However, 

According to a Gartner survey, 

80% of employees said they lack the skills they need for their current roles and future careers. 

Therefore, organizations need to create engaging learning experiences for their employees to ascertain that they are future-ready. One of the most beneficial methods they can deploy is retraining and upskilling to bridge these existing skill gaps. 

This blog highlights its significance and how it can help future-proof your workforce. 

First, let’s look at the basics, 

What are retraining and upskilling?

Retraining allows employees to relearn and update their existing competencies to improve efficiency and performance. For example, when an employee finds it challenging to apply newly acquired skills in a real-life scenario, retraining enables them to understand its intricacies again and bridge the performance gap. In addition, it is also provided for those who have the potential to take on a new position. 

On the other hand, upskilling facilitates continuous learning through training programs and development opportunities that expand and diversify employees’ portfolios. It focuses on enhancing employees’ skillsets and enabling them to undertake different roles and responsibilities. For example, an organization teaching its software developers a new programming language to develop advanced software or apps is an ideal example of upskilling. 

Now that the definitions of retraining and upskilling are clear, let’s see why organizations must implement them. 

Why is upskilling and retraining important?

As discussed earlier, technological advancements and digital transformations have created the need for advanced skillsets and competencies. However, instead of recruiting new candidates, enterprises can deploy retraining and upskilling methods and reduce hiring expenditure. 

According to the World Economic Forum, over half of employees around the globe will need to reskill or upskill by 2025 to stay competitive. 

Therefore, retraining and upskilling are essential investments as they help improve employees’ efficiency and performance, thereby propelling organizational growth and development. In addition, it allows employees to diversify their knowledge and skills set. By bridging the skills gap, upskilling and retraining programs facilitate organizations to stay relevant in the technologically-driven era.  

Moreover, when organizations invest in learning, employees feel valued and motivated, thereby boosting their productivity. It also helps establish a positive employer brand, thus attracting top talent.  

Next, let’s look at how an organization can execute the same. 

7 ways to implement retraining and upskilling programs to keep the workforce relevant

For growth and development, organizations need to invest in their workforce. Upskilling and retraining are those beneficial investments that will yield exemplary results. 

Let’s look at some prominent ways to implement this program seamlessly,  

Identify new skill requirements and skill gaps

The ever-changing market trends create the need for new skills to maintain a competitive edge. However, since strategic goals are unique for every business, organizations need to identify whether these skills will help meet their strategic objectives.  

Managers can also track pipeline projects and understand the skill demand. Then they should look into the resource pool to identify and evaluate the availability of these competencies. The next step is to document the skills gap and form a plan to bridge it.  

Prepare a training and upskilling calendar

Once the skills gap is identified, managers have to form a strategy that outlines the different learning methods they will equip to upskill the workforce, the budget, and the training timeline. They also elucidate the end goals and targets of the training. 

Before executing this strategy, it is essential to ensure that the training materials are up-to-date and align with the role and current demands. Furthermore, the training timeline must also align with employees’ schedules and availability. Firms can implement a training scheduling tool to align the training sessions with the employees’ bandwidth effortlessly to eliminate any hiccups and ascertain everyone’s presence  

Explore and implement different methods of learning

Since employees have varied skill sets, their training also has to be personalized to align with their proficiency and career goals. Thus, managers should focus on formulating an Individual Development Plan (IDP) to support employees in meeting their career goals while aligning them with company objectives. 

In addition, managers can combine different training methods and implement the ones that are best suited for employees. These training models include peer-to-peer coaching, reverse mentoring, online courses, blended learning, etc. Multiple learning options enable employees to select programs of their interest, ensure higher participation, and gain proper exposure by learning from experts in the field. 

Promote on-the-job training and shadowing judiciously

Sometimes employees already possess competencies that align partially with the required skillset. Therefore, they may not require extensive coaching. In this scenario, organizations can promote on-the-job training and shadowing, enabling employees to learn and gain experience by working in real-life situations.  

Additionally, trainees can clearly understand what their job entails and clarify their doubts in real-time. It also helps them substitute for peers in case of unplanned absences or shared workload, etc. Further, it allows the workforce to self-evaluate and determine whether they are competent for the position. 

Provide job rotation and cross-departmental opportunities

One of the effective ways to upskill/reskill resources is providing hands-on experience through job rotation and cross-department opportunities. In this method, employees switch between departments for assignments at regular intervals and gain exposure to all verticals of an organization. 

These opportunities enable your workforce to implement their skills in different fields of operation and work on multifaceted projects. In addition, it reduces the monotony of the job, gives them a more comprehensive experience, and helps them gain more insights.  

Focus on soft skill development along with technical acumen

Most organizations focus on developing employees’ technical skills. However, the advancement of soft skills is equally necessary for the overall growth of the workforce and the organization. For example, a manager has to be an expert in their field; simultaneously, they must also be able to communicate effectively with their employees and clients. 

Therefore, employers must pay equal attention to developing soft skills and conduct upskilling programs to enhance emotional intelligence, diversity intelligence, and other necessary people skills. This will eventually help employees take on managerial or leadership roles and improve their career trajectory.

Evaluate the progress and success of the program

Once the training program is complete, organizations need to evaluate its progress and success. It can be done through feedback sessions, discussions, and post-assessment tests. They must start by giving projects that require these new skills to identify whether employees are adept or need additional training. 

