What SolveCube means…

SolveCube has proved to be a pioneer in platform-based comprehensive people solutions, integrating various HR products and services into one platform. What started as an HR solution is today an end-to-end talent solution and talent service across domains. SolveCube moved from HR-specific tech products like ICE Cube, P.Three, and HR Ready toolkits to become more domain-agnostic and business-focused. This was possible by continuously upgrading the platform to leverage AI, making search more specific basis a robust matchmaking engine, and becoming a platform with millions of active and passive profiles available. We are looking at 2024 with invigored ado with our seasoned team of not mere consultants, but experienced practitioners with deep domain and functional experience.

“We use technology to enable talent discovery backed by a tailor-made people strategy. We work with business leaders of small, big and large enterprises to revolutionize talent sourcing”

– Chandru, Founder and MD, SolveCube.

What we have enabled till now…

SolveCube uses an AI engine to match talent requirements with a vast database of ~450 million+ candidates from all over the globe. The AI engine technology identifies potential candidates based on skills, experience, working style, job-role alignment, and such parameters. Thus, SolveCube has been able to provide organizations not just a curated shortlist of optimally aligned candidates quickly, but also a great talent acquisition experience.

Blurb: “We solve for everything to do with PEOPLE in running a business – revolutionizing advisory, people strategy & talent solutions globally”, quips Chandru.

What has worked for SolveCube is deep knowledge on how to utilize AI technology to make a flexible, on-demand, global talent pool of domain experts available and accessible to employers. Going beyond traditional methods, SolveCube offered a comprehensive suite of products and services for businesses. SolveCube thus paved the way to attract and connect high-quality talent to the clients’ needs on-time and in line with world-class service standards.

Where we go forward from here…

The aim is to aggregate and curate One Million experts-on-demand and One Billion profiles globally for fixed term or permanent roles, cutting across geolocations, domains and industries.

“By providing these ~million work opportunities, we will enable and empower people to work in the way they want to”. This larger than life objective began with the first step i.e. acknowledging that peoples’ relationship with work has changed over time, with diverse workforce and different work models co-flourishing.

The immediate priority is to go from the current talent database of ~½ billion to 1 billion. The conundrum is to ensure the best talent-matchmaking for such volumes. The answer shall emerge with a deeper understanding of the next-gen employer-employee relationship. At the talent end, reasons for on-demand work are to continuously expand the skill set, gain valuable experience across various industries, and pursue a passion for diverse work.  From an industry perspective, the emerging demand for certain niche skills, and the need to bridge the temporary skill gaps has led to the overall growth of the gig economy.  In light of these workforce dynamics, some of the next-gen focus areas are offering matchmaking as a self-service, generating job descriptions, and further streamlining search and shortlisting. The future is about simplification, customization, and effectiveness in talent match-making.

• Simplification: Knowing what will work for businesses, enhancing the user experience and making it accessible through ‘self-service’. 
• Customization: Relooking at the end-to-end service and offering specific services on a needs-basis to businesses. 
• Effectiveness: Better matchmaking through AI-enabled tech and access to data, while maintaining data security, data privacy, and data protection protocols.

SolveCube aspires to solve the main people problems i.e. misalignment of people strategy with business, high costs, inefficient processes, unreliable partners, and fragmentation of the workforce. SolveCube founders and leaders believe that a blended workforce, with the optimum blend of technology-enabled tools and human intelligence, will help build a workforce strategy with a more equitable future for the workforce.

“The intent is Total Value Creation i.e. to maximize value, surpassing the capabilities of standalone products or services. 2024 shall see us deepening our expertise more from a technology and business perspective”, shares Chandru.

Some key questions that came up during this visioning journey were…

“How do we make ourselves self-service for our capability?”

“How do we become more partner-driven?”

“How do we leverage the power of our capability for different regions?”

“How do we penetrate different client-segments?”

And many more…

How we will enable the vision 2024?

