The Wrap #12: Diluting our value in the gig economy

Thanks to Chris Russell of HR Tech feed for picking this up. One of Upwork's investors called out the company's leadership saying changes need to be made.

I don't know how often this happens, but it's not a good sign when one of your investors publicly calls for leadership changes. upwork, a freelancer marketplace for marketing, administration, creative, and content writers (i.e. everything that companies are trying to replace with AI), has seen its share price nosedive since the good ol' days of COVID. It's closest competitor Fiverr has fared much better since COVID and currently trades at over $24.

This is pure speculation on my part, but I'm guessing that when COVID hit, companies were looking to cut staff and outsource basic admin and marketing functions. Great, Fiverr and Upwork have lots of freelancers looking for gigs and are the best places to find someone to outsource these tasks to. Stock goes up, and both companies are happy. Yet over time, both have devalued their platforms with the sheer amount of users and rampant scams.

Too much noise and scam/fake services bring everything down. You can outsource any function to someone halfway around the world for a fraction of what you'd be paying someone in-house, but quality will suffer and frustrations will rise. It's happening with everything right now. I've worked for companies that outsourced their customer service, yet are surprised when their customer service reviews nosedive because their customer don't feel like they are a priority anymore (they weren't, cashflow was).

In the age of AI maximization, look for everything to look more like the gig marketplace. Too much noise and parity. The brands that stand out will be the ones with authentic voices.

Ok, on to this week's HR Tech news. This week's Wrap features a cloud company (Amazon) demanding on-premise employees, Workday releasing AI agents for everything, a new report from Aptitude Research , grounding from Mary Faulkner, tips for HR Tech, and an oral history of the Titanic. Enjoy!

Amazon tells employees to return to Oz

Amazon officially killed their 3-days-a-week hybrid work model this week and told its corporate staff that they need to be in office 5 days a week. It's not a popular idea when the immediate consensus is that they must want their staff to quit. I would. It's like being on house arrest for the last 4 years, when you can control your own environment, to heading back to open office gen-pop to deal with daily distractions, incompetent wardens, forced fun, and the constant threat of being politically shanked by coworkers. No thanks. Once you smell freedom, it's hard to go back. PS - the only people who champion open office spaces are executives with doors.

Workday Announces New AI Agents to Transform HR and Finance Processes

I'm going to gaze into the future and tell you what you will see at the HR Tech conference next week (and in announcements through the end of the year): Every vendor will have or be announcing an AI agent of some kind. Last year, it was great to see AI tools get introduced into mundane processes like creating and evaluating job descriptions. Now, all the major talent acquisition providers have a variation of it. This year it's AI agents. To compete in tech moving forward, every product will have to have some sort of sidekick, helping the user identify patterns and find answers quickly. This feature parity is simply the cost of being a player in the market right now.

The latest agents from Workday promise to reduce the friction in expense reports (YAY!), push succession planning, reduce top-of-funnel recruiting tasks, and identify and address bottlenecks in existing processes. I'm looking forward to seeing these in action next week. See a breakdown of each new Workday agent in the press release here.

The Power of Intelligent, Intentional Talent Transformation

New research from my friends at Aptitude Research . Their latest report focuses on how leading HR organizations are harnessing the power of AI, automation, and skills-based hiring to transform their talent strategies and align with long-term business goals.

Key Insights:

• 67% of HR leaders are actively managing cultural and operational transformations to improve workforce agility and resilience.
• Organizations that invest in AI for HR see a 75% higher likelihood of maintaining or increasing investments in the next 12 months.
• Companies with Evolving Skills-Based Talent Strategies (SBTS) report an 84% moderate to significant impact on talent retention. AI-driven Talent Orchestration is empowering HR teams to coordinate across multiple systems and personas, delivering more strategic, data-driven insights.
• Skills-based hiring is reshaping the future of talent acquisition by focusing on core competencies rather than traditional roles, enabling more responsive, agile organizations.

Get a copy of the full report here.

Beyond the Hype: Aligning Talent Acquisition with Core Business Needs

Full disclaimer - I love me some Mary Faulkner. I first got to know her when I was running speaker selection at Workhuman Live and have remained friends for years. She's funny, smart, and keen to cut through the BS of fake product promises and HR procedures. In her latest column for ERE, she'll help you cut through the hype of HR Tech marketing to find what really works. Spoiler alert: beware of driving your strategy with buzzwords. AI, blockchain, and virtual reality all sound cool, but don't lose sight of meeting the needs of your business and customers. I particularly love this part:

Sacrificing human connection at the altar of productivity is one of the greatest temptations for TA leaders. The push to cut costs while doing the same amount of work (or more!) has driven many tools to tout AI-powered automation as the best option. Yet repeatedly, candidates tell us that lack of communication and human interaction throughout the process is their biggest pain point. Just ensure you’re not solving one problem by creating a host of new ones.

PREACH! Thank you for saying this Mary and you can join me on my stump as the HR Tech Lorax any day. Read Mary's full column here.

HR Tech is next week!

Since joining the ranks of tech workers being laid off in August, I've had this event circled on my calendar as I look for my next opportunity. This will be my 10th HR Tech conference and after all my years of attending, I've learned a few things.

If you are going next week, here are some helpful tips:

• Take care of yourself. Don't forget to drink plenty of water and take time to eat real food. It's easy to get hung up attending sessions, meeting people, and roaming the expo floor. I can't tell you how many times I've all of a sudden realized that all I've had to eat that day was a croissant from Starbucks. Take a moment to sit down and have a real meal. Carlee Pett Capawana and I had lunch at the Asian restaurant in Mandalay last year and the combination of soup and conversation did wonders for my soul and congestion levels.
• Go to the vendor after parties. The best conversations I've had at HR Tech have always been the unexpected ones where I meet someone new at one of these events and find out how we can help each other out.
• Look at the investment on the Expo floor. Who has a bigger booth than last year? Who is downsizing? I often get a lot of information on where companies are with their presence on the floor. Also, you can see what their marketing messages look like and learn their immediate focus for the next couple of quarters.
• Go outside. Even if it is just for a minute, get out of the casino and expo and get some fresh Vegas air.
• Get to old Vegas if you can. It's a short cab ride but is the place to be for people watching. There are usually great bands and it's outside. Plus, it is a much cheaper place to play table games if that's your thing.
• Take care of your colleagues. It's very easy to overserve yourself when everything is free. Keep an eye on your friends and colleagues and if someone is starting to get sloppy, pull them aside and let them know.
• Check out the Titanic expo in the Luxor. I'm a Titanic nerd, but it's only $30 and you get to see lots of artifacts.

I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones next week!

Wikipedia of the Week - Walter Lord's A Night to Remember

I mentioned above that I am a Titanic nerd and I've read a lot about it over the years. If you are interested in learning about the Titanic, you should check out A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. Written in 1955, Lord was able to interview 63 survivors and compiled their testimonies into a singular timeline of what really happened from multiple points of view. It's as close to an actual account of what happened that you could find. Learn more about it here.

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