Alvius

I enjoyed my recent conversation with Connor Heaney of CXC on his podcast The Open Talent Report. We spoke about the Alvius journey but also about the growth and future of #talentpooling and #staffbanks, the resilience of the agency model, the role of technology in #staffing, demographic shifts, AI (obvs) and more. Whether or not you listen to 'my' episode, the OTR is a great podcast which I recommend to anyone in or wanting to learn more about the staffing / workforce space... ...unless of course you are already a listener - in which case, I hope you enjoy this one! https://lnkd.in/edfDxjqa

I've just returned to my desk after a great morning at the UNLEASH World conference 2023 in Paris. It was great to bump into Sam Norman Oliver Ackland-Snow and Laura Hunt from team Zinc, and the great Bradley Placks of To Augment (amongst others) and meet people from existing Alvius integration partners Broadbean Technology, Textkernel and Cornerstone OnDemand. Here are my initial observations: ➡ Differentiating actual and 'not-actual' AI The big theme of the conference was AI in our sector. Sure, the growth in adoption and use of AI has been big. But it's completely outstripped by one thing: 😑 Claims about the use of AI 😑 To my mind THAT was the big theme. Literally every stand I visited claimed they used AI. In lots of cases, it made sense. But in a load of others....it did't. And I wasn't buying it. A lot of companies at the moment feel pressure to say they are using AI in their platforms, for fear of being left out of the conversation. The real leaders are those who have the confidence and knowledge to say 'here's where AI adds value; and here it where it does not'. As Bradley Placks said to me when I mentioned this to him, the biggest challenge of the next few years is less working out HOW to use AI and more WHERE, AND WHERE NOT to use the technology. ➡ The Convergence on CRM / ATS What felt like 80% of the exhibitors were, when you boiled it down, essentially one of a CRM, an ATS or an HRS. This is a problem: If it's virtually impossible to play in this space without being a 'platform', there is little room for the small, specialist innovators. Where are the tools which plug into platforms and add something on top? Where are the small innovators offering a small but perfect service in their niche? Not present in Paris, that's for sure. Thinking about the Alvius tech platform and strategy with these in mind: A. It's great that we have deployed AI within our matching engine (specifically around the generation and identification of tags on both sides of the equation); but perhaps we should be clearer where we're not using AI (e.g. anywhere in approvals, compliance, booking generation). B. We must continue to focus on the inter-operability of the Alvius tech with the established platforms; Bullhorn, Cornerstone OnDemand, Matrix and more. Thats the space where we can deliver real value; a service 'in addition.'

Some interesting data released by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation in conjunction with KPMG. Setting the very confusing (possibly even confused...) use of the words 'softer' and 'solid' by the author aside, the important points to note are: - Though it it was only marginal, September saw the first actual reduction in demand for staff since Feb 2021. - Perm appointments continue to fall (though the decline is slowing) - Temp billings have however increased (short term stop-gaps covering a nervousness about taking on long term commitments) - but not dramatically - Wage growth continues to slow; the pace is now negligible, despite the cost of living crisis (the market defeats individual needs). - As a result of all of this, the environment continues to improve for those few companies which are hiring (soon it will likely be an extremely good time to hire). You can read the full release here: https://lnkd.in/etYiiPZc #ukemployment #ukstaffing #ukrecruitment #workforcemanagement #vendormanagement #vms #ats #recruitmentsoftware #rectech #taltech #managedservices #managedserviceprovider

It was a pleasure to speak this morning at the APSCo OutSource quarterly leadership meeting alongside Adam Hawkins of LinkedIn and Shaun Weise of Bullhorn. The topic was the role of #ArtificialIntelligence in the UK staffing sector, today and in the next 12 months. I enjoyed sharing the Alvius view: ➡ Within the next year, AI growth will be big but largely behind the scenes. In October 2024 outsourcing execs are not going to be checking into ChatGPT daily. But their teams will be using systems which are increasingly AI optimised / enabled. ➡ AI growth will be about 1,000s of small user cases rather than any one big beast wholesale replacing humans. We predict that: ⏩ No single job in this sector will disappear directly within the next 24 months as a result of replacement by AI. ⏪ (Instead, over time, the job landscape will adjust as AI changes how we work) ➡ The Alvius product team is working hard to identify sharp corners we can round off with AI; Structuring unstructured data offers the richest pickings. Today #AI is used to optimise 3 processes within the Alvius VMS / TPS: 1. Extracting tags from CVs and JDs; 2. Improving and ordering the structure / presentation of profiles, CVs and job descriptions; 3. Harmonising data fields including salaries. A year from now we expect the number of processes helped by AI to be >15.