SolveCube shall rely on its core competencies to realize the above future-forward objectives:

• Deep AI and tech expertise: Mahboob Hussain, Head, Platform Technology, SolveCube believes that the SolveCube edge lies in continuous experimentation with cutting-edge technologies, not just for the sake of using technology, but as a tool to make a difference in the world of work; and to create social impact. From a tech perspective, some future priorities shall be a new UI-UX which is easy-to-use, intuitive, and self-contained platform. Gen AI also holds scope to enhance the value of the solution with useful add-on features for professionals. The vision is to use tech to stand out as a differentiator from run-of-the-mill job portals, and to democratize gig so that hirers and seekers both find an affordable price and break biases while hiring. 
• Right people: Led by a team of out-of-the-box thinkers who are creative, quirky, humble, and kind, SolveCube has always tackled challenges that matter with a diverse team of seasoned professionals residing across the world. As Deepak Rajasekar, Partner and Director, shares, “I am able to live my passion, translating ideas into solutions and products”. Such is the shared vision of the team that Uma Jagadeesan, COO, believes that if everyone moves forward together with a shared vision and goal, success will follow us all the way.
• Business-focus: The core remains to enable clients to enhance productivity, build knowledge, create agility and generate savings in their businesses. SolveCube is not just a matching platform but a complete ecosystem that facilitates interactions between clients and professionals. From initial interviews and discussions to final negotiations and payments, the entire process is streamlined. This ensures that everything is transparent and business-first.  

Final Thoughts…

The guiding light continues to be, ‘to use tech in a way complementary to human intervention’. SolveCube leaders firmly believe that tech can be bought anywhere, but the people who manage and leverage that tech i.e. the human characteristics are key to success. This core principle has been rock-steady for the SolveCube leadership, through various waves of change. It naturally translates into making the end user experience the benefit and not just not ‘building something for the sake of building it’. 

Hence, placing the end-users at the center, creating something which will make work and workforce available at both ends of the talent spectrum, is the core to make people strategy easy for business owners and talent alike.

 “Ours is an ongoing commitment to democratize the concepts behind the on-demand workforce – adoption, usage, and operational aspects, from both client and talent perspective. We work towards the same goal – to make the world a better place”, says Chandru.

With SolveCube, organizations can focus on what they do best – growing their business!

About the Author:

Chandrasekhar Pingali

Chandru Pingali, Founder & Manager Director, SolveCube, is a seasoned corporate leader, with a diverse career spanning 30+ years across banking, pharmaceutical, chemical and IT/ITES global centres. He has engaged in different roles across HR and Strategy, setting or scaling captive centres, M&A, etc. With SolveCube, he is aiming to revolutionize People Strategy, Advisory & Talent Solutions globally, by utilizing deep AI technology.

The Current Global Gig Landscape

The gig economy induced the biggest shift in the workforce, with a rise in gig work and solopreneurship amidst an intense war for talent. Organizations embraced the gig economy, both globally and in India.

Blurb: Online gig work now constitutes a growing and non-negligible part of the labour market, accounting for 4.4 to 12.5% of the global labour force. (154 million to 435 million people doing gig jobs) World Bank.^*1

The impact of gig working goes beyond economic forays, it holds socio-economic significance with particular promise for women and youth^*1, and gives impetus to the local private sector ecosystem in developing countries,” according to the World Bank^*2. It is no wonder that the gig economy is on a growth trajectory, with gig talent increasing.

Blurb: Valued at USD 355000.0 million in 2021, it is expected to expand at a CAGR of 16.18% during the forecast period, reaching USD 873000.0 million by 2027.

This growth shall be driven by myriad factors, from private firms, individual talent, and public policy. One of the key shifts in gig is the shift from blue-collar to white-collar engagements. Currently, category-wise, only 14% of global and local platforms are into ‘business and professional management’ services when it comes to the global gig economy^*1. But this is slowly changing, spearheaded by the developed nations. In the US in 2022, approximately 36% of the American workforce embraced the role of independent contractors^*4. And over half (51%) of all freelancers were seen providing knowledge services such as computer programming, marketing, IT, and business consulting.^*5

Much of the global shift is also due to the rise of influencer content, enabling the younger generations to adopt gig working lifestyles. It is no surprise that when looking at the percentage of generations that are freelancers: Gen Z is 43%, Millennials are 43%, Gen X is 35%, and Boomers and older are a mere 27%^*5.

