Managing Human Resources within ‘The Open Talent Economy’

• As mentioned previously, The Open Talent Economy has led companies and recruiters to think differently about human resources. The human resource ‘mix’ is rapidly evolving in companies, and now includes full-time employees and other resources that have no formal ‘relationship’ with the company. These include contractual staff, freelancers, consultants, and others. The new workforce is a lot more agile and free to move across roles, geographies, and levels within the organization.
• The expanding markets – global and domestic – and the ever-evolving range of products has led companies to approach business differently, meaning innovatively. To manage this ‘disruption’ of tradition, companies need to configure and re-define their human resource strategies rapidly. They need a workforce that would be agile, have the right skills, appropriate knowledge, and can deliver faster than ever before. This is the aim of The Open Talent economy – cohesive, collaborative, driven by technology, and extremely responsive.
• For those in charge of recruiting and managing human resources, the open talent mindset translates to challenging the ‘traditional’ methods of recruiting, managing the workforce and ensuring that each employee develops personally and professionally. Today, the entire workforce does not necessarily need to comprise of permanent and on-roll employees. The open talent economy promotes ‘talent partnerships,’ comprising outsourced temporary talent, consultants, retainers, freelancers, and other open source talents, which is, therefore, redefining human resource strategies across the business environment.

Today leaders of businesses must remain constantly aware of the changes that take place within their industry and out, and on the highly volatile economic situation as well. It is necessary to understand how all the factors influence their company, and the effect the changing ‘face’ of the workforce will affect the company’s ability to meet its financial and growth objectives.

Today talent can be sourced from anywhere – meaning not just domestically but globally too, given the various channels, such as social media and mobile friendly ‘programs.’ Leaders in organizations today understand that their workforce is one of the most important assets, which means that they realize the value of attracting, engaging, and retaining the top talent at all costs. Today, the companies outshining their competitors are the ones that have progressive and smart people strategies. In the business world today, companies are known for the way they treat their employees – in contrast to previously when customer service and products were all that defined them. The best talent in the market is drawn to companies with top class employee policies and who treat their workforce as partners who are core to the success of the business.

It would be safe to say that not all companies have been able to adopt the open talent model, but would recognize that in order to move ahead and succeed in today’s highly aggressive and competitive business world, they need the best and most talented people ‘on their side.’

Managing human resources today has become even more challenging, with pressure increasing on those responsible for identifying the best talent – irrespective of their association status with the company. Employee turnover continues to pose a threat, and hence companies need effective and sustainable people management strategies to forge ahead. The need, for smart and all-inclusive talent management strategies, is at an all-time high, making The Open Talent Economy mindset seem better with each passing day.

It is time for companies to seize the opportunity in the form of the open talent mindset in order to build and sustain highly talented teams to lead them to success.