Project on Managing the Future of Work

New HBS Managing the Future of Work report: What employers can do to benefit from the skills and experience of caregivers   Hidden Workers: The Case for Caregivers, by Joseph Fuller, Manjari Raman, and Francis Hintermann, is the latest in a series of reports on workers on the margins of the labor market who are seeking fuller employment.   Research by the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work shows that individuals with caregiving responsibilities and their own health issues make up the largest segment of the workforce who are currently sidelined and striving to find work or increase their hours.   By the numbers:   -From the report's survey, 86 percent of the 4,470 previously unemployed workers now employed confirmed they are primary caregivers for children, elders, or both.   -Only 23 percent of employers prioritize hiring caregivers, missing out on a vast pool of untapped talent.   -75 percent of hidden workers who are caregivers have been applying for jobs over the past five years without success.   -Caregiving responsibilities span all age groups: caregivers of children are typically aged 30–40, while those caring for adults are either young adults aged 18–29 or adults aged 41 and over. Notably, more men are taking on caregiving roles, especially in households requiring both childcare and eldercare.   Takeaways for employers:   💡 Recognize the Impact of Caregiving: Ignoring the caregiving crisis negatively affects both employees and businesses, leading to workforce dropouts, reduced productivity, and economic decline. Employers should acknowledge that caregiving responsibilities can cause valuable employees to leave if not supported.   💡 Lead by Example to Build a Caring Culture: Leadership should model supportive behaviors by sharing their own caregiving challenges and openly discussing the issue. This helps to legitimize caregiving concerns within the organization and encourages a culture where employees feel comfortable seeking support.   💡 Build the Business Case for Support: Companies should calculate the hidden costs associated with not supporting caregivers, such as absenteeism, turnover, and decreased productivity. Recognizing these costs can highlight the tangible benefits of investing in caregiving support, including higher retention rates and improved employee performance.   💡 Understand and Address Care Demographics: Employers should map out the caregiving responsibilities within their workforce to tailor benefits and accommodations effectively. By segmenting employees based on their specific caregiving needs, companies can offer customized support rather than generic benefits that may go unused.   Read the report: https://hbs.me/9ettkteb   #HiddenWorkers #Caregivers #CareCrisis #CareEconomy #Workforce #SkillsBasedHiring

What's the connection between good jobs and bottom-line business performance? The American Opportunity Index, launched in 2022, is an independent ranking of how well corporate employers promote economic mobility through their hiring, pay, and promotion practices. The initiative is a collaboration of the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work, The Burning Glass Institute, and Schultz Family Foundation. The 2024 update is based on an analysis of more than 5 million career histories, job postings, and salary information of workers at roughly 400 of the largest U.S. firms.   The index provides a benchmark for firms and a resource for workers, highlighting opportunities for first-time job seekers and those without college degrees. According to the latest ranking, the top 100 firms pay roughly a two and a third times more than the bottom firms for the same job; are two and a half times more likely to promote from within; and 2.8 times more likely to hire workers without college degrees. New year-over-year comparisons show that just 80 of 395 firms increased promotion opportunities, while 174 decreased their hiring of people without college degrees.   “Our research demonstrates that management practices unlock opportunity for workers. The leading companies in the Index come from a wide array of industries– distribution, retail, banking, technology, consumer products, logistics,” notes #ManagingTheFutureOfWork co-chair Joseph Fuller. “Opportunity doesn’t rest in specific industries or locations. It’s a function of companies making choices that advance the interest of their workers and implementing them.” The Index can be found at https://lnkd.in/gZ7XJQ2r. Bloomberg coverage: https://lnkd.in/g7KW3iTK #workforce #upwardmobility #goodjobs #skills