Through these post-evaluation methods, organizations can identify the gaps in the training programs. It also helps to include the employees’ suggestions in the future, fill the gaps, and enhance the program. 

How can resource management software help future-proof the workforce?

The resource management software entails advanced solutions like resource forecasting and capacity planning, resource planning, etc. that can help future-proof the resources.  

Using the forecasting solution, managers can get foresight into pipeline project demands like the skillset, competencies, etc. Then, based on the data-driven insights, resource managers can implement the right resourcing treatments, such as upskilling and retraining, and bridge the capacity vs. demand gap.  

Furthermore, the enterprise-wide visibility of the resource pool and their various attributes, such as skills, experience, location, etc., will help managers customize the IDPs and formulate an ideal training strategy.  

Conclusion

“The fourth industrial revolution continues to transform the world of work. Reskilling and upskilling have never been more important.”  

— Rashim Mogha, author and speaker 

As industries and businesses evolve, retraining and upskilling will be the key strategies that ensure the sustainability of an organization. Therefore, it is high time companies started investing in these programs to develop a workforce capable of facing the evolving global market and technology trends.  

The Glossary

The Saviom Solution

SAVIOM is the market leader in offering the most powerful and configurable solutions for managing enterprise resources efficiently and effectively. Having more than 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence in over 50 countries. It is also popular with more than 100 customers and helps them achieve their business goals. SAVIOM also has products for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software which can be easily customized as per business requirements.

According to Forbes,

Approximately 20% of the US workforce belongs to Gen Z, with around 65 million in total.

Generation Z will surpass their millennial cohorts in a few years, and they exhibit many different traits than the traditional workforce. Thus, understanding what motivates Gen Z at the workplace is necessary to ensure their productivity and performance.

First and foremost, they are hyperconnected to technology and have set high standards for their careers. Besides, their expectations range from challenging opportunities for growth to overall healthy work culture.

To ensure cohesive teamwork and inclusion, organizations must find ways to effectively integrate Gen Z into their multigenerational workforce, consisting of a mix of baby boomers, generation X, and millennials.

This article discusses the various ways to merge the Gen Z population into an organization’s human resources so that they can pursue a long-term career.

First, let us look at who Generation Z is and their different traits and characteristics.

Who is Gen Z, and how are they different from other generations at work?

Gen Z, colloquially known as Zoomers, refers to those born between the mid-1990s to the early 2010s. Members of Gen Z are more racially and ethnically diverse than any of their previous generations. They are also progressive and have their own opinions on various world issues.

Even though zoomers have a lot in common with millennials, they have some unique traits too. For one, they are the original digital natives who grew up in a world of smartphones and the internet. Therefore, they can easily adapt to digital platforms or technologies and pick up new software quickly. As a result, their relationship with technology may be even more instinctual than a millennial in their late 30s.

For two, gen Z is defined by competitiveness and independence. They are highly ambitious and want challenging responsibilities that will enhance their skills. They value skill development and self-improvement at work.

One of the most important traits of Generation Z is that they seek autonomy and collaboration between coworkers.

Many also want to manage their projects so that their skills and abilities can shine through. Generation X and Baby boomers worked in a traditional workforce that was hierarchical. Gen Z, however, seeks a more open-minded and approachable work culture where they are respected and valued as individuals.

Let us now look at some benefits of integrating Gen Z into your workforce.

What are the benefits of integrating Gen Z into your workforce

Generation Z brings an innovative perspective to the table and can take your organization to the next level. Along with innovation and technical prowess, they offer a plethora of benefits. Here are the most prominent ones:

Enhanced knowledge sharing and productivity

Many Gen Zs are well-versed in technology and thus can find their way around the office tool inventory without any hassle. It allows them to be more efficient and use technology to regulate mundane tasks and thus enhance their productivity. Due to their innate collaborative nature, they are also willing to be technology mentors for the baby boomers and Gen X coworkers. In turn, it helps address tech skill disparities existing in an organization.

Promotes innovative ideas and solutions

Being young and vibrant, gen Z can present innovative ideas and perspectives to help the company provide better services. They grew up in an information-driven world where they are up to date about the latest trends in the global market. Moreover, Gen Z also has creative ideas to market a project that appeals to the target audience. This helps in building brand reputation and better customer satisfaction.

Intergenerational collaboration for a future-ready workforce

As mentioned above, Generation Z has a higher technological competency compared to other generations. Thus, they can mentor seasoned employees to develop better tech skills. These senior coworkers can share their experience and knowledge and impart leadership skills. Since Gen Z is the future leader, this knowledge exchange will help their professional development. Thus, the intergenerational collaboration will enable the organization to build a future-ready workforce. The benefits reiterate the need for zoomers in your organization. Listed below are some ways to effectively include and retain them in your organization.

Ways to integrate Gen Z into your workforce

Companies need to go beyond offering monetary benefits when integrating Gen Z into the workforce. As discussed earlier, Gen Z demands challenging opportunities and cares about global and societal issues like diversity, sustainability, etc.

Keeping these in mind, organizations must get out of their comfort zone and create a work environment that meets the professional needs of Gen Z and ensure a seamless experience. Here are some ways in which Gen Z can be integrated:

Invest in a tech-enabled workspace

According to a study from Dell.Inc.,

80% of Gen Z aspire to work with cutting-edge technology.

