We’re living in the age of the agile workforce, with hybrid teams of full-time, onsite, remote, and freelance workers collaborating to create great results. In order to achieve the most success possible, companies need to innovate in their hiring practices and shift their thinking in some cases.

We are now at a point in history where many tasks and repeatable processes can be done better by machines than humans. While this has been true in some industries for decades (think car manufacturing), it will soon be true across the board in every industry imaginable.

While many see this as a doomsday prophecy, I see it as an opportunity for humanity to transcend the grunt work and tasks that many have found themselves doing to make ends meet, and to instead gain an agency and freedom over how they earn their living.

To meet the demands that the future of work will bring, we need to develop an agile workforce. This means that professionals will need to adapt and change with the growing and shifting needs of businesses that are being faced with continual pressure to increase profits. This needs to happen while also shifting to automation, more data-driven approaches and competitive pressure to innovate.

A business has its cycle. Many successful entrepreneurs know that, in one way or another, you will have to find your exit—one that leaves you far better than when you started. In this episode, Domenic Rinaldi invites serial entrepreneur Greg Kihlstrom, to talk about Greg’s experience growing a business through acquisition and then selling that same business years later for a much higher multiple.

The workforce is in a continual shift as markets change, companies grow and refocus, and external factors shape how, when and even where we work. Because of these considerations, and countless others, companies need to be agile in their approach to the composition of their workforce. Hybrid workforces build on this idea, by creating teams that are a mixture of full-time, long-term employees and short-term contract and freelance workers.

It almost goes without saying: When you are reviewing candidates, you want to see their resumes. The resume is probably the most consistent component in the recruiting process, the only truly universal ingredient across companies and roles of all kinds.

Yet despite its ubiquity, the resume is a deeply flawed method of evaluating candidates. At best, it is only a very small piece of the puzzle when it comes to making the right hiring decision.

Digital transformation is such a pervasive subject at organizations these days. I am often approached for recommendations of keynote speakers on the topic, and thought I’d provide half a dozen recommendations for those considering a speaker.

The freelance economy is currently contributing $1.2 trillion to the U.S. economy, growing 22% since 2019. This rapid growth was already developing before Covid-19 became widespread, though the global pandemic and the remote working, layoffs, furloughs and other byproducts of this massive shift in the workforce will undoubtedly continue to increase.

We’ve all been affected by the “gig economy” one way or another. This might be through the way we travel (Uber or Lyft), buy our groceries (Instacart) or hire any number of other services. Or, for an increasing number of workers in the United States and around the world, the gig economy may contribute to some or all of their income.

The “gig economy” started to be called by that name as early as 2009 by Tina Brown of The Daily Beast. It was meant to describe the idea that fewer people were taking full-time jobs, and more were taking short-term, task-related “gigs” and making a living from them.

While there is great uncertainty in many industries and in the economy at large, companies of all sizes still need viable plans to maintain strong workforces, whatever the outcomes might be. Because of the many unknowns we’re all dealing with — from how long COVID-19 restrictions may last to any long-term ramifications of the pandemic — it is imperative that organizations maintain increased fluidity in their staffing strategies.

On that note, increasing your utilization of 1099 workers compared to W-2 salaried employees is one viable way to increase flexibility. Adjusting your staffing mix in this way gives your organization the ability to expand and contract as internal and external factors demand.

But how exactly can an organization create such a blended workforce? Let’s explore a few key aspects of any successful effort to shift to a more flexible workforce:

The old cliché goes something like, "If your only tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail." While hammers do a fine job with a limited set of problems (putting nails in walls, for instance), there is a reason why a toolbox has a variety of different tools in it. Not every problem can be solved with the same approach, and having as diverse a toolbox as possible means that you can ensure that you are best equipped for whatever project or task comes your way.

Freelancers comprise over one-third of the workforce in the United States, and their numbers will continue to grow, reaching a projected 50.9% by 2027, according to the recent Freelancing in America Survey (slide 18). This means that some of the most talented in-house workers will likely make the jump to being contractors, and attracting them to work on your projects and teams will become increasingly important.

Every step in the employee journey has its own unique challenges and opportunities. Onboarding, however, occupies a uniquely critical position in that journey.

Consider that nearly half of all senior outside hires fail within their first 18 months on the job. Consider, too, that the cost of replacing one of those failed employees can range from 50-200 percent of their salary, depending on their specific role. An effective onboarding process can prevent these expensive disruptions from happening.

It is a challenging time for employees and employers right now. Although most of the currently large remote workforce will likely return to their offices after the pandemic ends, a significant number of formerly full-time employees may find themselves part of the gig economy, whether by choice or necessity.

Employers must continually search for the best and most effective methods to create happier, more engaged and more productive employees to meet their company’s objectives. My agency works with companies across several industries to design and develop engaging employee journeys, and we’ve employed a number of methods to accomplish this. Technology can offer many solutions, including virtual reality (VR), which I’ve noticed is increasingly working itself into the workplace with some great initial successes.

Most business leaders agree on the importance of great employee experiences in today’s talent environment — but do we know what “great” really means in this context?

I recently sat down with Dr. David Rodriguez, global chief human resources Officer of Marriott International, to discuss this important topic. You can listen to our entire conversation on my podcast, The Agile World. For a summary of Dr. Rodriguez’s thoughts on great employee experiences, read on.

While the statistics surrounding the importance of both customer and employee experience seem to be everywhere these days, there is a lot less documentation on how to best implement and achieve great experiences for both. In my experience, the best approach is to always look at customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) as part of a single continuum. Put more simply: Happy employees create happy customers. I call this combination of CX and EX brand experience.

Employee training and development have long been top priorities for forward-thinking organizations. As continuously low unemployment rates drive increasingly fierce competition for talent, training and development are only growing even more indispensable.

With a majority of companies now claiming to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience, it has become critically important to find every way possible to optimize it. While many organizations may be tempted to start with the customer, there is a more fundamental issue that needs to be resolved before a truly great customer experience is possible. This is where the employee experience comes in.

The importance of both employee experience (EX) and customer experience (CX) is now well-known, with a majority of companies competing based on both factors for both top talent, and customers. Because of this, a comprehensive brand experience, or customer and employee experience combined, must be achieved by companies. I refer to this combination of EX and CX within the enterprise as a Center of Experience.