The combined impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), CHIPS Act, and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is driving substantial labor demand, offering both challenges and opportunities to build the talent pipeline necessary for sustainable economic growth.   For a look at the issues involved in coordinating national industrial policy with state-level and local workforce development, see The Project on Workforce at Harvard-National Governors Association report, Workforce Strategies for New Industrial Policies: Governors’ Emerging Solutions.   The analysis identifies key obstacles confronting governors in assembling the workforce to realize the objectives of these sweeping programs:   📌 Unclear Role of the Public Workforce System 📌 Complex Coordination of Funds Across Stakeholders 📌 Limited Public Sector Capacity for Workforce Development 📌 Challenges Planning Under Uncertain Timelines   The report also highlights approaches governors are taking to collaborate with state agencies, industries, and regions.   https://lnkd.in/geEKr5ga   Joseph Fuller #industrialpolicy #skillsdevelopment #workforcedevelopment

Workforce economics: ROI vs. TMI The business logic of supporting carers in the workforce, the latest episode of the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work podcast. Taking stock of the caregiving obligations most workers face can help employers improve their talent strategies, boost productivity, and create opportunity. #ManagingTheFutureOfWork’s William Kerr is joined by his project co-chair and podcast co-host, Joseph Fuller, lead author of the latest MFW report, Hidden Workers: The Case for Caregivers. Highlights:   💡 The U.S. care crisis reduces productivity by tens of billions of dollars annually, affecting businesses through absenteeism, presenteeism, and turnover, while disproportionately affecting women. 💡 Covid-19 highlighted caregiving challenges, underlining the role of flexible work arrangements. However, few employers actively target caregivers as a talent pool, despite their desire to participate more fully in the workforce. 💡 Nearly half of workers in top pay quartiles have left positions due to caregiving conflicts, demonstrating the broad impact across all levels of employment. 💡 Companies underestimating caregiving's role in voluntary turnover incur high replacement costs, often exceeding 100 percent of an employee's annual salary, especially in senior roles. Find the conversation at https://hbs.me/2xwrdk33 . #CareEconomy #HRAI #HiddenWorkers #TalentManagement #WorkforceDevelopment #WorkforceDiversity

Please join me and Kerry McKittrick at the Project on Managing the Future of Work for our webinar on social capital in the era of AI. This Thursday, Oct 24th 9-10am PST. Excited to be having this dialogue as there is so much to explore.

The care crisis may seem intractable but understanding its effects on workers can help employers improve their talent strategies, boost productivity, and create opportunity.     The Harvard Gazette's Christina Pazzanese talks to Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work co-chair Joseph Fuller about the workforce economics of caregiving, the subject of the project's new report, Hidden Workers: The Case for Caregivers.   Highlights:   🔎 More than half of workers (50- to 60 million in the U.S.) report caregiving obligations.   🔎 Employers' rigid policies, such as inflexible schedules, force many to leave the workforce, especially women.   🔎 Caregivers make up the largest segment of "hidden workers" – those on the margins of the labor market who seek greater participation but are blocked by employer policies. Flexible policies could unlock a vast pool of untapped talent.   🔎 Caregiver-related departures cost companies 25%-35% of a worker's annual salary in replacement costs. For high-paid roles, this can be over 100%. Employers often underestimate these costs, including lost tacit knowledge.   🔎 Actionable Steps: Companies should rethink hiring practices, offer flexible schedules, and invest in understanding the caregiving challenges their employees face to improve retention, productivity, and loyalty.   Find the Article Here: https://lnkd.in/gtw6rCMt Find the Report Here: https://lnkd.in/gJygAjuC

The connection between measures that improve worker conditions and those that boost the bottom line is often greater than businesses realize. But most enterprises aren't set up to run the experiments needed to identify this profitable overlap.   On the latest episode of the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work podcast, William Kerr welcomes development economist Anant Nyshadham, cofounder of Good Business Lab.   The academically-grounded nonprofit combines scholarship with practical interventions, collaborating with companies to find strategies that support both worker well-being and business growth.   Projects span the globe, focusing on issues like worker voice, gender, sustainability, health, and financial literacy. Industries include manufacturing, textiles, gig services, and fast food.     Highlights:   💡 How helping private-sector businesses innovate can be seen as a public good. 💡 How academic research fits in the project design process. 💡 Scaling up from proofs to widespread implementation. 💡 What the fieldwork reveals about organizational behavior. 💡 The intersection with public policy.   Find the conversation at https://hbs.me/3d6yk6fx . #WorkforceDevelopment #Sustainability #EconomicDevelopment #CorporateResponsibility #HumanCapital #WorkerVoice #GigEconomy #GenderEquity