The Indian Gig Landscape

The Indian gig workforce is expected to swell to 23.5 million by the year 2029-30, which is almost a 200% jump from the current 7.7 million.^*6

– ‘India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy,’ Niti Ayog

The Indian gig economy has been prevalent in the blue-collar space but is still at an emerging stage at a C-level due to several challenges^*7. One such challenge is perception^*8 Traditionally, contract or ‘temp’ employees were usually viewed as people who could not find a full-time job, or those doing a side hustle to earn extra money alongside a low-paid job. But today, this stigma is gone as an increasing number of senior-level professionals worldwide now consider themselves ‘independent’ experts, with no penchant to be tied down to one organization for long. As a result, there is a stark shift in ‘gigging’, from food-delivery people to niche-skilled techies to seasoned corporate executives. Expert professionals are now turning to independent consulting as a means to gain flexibility, continuously expand their skill sets, get valuable experience, and pursue their passion for diverse work^*5. The positive aspect is that gig working gels well with the DEI agenda – according to a survey, both male (41%) and female (40%) respondents shared a strong interest in working on different projects through gig.^*9

Blurb: Pre-pandemic, nearly half of India’s gig talent was concentrated in the retail trade and transportation. Now 35% of gig talent are employed in the IT sector. In fact, soon every third employee of an IT organization will be gig.^*7

Gigonomics or contingent hiring works well for the industry, which is riddled with macroeconomic and business uncertainty. The emerging demand for certain niche skills, the need to bridge the temporary skill gaps and ask for an agile workforce has been a big contributor to the overall growth of the gig economy^*7. This is to stay, considering 40% of companies are facing talent shortages for emerging skills^*10

The past year has been particularly encouraging for the Indian gig space. It has seen 93% growth since January 2023 in the white-collar space as of July 2023^*10. The main industry push for hiring gig experts are: ^*1

60% of firms	43% of firm	33% of firms
Specific skills were needed at the time which we didn’t have in house	More flexible cost options than hiring permanent employees	It was cheaper than performing the task/s in-house

 

The Rise of the Flexible C-Suite Workforce

As domain experts are increasingly willing to offer their expertise to businesses as part-time business leaders, this hard-to-find talent is increasingly being roped in to help fill leadership gaps or to leverage external experience in a new phase of the company’s growth^*11. These skills are making it easier for organizations to expand to new markets, undertake new initiatives, and supplement internal capabilities with niche expertise. But this is just the beginning. The future of gig work lies in rethinking traditional employment norms and reshaping leadership roles for complex, dynamic and disruptive marketplaces.

Blurb: 79% of business leaders say leveraging top-level contractors can yield key competitive advantages, citing an increase in agility as the primary benefit. ^*12

Globally, companies are prioritizing the total workforce agenda i.e. focusing on all types of talent. This outlook may ensure maximum possible people find a career flow amidst the fragmentation of work into skills and tasks^*13. It demands a person-centred approach of matching skills and capabilities to tasks. This skills-first approach will enable agility, mobility, quick decision making, and resilience. This is one of the key success factors for businesses amidst the rapid pace of change. ^*12

Blurb: With the notion that skilled contract executives can help them upskill/enhance their executive team, with 94% planning to continue using or expanding their use of skilled contract executives. ^*12

It is not uncommon to see a company hire independent domain experts for targeted outcomes. For example, a part-time sales executive contributing 2-3 days per week for few months to build a sales organization structure, or a part-time CMO with new perspectives and fresh ideas to increase leads and elevate the brand, or an interim operations expert to quickly rebuild processes and organization for fuelling rapid growth. Some of the immediate benefits from such gig associations may be:

• Access to otherwise unavailable top talent
• Specialized Expertise and niche skills
• Cost Efficiency with on-demand talent model
• Flexibility and fresh perspectives
• Scalability basis economic outlooks and org needs
• Risk Mitigation through short-term contracts

Of course, the nature of engagement depends on the business need. Different types of talent pool such as fractional executives, consultants and advisors, contractors, coaches, interim executives, turnkey experts etc. are available. The CXO suite must methodically outline a contingent workforce strategy for leveraging this unique high-skilled talent pool best.