As mentioned earlier, Generation  Z is skilled in the high-tech programs used at work. In addition, they are the true digital natives exposed to the constantly evolving internet, social media, and mobile networks in their formative years. Therefore, organizations must update the technologies used at work to align with Gen zs’ personal skills and knowledge.

Moreover, research suggests:

80% of Gen Z believes that automation and technology will create a more equitable work environment.

Automation enables the proper functioning of many mundane and non-billable activities in a company.

Technologies like Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) will help overcome the challenges of connectivity and productivity in workspaces.

The use of these technologies will ensure better employee engagement and efficiency. Companies that can accommodate these emerging technologies within the workplace will successfully retain Gen Z employees.

Provide an open platform to share diverse opinions

Generation  Z seeks an open-minded work environment where cross-generational employees can work cohesively and discuss their different perspectives. Thus, understanding and acknowledging their views will make them feel included, valued, and respected. Therefore, employers should ensure they foster an open work environment.

To achieve the same, they can conduct brainstorming sessions, group discussions on work and nonwork-related topics, etc. This will give Gen Z a fair chance to voice their opinions and allow the older generations to understand their stance, appreciate their perspectives, and collaborate better. These practices will also help employers to bridge the intergenerational barrier effectively.

Promote direct communication and instant feedbacks

Although Gen Z thrives on technological intervention, they also feel in-person communication is an essential aspect of work culture. Thus, instead of using collaboration and messaging apps to convey sensitive or essential information, Gen Z would prefer synchronous communication with their coworkers. It could be via in-person meetings, telephone calls, video conferencing, coffee break/ water cooler conversations, etc. Thus, organizations should promote and facilitate direct communication at the workplace.

Moreover, as stated earlier, Gen Z is highly ambitious, fast-learners, and seeks to climb the corporate ladder faster. That’s why managers should exchange honest feedback with them regularly. Besides, in the earlier days, performance reviews and feedback sessions were either conducted annually or when things went wrong. Therefore, employers should revisit this approach and promote a more continuous review cycle to constantly review their works, point out areas of improvement, and acknowledge their achievements. These practices will not only help Gen Z grow professionally but also enhance their engagement in the workplace.

Influence and inspire; don’t direct and dictate

Generation Z has moved far from the traditional leadership approach of director and dictatorship. Instead, they look up to the leaders who identify their potential and push them to reach greater heights. In simple words, Gen Z expects leaders to inspire and influence them rather than constantly dictating ways to execute a task which hinders their creativity and skill development, eventually disengaging them. Instead, this generation wants to experiment, implement their ideas, make an impact, see changes happen immediately, and grow.

Thus, managers should follow an autonomous approach and avoid micromanaging the Gen Zs. Instead, offer them opportunities where they can take ownership of their work. By providing proper guidance and practicing autonomy, Gen Z will be motivated to take new roles and responsibilities, leading to better professional growth.

Provide individual development plans for professional growth

Since Gen Z is highly ambitious, they intensely desire self-improvement. Since individual development plans are specific to an employee based on their skill set, it helps achieve their professional growth. It is mainly a partnership between an employee and supervisor which involves continuous feedback and preparation.

These Individual development plans will help supervisors better understand Gen Zs professional aims, strengths, and development needs. Moreover, managers can align them with the business goals and mission, a win-win for both the firm and the new workforce. When Gen Z’s career trajectory is looked after, they will feel more valued and exhibit better engagement and drive at the workplace.

Foster work flexibility for a healthy work-life balance

When it comes to work-life balance, younger generations are likely to have higher expectations. They know that it is reasonable to work alternative hours or remotely and still be successful. Therefore, leaders should offer flexibility at work to attract this new talent.

42% of Gen Z workers make work-life balance, working from home, and flexible vacation time a top priority when looking for a job.

Thus, letting them choose their working hours instead of a 9 to 5 shift increases their productivity and engagement. It also enables them to balance professional and personal time, thus giving them space to rejuvenate themselves. Therefore, companies should offer Gen Z benefits such as paid time off, medical insurance, and mental-health days.

Practice reverse mentoring for a collaborative workspace

Reverse mentoring is an excellent tool to reflect an open work environment. It is the opposite of traditional mentoring. Here, the younger and experienced employees are paired together and mentor each other. Younger employees can give insights on the latest technology and global trends to experienced ones. The seasoned employees can provide insight into their industry, domain knowledge, and leadership skills and guide Gen Z workers in their career plans.

Reverse mentoring will create a more open-minded and non-traditional work environment which Gen Z looks forward to in a workplace.

In addition, it will make the organization more inclusive, diverse, and collaborative for different generations.

Following the ways mentioned above, you can seamlessly integrate Gen Z into the workspace and provide a holistic experience.

How can Resource Management Software seamlessly integrate Gen Z into your workforce

As we have already discussed, Gen Z is constantly looking for various experiences and learning new skills. Resource Management software can help in maintaining the skill inventory. Managers can ensure that they do not work on one project for an extended period and are given ample opportunities to acquire multiple skills. As a part of their IDP, they can be allocated to attend a certain number of training sessions per year. Resource management software will pre-book them against their training and other career development activities and mark them unavailable during scheduling.

Conclusion

Generation Z has an incredible amount of drive, talent, and ambition to bring to the table.

Like their predecessors, Gen Z has distinct values, skills, and perspectives. They have the potential to use innovation and technology to help your company stay relevant and up-to-date in the changing times.

