Talent Management
contracting is at least partly fuelled by the onshoring of jobs that had been previously offshored. For example, call centers in Australia are bringing jobs back into the country and seeking contractors to fill the positions.
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Kate Coath Chief Operating Officer of Melbourneheadquartered DFP Recruitment, corroborated this: “In Australia, we have seen stronger hiring sentiment with an increased demand for contractors,” she said. “Clients are indicating that
they are still grappling with the global instability and economic uncertainty and prefer the flexibility of a scalable workforce. There is also feedback in relation to the longer-term strategy around job design and geographic location, and engaging contractors provide an interim solution. There are also significant transformation projects that have a defined timeframe requiring skilled and highly specialized project capabilities.” This shift, although a significant opportunity for
Employers are now more accepting of remote candidates. Job seekers are becoming more flexible with time zones and training programs, and leadership capabilities have to evolve to properly manage hybrid teams in the workforce of the future
| July 2021
employers to broaden their talent pool and to offer flexibility as an engagement tool, does bring its own challenges, Baker cautioned—in particular, how to cultivate a culture within a mobile workforce. “Employers need to strengthen their talent experience and develop a strategy that not only attracts and engages talent wherever they are in the world but also provide the tools to onboard and enable them to succeed,” he said. “In short, employers must put job seekers at the center of the talent experience, build trust and bring them across a technology-enabled hiring process.” Employers also need to be additionally mindful of the leadership capabilities they look for, he pointed out. Even as they source leaders for country-based teams, they have to ensure that those leaders are able to manage not just the in-country teams and team members, but those who are remote as well. And job seekers, of course, will have to polish a whole new set of skills: making a good impression and building rapport digitally, and demonstrating their ability to work remotely reliably but with a degree of independence. “It will be important for job seekers to demonstrate to their potential