The Way Ahead for the Gig Economy: 2024 and Beyond

The changing paradigm of work is not without its challenges – gig-talents’ rights, data security and privacy management, labour laws and regulatory compliances, etc. It is important that private and public organizations address these, because the gig talent pool is only set to widen. In the coming years, one can expect:

• Opportunities for gig talent to build skills both locally and globally (location-agnostic)
• Increased income-earning opportunities through talent platforms focused on gig talent
• Social protection coverage of gig talent, for example, insurance options.
• New-age models of collective bargaining for new ways of working^*1
• Holistic talent acquisition strategy to tap into the gig talent pool
• Technology-led freelance ecosystem i.e. products, systems, tools, processes and platforms to streamline gig hiring and contingent workforce management, such as AI-enabled recruitment platforms.
• Targeted Talent management for blended workforce to better integrate external and internal contributors.
• DEI-led policies and processes to empower gig talent
• More regulation from governments and regulatory bodies to ensure fair payment, benefits, and labour rights for freelancers.

A major boost is the emergence of online platforms for gig hiring, which are enabling freelancers and companies to interact and transact seamlessly^*3. Specialised digital recruitment platforms are bringing both under a common roof, making gig working arrangements more accessible both ways ^*3

Blurb: 57% of employers expressed intent to increase the proportion of gig talent within their workforce by the fiscal year 2024. ^*9

It is not just industry impetus, public policy will pave true success for the gig talent model. Governments can partner with such gig platforms to widen coverage of social programs for informal talent^*1. Moreover, because gig employment often happens through word-of-mouth, professional networks, or specialized recruitment agencies^*14, having structured and regulated platforms for gig hiring can foster equitable opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Embracing gig is not just a process change, but a mindset change. It requires a culture of collaboration and acceptance as one moves away from the traditional talent lens and embraces new ways of working.

Blurb: 60% of freelancers agree that companies have a more flexible attitude to hire freelancers / contractors.^*15

Change is happening, but sustained change will require strong buy-in of the C-suite. Leadership readiness for the gig economy is the make-or-break for the future of work. Leaders who spearhead the organizations need to be better equipped at taking strategic choices such as defining fluid organisational boundaries and be willing to shift these as situations change. Leaders also need to take a pervasive approach to encouraging leadership across boundaries. Reaching out to wider talent pools, creating collective purpose and meaning, and drawing out discretionary effort from hidden talent pools, is a new-age skill CXOs must build. This is over and above the hygiene factors such as guaranteeing the right technologies, tools, structures and procedures to seamlessly plug in third-parties for contingent workforce management. True success shall come from the ‘right leadership intent.

With gig, FLEXIBILITY can meet EXPERTISE in a symphony of endless possibilities. ^*14

Our team of talent-experts can help you optimize your people strategy. Talk to us today, to know how to bring this to life..

Click here to leave a message or email us @Clientservice@solvecube.com

Click here to leave a message or email @ Clientservice@solvecube.com

About the Author:

Deepak Rajasekar S

Deepak Rajasekar S, Partner & Director – SolveCube, is an experienced HR leader and entrepreneur in the people strategy space. He brings 30+ years of extensive experience across diverse industries and geo-locations such as India, Malaysia, Singapore. His expertise lies in Talent Management, HR Transformation, HR Technology, Strategic HCM, and Business Development. He has earlier served as CEO of an end-to-end HR solutions company, before bringing to life his passion of building an “intelligent talent marketplace”, through SolveCube.

