Why Human Capital Innovation is More Relevant Than Ever for Procurement (ICYMI)

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Earlier this year, we began a three-part series on “human capital innovation,” a concept which we explained as follows:

“Human capital innovation means riding the wave of digitization and embracing an organizational transformation of how external high-skilled talent is directly sourced, engaged and integrated with internal teams and capabilities. It is a new human capital paradigm that goes far beyond tweaking traditional workforce sourcing and engagement approaches”

Highly skilled, specialized talent (e.g., business subject-area consultants, new technology experts) is critical to organizations today. Not only is such talent often in short supply, it is also often needed for a limited time (and sometimes on demand) to make specific contributions to particular projects. This becomes more relevant as organizations continue to evolve toward dynamic, agile, project-centric ways of achieving specific value-adding outcomes.

Three parts of the series address different aspects of human capital innovation:

In Part 1, Human Capital Innovation (Part 1): Technology, Talent and a New Playbook for Organizations, we discuss:

• The concept of human capital innovation,
• Organizations’ changing requirements for how work is delivered, executed and managed in an increasingly digitized and networked business environment
• The importance for C-level executives, hiring managers, HR professionals, procurement directors and contingent workforce management practitioners to understand these changes

In Part 2, Human Capital Innovation (Part 2): Innovative Enterprise Talent Solutions and Guiding Organizational Change, we discuss:

• The characteristics and benefits on new technology solutions that enable human capital innovation
• Why adoption of the new way of working requires “organizational innovation,” not just traditional implementation and organizational change management, practices
• How the leadership role is more about guiding a somewhat autonomous process, not managing it in a purely programmatic way

In Part 3, Human Capital Innovation (Part 3): Is the C-Suite Asleep at the Wheel?, we discuss:

• Why the C-Suite is generally unprepared for this new paradigm
• A test for “human capital innovation” awareness, knowledge and readiness of executives
• Suggestions for executives that would like to embrace and enact the “guiding innovation” role