Moreover, they are willing to go the extra mile to grow and progress quickly to make an everlasting impact on the company.

The strategies mentioned above will help you effectively integrate the Gen Z workforce into your organization. So, recognizing their motivations and strengths will help nurture their talent to benefit both employees and employers.

How do you plan to include Gen Z into your workforce?

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

What are cross-functional teams?

Cross-functional teams comprise human resources belonging to a company’s different functional areas or departments who come together and work collectively to achieve a common goal or accomplish a project. Let’s take another related example. The software development team of a product firm can work cohesively with the sales team to understand the current industry demands and incorporate the requisite features in a new product. This practice is beneficial in two ways. For one, there is extensive knowledge sharing between different departments which will improve the information base of your firm. For two, cross-functional collaboration is enhancing client satisfaction. Let’s delve into the benefits,

Advantages of cross-functional teams

Global business leaders are considering cross-functional teams the future of the work structure. The reason is the plethora of benefits they provide for enterprises. Here’s a rundown on those benefits that explain why forming these teams is the need of the hour.

Increased innovation

Every employee differs in viewpoints, approaches, and personality. So, when members from different functional groups work as a team, they bring their own perspectives to the table. In addition, their acquired industry experience, unique skills, and creativity combine to pave the way for “out-of-the-box” ideas that boost innovation. For example, Apple uses cross-functional collaboration to enhance customer experience. The business process management team, for example, works cross-functionally with other Apple teams and brainstorms ways to improve the process and achieve desired results.

Better knowledge sharing

Forming cross-functional teams facilitates an easy flow of knowledge between different departments. For instance, if a sales executive notices a trend in clients’ expectations, they can share it with the marketing team. It helps the marketing team revamp their strategies using these valuable insights and maintain their competitive edge. Moreover, cross-functional collaboration enables the team to work in tandem and identify and overcome project-related challenges from a broader perspective without limiting themselves to a niche. For instance, CISCO created the “Architecture Centre of Excellence” (ACoE), a cross-functional geography community. Its members are architect experts who can learn, collaborate, and share knowledge about architecture topics. ACoE has helped CISCO achieve some of its business goals, including an increase in site traffic and better clients’ experience.

High-performance work culture

Companies strive to maintain and sustain a high-performance culture to deliver exceptional results. As discussed earlier, resources get an all-inclusive perspective to look at a project when they work in cross-functional teams. They can leverage diverse skills and ideas to deduce the best possible solution for a project bottleneck. Moreover, when different departments work in cohesion, it helps the members understand the interdependencies better. They get a clear picture of how the project is the result of the success of each of these interdependent tasks. It also increases individual accountability as every resource knows how their role will affect the progress of a consecutive task. It eventually enhances individual performances and the quality of the deliverable, thereby garnering a high-performance culture.

Enhances efficiency and profitability

Forming a cross-functional team empowers you to go beyond matrix boundaries and leverage diverse projects’ internal resources. This way, it reduces dependence on external channels to hire resources, thereby controlling resource costs and increasing profitability. At the same time, managers can tap into the maximum potential of each resource and leverage their talent, leading to efficient and intelligent utilization of the workforce. Furthermore, working towards a common goal enables the team to synchronize their efforts better. These individual efforts reflect in their work which escalates the overall team’s and organizational efficiency. These benefits are a clear indication of the necessity to empower cross-functional teams. So, let’s understand the ways to bolster them.

How to empower cross-functional teams?

Forming a cross-functional team is just half the battle won. Empowering them to ensure their consistent performance and productivity is the real task. Managers can implement multiple strategies to achieve the same. Here’s a rundown on some of the most prominent ones.

Standardize communication policies

Seamless communication is important for a business, especially when team members are dispersed across geographical and matrix boundaries. First, you need to establish clear rules and guidelines to streamline cross-functional communication. Deciding on the channels to use across your teams based on the purpose follows next. Managers can implement a common platform, a code of conduct to maintain decorum, and establish the rules for using synchronous and asynchronous methods. It helps minimize the chances of discrepancies and internal confusion regarding communication. Besides, you can set protocols for away messages, time-outs, email alerts, or one-on-ones with teammates. For instance, one of the protocols can be setting an agenda before the onset of any meeting. It can potentially reduce the meeting hours as the host will stick to the point, ultimately minimizing zoom fatigue and enhancing productivity.

Assemble the right team with the right skills

A crucial step to forming the right cross-functional team is assessing the project’s requirements and identifying the resources from different departments accordingly. Competent allocation of the workforce and assembling the right team ensure project quality and timely delivery. Moreover, managers must also ascertain that the resources possess requisite soft skills like team spirit, emotional intelligence, problem-solving approach, etc., that align with the company’s culture. This will allow the team to work in tandem and minimize discrepancies. Further, managers should form a fair mix of resources from different band levels and competencies. It will provide fair opportunities for less-experienced employees or freshers to learn, grow, and prove their mettle in a collaborative environment.

Define individual roles and shared goals clearly

Defining organizational goals is essential to align the members’ efforts with long-term objectives. However, while most team leaders ensure this, they fail to take proper measures to prevent “social loafing”, which is: A natural psychological phenomenon whereby employees generally tend to reduce their effort when working collectively instead of alone. It makes those who work diligently feel exploited while the ones who slack off drift away further from their individual accountability. The result is a rift between them, which hampers team spirit and impacts the overall productivity. Thus, a team leader should also establish key performance indicators and goals for individual team members. It will ensure individual and team accountability and secure the project’s fate.

