Future Proof
“What you’re trying to do is fit a square customer
demand with a round workforce”
processes in play, but the prize is significant.
At Alexander Mann Solutions, we currently
manage contingent and permanent programmes
together for 13 clients and we’re looking to extend
the reach of those solutions. Data and analytics is
going to be an important part of this as we go to an
even greater total talent proposition. Many clients
are embarking on this journey at the moment – in
some cases taking baby steps, which is fine.
I think it starts from communicating all of the
propositions, bringing them together and addressing
your total internal and external audience of talent,
saying: “We want to have the most productive, agile,
diverse workforce that can deliver great outcomes to
our customers.”
If that’s your mission, then you truly need to
embrace all the opportunities for flexible working
and engaging in a diverse way and bring them
together in a coherent, systematically connected
or integrated manner. That’s what total talent
workforce solutions are.
JERRY COLLIER, QUICKFIRE Q&A:
Q
Who wants greater flexibility?
People say the next graduates
want flexibility; I think it’s actually
people later in their careers. They want
to care for parents, or travel the world…
they want different things from their lives.
Q
Is ‘total workforce’ applicable
to all organisations?
It’s probably more easily executed
in a smaller business, but it’s the same
principle: businesses rely on talent and
discretional commitment. In my team,
80% are not working five days a week,
but they’re super talented. Organisations
need to help managers get comfortable
with that.
Q
Is Alexander Mann Solutions
‘walking the walk’?
We have our own virtual service
centre, a talent network model and flexible
working. Do we bring all that together?
Not as much as we should, but that’s
the journey we’re on, because we
believe in it. In recruiting, it’s highly volatile:
companies are hiring 1,000 people
then nobody, then another 1,000. I want
to access talent when clients need it, and
switch it off when they don’t.
Q
Will this trend go away?
People are not suddenly going to
say “I’d actually rather be 9-5”;
the industrial model’s not coming back.
So create a path for talent to find you.
Q
How can organisations begin?
Create the longer-term vision,
then map out effort value:
what’s the highest-value first step for
the lowest change effort? Some might
embark by putting all their contingent
and permanent hiring needs together,
connecting the full-time, part-time,
project work and job share piece. That
might not yet include the ‘human cloud’,
which involves going beyond the physical
real estate you have in your office; it
probably won’t involve robots, nor ‘create
your own employment contract’. But you
get quite a lot of synergy.
Issue 2 - 2017
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