How Adaptive Workforces Is Shaping the Future of Business

Today, businesses need to be as adaptive as possible, able to keep up with the quickly changing modern environment which surrounds them. Arguably the most poignant example  of this is the way businesses had to quickly adapt during COVID-19.

Faced with the challenges of a global pandemic, which essentially halted all day-to-day activities and habits, companies showed incredible resilience and flexibility. Overnight, businesses had to rethink their operations, adopt new technologies for running fully online companies and find key ways to innovate which helped maintain productivity and continue serving their customers. 

On a wider scale, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of flexibility when it came to the workforce. People who were able to adapt to work from home, teams who were able to manage the new digital-only ways of working saw a rise in productivity. While workers are now able to return to the office now, and have their meetings face-to-face, the lessons around flexibility and agility, taught by COVID-19 are important to keep in mind. 

One powerful strategy to achieve this level of agility is through building an adaptive workforce, and nearshore development offers an effective pathway to create such a dynamic and responsive team.

The Problem of Tech Hiring

Developer Shortage and the Need to Digitise

It is known for everyone working with the tech space that the demand for skilled developers has skyrocketed. This has created a significant talent shortage. The lack of dev talent also comes at a time when businesses are under more pressure than ever to digitise their operations, develop new tech offerings and become increasingly tech enabled.

Companies that feel unable to keep up with these demands risk being left behind by more agile and innovative competitors. 

A poignant example of how digital disruption is reshaping the offering of one specific sector, comes from the banking industry. Disruptive businesses such as Monzo and Revolut, are reshaping the traditional offering of banks, with cutting edge digital banking. This includes quicker access to a bank card, intuitive apps, instant bank transfers and social features which make transferring money more simple. 

Such digital innovations have forced traditional banks to adapt, as they recognise that these features attract customers and can draw them away from conventional banking providers. Consequently, what began as disruptive innovations have now become standard offerings across the entire banking industry.

Changing Demand

The nature of tech development proved a unique challenge in itself. The demand for development resources often fluctuates depending on the phase of development a business is in. During peak time, often referred to as ‘the crunch’, dev teams can be overworked and stressed, struggling to meet tight deadlines and deliver quality products. At the same time, during slower phases, these teams find themselves underworked and bored - which can lead to decreased productivity and morale. 

This inconsistent demand for development talent makes it difficult for businesses to maintain an optimal balance. Overcommitting to a large team can result in wasted resources during slower periods, while under committing can lead to burnout and project delays during busy times.

Committing to One Tech Stack

The third significant challenge is the rapid evolution of the tech landscape. With new technologies and frameworks emerging all the time, businesses need to be agile to remain adaptable to stay ahead. 

The truth is, that committing to long-term investment in developers who specialise in a single tech stack can lead to competitive limitations. As the industry evolves and the relevance of specific tech stacks diminished - the long-term investment in full-time developers will become less valuable.  

Businesses need developers who are not only skilled in current technologies but also versatile and quick to adapt to new tools and frameworks. This flexibility is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in an environment where innovation is constant. 

What is the Solution?

Today, businesses are increasingly looking to shake-up the traditional ways of hiring tech talent. One of the effective methods newly developed is the implementation of an adaptive workforce. 

What is an Adaptive Workforce?

According to a recent Forrester report, an adaptive workforce is characterised by its flexibility, reduced hierarchy, and composability. These features make it particularly suited to meet the dynamic needs of today's tech landscape. 

Defining Features of an Adaptive Workforce

1. Burstable: Adaptive workforces are able to scale their businesses up and down to meet the changing demands and conditions of the future of work. Their ability to tap into flexible labour pools, and quickly adapt to fluctuations in demand, helps ensure that they have the right amount of talent, at the right time - without having to make permanent hires. 
2. Less Hierarchical: Traditional corporate organisations are often extremely vertical Employees typically work within a single organisational function throughout their careers. 
   
   In contrast, an adaptive workforce is more fluid. For example, a team member specialised in managing automation in the finance department can also move to the HR department to perform similar automation tasks. This allows them to gain new skills, while also contributing their existing expertise to a different function within the business. This approach not only enhances individual skill sets but also fosters a more versatile and resilient workforce. 
   
