While hospitals battle on the frontlines of the Covid-19 pandemic, their business operations are adapting and evolving in ways that will outlast the coronavirus outbreak. Intermountain Healthcare’s roughly 40,000 employees staff some 200-plus businesses, from food service to operating rooms. The pandemic is accelerating the Utah-based non-profit’s adoption of telemedicine, digital platforms, and artificial intelligence. President and CEO, Marc Harrison discusses the company’s shift to remote wor...
Dec 16, 2020•32 min•Ep 36•Transcript available on Metacast As jobs give way to skills as units of work, training is following suit. Udacity’s relationships with Fortune 500 companies, universities, and national governments inform its practical online training in technical and business skills. CEO Gabriel Dalporto discusses Nanodegrees, experiential training, government policy, lifelong learning, and the importance of aligning skills training and business objectives.
Dec 09, 2020•26 min•Ep 35•Transcript available on Metacast Underemployment is a common trap among first-in-their-family college grads and those from low-income backgrounds and underserved communities. Kalani Leifer, founder and CEO of nonprofit COOP Careers, talks about how his organization works with recent grads to equip them with digital skills and to help them develop all-important peer-group social capital.
Dec 02, 2020•25 min•Ep 34•Transcript available on Metacast Covid-19 has accelerated many organizational trends, from remote work and digitalization to automation and a growing recognition of inequalities. Consulting firms are key actors in responding to this dynamic, since their judgement has influence well beyond their own affairs. What can we learn from their latest thinking on the new normal and the future of work? Michael Fenlon, PwC’s Chief People Officer shares insights on managing remote work, addressing disparities, maintaining wellness (includi...
Nov 25, 2020•29 min•Ep 33•Transcript available on Metacast Corporate social responsibility and commitment to a local workforce can go hand-in-hand with profitability. World Wide Technology in St. Louis is managing to thrive while dealing head-on with the pandemic and social and racial issues. One of the largest minority-owned businesses in the US, the 30 year-old privately held firm employs more than 6,000. The rare global tech firm based in the Midwest, it boasts a roster of Fortune 100 customers. CEO and co-founder Jim Kavanaugh discusses company’s ev...
Nov 18, 2020•28 min•Ep 32•Transcript available on Metacast The restaurant industry has been especially hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Restaurants quickly shifted from indoor dining to a greater reliance on online ordering, curbside pick-up, outdoor dining, and delivery. Toast, a restaurant management services company, provides tools for all facets of running a restaurant. CEO Chris Comparato talks about the future of dining and explains how the company helped its clients adapt to the new normal, facilitated access to capital, and advocated for resta...
Nov 11, 2020•28 min•Ep 31•Transcript available on Metacast Can public-private partnerships do the heavy lifting of workforce development while promoting upward mobility? And can they help underserved groups participate in a post-Covid recovery? IBM’s P-TECH high school STEM program works with community colleges and industry partners to support students as they earn a high school diploma and an associate degree. The company recently launched SkillsBuild, a training program for adults from vulnerable populations. IBM VP of corporate social responsibility ...
Nov 04, 2020•32 min•Ep 30•Transcript available on Metacast Polling fatigue is normal in the runup to a presidential election. Employers are finding ways to tap into worker sentiment less obtrusively. Glint-LinkedIn equips firms with survey tools and AI analytics to keep tabs on the collective mental state of their employees. Justin Black, head of people science at LinkedIn, explains the potential benefits: productivity gains, a more engaged workforce, and less burnout; and the pitfalls: disengagement and a loss of trust. Covid-19, social strife, and the...
Oct 28, 2020•28 min•Ep 29•Transcript available on Metacast How will US community colleges emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic and social disruptions of 2020? Dr. Walter Bumphus, President and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), discusses the role of the nation’s over 1,000 2-year post-secondary institutions in responding to the multiple crises disproportionately affecting their 12 million students. As the AACC enters its second century advocating for community colleges, it looks to bolster their workforce deve...
Oct 21, 2020•31 min•Ep 28•Transcript available on Metacast For some families online learning is a rocky road. For others it’s a dead end. To address the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure, public-private partnership EdConnect provides students in underserved areas with broadband. Tennessee’s Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Bryan Johnson and CO.LAB startup accelerator CEO, Marcus Shaw talk about how, working with municipal utility EPB, they rallied stakeholders to deliver funding, resources, and access.
