Practical Talk: Addressing Workplace Issues
Explore the legal, cultural, and political changes in today’s evolving workplace. Led by ArentFox Schiff Labor & Employment Partner Darrell Gay and i4cp Co-Founder and Futurist Jay Jamrog, our monthly webinar series features leading experts who offer their unique, industry-specific insights.
The Future of Work
July 2023 Replay
Co-hosts Darrell Gay, partner at ArentFox Schiff, and Jay Jamrog, futurist and co-founder of i4cp, were joined by Michael Garner, New York’s Chief Business Diversity Officer, and Ted Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights at UNC to discuss the implications and potential impact of the SCOTUS decision in the Harvard and University of North Carolina Affirmative Action cases on the areas of employment and MWBE business.
Discover the Archives
Future of Work Series
June 7, 2023: Planning, Building, and Maintaining a Healthy Culture
An organization’s culture is its brand. Culture is “felt” by people because of what is done, condoned, rewarded, encouraged, and penalized. Toxic company culture is the number one reason workers are quitting jobs or feeling a need for third-party intervenors. Indeed, a toxic culture is 10.4 times more likely to contribute to attrition than compensation. On the other hand, a healthy culture can contribute over 30% of the variance in market performance. In addition, the issue of ESG is becoming an important concern for companies. This session will discuss how to plan, build, and maintain a healthy culture in this new world of work.
- Meet Angela Beatty, Senior Managing Director of Talent, Rewards, and Experience at Accenture
- Meet Corina Kolbe, Vice President of Talent Success at Zillow Group
- Meet Jessica Noble, Vice President of Communications and Employee Experience at Hallmark
May 3, 2023: The Role of AI Technology in Our New World of Work
In recent years, technology has developed systems that perform many of the services traditionally provided by “administrative or support talent.” Then during the pandemic, work was accomplished by almost everyone remotely. The combination of these factors calls into question whether support talent is necessary and, if so, can their services be replaced by technology or outsourced to a less expensive locality. This session will present a panel discussion on the functionality and value of generative AI and other AI technology and the implications for work and the workforce as we speed into an uncertain future.
- Meet John Healy, Chief Executive of Whrrr.work and Workforce Solutions Industry Strategist and Business Executive
- Meet Jeff Schwartz, Senior Advisor, Future of Work at Deloitte; VP of Insights and Impact at Gloat; Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School; Author of WORK DISRUPTED and Co-author of Workforce Ecosystems
- Meet Adam Hawkins, Head of Search & Staffing at LinkedIn for EMEA & LATAM
April 5, 2023: Work without Jobs
Best-selling author Dr. John Boudreau and Target Vice President of Law Dionne Blake will explore a new “work operating system” first introduced by Dr. Boudreau and his co-author Ravin Jesuthasan in their book Work without Jobs. Work is traditionally understood as a “job,” and workers as “job holders.” Jobs are structured by titles, hierarchies, and qualifications. In Work without Jobs, the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Boudreau and Jesuthasan propose a radically new way of looking at work. They describe a new “work operating system” that deconstructs jobs into their component parts and reconstructs these components into more optimal combinations that reflect the skills and abilities of individual workers. In a new normal of rapidly accelerating automation, demands for organizational agility, efforts to increase diversity, and the emergence of alternative work arrangements, the old system based on jobs and jobholders is cumbersome and ungainly. Boudreau and Jesuthasan’s new system lays out a roadmap for the future of work. Work without Jobs presents real-world cases that show how leading organizations are embracing work deconstruction and reinvention. It’s time for organizations to reboot their work operating system, and Work without Jobs offers an essential guide for doing so.
- Meet Dr. John Boudreau, Wall Street Journal Best-Selling Author
- Meet Dione Blake, Vice President of Law at Target
March 1, 2023: The Importance of Leadership: Managers Developing Talent
Over the last few years, i4cp has heard numerous success stories where organizations let “managers manage.” As strategies and priorities seemed to change overnight, these “people leaders” became fixated on developing talent to address the changing business needs. They encouraged top talent to rise to the challenge and take on more visible roles. They also broke down silos and shared learning and best practices across the organization. This session will have a panel that will discuss the opportunities and challenges of encouraging managers to develop talent. In addition, the panel will discuss the roles of first-line, middle, and C-Suite management in this process.
