Workforce Ecosystems

Today’s workforces are more like dynamic ecosystems than rigid silos. 

Executives today must focus on more than profit margins – they must consider their social responsibilities, focusing on issues including preventing worker exploitation, improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and providing meaningful employment experiences. Today’s workforces include a wide variety of people, ranging from full-time employees to freelance workers and investors, all of whom function much like independent, yet interrelated organisms within an ecosystem. A “workforce ecosystem” is, essentially, “a structure that encompasses actors, from within the organization and beyond, working to create value for the organization.” 

Workforce ecosystems are emerging as a response to shifting workplace norms, as it’s now normal for people to work remotely, with gig workers frequently working at multiple companies at once. Rather than try to impose outdated hierarchical structures on today’s workforce, executives that keep pace with change respond with more flexibility, nurturing networks via the ecosystem approach, as opposed to silos...