounge, be unavailable, unresponsive or uncommunicative, companies are facing severe issues in adapting their workforce to the new ways of work.

Worse, organizations that have reacted to such employee behaviour by forcing a return to the old ways of working have suddenly see a spurt in resignations as employees head in droves to other organizations and employers offering remote work options. The cost of recruitment and training spirals further, adding to the woes of the CHRO.

It is not a pleasant time for CHROs and the struggle for retention in some industries has reached epic proportions. Many in the service industry already see a huge drop in revenue on account of escalating talent costs. This is only adding to the troubles, with CHROs on the frontline bearing the brunt of these changes even as they struggle to comprehend the challenges of the new normal.

When asked about this state of affairs, “The situation is acute but unlikely to improve soon. Resolving it needs a structured plan.” says Nishant Shah. Jackstien Practices is working with several CHROs currently.

The role of the CHRO has never been an easy one to straddle, but with the challenges of the new age of work, the situation is bleak and the plight of the CHRO never worse.

<unquote>

An additional source of the same conversation can be found at – https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/timesapplaud-epaper-timesicc/the+plight+of+the+chro+today-newsid-n376172782?s=a&uu=0x6270499955cfaa9b&ss=wsp

The post The Plight of the CHRO Today – The Times News Discusses, featuring Jackstien Practices. appeared first on Jackstien Practices, India.