Employment: On the verge of dramatic change

The postindustrial age has brought about a dynamic change in the way people live and think, made possible by an extremely rapid exchange of information that modern technology advances. The world indeed is increasingly becoming just one global village, and though this may have been overly stated, I do not think that we have fully realized the magnitude of its potential, and its promise.

In an earlier commentary (“Embracing ‘The Third Wave’,” Opinion, 10/28/14), I argued that “modern technology, particularly the Internet, has worked for us in terms of equalizing opportunities for many people who are otherwise locked in the market’s obliviousness to the rest of the world, transcending geographical boundaries, political persuasion, religion, and, yes, even time zone differences.”

Crossover for Work (www.crossover.com) is one organization that has recently been making headway in sourcing and recruiting top talent in the Philippine job market to work in a remote and virtual environment. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, in the United States, Crossover believes that the concept of employment is on the verge of a dramatic change, and that brick-and-mortar offices are history. Its CEO, Andy Tryba, has held stints with Intel and even the US White House, all looking into the future of the workforce and how to make it competitive.

As a well-funded startup, Crossover pays competitive wages to professionals who demonstrate exceptional competence in various areas of specializations and fields of expertise, ranging from $30,000 to $500,000 per year. All the work is done in the comforts of their home offices, in a café, or wherever one thinks he or she can be most effective—yes, even while vacationing or traveling. Its recruitment process is tailored to its objective of funneling in all applications using a marketing-led approach of attracting hundreds of applications per open position, and administering various tests and trial assignments to hire only the top 10 percent of the best talent in any job, and in any compensation band.

It is uniquely different from other “work from home” platforms like Upwork.com or Elance.com because unlike the latter, Crossover—believing in long-term relationships—does not imagine itself to be just another freelancing platform where projects and contractors come and go. Crossover maintains a network of talent. Once a candidate passes the series of grueling examinations, both on the theoretical and practical sides of the requirements, Crossover aggressively sells their services to its list of multinational clients ranging from small to mid-sized business environments to large Fortune 500 organizations. But unlike many recruiting agencies, Crossover does not get commissions from a fraction of its employees’ earnings. It prides itself in having about 40 percent more productivity than anyone else situated in a physical office setting. Combining the furious quest to find the best talents regardless of their location with a model that has proven to generate maximum productivity, Crossover has been successfully drawing the best out of the best.

What continues to fascinate me as a student of modernity and as someone interested in the future of work is the promise that it brings, if we can only harness the great possibilities that this technoglobal economic democratization has come to offer those who are prepared. Today, Crossover employs the services of close to 100 Filipinos with skills and experience varying from creative writing to software development. In fact, the Philippines ranks sixth in Crossover’s biggest source of talent, only slightly trailing behind India, Pakistan, Egypt, Romania and the United Arab Emirates.

Given such a scenario as the liberalized distribution of incomes and opportunities, our society today faces a tremendous challenge of ensuring that it has a competitive workforce, especially since global and modern organizations are characterized as having that capacity to be “the regime of the experts,” with the “purest form of administration,” as the German sociologist Max Weber aptly put it. Today, this has become the most important factor in the selection process for the best opportunities that the market offers.

Are we ready for this challenge of meeting the demands of the modern world where, according to yet another German thinker, Karl Marx, “everything that is solid melts into air”? I think we are, but much has to be done in terms of preparing our workforce to meet the demands of this challenge, from the development of distinct tertiary education curricula that combine entrepreneurial development, technology, humanities and linguistic competencies, to allocating a greater chunk of the national budget to basic education to prepare our youth better for what the future of work has yet to unfold.

Joseph Jadway “JJ” D. Marasigan ([email protected]) is a human resources professional at Crossover for Work. He works in cafés, in hotels, or in his vehicle while traveling.