We are living in a time of instant access to anything and everything you want just by the touch of an application. Mobile device penetration has given us access to more than what we envisioned. Initially we wanted to communicate with those in our circles, our families, our business associates with ease and convenience. That convenience has rapidly development into other areas of our lives creating an “On demand economy”.
The On Demand Economy is defined as the economic activity created by digital marketplaces that fulfill consumer demand via immediate access to and convenient provisioning of goods and services.
We have ride hailing applications that can get us from one point to the next, Uber, Taxify; we have streaming services that allow us to watch or listen to personalized content, anytime, anywhere; think Spotify, Apple Music. We can book travel, have food delivered and send gifts to our family and friends to make sure we don’t miss out on their special days. Thus, I can have my personal playlist playing in the ride hailing car, on my way to the airport, all the while sending a gift to my mother on her birthday and stay at a hotel, all booked via a mobile application.
On-demand spending is a big industry.
Online marketplaces (e.g TakeAlot, Superbalist) with 16.3 million consumers each month spending almost $36 Billion annually.
This is closely followed by the transportation category (e.g. Uber, Lyft) with 7.3 million consumers spending $5.6 billion annually.
Other categories include: food/grocery/ delivery, home services, freelancer servicers, health and beauty services amounting to a total spend of $16.5 billion.
As companies are transforming into digital businesses to effectively service this changing marketplace and consumer base; how they attract, acquire and retain talent has to change. A high performing leadership team remains a competitive advantage for any organisation. Individuals tasked with identifying, attracting, vetting and retaining senior talent into an organisation are increasingly having to manage the pressure to deliver, amongst other human resources disciplines they oversee. Finding and attracting world-class leadership requires an extensive network, an understanding of market trends and the capability to unpack the business layers to truly discern the leadership requirements.
Organisations mistakenly dismiss the value of using external executive recruiters. The popularity and use of social media have contributed to the surge of in-house recruitment activity to attract senior talent into an organisation. More people are on mobile devices, meaning that more prospective candidates are accessible via a mobile application. However, organisations are increasingly faced with information overload, pressure to deliver under certain timelines. This may negatively impact on the candidate experience.
The role of an executive recruiter is more important than ever before, as this individual is the bridge between the client and the prospective candidate. Consumer expectations have changed due to the on-demand nature of what we have access to. Customer experience is at the center of this convenience, efficient and on tap economy. The nature in which organisations communicate their employer branding has also shifted to better align with talent centric strategies. Human resource departments have shifted from traditional ways of engagement to solutions that generate engagement and new experiences to employees.
Paraphrasing Mike Magurany, a partner at NGS Global: The digital era is a key enabler to how retained executive search consultants navigate the following
- the research aspects of an assignment
- candidate experience and
- client relationships
Digitized solutions for employees and business through the emergence of social media and other tools used to analyze data are impacting the way in which executive search is conducted. Technology gives us the ability to transcend borders, provides accessibility to candidates and streamlines the ability to execute search across different markets.
To respond with the changing needs of our clients, Evolve has launched an innovative talent acquisition and management tracking solution called “Recruitment 4.0”. This solution allows a client to virtually view qualified candidates that fulfill criteria for a specific role or number of roles.
#TalentOnDemand
This portal allows the hiring team to access talent anywhere, anytime from their mobile device, tablet or desktop computer.
Evolve will work in partnership with the client to ascertain talent requirements and scope of role, then these candidates will be pro-actively identified, interviewed and assessed by Evolve and then populated onto our virtual recruitment platform for real-time online access by our clients.
The time it takes to appoint a Chief Executive Officer; including the co-ordination required to get the Board of Directors/Nominations Committee together; Our solution will enable you to cut this time substantially and increase the quality of your engagements. Every decision-maker would have access to candidate information any time enabling real-time inter-operability and decision making. In practice, our solution speeds up the appointment process from months to a matter of weeks.
In addition to this solution; Evolve has a strategic talent service “Fit-for-future” that enables the acquisition of a large and diverse talent mix to support an organization’s rapid change and growth plans. This service assists in proactively building qualified pools of talent for our clients, who can fish in and out whenever they want. It gives our clients absolute control of their strategic talent planning and acquisition efforts versus the more traditional old-school re-active methods. Fit-for-Future can be plugged into Recruitment 4.0, providing the most advanced recruitment solution.
With the advancement of technology, TRUST and the ability to build it; becomes ever increasingly difficult to do with digital tools. We still need the human factor to discreetly engage and intellectually debate a career opportunity with a prospective senior executive. As stated in an article by Alto Partners: “The potential pitfall of these digital tools, leaves organizations with a false sense of belief that they know everything about each person in the marketplace. Without the considerable insight into the dynamics of a client and the unique operating environment that exists, the ability to find and attract the right executive talent is minimal. Candidate experience requires substantial face time with the candidate, building credibility, trust and is a value add for an organisation looking to attract best-in-class talent for their leadership teams.