Celebrate milestones collectively

Rewarding oneself is incumbent to boost morale and positivity. Thus, managers must make it a point to celebrate the accomplishment of milestones and recognize the ones responsible for taking it to the finish line. Expressing gratitude towards the whole team and acknowledging individual efforts makes the workforce feel valued and appreciated. Additionally, appreciating and rewarding the work in front of the team fosters a sense of pride and motivates employees to perform better. There are myriad ways to reward and recognize extraordinary efforts. You can send an appreciation email or use social media shout-outs to high-performers and ultimately inspire them to walk the extra mile.

Foster trust and transparency

Working with a non-homogeneous group with different mindsets may sometimes cause trust or credibility to erode and build tension. However, it is essential to iron out these differences between the team members and the leader to upkeep cohesiveness and efficiency. Being transparent about your expectations and their performance is also crucial to retaining the team’s trust and confidence in your leadership. Project managers must also promote autonomy and avoid micromanaging the employees. It gives them a sense of responsibility and makes them feel trusted by their leaders. At the same time, managers should conduct timely reviews and one-on-ones to point out the areas of improvement. Moreover, they should also listen to their concerns and assure them of appropriate remedial measures. It will help prevent the issues from aggravating and ensure the sustenance of employee engagement and productivity.

Promote inclusiveness in decision-making

As a project manager, you should always make sure that you are unbiased and give equal importance to all the members from different departments. For this, it is vital for you to ask for regular suggestions, feedback, and opinions about the project to maintain equity among your team members. You can involve them further via regular stand-ups, brainstorming sessions, meetings, etc. Allowing employees from different backgrounds, age groups, communities, etc., in your team to voice their ideas is also a good practice. It will let everyone feel comfortable, valued and contribute to decision-making in crucial matters. This way, you can ensure that all the critical decisions in the course of a project reflect fair representation from all departments.

Encourage change and innovation

A well-developed change management framework is an integral part of a successful organization. It helps you enhance your cross-functional team’s efficiency, stay relevant, and maintain a competitive edge. That’s because a definite roadmap allows members to adopt new technology and tools, processes, workflow restructuring, etc., at ease. Besides fostering change management, you should also aim for a sustainable innovation management process. It encourages out-of-the-box thinking, collaborative effort and helps increase ROI. Innovative and pathbreaking ideas help transform the processes and make them more efficient and resilient, thereby ensuring business sustenance. Thus, integrating these two vital processes will future-ready your workforce and help them tackle the evolving demands and uncertainties with ease.

Monitor and improve processes regularly

A cross-functional team leader should make sure to stay on top of tracking the project’s progress on a regular basis. Constantly analyzing and determining if the methodologies and workflows set for the project are effective is also necessary. Regular audits of these processes and operations help identify the ones that did not yield the expected output. If and when these setbacks are identified, managers should critically analyze the reasons like excessive time consumption, negligence, mismanagement behind its inefficiency. Accordingly, they should also take the teammates’ feedback and then devise a more effective and efficient alternative method. It will aid resources to perform better and seamlessly execute project tasks.

Leverage advanced tools and technologies

Equipping your cross-functional teams with the latest tools and technology is imperative to streamline project execution. Advanced technology such as AI, ML, IoT, ANN, among others, elevates the automation of routine admin tasks and makes room for creativity. One thing worth considering here is that a tool inventory is unique to every organization and its needs. So, you should choose the one that aligns with your requirements. However, certain tools are a must-have in this inventory. Project management apps and workflow automation software, for example, help outline to-do tasks, streamline their execution, and reduce redundancy. Furthermore, video conferencing apps help connect with teammates across various geographies in real-time. Finally, one of the most important tools for an enterprise is resource management software. It gives enterprise-wide visibility of resources which makes it possible to manage the workforce efficiently. You can add more to this list based on your domain and industry needs.

The following section explains in detail how resource management software helps empower cross-functional teams and utilize them efficiently.

How resource management software boosts the productivity of cross-functional teams?

A resource management tool can be a potential enabler in empowering cross-functional teams by providing myriad functionalities and forming a strong team. We have discussed some of them here.

The 360-degree visibility gives an overview of all the resources’ profiles, including competency and skills. Using the advanced filter of the resource management tool, you can pick the best-fit resources and create your cross-functional team for a project. It, thus, helps prevent the allocation of over/under skilled resources to projects. Besides, when the employees work on a project that aligns with their competencies and interest, it enhances their engagement, and eventually, productivity.

At the same time, comprehensive utilization reports can help assess the workload and distribute it uniformly, thus preventing over or under-utilization. Managers can use optimization techniques like resource leveling and resource smoothing to maintain this uniformity. These techniques help prevent overutilization and burnout and let resources limit their attention span to only critical tasks. It elevates their work rate and also ensures the quality of the deliverable.

With foresight into pipeline project demand, managers can gauge the skills gap and take proactive measures to bridge it. For example, initiating upskilling and training programs will allow resources to acquire new skills and fill these talent gaps. It will help them diversify their existing portfolio and promote them to work on multi-faceted projects. This will, in turn, enhance the sense of belonging in them and empower them to be more productive to attain project and career goals.

Additionally, managers can empower employees by letting them select the tasks of their preferences and interest. They can create a vacancy against a particular project task and allow members to volunteer and opt for it. Based on their profiles, managers can then select the best-fit resource.

