The US staffing industry is closing 2022 with a 14% growth, while globally, the industry is forecast to grow 11% this year, according to SIA. This is after a stellar 2021! However, an uncertain macro-economic environment lies ahead. Changing candidate and client preferences, increasing operational costs and threats from new entrants — including from outside the industry — will likely slow the industry’s revenue growth and profitability. At the same time, the decade is turning increasingly digital.

In order to gauge how staffing firms can best compete in this new era, TCS turned to top performers across industries — firms that achieved higher revenue and net income growth than their industry average between 2015 and 2019 — to learn their perceptions, strategies and priorities in this new digital age.

Here are the four key takeaways to stay ahead of the competition in a digital world.

Collaboration. Digital workforce solutions must take center stage and bring together partners and competitors in cross-industry digital ecosystems. By the dawn of the next decade, top-performing firms expect more than half their revenue to come from completely digital offerings. At the same time, a majority of them plan to include new industries and ecosystems in any future strategy.

Cultural aspects. Top performers underline the importance of customer-centricity and innovation in an increasingly digital economy. These two traits — along with employee experience, diversity, quality and sustainability — are expected to influence company culture more than shareholder value. To win with digital ecosystems, the primacy of candidate and client experience cannot be overstated, with the former taking precedence over the latter. Equally important is recruiter and employee experience to help varied candidates fill the right roles while customers move forward on their strategic and operational goals.

Cybersecurity. As workforce solutions become increasingly digital, their exposure to cyberattacks widens significantly. Staffing firms need to better secure their systems across all business functions — not just in the IT organization. The top performers across industries identified finance, client/candidate databases and intellectual property data as the top areas likely to have the highest number of cyberattacks between now and 2025.

Optimization. The foundation of the future staffing business must be based on the optimization of existing resources by leveraging a digital operating model. This will be the springboard for innovative workforce strategies, offerings and solutions. Despite predicting far greater digitalization of their businesses and the marketplaces in which they will compete by 2025, most survey respondents believe that optimizing what they’re doing today is more important than innovation. However, 45% will still prioritize innovation in strategy, which is defined as “launching or acquiring new businesses to enter new markets.”

Take a look at the accompanying infographic to learn how large global companies have recalibrated their strategies through 2025.

To learn how TCS can help your organization better compete in the digital world, contact Naveen Pathak at nk.pathak@tcs.com.