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A ‘dynamic’ year: Revisiting SIA’s 2024 predictions

CWS 3.0 - Contingent Workforce Strategies

A ‘dynamic’ year: Revisiting SIA’s 2024 predictions

Katherine Alvarez
| January 14, 2025
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From AI to nearshoring to return-to-office pushes and more, SIA’s CWS Council team predictions not only hit the mark but appear poised to influence contingent workforce management this year as well. In a recent webinar, the team took a retrospective look back at 10 predictions made at the start of 2024.

It has been an “incredibly interesting year” with abrupt decision-making, global economic challenges, and businesses environments that require labor workforce changes — such as AI automation and offshoring/nearshoring, according to Sam Smith, president of global client delivery at MSP and VMS provider Magnit, which sponsored the webinar. “‘Dynamic,’ I think, is probably the most positive word I can use,” Smith said.

Here are some of the team’s predictions that came to fruition last year and will develop further in 2025.

Talent’s use of AI. Artificial intelligence in 2024 continued to evolve as a key player in the talent application process and created new challenges for organizations engaging talent. For example, half of workers report using AI with their job applications, said Lori Telischak, director, CWS Council. In addition, other stats show that, on average, AI adds 14 embellishments per résumé such as reworded responsibilities, inflated job titles and exaggerated or fabricated experiences. These AI-enhanced résumés actually score higher on organizations’ automated screening systems, making it harder to spot legitimate candidates.

Candidates also use AI tools to pass psychometric assessments given by organizations. And a bigger conversation is the possibility that these AI-enhanced résumés or tools are widening that inequality gap because those with that higher socioeconomic status are often the ones that have the access or means to use these tools.

“So stay tuned,” Telischak said. “This is continuing to evolve in 2025.”

Nearshoring/offshoring. Nearshoring attracted quite a bit of attention last year as program managers sought different ways to improve their return on investment, noted Dawn McCartney, senior VP, CWS Council.

“We’ve had more conversations about areas like Mexico and Latin America — areas that we didn’t necessarily have a lot of conversations about in the past,” McCartney said.

Nearshoring provides the same access to specialized talent that offshoring does without the challenges of working in different time zones and oftentimes different languages. The costs and time for traveling are also reduced. Cultural alignment and employee engagement is also easier to develop with nearshoring than it is with offshoring.

Getting good at ICs. Independent contractors played a pivotal role in contingent workforce programs last year. They accounted for 50% of nonemployee workforce spend worldwide, and organizations increasingly relied on them to enhance their access to specialized skills.

“This shift in 2024 necessitated adaptations in hiring processes, with a focus on expediting recruitment cycles and streamlining credentials — and maybe compromising on those in order to get these workers in quickly,” said Peter Reagan, senior director, CWS Council. “We’ve seen the integration of direct sourcing strategies aligned with IC programs to enable companies to build curated talent pools of independent professionals, thereby improving efficiency and reducing time-to-fill metrics.”

There are now strategies for program managers to safely manage the risk involved when utilizing independent contractors, and the best-qualified talent will look to go this route if organizations continue to push return-to-office policies.

“There was a recent piece of research we did which said only 29% of the talent out there preferred to go through a staffing partner,” said Stephen Clancy, SIA’s senior director, CWS knowledge and research. “What do you think of that? Do you think you’re going to have to deal with ICs? Yes, and you can do it well.”

Return to office. Rescinding remote-work policies and requiring workers to work on-site is another prediction that came true last year. Remote jobs on LinkedIn decreased to about 4% in 2024 from 20% at their pandemic peak, but these positions are still attracting a disproportionate number of applications.

“You’ve got this dilemma,” Reagan explained. “The organizations want people in the office, but there’s still a lot of people that want remote work.”

More organizations are mandating full-time in-office policies and tracking when workers clock in and out to ensure adherence.

“How will it pan out? That’s the thing for the future,” Reagan said. “But for 2024, this prediction came true big time.”

Skills-based hiring. The skills-based hiring trend continued gaining momentum in 2024 on a need to align job specifications to the actual skills needed over more traditional, tangible items like degrees, job titles or years of experience, which don’t always show a candidate’s true potential. Key contributors to this trend are AI advancements, which help companies categorize roles by skills and match candidates more effectively. In addition, there’s been a shift to a more agile, project-based environment within organizations, which demands a more skills-focused approach.

Although it’s a trend with a simple premise, skills-based hiring does come with challenges. It’s a “big lift” and potentially quite costly, Telischak said.

“It’s important not just to swap skills for degrees but also to take into account the talent’s aspirations and goals,” she said. “So, it’s a great start, but we want to ensure that we’re still focusing on the person as a whole to get the most value out of this.”

In addition to their fulfilled predictions, the CWS Council team discussed other impactful trends that emerged last year. CWS Council members can view the The 2024 Year In Review online.