ingeniam – Executive Search & Human Capital Consulting

Are we heading towards a mass freelance workforce?

7. April 2021

You might remember: some time back in the 2000s there was this ‘Digital Bohème’ (the way Holm Friebe and Sascha Lobo defined it in 2006), which referred to some kind of disruptive or even exotic form of working, primarily for ‘young people’, who would sit behind their laptops in a café working on ‘projects’ of every imaginable caliber while sipping a latte-macchiato with *insert hip topping/flavor*. Flash forward: in the year 2021 this kind of working has basically become as regular as every other job.

Freelancing numbers are off the charts

Well, cafés might still be closed and perhaps the only fancy coffee is the one out of your own coffee-machine in your own kitchen, the current numbers of the amount of work done by freelancers are staggering. In the US alone 41% of the workforce freelanced in 2020 (up 13% since 2013!), while 53% of the Generation Z (18-22) chooses the freelancing path. Moreover, at least half of organizations worldwide (with staff of 1000+) have seen a substantial increase in their freelance workforce in the past five years (source).

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Life Sciences after the pandemic – what’s gonna stick?

9. März 2021

Despite bringing about a whole bunch of troubles, challenges and contradictions, the COVID-19 pandemic did manage to cause a few positive things. In the case of research in the Life Sciences industry new approaches and technologies are now boosting cooperation in increasingly diverse areas. And everywhere innovation slowly but surely reshapes work all across the fields. Nonetheless, experts agree that those positive (no matter how contradictory it may sound) consequences of the coronavirus will require considerable effort to ensure they stick after the crisis is over (however that is defined). Though practices like remote monitoring and decentralized trials were thoroughly discussed before, it is the pandemic that accelerated putting these tools into practice, while keeping emphasis on patient safety. And remote work and recruiting as a whole have become dominant topics in Executive Search as well. So what should we keep from these troubled times?

Innovation=high priority

The pandemic urged to look for new innovative solutions that are worth keeping. Though at first some of the approaches were put into a drawer with a sticker “high risk”, lack of time and funding left no alternatives. Some of those have actually received more attention during the pandemic: master files (submissions about manufacturing processes and development platforms that can be used for multiple products), master protocols (which look at multiple treatments at once) and pragmatic trial design (trial in real-word conditions) – to name just a few.

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Diversity in times like these – luxury or must?

18. Februar 2021

Diversity and Pandemic – probably the most popular topics of the year 2020 (if we skip the US elections of course). Do these topics have anything in common, or do they work in a mutually exclusive fashion? In other words, are diversity and its close cousin inclusion a necessity in these challenging times of global Pandemic, or are they nothing but a luxurious option relevant only for those who can afford it? Tricky.

Diversity pays off

The topic of diversity and inclusion isn’t something particularly new. It has been there long enough to accumulate substantial evidence of its benefits. One study found, for instance, that companies with greater ethnic and cultural diversity tend to outperform their competitors by more than 30% (source). Indeed, diversity is a source of new impulses, new angles, new synergies, ideas outside the box. Also, the world around us is getting more disruptive and intertwined day by day, so much so that this is simply impossible to ignore that process staying on the sidelines.

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Digital job interviews – what you look like to candidates matters!

21. December 2020

These times have brought a lot of changes. Moving out business in digital spaces has become largely common now. It’s yesterday’s news. Even more surprising that there is still some work to do when it comes to establishing a level and professional playing field on the digital grounds. Let’s take a main component of our daily business: the job interview.

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What AI can (and can’t do) in Executive Search

17. November 2020

When looking for a high-level position in Executive Search, stakes skyrocket at a colossal speed. Obviously it’s a lot at stake when you need to find or replace, let’s say, the CEO of a company. The reality of the digital age is pushing us to delegate (if not hand over completely) some of the tasks to machines. Computers with their elaborate neural networks are already better at a lot of tasks that a regular human being with its short concentration span and flawed attention for detail may struggle with. Not to mention Artificial Intelligence, which can do even more elaborate things like predicting with an astonishing accuracy what your next word in the search bar is going to be. But how about finding a new CEO to replace the freshly resigned one?! Well, yes and no.

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Do these times call for more Pro Bono / highly-reduced cost collaborations?

22. September 2020

Should you offer your services for free or at least for a highly-reduced price? It’s a question that I’ve come to think differently about in recent times. Different times call for different approaches. And more of an open mind. The last couple of months have driven a lot of changes and business models had to be rewired or extended. And branching into a different field or opening up doors to new clients sometimes enrich a portfolio significantly. Can it be useful to give your professional help away for free or at much less cost? Or can it even be a moral obligation?

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Dirty divorce or good friends for life? Parting with employees with separation management

20. Oktober 2020

I’m sure you’ve had to let a lot of people go in your career. And you probably don’t associate all the best feelings with these experiences. Maybe you even kept an employee here and there just because you wanted to avoid the conflict. But there is a lot of potential in making these processes more amicable or even – yes, in a way – positive. It starts with seeing an employee not only as a wheel in the system but as the most valuable asset that stands behind every successful company, a brand ambassador of significant potential. However, retrenchments, layoffs, early retirement as well as numerous other occasions, like sudden lockdowns induced by a global pandemic, may force you to let employees go, giving the central stage to a lengthy and not always pleasant process of separation.

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Take a closer look: outplacement and career transition

August 25, 2020

I know, outplacement sounds a little rough and it has a bit of a bad reputation in relations to layoffs. And by the way don’t let it fool you: it’s the same with all new word creations like Newplacement, Inplacement, Inverse Headhunting, etc. But I think it’s not only one of the big pandemic topics but it also deserves a second look at its potential. We all know, times are rapidly changing (bla bla) but disruptive job markets will continue to see big shifts in employment and massive sudden demands and equally sudden unemployment. Time to have a look at how outplacement helps navigate career changes from various sides.

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Yes, there is a “new normal” – and now what?

July 24, 2020

When you browse through your LinkedIn feed these days, or any other media, you find a certain amount of talk about the „new normal“ – that we, by now, have all understood is a fact. But what comes after that? What comes after the common sense about that COVID-19 changed a lot of the certainties in business as usual, maybe to the better? It seems to have sunk in quite quickly, even the understanding that we have to adapt a new leadership style, new remote practices and an overall changed management style when it comes to culture and trust. But then what?

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The people you need to recruit for the “new normal”

June 4, 2020

People are still finding their way through the crisis and ever since the COVID-19 lockdown rules have started to loosen, there is this urge to go back to something. And you might have – as many others – noticed already that this is quite impossible. There is no real “going back” to something after this exceptional time. And maybe that’s better than it might seem.

New normal = new people?

There are some key learnings from this crisis that should have changed the way you look at your business. It has shown that these times can come at any given moment and they call for a middle management that is resilient. Resilience has been around before this, but it has never been so crucially put to the test. Neither has the ability of the C-Suite to be ready for whatever comes next. It is not about being afraid of the next hit but being ready for the next hit – as well as setting the course for the “new normal”.

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