Employers beginning to navigate the age of workforce ecosystems

It didn't take a pandemic to get workforce experts thinking about the future of work. Freelancers, gig workers, remote workers, and others who don't fit the traditional 9-to-5 mold have been playing important roles for years. The pandemic did, however, spark more thinking about the best ways to acquire, retain, and benefit from various kinds of talent.

Consulting giant Deloitte and the MIT Sloan Management Review recently released the 2021 Future of the Workforce report. Titled "Workforce Ecosystems: A New Strategic Approach to the Future of Work," the report details how employers are increasingly relying on more than their conventional employees to get work done.

Becoming an ecosystem

The report defines a workforce ecosystem as "a structure that consists of internal and external workers and organizations that work in conjunction with each other to offer value for their mutual customers."

The researchers found that about 87% of global managers consider employees and a variety of other workers—such as contractors, service providers, gig workers, marketplace sellers, and even bots—to be part of their workforce.

In announcing the report, Deloitte said the idea of organizations relying on a variety of contributors to get work done isn't new, but the scale at which it is happening is. Technology, worker preferences, and the nature of work are among the factors driving the change from traditional settings to the workforce ecosystem model.