   
3. Composable: Swarm teams, groups which bring together employees from various cross-functional groups, are a prime example of the adaptive workforce in action. These teams break out of traditional functional silos, driving innovation and solving complex problems, which span a wider range of problems than one single department. The flexibility offered by these teams, which can assemble and disassemble as projects are completed or conditions change, means that businesses have the tools to quickly respond to new challenges. 
   
   By leveraging the adaptive workforce model, businesses can overcome the limitations of traditional tech hiring. This approach provides the flexibility to scale resources, encourages continuous learning and cross-functional collaboration, and enables rapid adaptation to evolving market conditions.

The Adaptive Workforce: Easier Said Than Done

While the concept of an adaptive workforce is promising, the Forrester report highlights that creating such a team is not as straightforward as it seems. Businesses need to make company wide changes in their operations, attitude towards people and day-to-day structures in order to truly be able to adopt this model. 

Forrester highlights three key pivots where businesses likely need to review and pivot:

• People Need to Be More Adaptable: As AI and automation continue to reshape the workplace, and the landscape surrounding many businesses changes faster than ever - the labour economy is increasingly leaning towards temporary, contingent and gig-based labour. In this environment, adaptability becomes a critical skill, which helps employees thrive amidst constant change. This shift in personal mindset, which embraces continued learning and flexibility, is crucial for ensuring workers, and therefore wider teams, remain competitive. 

• Employee Happiness as a Priority: To effectively build an adaptive workforce, organisations must begin to prioritise employee happiness and wellbeing. Since happy workers are more productive, engaged and motivated, the satisfaction of workers directly translates to a better customer experience. Today, investing in employee wellbeing is not just a nice-to-have, it is crucial for creating an agile workforce. 

• Optimising Culture, Leadership, and Structures for AI and Automation: The future of work involves human employees working alongside robots and intelligent machines powered by AI, automation, and robotics. However, the truth is, that people, leaders and organisations are not-yet fully prepared for this drastic change. For instance Forrester’s Technographics’s data reveals that just 18% of global information workers feel their career path is clear in the world of automation. To address this, organisations need to take a hands-on approach in helping employees 

In order to rise to these challenges of the adaptive workforce, management needs to address a wide range of hurdles within their business, including:

• Tackling the cultural shifts which come with embracing AI technologies and automation as a way to enhance human capabilities.
• Understanding where and how leaders need to be trained to develop, manage and inspire their teams to foster an environment with increased cross-department collaboration and innovation. 
• Redesigning the fundamental organisational structure of a business to support wider flexibility, and allow teams to quickly adapt to new challenges and opportunities. 

However, implementing these fundamental structural changes can be particularly challenging, especially for large enterprise businesses. Specific difficulties includes: 

• Finding Agile and Adaptive Developers: The best developers often prefer not to be confined to one business or project. They seek variety and flexibility, making it difficult for many businesses to attract top talent through traditional hiring models.
• Maintaining Flexibility in an In-House Team: Building an in-house development team that remains flexible and adaptable is tough, particularly during periods of major tech changes followed by slower work phases. This can lead to inefficiencies and resource wastage.

A New Alternative to Engage the Adaptive Workforce

Increasingly businesses are looking for new ways to find flexible, and quick to hire, adaptable developers. With the nature of today’s agile development - there are often no other solutions as well suited for delivering tech projects. 

This is where a new framework for outsourcing comes into play, such as that offered by Deazy.

Here is how it works:

Long-standing relationships: Deazy’s pool of pre-existing 85+ development teams are maintained by our in-house outsourcing specialists, who ensure that we are able to offer a wide range of talent to our clients. These long-standing relationships, help ensure that your project will be in the right hands, both with regards to tech expertise and soft skills, such as team culture and communication style. 

In-house delivery expertise: Alongside our offering of a wide range of experienced developers, we also help ensure your project will be in the right hands. Our in-house team of delivery professionals have decades of experience in all areas of tech delivery - so you never have to worry about a project going off the rails again. 

Flexibility guaranteed: Our resourcing model has flexibility at its heart. Our roster of 7,000+ developers, means we are able to switch developers ‘on and off’ as needed, adapting to your level of dev workload. 

Book a call with our team today to learn more!