All these functionalities will enable businesses to maintain the resource health index and motivate the resources and teams to add more value to projects and perform better.

Conclusion

In today’s fast-paced technology-driven business landscape, organizations are striving hard to sustain the fierce global competition due to ever-evolving skill demands. Therefore, companies have now realized that they can no longer rely on the structure of siloed departments and are embracing a culture of cross-functional teams to gain a competitive edge. Cross-functional teams are a great way to look beyond matrix boundaries and break silos. They help foster and strengthen an open-work culture where employees with diverse skills, expertise, and perspectives converge to achieve a common goal. It also boosts innovation, helps save resource costs, nurtures a high-performing culture, and increases profitability. With the above-discussed practices, you can empower your cross-functional teams, raise their productivity, and achieve your company-wide milestones. So, how do you empower your cross-functional teams?

The Glossary

The SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

An on-demand workforce can be a saving grace to overcome these resourcing challenges amid the rapidly evolving business dynamics. They come with no extra frills, like lead time or overhead costs, and are viable for project-centric organizations.

To understand how indispensable a contingent workforce in the modern is, let’s look at the findings of the Oxford Economy’s Workforce 2020’s survey.

83% of executives worldwide use contingent and seasonal workers. 

This article walks you through the benefits of a contingent workforce and the best practices to manage it. Let’s start by defining a contingent workforce first.

What is a Contingent Workforce?

A contingent workforce is a pool of workers that an organization hires temporarily to work on a project. For example, if you require a voiceover artist for your videos, you can hire them on a video-to-video basis rather than keeping them as permanent employees.

Various companies around the world today maintain a blend of contingent and permanent resources for their projects. However, before exploring the benefits of contingent workers, it’s essential to understand the key differences between a contingent worker and a permanent employee.

• Unlike permanent employees, a contingent worker is not on the company’s payroll. Instead, depending on the contractual agreement with the employer, they are either paid on an hourly basis or by deliverables completed. Larger organizations use their empaneled vendors who provide contractual workers as and when needed.
• A contingent worker is generally not eligible for perks, leaves, yearly appraisal, etc., and other traditional employee benefits.
• Unlike regular employees, there is no contractual obligation to continue with a contingent worker after completing the work. Contingent workers are typically there for a limited time or purpose beyond which you can discontinue their services.
• A contingent worker can work independently, or the staffing company that leases them to companies manages the on-demand workforce. So, there is a minimal requirement of supervision or training, and they are primarily prepared to do the tasks you assign them.

Types of a Contingent Worker

A contingent worker falls under one of the primary categories as follows.

Freelancers

A freelancer is a self-employed individual to whom you can outsource your tasks and pay by the hour or deliverable quantity based on the nature of the job. An independent blogger is an excellent example of a freelancer. A company can pay them a fixed amount per word or article as they agreed upon mutually. Moreover, a freelancer typically has no fixed start date or end date, unlike other types of contingent resources. A very closely related type of contingent worker to this is a gig worker. The difference, however, is that a freelancer is more autonomous in terms of terms and conditions, more specialized, and open to more specific skill-intensive tasks.

Contractor

A contractor is an individual or a group of individuals hired for a fixed time, often for a multi-faceted project. There is a predetermined start date and end date laid down in the contract between you and the contractor. Independent contractors provide the niche skill sets essential for a high-value project that requires heavy investment and specific expertise. For instance, constructing a new airport requires architects, designers, financiers, and more such experts. A contractor is the one who can provide you with all this expertise under one roof.

Casual Earners

A casual earner is a contingent worker, similar to a freelancer. However, there is no guaranteed availability of work in the future or guaranteed hours of employment. A company hires casual earners only when they need contingent workers to cater to peak season demands. They work irregular hours and mostly in shifts, unlike a contingent worker who can work anytime throughout the day. Some good examples are daily-wage laborers and workers hired to handle the holiday rush in retail outlets.

Temporary Workers

A temporary worker lies somewhere between a contingent worker and a permanent employee. They keep getting “on-demand” work from different companies and rely on staffing agencies or their current client to get a more permanent role. The staffing companies also offer them more protection as compared to any other type of contingent worker. Additionally, they stand higher chances of getting a permanent job as compared to other contingent workers.

What Are Some Advantages for Firms Hiring a Contingent Workforce?

Statista forecasts the gross volume of the gig economy to touch $455.2 in 2023.

This figure highlights the growing importance of tapping into a contingent workforce or gig economy in the present-age business scenario.

Let’s delve into the benefits of contingent workers in detail.

Cost-Effective for Short Assignments

When you hire a contingent workforce for short-term assignments, it helps you reduce expenses. Unlike regular employees, you don’t need to manage and bear their overhead costs. Moreover, companies need not provide them with other employee benefits like health insurance, perks, paid time-off, etc. Therefore, a contingent workforce helps you complete short-term assignments or projects faster and in a cost-efficient manner.

Greater Flexibility

Business agility makes an organization ready to adapt to market changes swiftly and economically. It strengthens its ability to deal with uncertainties and market volatility by evolving values, work culture, and technology. A contingent workforce helps drive business agility by providing a company more flexibility. You can continually expand or shrink a contingent workforce as per ever-changing requirements, unlike a permanent workforce. Furthermore, flexible working schedules and better work-life balance help boost the efficiency and productivity of contingent workers.