Reference Sources:

*1 Working Without Borders: The Promise and Peril of Online Gig Work

*2 The Gig Economy in 2023

*3 Gig Economy Market with 16.18% CAGR : Growth 2022-Global Trends, Market Demand, Industry Analysis, Opportunities and Forecast 2027

*4 Mastering Leadership in the Gig Economy: A Comprehensive Guide

*5 Freelance Forward 2022

*6 India’s Booming Gig and Platform Economy

*7 The Rising Demand of C-suite in Gig Economy

*8 The Rising Demand of C-suite in Gig Economy

*9 The Return of the Gig Economy

*10 50% of Gig Workers Interested in Full-Time Employment Despite Rising Demand Reveals CIEL Report

*11 New lease of life for gig economy

*12 Talent on Demand: How the gig economy is disrupting the C-suite

*13 The future of HR: From flux to flow

*14 The Rise of the Fractional CXO: The Gig Economy Goes Executive

*15 HR functional perspectives

As outlined in Part 1 , tech is a true enabler for boundaryless hiring. To win the war for talent amidst local skill shortages, organizations are increasingly turning to on-demand skills & capabilities. As a result, we are seeing the rise of tech-enabled aggregator platforms or talent marketplaces for hiring on-demand talent. Talent management practices must also evolve in line with the new-age talent mix, if organizations expect to attract, engage, develop and retain a diverse workforce. This requires new skills, new attitudes, and new mindsets. Leaders of today must therefore, balance the ‘tech edge’ with the ‘human touch’, to be able to do justice to ever-evolving people and organizations.

The Power of “Human Touch”

Chandru Pingali, Founder and Managing Director, SolveCube, is a strong proponent of ‘not losing the human element in the tech rush’. He believes that ‘the best of technologies are created in the world, but it is humans who still need to consume them.’

Statistics agree with this insight, implying that an overreliance on tech negates the power of human cognition.

73% of people think technology can never replace the human mind. ^*7

In recent times we see people having a dual-fold reaction towards AI infiltration in their workplaces. 52% of employees globally expect to see some positive impact of AI on their career over the next five years, with 31% saying it’ll increase their productivity at work. Many people also view AI as an opportunity to learn new skills (27%). While 34% of Baby Boomers think AI will not impact their careers, only 14% of Gen Z and 17% of Millennials agree^*6.

Chandru shares his two-pence on tech, “The power of Human Intelligence fuels innovation. It can never be replaced by technology”

In fact, the top two barriers to unlocking the workforce ecosystem are the need to shift the culture (27%) and the ways of working (26%). Indeed, the power of human intervention or the ‘softer aspects’ of people management play a significant part.

How to Unlock the “Human Touch”

• Develop a boundaryless ecosystem mindset: Leaders need to think of the needs of all talent (external and internal), factoring in non-traditional workers [sic] into workforce strategy and working planning^*1. Not just humans, but machines working alongside man also must be factored into workforce planning.
• Value the uniqueness of human skills: As humans and machines collaborate to take decisions, cognitive human traits such as emotional intelligence, creativity, persuasion, innovation, adaptability, agility, resilience, are becoming more valuable^*7.
  As companies bridge the critical skills gap with more contingent workforce^*4, leaders must recognize the ‘qualitative value’ that different types of talent brings to the table. The SolveCube platform enables this not only for external talent, but internally espouses this philosophy at every talent touchpoint. Uma Jags, COO, SolveCube, shares a personal example, “I wanted to be part of an organization where I could be ME! SolveCube values me for being myself; my strengths and what I bring in with my ‘professionalism with a Personal Touch’ attitude. SolveCube is that ONE place which showed me that, if everyone moves forward together with a shared vision and goal, success will follow us all the way.”
• Enable continuous upskilling and reskilling: Encourage skills development by providing learners a high level of control to shape their learning and their working environment. Offer people the ability and opportunity to continually grow^*3.
• Uphold Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): Leaders need to recognize and embrace the unique value and contributions of all types of talent, and value their unique needs, preferences and aspirations. Akshaya Gaur, CTO, SolveCube shares how the platform was designed to uphold DEI principles, “SolveCube’s  AI Engine technology identifies potential candidates from our vast database of about 450 million candidates from all over the globe; and matches based on skills, experience, working style, and job role alignment. Our technology is based on models that do not incorporate data that is subjective – names, gender, race, ethnicity, photographs, facial expressions, and contours. Probably, one of the early platforms designed with Inclusion, Diversity and Equity as a design requirement.“
• Cultivate a culture for all talent types: Leaders can bring to life the company values, vision and mission by ‘living and breathing’ those themselves. Show talent the meaning and purpose in their work to enhance the employee experience.
• Redefine leadership roles: Leaders must pivot from directing to orchestrating i.e. shift from legacy command-and-control approaches to cross-functional alignment and integration. This will help effectively access, engage, manage and develop a mix of permanent and contingent experts, both man and machine.
• Drive Total Value Creation: Leaders need to sign into the total workforce agenda i.e. focus on all types of talent^*3. An integrated talent platform can help work towards Total Value Creation i.e. have the right people, skills and capabilities to increase the company’s productivity, profitability, create value, and drive towards success.

