4 stories that prove the future workforce belongs to talent platforms + EORs
Hiring is turning back on, but 63% of employers still can't find the skills. The fix is structural: a small full-time core, agents executing, and specialized talent embedded through talent platforms and EORs.
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Happy Monday! Every Monday I break down the top stories powering your week. If you want the hiring side analysis, check out Tony’s newsletter.
Here’s what stories stand out to start the week:
| • Hiring is turning back on. 66% of US employers plan to increase permanent hiring in the second half of 2026, up from 60% in the first half and 57% a year ago. 56% plan to hire contract talent.1 |
| • Traditional talent still isn’t working. 63% of those same employers report significant project delays because they can’t find the skills, and 48% have cancelled projects outright.1 |
| • The layoff boomerang is here. 55% of leaders who made AI driven cuts say the wrong calls were made, and 32% of hiring managers cut a role for AI and then rehired for it.2,3 |
| • It’s only getting more complicated. By 2030, 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change.5 |
| Access all stories » |
Here’s what I’m talking to companies mostly about...
1. AI will continue to fall victim to the 95%, NOT because of the AI itself, but because of the talent strategy surrounding it.4
Here’s how I explain it in our Executive Briefings:
The problem isn’t AI. It’s the biological computation using the AI (our own brain). Of which is finite. We get tired. We get bored. And unless everyone starts wearing the same white t-shirt, we need to be different, which is why there will always be a place for humans, no matter how good AI gets.
2. NOW is the moment for flexible talent, but we have our own problems.
In last month’s community call we shared how difficult it can be for organizations to embrace flexible talent.
We even opened up the hood on negative reviews seen on Human Cloud, with one review highlighting how a solution made them attend two meetings, only to sell a subscription before they could see the talent.
Don’t let this difficulty stop you. This is the period when those that figure it out see incredible gains.
Watch last month’s community call »
3. Do not underestimate the science of going direct (and the need for direct is why the future belongs to talent platforms and EORs)
Not to get too technical, but below is the equation for how the future workforce leads to an intelligent organization.
Three layers:
| • Your FTEs owning strategy. |
| • Your agents executing. |
| • Your flexible talent providing specialized expertise to both setup and run the agents. |
What’s tough to understand, is these layers need to be connected for an organization to truly be intelligent.
It’s both a simple yet scientifically sound argument. The less connected these three layers, the less intelligent the LLM that is your organization can become.
And if you think about traditional consulting or agency channels - these are entirely disconnected. You don’t know who’s doing the work. You don’t see the sausage making. You just get a playbook, or a deck, or a spreadsheet. But no learning, no source data, no inputs were given that will create and tune the intelligence that is your organization.
Which exposes a MASSIVE gap if you’re not working directly with your talent. Not only are you paying a premium, every second is a missed opportunity for your organization to be learning from that individual.
Want to know a quick secret? This direct connection layer isn’t hard. It’s literally just three ingredients.
| • A talent platform to find the best individuals. |
| • A vetted talent pool to re-engage the best individuals. |
| • And an EOR to ensure compliance, manage onboarding, and pay these individuals. |
That’s it. You don’t need an elaborate MSP. You might still want your VMS. But the infrastructure of traditional HR and Contingent Programs are no longer that intense. They just need a different mindset, and different partners.
Which is where Human Cloud comes in, to rebuild this partner ecosystem in a way that the organization can own and control.
Here’s how Human Cloud is helping:
None of this works if it takes a buyer six months to partner with you. That is the real bottleneck. Vendor analysis engagements, sequential intro calls, and procurement cycles turn a decision a buyer wants to make now into a decision they make next year, if they make it at all.
RFPs on Human Cloud reduce time to partner from months to days.
