Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Tim Stenovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, it does feel like
Speaker 1: just about every day we have a story about layoffs,
Speaker 1: despite continued strength in the government statistics when it comes
Speaker 1: to the labor market. You did have Disney last night
Speaker 1: following news of their restruction in a big cost cutting plan.
Speaker 1: They're cutting about seven thousand workers. JP Morgan as well
Speaker 1: scaling back its mortgage business so workers Affective Alliance. Burstein
Speaker 1: has eliminated more than a hundred jobs from its workforce
Speaker 1: after a year of turmoil in the equity and credit markets.
Speaker 1: So they continue um a lot of them, as you
Speaker 1: know we've talked about in the tech sector, but they
Speaker 1: are definitely feels like it's becoming more broader based our
Speaker 1: next guest in our team just surveyed more than four
Speaker 1: hundred senior execs when it comes to layoffs in the
Speaker 1: labor market. Here to tell us about that, Kate to Shane.
Speaker 1: She is CEO of r GP. They're a global consulting firm. Uh.
Speaker 1: They work with the likes of s A, p Oracle, NetSuite,
Speaker 1: Service Now and some others. She joins us via zoom
Speaker 1: from Irvine, California. Kate, good to have you here with
Speaker 1: us UM. I do want to start more broadly based
Speaker 1: on you know, your conversations with clients. How would you
Speaker 1: describe the labor market right now? Well, Hi, Caroline, thanks
Speaker 1: for having me. You know, we have a brought the
Speaker 1: environment UM. So we have certain clients that are experiencing layoffs,
Speaker 1: and we have others that are growing UM and still
Speaker 1: pursuing many of the transformation initiatives that they started coming
Speaker 1: out of COVID. So I think what clients really care
Speaker 1: most about is finding the right skill sets to match
Speaker 1: to their strategic initiatives right now and procuring that kind
Speaker 1: of talent in a variety of ways. It may not
Speaker 1: always be full time hiring. You know, our business is
Speaker 1: about UM project based work, and so we're seeing an
Speaker 1: uptick even with some of those companies that have announced layoffs,
Speaker 1: they're starting to get their talent needs filled through project
Speaker 1: based work UM, which is a strategy to keep core
Speaker 1: teams lean UM but still be able to move strategic
Speaker 1: initiatives forward. Yeah. I feel like we've heard that a
Speaker 1: lot over the last decade, right, Uh, Because for the
Speaker 1: company's advantage, right let's the be nimble and flexible, but
Speaker 1: it also kind of lowers their fixed costs. Is that fair?
Speaker 1: That's a perfectly fair way of looking at it. UM
Speaker 1: you know, goes back to what Peter Drucker always said
Speaker 1: is that the most UM innovative companies will keep their
Speaker 1: core staff lean and think about the skill sets they
Speaker 1: need for the time period in which they need them
Speaker 1: in order to move the fastest. And that's what we're
Speaker 1: seeing come back to life or maybe take a resurgence.
Speaker 1: Resurgence as a strategy in today's environment. Okay, would you
Speaker 1: say that you see people doing that when they're a
Speaker 1: little bit more nervous about the outlook. I think that's true.
Speaker 1: But you know, you mentioned our research. What we found
Speaker 1: is that the number of transformation projects is not slowing
Speaker 1: down UM even in the face of economic uncertainty. That
Speaker 1: they're more projects underway today than ever. Uh And but
Speaker 1: but companies are being very i think focused on their
Speaker 1: priorities and so we're also finding from our research that
Speaker 1: more companies are bringing UM mixed teams we call them
Speaker 1: organizationally diverse teams in order to deliver the results they need.
Speaker 1: And that means there's been a significant rise in the
Speaker 1: use of independent or project based consulting UM talent to
Speaker 1: mix into the teams to deliver the results as efficiently
Speaker 1: and quickly as possible. Well, let's talk about the digital talent.
Speaker 1: I mean, we certainly have focused a lot on the
Speaker 1: tech layoffs specifically, which would make me, you know, assume
Speaker 1: that they are what we would classify as digital talent
Speaker 1: in a large way. Mean, are they quickly finding you know,
Speaker 1: that they're being um, you know, attracted or or chosen
Speaker 1: to go to other maybe non tech companies because all
Speaker 1: companies need digital workers. So are you finding that they're
Speaker 1: able to either kind of move to another industry pretty easily.
Speaker 1: We're seeing that kind of movement. Yes, definitely that's the case.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's almost that the tech layoffs have created
Speaker 1: a more even playing field for the rest of us
Speaker 1: because we all need I can't think of a business
Speaker 1: that isn't going through some form of digital transformation today.
Speaker 1: So those in demand skills UM will find homes quickly.
Speaker 1: All right. So it's interesting too that um, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm wonder if this kind of continues to pick
Speaker 1: up some momentum UM because like I said, we've been
Speaker 1: talking about I remember, you know, certainly pre pandemic where
Speaker 1: companies are doing this because of the flexibility UM the
Speaker 1: growth of people. I don't want to see temp workers
Speaker 1: or project workers, but that's essentially what they are. How
Speaker 1: much growth have we seen in this type of workers
Speaker 1: as a part of our labor force. Yeah, so our
Speaker 1: research showed that UM three years ago, the percentage of
Speaker 1: what we call project based or freelance talent, whether we're
Speaker 1: talking about independent contractors or employees. Let's put that aside,
Speaker 1: but that more freelance talent UM it's risen by about
Speaker 1: ten in the last UM three years. So that's a
Speaker 1: significant increase in how not only clients want to get
Speaker 1: work done. But I think what we really have to
Speaker 1: focus on in today's environment is what talent wants coming
Speaker 1: out of the global pandemic, and what talent has learned
Speaker 1: about what they really care about, and that's flexibility, choice
Speaker 1: and control. For a professional worker today, control is everything,
Speaker 1: And I think there's a lot more confidence in all
Speaker 1: age growth, all age groups. When you say that, I
Speaker 1: think it is all age groups. There's you know, demographics matter,
Speaker 1: so Carol, You're right, demographics matter on on what matters most,
Speaker 1: but there's a new felt confidence if you have the
Speaker 1: right skills, that you really can bet on yourself and
Speaker 1: don't have to wait to climb the corporate ladder, especially
Speaker 1: in traditional professional services partnerships where that timeline can extend
Speaker 1: to fourteen to you know, sixteen years. Nobody's signing up
Speaker 1: for that anymore interesting, all right, Kate, good to check
Speaker 1: in with. You really appreciate it, Kate to Shane. She's
Speaker 1: the chief executive officer of our g P, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, a global consult consulting firm. Excuse me, joining
Speaker 1: us via zoom from Irvine, California,