Building a talent operating model that aligns with the organization’s wider strategic vision and drives measurable ROI^*3 is a C-suite agenda, involving high cognition and human judgment.

Chandru recommends the five-S model for talent acquisition, wherein, sourcing, screening and shortlisting can be done by AI, while selection and stakeholder engagement shall always remain with HI (human intelligence).

A New Era of Leadership: Balancing “Tech with Touch”

Balancing tech with touch is crucial because people form the core of business success.

Many of the roles and skills of tomorrow are unknown to us today. With the blurring of boundaries in the era of generative AI and ChatGPT, leaders must continuously ask themselves the difficult questions: “How can organizations prepare for a future that few of us can define?” ^*7. The answer: by blending the best of tech and touch, leaders can leverage talent to create strategic business value.

60% HR leaders believe they will change the HR operating model in the next 2-3 years^*5

In the wake of the new realities around the future of work, organizations and talent will need to work together to co-create new rules, new boundaries, and new relationships by putting humans at the center of workforce design.^*1

This starts with leaders adapting new mindsets to accept new workforce fundamentals, for example, the ‘ecosystem mindset’ and the ‘integrated workforce strategy’. Today, the value-add of business extends beyond business itself, to broader society. Farida Charania, CBO, SolveCube shares how this comes alive every day at SolveCube, “SolveCube is a collaborative company that instead of focusing on competition, creates technology that benefits people. It believes in the same things I do: creating work opportunities and giving organizations access to resources that will make them successful. SolveCube built a smart platform to create a  level playing field, and is the future of work. We work towards the same goal – to make the world a better place.”

Indeed, to thrive in the new world of work, leaders and organizations must create value around agendas such as climate and sustainability, equality, human-risk, wellbeing, etc. This is possible only when today’s leaders open their eyes to diverse perspectives i.e. diversity of thought and mindset to drive purposeful and meaningful change in the right direction.

It depends on how leaders look at the boundaryless world – 

as a cauldron of chaos and confusion, 

OR

as a positive path towards new possibilities.

So,

Are you ready to unleash these new possibilities?

Are you set to revolutionize your talent strategy?

Are you willing to unlock the best business benefits?

Let us be your talent-partners in this journey…

Click here to leave a message or email @ Clientservice@solvecube.com

Reference Sources:

*1 New fundamentals for a boundaryless world, Deloitte’s 2023 Human Capital Trends

*2 Managing the extended and connected workforce, Deloitte Insights

*3 The future of HR: Moving from “function” to value generator, KPMG

*4 HR functional perspectives, Contingent Workforce

*5 The Future of HR: From flux to flow, KPMG

*6 PwC Global Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey, 2023

*7 Workforce of the future, The competing forces shaping 2030, PwC