- Matt
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Matthew Mottola CEO of Human Cloud. 4x entrepreneur, angel investor, author of The Human Cloud (w/ HarperCollins), with experience advising companies like Microsoft, Deloitte, and G7 governments on how to use flexible talent. Meet with me » |
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PS: Our August community call is Thursday the 27th at 12pm ET. Ray Culver on which fall events are actually worth your budget, John Healy on two-click-to-talent programs, and a live AI demo floor from the community. Save your spot » |
Featured Event
How To Pick The Right EOR
Thursday, September 10 · 12:00pm ET · 60 minutes · Virtual
This is the session that follows straight from today’s Open. EORs have become the cheat code for scaling flexible talent, because the old objection, that the person isn’t actually inside your org, is solved. Companies get the safety of a full-time employee with the flexibility of a contractor. For a talent platform, that turns the EOR from a back-office vendor into a growth lever.
| Save your seat » |
Shoutouts!
Wins from across the community over the last two weeks. Keep them coming.
Business Cases
 | Contractor payments and onboarding platform Mellow published seven new cases in two weeks, including 85% less admin time and 90% faster hiring with 1-day onboarding for CHorse Games, and 450 contractors onboarded in a single day for Joom. |
 | Tech talent platform beecrowd helped STARK-4PL accelerate tech team formation by 40%, and got NAUTPLUS’s digital platform launched faster. |
 | Global payroll and EOR platform Papaya Global onboarded over 1,500 employees globally for Rubrik, and became the global payroll partner for a 1,000+ employee beverage manufacturer. |
Add yours with the Business Case Agent »
Kudos
 | On-demand marketing talent platform Wripple earned kudos from Angie Benamati, VP Marketing at Stanley Black & Decker: “Wripple made it incredibly easy to bring together a team that truly understood both our brand and our audience. The collaboration was seamless, and the creative work exceeded expectations.” |
 | Global employment platform Native Teams earned kudos from Adena Cuso: “My experience with Native Teams has been excellent from start to finish. I have worked with them through employment onboarding, EU Blue Card documentation, maternity leave administration, and various compliance and payroll-related questions.” |
Collect yours with the Kudos Agent »
Industry Insights
Deals & M&A
BPO · M&A
Star Equity to Acquire Harte Hanks for $5.00 a Share, or $38.4M
The deal builds a multi-BPO platform spanning talent solutions, customer care, and fulfillment, targeting $10M in synergies and closing by year end. Non-staffing acquirers keep buying their way into talent.
Healthcare Staffing · M&A
CHG Healthcare Acquires KREWE Anesthesia to Expand CRNA Staffing
KREWE is CRNA-founded and reports roughly 84% annual clinician retention, well above locum benchmarks. Specialist depth is what gets acquired, not general capacity.
Healthcare Staffing · M&A
Philips International Enters Healthcare Staffing With the Nash Group
Another outside buyer stepping into staffing. Expect more of this while organic growth stays hard to find.
Market Signals
Demand · STAFFING HOURS
US Staffing Hours Set Another 2026 High, Up 9% Year Over Year
Industrial hours rose 13% on manufacturing and data center demand. Professional rose 8% as clients greenlit paused projects and AI readiness work. Hours are the cleanest demand signal there is.
Labor Market · LAYOFFS
AI-Linked Layoffs Hit 205,000 Workers in 2026
Cuts and hiring are happening at the same time, in the same economy, often at the same companies. That is the reshuffle, not a contraction.
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Sources
| 1. Two-thirds of U.S. employers plan to increase hiring in the second half of 2026 - Robert Half, survey of 2,000+ hiring managers |
| 2. AI layoffs backfire as 32% of bosses rehire roles they thought robots could do - IBTimes, on Orgvue research |
| 3. IBM, Ford and Commonwealth Bank rehire staff after AI fails to replace key roles - Allwork.Space |
| 4. 95% of generative AI pilots deliver no measurable business return - MIT Project NANDA, The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business. The report’s own finding is that the divide is driven by approach, not model quality. |
| 5. 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change by 2030 - LinkedIn Work Change Report, LinkedIn Economic Graph |
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