Fresh and Diverse Perspectives

Sometimes, a company requires a fresh and “neutral” way of looking at things. Contingent employees gives you that new perspective. Every contingent worker brings their specialized skill sets and niche expertise to the table. Besides, contingent resources have no close ties with the company and look at everything unbiasedly. As a result, it opens the door to fresh and diverse viewpoints that benefit a firm.

Better Access of Niche Expertise to Fill Skill Gaps

Enterprises find it practically challenging to maintain a permanent workforce with expertise in all areas all the time. They are supposed to cater to the constant need for specialized skills varying from project to project. Besides, skill sets are scarce and expensive, making it economically non-feasible to hire them full-time sometimes. Now, this is where a contingent workforce with niche expertise comes in handy for plugging those skill gaps effectively.

Reduced Onboarding Time and Easy Scaling of Projects

The onboarding process for a contingent worker is often shorter and speedier. It doesn’t involve inviting applications, conducting interviews, recruiting candidates, holding orientation and training sessions, and other formalities as in a regular employee’s recruitment. Instead, you can simply search online, contact good staffing companies, negotiate the prices, and hire the right contingent workers. Further, you can scale projects anytime by increasing your contingent pool size without compromising the quality.

More Freedom to Try New Approaches

Diversifying products and services is the key to keeping up with changing market demands and enhancing customers’ experience. Diversification, however, is not an easy feat – especially when there are limited resources having niche skills. Hiring a permanent workforce for a new service without testing the waters can lead to a huge capital loss, heavy debts, liabilities, and other consequences. On the other hand, a contingent workforce gives you the room to experiment with new and “out-of-the-box” ideas and innovations. It’s because you can easily walk away from non-feasible approaches without any long-lasting repercussions.

Best Practices for Contingent Workforce Management

Run a Background Check Before Onboarding

A thorough screening is essential before onboarding a contingent worker. One can go through their testimonials and contact the firms with whom the candidates have worked beforehand. All this information at your disposal helps expedite the process of making the right choice for your contingent workforce. In addition, it helps avoid issues like deterioration in project quality, skill mismatch, or delays in tasks at a later stage.

Develop a Project Specific Onboarding Process

A contingent workforce is for projects that need specialized and niche skills on an urgent basis. Having the same recruitment process for both an on-demand workforce and a full-time workforce isn’t feasible. It delays the onboarding of the workforce for critical project requirements and fails to serve the very purpose of just-in-time scheduling. Therefore, develop a proper and separate project-specific onboarding process to facilitate easier and faster hiring of contingent resources.

Foster Good Relations with Your Contingent Workforce

Even if a contingent worker is not long-term, developing good relations with them is a wise choice. Ensure that your contingent worker(s) get the right technology, conducive environment, and inclusive work culture. Strengthening your connections with your contingent workers sets the stage for working with them again for future projects. Happy contingent workers will also spread the good word about your firm among their peers. In addition, it will pave the way for the recruitment of contingent workers for more staffing agencies due to your good reputation.

Manage Your Workforce’s Performance for Future Records

Maintain the record of every contingent worker that you’ve hired so far. Compiling this data helps you keep a better track of them. For example, you can sort your previous contingent workers by their expertise and skillsets. Also, maintain a repository of their past achievements, contributions, and USPs that helped you in your earlier projects. It will help you better visualize the contingent workers you can hire again for your pipeline projects.

Onboard Contingent Resources from Empaneled Vendors Only

Hiring contingent resources on a random basis every time may not be a good idea for two reasons. First, it increases the probability of hiring non-competent contingent resources with no proven track record or matching skill sets. Second, chances of unfairness in onboarding may increase without a list of empaneled contingent vendors to provide contingent workers. For example, people in influential positions may pull strings to get the contract passed to their acquaintances, eroding the transparency. Therefore, create a list of empaneled vendors to hire contingent resources for enhanced quality and clarity.

How Can Resource Management Make Contingent Workforce Management Effective?

Working at a large-scale enterprise makes it practically unfeasible to stay abreast of the vast expanse of the resource pool, such as their availability, skills, etc. At the same time, with insufficient visibility, resource managers cannot precisely gauge the need for a contingent or permanent talent pool. Thus, companies should invest in good resource management software to stay ahead of the curve and forecast future skills’ demands. Its advanced features will enable you to predict demands for specialized skillsets for your upcoming projects. Additionally, managers can look at the existing capacity and identify the skills they may need to hire on an ad-hoc basis.

Moreover, the tool provides real-time updates that enable stakeholders to assess the available permanent workforce’s workload. They can also check their future allocations to determine their utilization levels. For instance, you require a specific resource for one or two projects, but your existing workforce functions on stretched timelines. In this case, real-time updates and foresight will indicate the need to hire contingent workers well ahead of time. Further, you can track your contingent workforce’s real-time utilization with forecast-vs-actual reports to ensure that they meet set deadlines.

Contingent Workforce – A Way Ahead for Workforce Dynamics

A contingent workforce has undeniably emerged as a highly flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional resources. Contingent workers supplement your permanent employees, help meet your skill demands at possible costs, and expand the scope for new approaches.

To sum it up, a contingent workforce is one of the critical ways to future-proof your workforce against market volatility. If you also want to align your enterprise with the changing dynamics of the workforce in today’s tech-driven world, it’s time you tapped into contingent workers.

