A record-breaking 47 million Americans quit their jobs in 2021. Dean Glas, CEO and Co-Founder of SellX, joins On The Job to discuss what's driving individuals out of their jobs, how companies can leverage remote workers, and ways to fill growing talent gaps.

On the Job

Best Ways to Leverage Remote Workers

Welcome back to on the job presented by ADP workplaces around the world have been experiencing a huge shift. Unlike anything we've seen before in 2021, a record breaking 47 million Americans quit their jobs, why are so many people leaving work? What is it that they're looking for joining us now? To discuss just that is Dean Glass Ceo and co founder of Cell Eckstine, Welcome to the show. It's a platform connecting freelancers with companies looking to grow quickly. So Dean, what's driving individuals out of their jobs? Some of them have been there for years. Where are companies going wrong here? First and foremost. Thanks for having me, excited to be on um Great question. I think there's a fundamental shift happening in the workspace on one side, you see companies pre pandemic raising tons of money where there was just a lot of dry powder from Bcs pouring into these companies where they were all about hyper growth over hiring and always thought that they had um DCs to lean on now. Post pandemic, obviously with the markets where they are today, they they're burn is high and they have to pull back and what that means is we've seen from Uber and massive companies across the globe having to let do massive layoffs, do hiring freezes and let go a lot of these employees on the other side of that market, you see employees wanting a new way to work, they want to work remotely, they want to have more flexibility, they want to have more freedom um and this has allowed the fundamental shift to happen where companies need to adapt to leverage this new generation of workers and workers that want this new way of working, need a new platform to enable this change to happen. So what can companies do here, Dean to best leverage these remote workers? Yeah, something that we've done at selects as a Ceo and founder is work with contractors and freelancers and at selects we are building these labor marketplaces to enable this new change to happen where companies can not happen to this amazing remote workforce to scale up and scale down in a more efficient way. And talent can now have the flexibility to work remotely and work with who they want, how they want to work with these opportunities and companies to help them grow. So, so many workplaces are trying to fill in these growing talent gaps. What can they do to move forward to fill those positions? Yeah, that's a great question. I think there's across the board, there's these freelance labor marketplaces for marketers, for engineers for sales like slx, right? So companies can now, rather than have to wait six months to hire onboard ramp with this talent workforce and then deal with extremely high turnover, specifically in sales where the average turnover is 40% a year. They don't have to deal with that risk anymore. Talent places like selects allow you to tap into this incredibly bedded pool of talent, work with them to collaborate and scale with them without all those expensive cost commitments and time commitment to do so? And now talent on the same side we have to go through these hiring process. Don't need to do that anymore. They could find opportunities to work with on demand and everything they need in one platform to integrate into these processes and workflows and keep getting the things that they want which is usually to be with their family not wasting time on commuting and be more productive. I do want to talk to you about freelancers. How is that transforming the marketplace and how companies are hiring now with this influx of freelancers? Yeah there's a massive change. The things that blow my mind in our company's mind is that 30% of the workforce today freelance. So that is even pre pandemic. And what the pandemic has increased is accelerated that momentum where people want to have more flexibility to be their own boss and be their own contractors so they can choose who they work with. By 2027 over 50% of the US workforce will be freelancing. So I think this is happening, this is here to stay And this is the future. We're going to go into where companies need to adapt and that's what Boston companies like us are trying to do to help that change and make it easier for them. I want to go back to what you said by 2027, of the workforce will be freelancing. You're right? That's quite the shift? What is driving this increase? How does freelancing fit into more of a hybrid workforce that apparently so many people are looking for? Yeah I think what has happened is that technology has enabled the way that you can hire and work and collaborate with freelancers instead of having to just bring them internally you cannot work as seamlessly as you want with external contractors. So when that friction becomes so seamless and easy, what's the difference of having to hire that person internally or working externally with the same type of person getting the same results? So that's an awesome shift for both. Giving better flexibility to work remotely with who they want as talent and companies can now scale up and down with that talent at ease. What do you think the post pandemic workforce is going to look like Dean? What are your predictions here? I think that there's obviously a fundamental shift that has happened. I think the shift is not going away. If anything it's only going to get bigger and more accelerated. So I think by like I said by 2027 most of the US workforce will be freelancing. There's gonna be more labor-market places than ever for companies to tap into individual skill sets across marketing engineering and also sales and talents are going to be able to work from anywhere right anywhere in the US anywhere in the world and live a happier, better life and be successful together with companies, do you think the cause of the shift is purely on the pandemic and all of us changing our lives in the last few years, so you think this was building up? Yeah, great question. I think ultimately this was going to happen. I think Covid just accelerated that. Um we see that it's you know, how much, how much more productive people are, how much happier people are working from home or from anywhere. So I think it's inevitable I think, you know, pre digital age, right, where technologies didn't exist like this, it was really hard. But now with technology and where we are today and where we're going into the future, it's just enabling it and make it easier and easier for both companies to work with this new generation workforce and talent to work with this new amazing companies to help them grow in even better ways and there's there's so much great insight here. Thanks for coming on because to your point, this is the future of work Dean Glass Ceo and co founder of Selects. We appreciate your time. Dean