Is AI ready to broker billion-dollar mergers and navigate legal battles over its own use of copyrighted material?   On the latest episode of the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work podcast, Joseph Fuller welcomes Keith Fullenweider, chair of Vinson & Elkins, for a discussion of how technological advancements like generative AI and shifting demographics are reshaping the workforce in corporate law firms, influencing talent development, work models, and how law is practiced.   Highlights:   💡 The role of AI in legal practice: Why AI isn't yet ready to replace lawyers in complex transactions but is transforming areas like recruitment. 💡 Talent development strategies: How programs like the firm's "attorney development manager" and leadership training are enhancing soft skills and improving retention among associates. 💡 Balancing hybrid work with professional growth: The firm's approach to encouraging in-person collaboration while offering flexibility, and how this bolsters mentorship and skill development. 💡 Addressing mental health and well-being: Initiatives to combat stress and anxiety in a high-pressure environment, promoting a healthier work-life balance. 💡 Fostering a collaborative culture: Breaking down silos by emphasizing teamwork and integrating a wider array of professionals to better serve clients and adapt to emerging challenges.   Listen to the conversation at https://hbs.me/3d7k3t5z #AI #LegalIndustry #WorkforceDevelopment #Leadership #WorkLifeBalance #MentalHealth  

Recognition: The Harvard Business School #ManagingtheFutureofWork podcast has been tipped by the Guardian as one of its shows of the week.   "… thanks to their faculty of engaging hosts and know-it-all guests, there’s a deep back catalogue of genuinely usable, relevant investigations into the way our work is changing our lives, and vice versa. Start with computer scientist and author Cal Newport on the “productivity deficit”, and you’ll be hooked."   https://lnkd.in/ePpnvs_Y #Podcast #FutureofWork

On the latest episode of the Harvard Business School Project on Managing the Future of Work podcast, William Kerr welcomes Brad Turner-Little, President and CEO of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB).   As the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act #WIOA works its way through Congress, workforce boards across the U.S. are wrestling with how to adapt to rapid labor market changes, comply with federal mandates, and meet the unique needs of their local communities—all with limited resources. Turner-Little breaks down the issues, challenges, and priorities, and flags successes and best practices.   Highlights:   💡 Tighter Federal Mandates: Proposed legislation may require that 50 percent of funds be directed solely to training programs, which NAWB contends would limit workforce boards' ability to provide essential support services like transportation and childcare to help individuals stay in the workforce. 💡 Funding Pressures: Despite increased responsibilities, workforce boards are often left with stagnant or declining funding. Governors may gain more control over federal allocations, potentially eroding local flexibility 💡 Data Challenges: Performance metrics can lag by years, making it difficult for workforce boards to measure success in real-time and adjust programs quickly to meet the changing needs of the labor market 💡 Metrics: As Turner-Little notes, tracking job placements by area of training can be useful, but local job markets and job seekers' economic circumstances can render this measure less reliable 💡 Adapting to AI: As AI reshapes the job market, workforce boards also need to leverage the technology for tasks like job matching and financial modeling 💡 Turner-Little also notes that workforce boards' mission of serving diverse community members, coupled with widespread worker shortages, reinforces the alignment of diversity and economic development priorities. By fostering inclusion, workforce boards can address both local labor market needs and long-standing inequities in access to quality jobs.   💡 Turner-Little also highlights local successes, such as boards' effective responses to mass layoffs and partnerships with innovative industries. Find the conversation at https://hbs.me/vy4sdj56 .   #WorkforceDevelopment #WIOA #SkillsBasedHiring #NAWB #LaborMarketTrends #AI