Oct 14, 2020•30 min•Ep 27•Transcript available on Metacast The US is facing a tsunami of demand for skills training and job placement. Its 1,100 community and technical colleges offer the best institutional infrastructure and student support for the task, but key reforms are needed. So argues The Indispensable Institution: Reimagining Community College, a June 2020 report from nonprofit Opportunity America. The group’s president, Tamar Jacoby, discusses the report’s findings, which stress the need for better workforce development.
Oct 07, 2020•35 min•Ep 26•Transcript available on Metacast In confronting the economic and social crises roiling the US in late 2020, it helps to have deep roots in local communities. San Antonio’s Project Quest brings to the task decades of success in advancing upward mobility in underserved areas. The nonprofit’s savvy, resilience, and willingness to learn from experience yield lasting improvements in the prospects of its participants. President & CEO David Zammiello explains how the group partners with employers and community colleges and provides th...
Sep 30, 2020•33 min•Ep 25•Transcript available on Metacast What's in store for the gig economy and how will Covid-19 change the nature of work? Managing the Future of Work project co-chair and podcast co-host Joe Fuller was the inaugural guest on The Way Work Should Work, the new podcast produced by Braintrust. We present the "away" half of the home-and-away pair of episodes that saw Joe interview the freelance platform's co-founders, Adam Jackson and Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski, in Episode 18.
Sep 25, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Ep 24•Transcript available on Metacast Can neuroscience and AI improve on traditional approaches to hiring and evaluating workers? Pymetrics’ co-founder and CEO, Frida Polli, argues that the combination is necessary to overcome inherently biased human judgement and to bring empirical rigor to the task of matching talent to fast-changing job categories. The neuroscientist-turned-Harvard MBA shares her journey and explains how her company helps the likes of Unilever, LinkedIn, and Accenture factor workers’ cognitive, social, and emotio...
Sep 23, 2020•29 min•Ep 23•Transcript available on Metacast Managing the Future of Work co-chair and podcast co-host, Joe Fuller, is a close observer of the care economy. He recently appeared as a guest on Behind Bundle, the podcast produced by employee benefits startup Bundle. The concierge service, which combines care and education coverage, was founded by HBS graduate Kayla Lebovits. Fittingly, we’re posting this episode the week of National Working Parents Day.
Sep 18, 2020•40 min•Ep 22•Transcript available on Metacast Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement have focused attention on disparities in economic opportunity between Black and white America. This has added urgency to efforts to bolster Black students' access to higher education. It's a pivotal moment for UNCF, founded at the end of WWII as the United Negro College Fund. The organization supports historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). President and CEO, Dr. Michael Lomax, discusses the role of HBCUs in fostering economic opportunit...
Sep 16, 2020•32 min•Ep 21•Transcript available on Metacast The pandemic has unsurprisingly produced a sustained surge in streaming video, with consumer and enterprise use doubling year-over-year during the second quarter of 2020. Viewing on mobile devices has skyrocketed. Brightcove’s software platform is a key component of the online video infrastructure. CEO Jeff Ray discusses video’s “evolutionary moment,” as remote work and virtual events become the norm and organizations build their video talent capacity internally and externally. He also notes the...
Sep 09, 2020•28 min•Ep 20•Transcript available on Metacast While adapting to the limitations imposed by the pandemic, fast food chain Chipotle is looking to emerge stronger by maintaining commitments to its workforce. As Chipotle’s chief diversity, inclusion, and people officer, Marissa Andrada, explains, the company anticipates long-term returns on its investment in employee education benefits and its flexible scheduling for shift workers.
Sep 02, 2020•34 min•Ep 19•Transcript available on Metacast Braintrust’s gig model gives freelancers the opportunity to keep more of what they earn and to have a say in running the platform. The not-for-profit aims to upend the status quo by replacing the typical gig middleman and assigning governing rights to users. The marketplace, which connects highly skilled tech talent with enterprise clients, uses blockchain tokens to grant users who help build the platform voting rights in strategy and policy decisions. Co-founders Adam Jackson and Gabriel Luna-O...
