IN COLLABORATION WITH:

A Workforce Ecosystem
Orchestration Framework
Considerations for Leaders Managing Today’s
Extended and Connected Workforce

The Workforce Ecosystem:

Composed of not only employees but
also external contributors
Employees Long-term contractors Freelancers/gig workers Service providers Complementors Technologies
(app developers, accessory providers) (chatbots, robots)

Workforce Orchestration:
Coordinating groups of internal and external contributors to create an aligned effort toward achieving
organizational (and individual) goals and objectives.

A new approach to workforce orchestration

In 2020, MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte began studying the future of the workforce and found that successful leaders are adapting their
practices to support new complex and interconnected workforce ecosystems composed of not only employees but also external contributors — including
contractors, professional service companies, gig workers, crowdsourced contributors, app developers, and even certain technologies. Drawing on global
executive surveys as well as interviews with senior leaders, academics, and other thought leaders, we’ve developed a framework to guide key activities
and systems essential to workforce ecosystem orchestration.

SENIOR LEADERS
SENIOR
LEADERS

UMAN RESOURCES
HUMAN PROCUREMENT
RESOURCES PROCUREMENT

MA
NA
PR GE
AC M E
TI
TE CE NT
CH S
NO
IN LO
TE GY
GR EN
INFORMATION
INFORMATION
AT
IO
AB
LE FINANCE /
FINANCE / LEGAL
LEGAL
LE N RS
AR
TECHNOLOGY AD CH
TECHNOLOGY ER
SH
IP
IT
EC
TU
AP RE
PR S
OA
CH
ES

BUSINESS UNIT
LEADERS
BUSINESS UNIT

86% of respondents LEADERS

To help leaders successfully orchestrate workforce ecosystems,
we’ve developed a framework to address key activities and systems essential to workforce
to the 2022 MIT Sloan Management Review-
Deloitte global executive survey of over 3,000 ecosystem orchestration. Although most leaders agree that these activities are important,
managers and leaders say effective management few are executing them to unlock the power of workforce ecosystems to improve
and orchestration of external contributors is now organizational performance.
critical to their organization’s overall performance.

Explore key themes related to

workforce ecosystem orchestration below

From the Survey

MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES
Effectively orchestrating workforce
ecosystems goes beyond the role of the
HR function and involves considering
80%
of organizations say they
MANAGEMENT need to do more to manage
new, integrated approaches to workforce PRACTICES both employees and their
MANAGEMENT planning, talent acquisition, alignment extended workforce in an
PRACTICES with partners, performance management, integrated way ...
compensation and rewards, learning and
development, career path design, the
LO

... but only 33% say

GY
EN
AB
development of complementor ecosystems,
LE
R S automation, technology deployments,
RC
HI
their organization is sufficiently
TE
CT
U
and organization design. preparing to manage a workforce that will
RE
RO
AC
S rely more on external contributors
HE
S

TECHNOLOGY
ENABLERS From the Survey
Workforce ecsosystem orchestration requires
a new approach to data and technology systems
that allows leaders to manage workforces that
span organizational boundaries and include
relationships with many kinds of contributors.
83% 83%have data and
The 5 Roles Tech Plays In TECHNOLOGY
ENABLERS technology systems
Workforce Ecosystems
to support
1. Work tech: Technologies that serve as productivity, their workforce ...
augmentation, and collaboration tools
2. Workforce tech: Technologies used (mainly by HR)
to manage employees
3. Workplace tech: Technology to manage distributed
and remote work, such as video calling, collaboration
software, and augmented reality ... but only 35% say
4. Credentialization and verification tech: Technology to their organization has data and technology
verify the credentials of many types of workers, including
systems that use blockchain, NFTs, and related technologies systems that support managing both
5. Technology as participant in a workforce ecosystem: employees and the extended workforce
Technologies that do work within the workforce, like software bots in a holistic or integrated way 

From the Survey

INTEGRATION 75%
of organizations
ARCHITECTURES INTEGRATION are coordinating
ARCHITECTURES their workforces across
In a workforce ecosystem, leaders bring
functional areas ...
functions together in various ways and
decide how to coordinate relationships
with external contributors.

... but 41% say

their organization has the right functions
working together in the right way to effectively
mange its extended workforce 

From the Survey

LEADERSHIP
APPROACHES

80%
Workforce ecosystems require significant
shifts in leadership approaches and mindsets
as leaders manage both internal and LEADERSHIP
APPROACHES
say it’s important that
external contributors.
external contributors
participate in the culture
New leadership behaviors: of their organizations ...
✓ Building community within and beyond
organizational boundaries
✓ Influencing without authority
✓ Extending DEI principles and practices
beyond employees ... but 45% say
their organization integrates external
contributors into its culture 

Identifying the critical SENIOR

SENIOR LEADERS
LEADERS
players in workforce
ecosystem orchestration

SENIOR AND BUSINESS

UNIT LEADERS HUMAN RESOURCES
HUMAN PROCUREMENT
Primary orchestrators who take a RESOURCES PROCUREMENT
holistic and integrated view

HUMAN RESOURCES
AND PROCUREMENT
Functional groups with responsibilities
for accessing and managing internal MA
NA
and external contributors PR GE
AC M E
TI
TE CE NT
CH S
IT AND FINANCE/LEGAL IN
TE
NO
LO
GY
Groups that serve crucial roles GR
AT
EN
AB FINANCE / LEG
enabling workforce ecosystems to INFORMATION
INFORMATION LE
IO
N
LE
RS FINANCE / LEGAL
AR
TECHNOLOGY AD CH
operate effectively TECHNOLOGY ER
SH IT
EC
IP TU
AP RE
PR S
OA
CH
ES

BUSINESS
BUSINESS UNIT
UNIT
LEADERS
LEADERS

FUTURE OF THE WORKFORCE Definitions

Since 2020, the MIT SMR-Deloitte Future of the Workforce ecosystem: A structure focused on value creation for an
Workforce initiative has conducted research on how organization that encompasses actors, from within the organization and
people and technologies work together to create value. beyond, working to pursue both individual and collective goals, and that
includes interdependencies and complementarities among the participants.

For more on this initiative, please visit: Extended workforce: Includes not only employees but also long-term contractors,
sloanreview.mit.edu/workforce gig workers, service providers, complementors, and technologies.

Read the 2022 report: A note on orchestration: We use the term orchestration, not management,
in part because management often implies or directly refers to control.
sloanreview.mit.edu/workforce2022 Workforce ecosystems are systems of contributors who may or may not be
directly controlled by management, and workforce ecosystem orchestration
Order our book: conveys the idea that individual actors have agency or autonomy beyond
strictures imposed by management.

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