Leaders increasingly characterize the workforce as being broader than an organization's employees, encompassing all of the people and groups that contribute to achieving the company's business objectives. The shift is challenging leaders to redefine who and what constitutes their workforce and to develop new management practices and organizational structures.

Today's leaders are in need of best practices for dealing strategically and operationally with a distributed, diverse workforce that crosses internal and external boundaries. We contend that the best way to address the shift to managing all types of workers is through the lens of a workforce ecosystem a structure that consists of interdependent actors, from within the organization and beyond, working to pursue both individual and collective goals.

Opportunity marketplaces are an example of a digital platform that can improve data-driven decision-making and align talent quickly to new priorities. In this pandemic-market environment, they represent a step change in companies' ability to efficiently and effectively match labor with tasks.

The authors argue that three forces are creating a profound shift in the very nature of work: technology, demographics and the power of pull-which has made customers in every industry more powerful than ever before. After discussing each force in detail, they describe how technology will reshape every job and how alternative work arrangements will continue to grow. They then describe the key implications of all of this for individuals (including 'engage in lifelong learning'), organizations (including 'implement new models of culture and rewards') and public policy (including 'transition support for income and healthcare'). Their hope is that their framework will help people proactively navigate the future of work and come together to make the transition as productive and smooth as possible.