- Meet Kevin D. Wilde, Executive Leadership Fellow at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
- Meet Paul Langlois, Vice President of Enterprise Learning, Careers and Engagement, Ecolab
February 1, 2023: Managing, Training, and Maximizing the Workforce in the New Hybrid Work Era
Employers are struggling with training workers and creating and maintaining a productive culture with partial or fully remote talent. Several studies by i4cp show that talent mobility directly supports short-term business needs and longer-term workforce readiness by enabling employees to gain experience and develop careers. Unfortunately, talent mobility is nonexistent or underutilized in many organizations. Data collected by i4cp make it clear: too many organizations have managers and leaders who fail to take the necessary steps to help their organizations thrive with the employees they have and/or help those employees maximize their potential, which would benefit both the employees and the organization. This session will present a panel discussing the challenges and opportunities related to talent mobility and developing workforce skills.
- Meet John Coné, Chair of i4cp’s Chief Learning & Talent Officer Board
- Meet Terri McClure, Retired General Counsel and CHRO of UPS
January 11, 2023: The New World of Employing, Engaging, and Retaining Talent
The Pandemic ushered in a seismic shift in the labor market. For the first time in decades, workers appear to have more influence than employers. Employees, especially those with highly sought-after skills, are leveraging this new position by demanding more control and flexibility over where they work, when they work, and how they work. What steps can an employer take to retain, recruit, and manage staff? Does going back to work have to mean going to the work site? This session will discuss the “best” and “next” practices that employers need to consider implementing to attract and retain, as well as manage the staff they currently have.
- Meet Reginald Odom, Senior Vice President, Chief People Officer at Hospital for Special Surgery
- Meet Barry Melnkovic, Former Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer at United States Steel
December 7, 2022: The Changing Nature of Work, the Workplace, and the Workforce
Since March 2020, anxiety and stress have driven society and the workplace. We seemed to careen from one stressful crisis to another: a global pandemic, an economic collapse, social upheavals, and political turmoil. At times it seemed like society was going to have a collective nervous breakdown, and it is continuing. There is still a lot of uncertainty about the future, but most people would agree that the way we live, work, and play will never be the same. This presents countless questions about the future of work, the workplace, and the workforce, including what old rules need to be broken, re-written, or discarded as employers and employees alike try to adjust to a new work environment. For example:
- Should organizations consider revising their operations?
- Have employees’ expectations about work and the workplace changed and how?
- What does this mean for the relationship between the employer and employees?
- Technology is rapidly changing the way work is done – what will be the impact on the workforce?
- How should employers handle a hybrid work environment?
This session will provide an overview of the major trends that will impact the future of work, the workplace, and the workforce. In 2023, Practical Talk will be taking a deeper dive into specific issues.
- Meet Co-Host Jay Jamrog, Co-Founder and Futurist at i4cp
- Meet Co-Host Darrell Gay, Partner at ArentFox Schiff
Inaugural Series
June 27, 2022: Practical Talk: Social Justice and the Role of Companies – Where Do We Go From Here?
Companies are facing enormous social, cultural, and political issues, from the potential reversal of Roe v. Wade, and LGBTQ laws, to the recent massacre in Buffalo catapulting racial and social justice issues once again to the forefront. Facing pressure from communities and employees to take a stand and from shareholders and politicians to remain neutral can be extremely hard for companies to navigate.
May 16, 2022: Braving the New Worlds of Work – Drilling Down on the “How”
The pandemic threw companies and employees into chaos and created enormous challenges for Human Resources departments. As the dust begins to settle, many challenges still remain from handling flexible and remote work arrangements, finding and retaining employees, to managing in this new work environment.
April 5, 2022: The War for Talent is Over… and Talent Won – Where Do Organizations Go from Here?
As we move from pandemic to endemic, employees have gained a more significant say on what the future of the workplace will look like. Companies need to understand this new shift in power and the potential impact on their businesses to move forward successfully.
March 8, 2022: The Crisis in the Labor Market – What Do We Do Now?
Has the pandemic permanently changed the labor market? Many have suggested that for the first time in decades, the employee has all the leverage; resulting in significant challenges when it comes to finding and keeping talent. In this new environment, companies need to know how to modify and/or change their approach to recruiting, developing, and retaining talent to be competitive.
February 1, 2022: COVID-19, Delta, Omicron – What Do We Do Now?
Two years into the COVID pandemic the only certainty is uncertainty. This monthly webinar series will tackle the legal, cultural, and political changes in the workplace, providing insights to help you navigate the onslaught of information, misinformation and change in our working world.
