Changes in the global workforce were accelerated by COVID-19, but culturally the shift to remote-first started long before the pandemic came along. We now have a workforce that is dominated by the World’s first digitally-native generation. Millennials currently make up the largest segment of the workforce, but Gen-Z workers aren’t far behind. Predictions suggest that they will account for approximately 27% of the workforce by 2025.
What is the talent cloud and is your business ready to take advantage of it?
Even before the pandemic, these generations were changing the culture of work. They placed value on freedom and control over spending time in an office, being tied to one location, or establishing themselves in one business. It’s for this reason that Deloitte predicts that by 2027, more than half of the tech workforce will be freelancers.
This shift represents perhaps the biggest cultural change in the working landscape for decades. For businesses to thrive they are going to have to find ways to engage with a workforce that is demanding something different. For many forward-thinking companies, this shift represents an opportunity to become more agile and access the talent they need, when they need it. By embracing this so-called ‘talent cloud’ – organizations can access a robust independent workforce that specializes in a variety of disciplines. Plus, they are available anywhere and at any time they are required.
To attract top talent in the talent cloud, businesses are quickly learning that they need to embrace new routines to engage freelance talent successfully. Under the talent cloud, projects rather than operations, have emerged as the engine of innovation and value creation in our dynamic global economy. A notion reflected in the Project Management Institute predicts that project-related activities would be worth $20 trillion by 2027.
Welcome to the ‘Talent Cloud’
The talent cloud is a pool of talent, usually made up of skilled freelancers, that businesses can tap into on-demand, and according to the skill set required – regardless of location. The talent cloud is a new way of managing talent and the workforce in today’s rapidly changing business environment. It paves the way for quick deployment and minimal internal operation and overhead.
The talent cloud is undoubtedly changing how businesses operate and is helping them compete in the global economy. By 2026, it is expected that 60% of companies’ workforce will be those in a companies ‘talent cloud’. The remaining 40% will be core full-time resources whose job is to ensure business continuity.
The advantages of the talent cloud for businesses
The main advantages for businesses embracing the talent cloud derive from the flexibility they can offer. The talent cloud enables businesses to resource a project with the right person, and not simply with the team they have at hand. It provides businesses with a unified view of talent across all locations, making the right talent easier to find and hire.
The flexibility of the talent cloud also means that a business can respond quickly to changes in the market, as well as changes to its own internal or external operating conditions. This new means of deploying resources, therefore, allows businesses to scale up or down as needed without having to make major changes to their permanent workforce.
The advantages of the talent cloud for talent
For talent, working in this way enables them to connect with a variety of businesses and work on a range of projects without being tied down to one employer or location. It allows them to work in a way that better suits their routine while helping them establish greater value in the services they offer. This often manifests itself in them being able to work fewer hours and earn the same, if not more, than being in a full-time position.
The role of technology in the talent cloud: A focus on file management
Choosing the right technology platform to help your talent cloud thrive, will be vital in successfully making the shift to this more agile way of working. Platforms that have innovated away from traditional per-user license models to inclusive or usage-based pricing have seen surges in adoption thanks to being easier to scale as required.
Thanks to our own remote working experience, the team at Stockpress recognized how the wider workforce was changing and re-imagined how technology and people in the talent cloud could interact. Stockpress is a cloud-based file management platform that takes the ease of use of file management and combines it with the power of a digital asset management system. This gives teams a better, more intuitive way to organize, find, and share files regardless of what project they are working on, or where in the world they are working on it.
So what is Stockpress doing differently? And how is their approach making the talent cloud more collaborative and more productive?
Stockpress helps teams onboard talent into projects more quickly and easily
Successfully onboarding remote talent into teams and projects requires a simple interface that allows access to the files they need to do their job. With Stockpress, users can be added to a team and assigned a role that determines what they are able to do on the platform. With no need for additional user licenses, those working only on specific projects or with the team for a short period of time can seamlessly collaborate with everyone.
By having all employees, freelancers or full-time, in one place, you can eliminate the need for lengthy email threads or repeat requests for assets. These features are especially useful if you have many freelancers working on the same project. Stockpress makes it easy to keep track of all project files and assets in a single location.
The talent in the ‘talent cloud’ needs to be able to work from anywhere
Cloud storage solutions like Stockpress help businesses access their files from anywhere in the world and reduce their reliance on physical storage devices. This makes Stockpress one of the most effective cloud-based talent management solutions — allowing for flexibility in asset access while also assisting businesses in saving money and increasing efficiency.
Stockpress can adapt quickly to an agile workforce
Stockpress does this by ditching per-user licenses and offering unlimited users in every package. This enables businesses to be more adaptable and responsive – i.e. scale their team when they need to, or cut back quickly without having to re-negotiate user-based agreements. With a cloud file storage platform such as Stockpress, businesses can have ONE place to organize their people, files, and cloud projects.
While we are still a long way from making sense of the post-pandemic workforce, the accelerated emergence of the talent cloud is perhaps one of the most significant, and lasting changes. Embracing this change comes with many opportunities, but it does require a shift in mindset. It requires a business to embrace the new technologies available to help its distributed workforce be more organized, more productive, and more effective.
Get started with Stockpress for FREE today! Invite your whole team and join thousands of other users who spend less time looking for their files and more time using them.