Aug 27, 2020•35 min•Ep 18•Transcript available on Metacast Covid-19 and the 2020 election stack up as unprecedented infrastructure challenges. And both raise the stakes for cybersecurity. The skills shortage in this area—estimated in the millions of workers—demands a strategic rethink by organizations relying on remote work and governments seeking to secure voting and coordinate responses to the pandemic. Telecom veteran and cybersecurity expert Bill Conner discusses emerging threats and new approaches.
Aug 25, 2020•35 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Will Covid-19 empty superstar cities? While it’s too soon to say, metros outside the top tier are now in a better position to compete for talent. This plays to the strengths of programs like Tulsa Remote, which helps professionals who work remotely relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Launched in 2018 by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the highly selective program emphasizes diversity and community building. Founding Executive Director, Aaron Bolzle, discusses the importance of moving beyond the tr...
Aug 20, 2020•30 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the shortage of workers with up-to-date digital skills. Tech titans like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have responded with training and certification programs of their own. In July, Google added certificates in data analytics, user experience design, and project management to its Grow with Google program. The company says these low-cost, platform-agnostic three- to six-month courses put job candidates lacking a post-secondary degree on par with college gr...
Aug 18, 2020•30 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast For many workers, company-sponsored education benefits are a perk that’s hard to translate from employee handbook to reality. Guild Education bridges this gap by aligning incentives— matching students with appropriate programs, having employers profitably front costs, coaching and supporting students, and only collecting a portion of tuition when students complete a term. The rare billion-dollar B Corp also works to foster resilient careers for workers displaced by automation, the pandemic, or o...
Aug 13, 2020•35 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, is a leader in workforce development, combining original economic research, employer partnerships, and pragmatic programs for reaching its student population. Recognized for its worker training acumen by the Aspen Institute, Monroe continues to innovate in the delivery of marketable skills. Todd Oldham, VP of Economic Development, Workforce, and Career Technical Education, has spearheaded the colleges’ efforts in this area for the past decade. He ...
Aug 11, 2020•31 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Unilever is several years into a company-wide plan to revolutionize its workforce. Faced with the challenge of selling its employees on change as opportunity, the multinational offers job counseling, retraining, and assistance with career moves—within the company or elsewhere. Executive vice president of HR business transformation, Nick Dalton, discusses what it takes to be transparent about coming changes and work with employees, unions, governments, and others to identify mutually beneficial t...
Aug 06, 2020•29 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast The start-stop nature of business during the coronavirus pandemic demands flexibility and innovation. This is especially true for physical places of work. CIC maintains offices, shared workspace, and labs. It specializes in building hives of creative and productive activity and fostering entrepreneurial communities. Founder and CEO, Tim Rowe, explains how Covid-19 has spurred CIC to find inventive solutions to the challenge of working safely amid a viral outbreak and to extend its networking eve...
Aug 04, 2020•26 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast The Covid-19 pandemic is triggering widespread anxiety, depression, and addiction—deepening what many have identified as a mental health crisis. A recent study suggests that at least a quarter of American adults are experiencing pandemic-attributed, high emotional distress. Louis Gagnon, CEO of the Total Brain online mental health platform, discusses the benefits of preventative care delivered through self-monitoring apps and how analytics based on the resulting data can help companies improve w...
Jul 30, 2020•31 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Covid-19 has made robots a welcome sight for many by hastening the adoption of autonomous cleaner-bots, greeters, personal assistants, burger-flippers, classroom aids, and more. SoftBank Robotics' Kass Dawson talks about the role of robotics in combatting Covid-19 and in changing the world of work. Rather than a wholesale replacement of human workers, he says, we can expect more cobotics—human-robot collaboration—and new robotics jobs.
Jul 28, 2020•32 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Sheryl WuDunn (HBS ‘86) and Nicholas Kristof are widely recognized for their coverage of international humanitarian crises. In their recent book, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, they turn their attention to the struggles of the US working class. Regular encounters with the devastation wracking blue-collar families in Kristof’s hometown of Yamhill, Ore., prompted the couple to examine the effects (and causes) of joblessness, homelessness, substance abuse...
Jul 23, 2020•30 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast How can businesses move from awareness to action on systemic racial discrimination? In a wide-ranging discussion, Laura Morgan Roberts, an organizational psychology expert and professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, says it begins with frankly acknowledging the extent of the problem, fostering open discussion, and committing to meaningful change, both internally and in the wider community. As she notes, business schools have a long way to go as well.
Jul 21, 2020•53 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast 