The Glossary

SAVIOM Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

A plethora of skills is required when companies have multiple projects pertaining to diverse fields on their radar. While these skills might be overlapping in different project requirements, a matrixed organization allows you to form cross-functional teams. In fact, a survey from Gallup states that 84% of employees are matrixed. 

Focusing employees on a unified mission, a matrixed organization is more nimble and facilitates employees to move from team to team as project demands. This approach helps managers reduce resourcing costs and eliminates the need to sub-contract additional resources by allocating the ones with the required expertise from different divisions.  In order to maximize success, project managers need to place a request to the line managers for the required member well ahead in time.

Let’s understand the basic concept of resource requesting before delving into the details: 

1.What is resource requesting?

When a specific skill set is required to complete a project, the project manager in charge reaches out to the resource manager of the firm, who then reaches out to the team leads to find the particular resource with required competencies. This entire process is known as resource requesting. If the traditional approach of relying on office directories is followed to request resources, project managers get stuck in endless trails of emails. They are directed to multiple leads and by the time their request is fulfilled, they lose their track of time. Moreover, if these authorities are no longer present in the organization and there is no definite system to update it, the managers will not know who to respond to. 

Now, how do you break these silos? How do you coordinate with resource managers and other line managers and allocate resources on time? 

With an advanced resource management software solution in place, resource managers gain enterprise-wide visibility of the workforce and activities pinned to their schedule. Using these tools, you can make the cumbersome process of resource requests simpler and faster. Here are the ways to do it in a breeze: 

1.1 Forecast the demand in advance 

Even though the matrix organizational system has solved problems of the past, it has brought some of its own too. Often project managers get notified of new requirements at the eleventh hour. This becomes an issue when a firm follows a matrixed structure. Resources are likely to be allocated to multiple projects already in flight. Last-minute requests decrease the likelihood of finding the right person, leading to project delays and compromising project quality. The solution is to stay proactive and forecast the demand for resources in advance to the resource managers

When management tools are incorporated with business intelligence, projects can be pipelined and an approximate demand for resources, and their competencies can be extracted using forecasted reports. By leveraging these reports, project managers can request resources from resource managers and settle their resource demand ahead of the curve. Moreover, you can bridge the capacity vs demand gap and avoid any resource crunch down the line. 

1.2 Confirm the relative priority of the project 

How do managers thrive within highly matrixed organizations? 

Constant coordination between line and project managers can ensure smooth functioning. This is of the utmost importance when you are requesting resources. In a diversified company, when several projects are being worked upon and you need to allocate resources for your project, you need to ensure if it’s a high-priority one. Also, make sure to evaluate the time-sensitivity of your project with other projects inline. If there is a priority shift in between, there is a chance for you to mobilize those resources to your project tasks.

When equipped with a tool that maintains a single source of truth, resource managers can get a fix on the order of priority of projects as they can be marked as “likely”, “unlikely”, “tentative” and many more. Based on this data, they can figure out the right resource required for the job. Since a matrix structure focuses on overall business objectives, deploying resources to the projects that add more value is necessary. Hence, a sophisticated system in place that strengthens their decision making makes matrix management more efficient. 

1.3 Place the demand for the required skill set

After defining the roles and responsibilities while planning a project, project managers first need to allocate the right resources to the right tasks. While doing so, if a resource with the required skill set is not available in your resource pool, you can direct your request for the particular skill to another resource pool. The most important step is to ensure that the resource requested aligns with the competencies your project demands for its success. 

Resource managers need clarity on the skill set, the timeline for which resources are required, and if there are any specific certifications required. Only when project managers make the competencies known and clear, can they find the right resource for the right job.

1.4 Check resources’ availability

Every project has a defined timeline. To streamline project planning and ensure that the project is carried out smoothly, managers should stay pre-informed of resources’ availability down the line. You don’t want last-minute absenteeism that can hinder your projects’ progress. Hence, while requesting resources, state the timeline you require the resource for. 

This was a major challenge when traditional practices of calling around and dispatching multiple emails were followed. However, with organization-wide visibility, resource managers can check every employees’ availability using the resource scheduling tool and reserve the resources. These tools are essential when you have a matrixed organization because, with multiple lines of authority, management can become a more complex process.

1.5 Bridge the communication gap

Since matrix organizations aim to establish cross-functional teamwork, collaboration and communication become their key strengths. Only when there is effective communication between project, resource, and other line managers, can there be an efficiency in resource allocation. How can this be established? 

When a channelized resource requesting system is followed, there is restricted access to managers and that keeps them from stepping on each other’s feet. This avoids any unnecessary inter-departmental clashes between the managers. In addition, resources will get clarity on their reporting lines like the project manager will take care of their tasks’ progress and everything else will be taken care of by the line managers. Moreover, complete transparency on resource requirements and project priorities makes the allocation process smooth and easy. There are many benefits to following a systemized protocol and refraining from creating silos in the organization. 

2. The advantages of matrixed organizations

Workforce planning and demand management for managers become easier in matrixed organizations. When there is the flexibility to allocate inter-departmental resources to project tasks, hiring expenses, and resourcing costs are reduced. In addition, managers can tap into resources’ potential and broaden their skill set.  So, make the most of a matrixed structure, introduce a streamlined resource request process, and enhance your project management efficiency. What’s more?  With a system this dynamic and flexible, you will see an improvement in collaboration and higher employee engagement will follow!