Human Capital Watch

How do set up your organization to “Perform AND Transform” at the same time? How do you ensure you are leveraging what you have to maximize value extraction through relevant incremental innovation? And in parallel establish the agility for constructive disruption ahead, tapping into emerging consumer and societal challenges with new technologies and capabilities. Listen in to our first episode on the subject of ‘Learning to Lead Innovation’ with our guest Kathy Fish, former CTIO of Procter & Gamble.  

Since the onset of COVID-19, virtually every employee in America and across the globe have experienced a dramatic change in their work lives, while at the same time facing new challenges in their personal lives, from health concerns to economic uncertainty to isolation from family and friends. Many professional and office employees suddenly began performing their jobs remotely and many are likely to continue to do so post-pandemic. On top of this, several incidents brought a heightened awareness of racial injustice and a renewed employer focus on committing to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. As they look to return to the workplace, many organizations are now reconsidering their talent strategies. Through interviews with seven organizations that thrived during 2020, as well as new survey data, six lessons were discovered that will help organizations recreate work in ways that maintain productivity while enhancing their employees' experience and contributing to a healthy organizational culture. Join c

Lindsay-Rae McIntyre's presentation at our recent DEI conference was one of the standout sessions. She shared Microsoft's DEI and culture journey, touching on issues such as growth mindset, authenticity, allyship, leadership....the list goes on. So for this podcast we selected some of the most compelling questions from the audience that we weren't able to get to on the day and engaged in a wide ranging, informative conversation where we talk about how messy this work can sometimes be, the need to reframe failure, the essence of allyship, addressing resistance and so much more. Lindsay-Rae ends with a call for us all to practice "relentless empathy" as we together create organizations and a world of genuine equity and inclusion.

The Conference Board first measured the effects of COVID-19 on employees in April 2020 and then in September 2020. In April 2021, The Conference Board again surveyed HR leaders to see how their organizations have adapted in the past year and what their plans are going forward, publishing The Reimagined Workplace a Year Later: Human Capital Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in May 2021. In this podcast, co-authors Robin Erickson, PhD, and Frank Steemers share the survey results and explore trends in remote work, productivity, and well-being; recruiting and retention; and plans for returning to the workplace. They discuss historic labor shortages and suggest continuous listening as one solution for deteriorating employee well-being.

This latest episode of DEI-Logue: Conversations on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion features Alan Morales, VP & Head of Transformative Change for The Future of Work at Prudential Financial. Alan spoke at our May DEI conference about the benefits of applying a change management approach to DEI in organizations. Building on his session we begin by revisiting the idea of a “change mindset” and how essential this is to effective change and how the same principles apply when building inclusion. We then discuss in depth the need for leaders to be empathetic and what this means in practice in a diverse, rapidly changing workplace. If you enjoyed his session at the DEI conference in May, this is a great opportunity to learn more about Alan’s approach to change - and if you missed the event you’ll benefit from learning more about Alan’s authentic and human centred approach to change and DEI.

In November 2020, in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic, social unrest, and economic crises, The Conference Board conducted its annual Job Satisfaction survey. Overall job satisfaction increased, despite the economic crisis, mass layoffs and the increase in the unemployment rate, for the 10th consecutive year. This increase with the backdrop of the pandemic presents conflicting views of worker job satisfaction. In this podcast, join VP of labor market Gad Levanon and VP of Human Capital research Amy Abel in a discussion of this year's counterintuitive results. Join the discussion on how labor market conditions and company actions have maintained this all time high. And learn how HR practitioners can utilize the lessons learned from last year to continue this trend.  For more details and discussion on the findings please see the full report.

Hosted by The Conference Board President & CEO, Steve Odland, C-Suite Perspectives takes an objective, data-driven look at a range of business topics aimed at senior executives. Listeners will come away with what The Conference Board does best: Insights for What’s Ahead™. In episode two, Steve sits down with Rebecca Ray, Executive Vice President and leader of the Human Capital Center at The Conference Board, to discuss a range of timely topics on the business community’s radar, including:   Returning to the workplace: What will be the lasting effects of the pandemic on the workplace and the way we work? Addressing worker well-being: The events of 2020 have taken a toll on workers. What can organizations do to support their people? Developing leaders: How must leaders change as we move forward from the pandemic? And why is empathy key to effective leadership? Responding to social change issues: Are we in a permanently different era of corporate activism? What should leaders keep in mind when responding to

As people return to working some of the time in offices, the economy bounces back from the pandemic, and the competition for talent intensifies, now is the time to think long and hard about the new generation entering the workforce - Generation Z.  Different from the Millennials, many of whom are who are now moving into leadership roles, they are the drivers of much of the protest of the Summer of 2020, they are innovators and have high expectations of work and their employers. Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Girls with Impact joins us to discuss their recent national research on Gen Z - what motivates them, their expectations of the workplace, how they will shape the world and their likely impact on your business. Going way beyond the wide generalizations often made about generations, you’ll hear some surprising and essential insights into Generation Z’s ideas about having an impact, activism, mental health, building confidence, teams, leadership, entrepreneurship, the office, and diversity and inclusion. You can

On this episode of DEI-logue, Peter McBride, Executive Director of The Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, discusses the origins and widespread occurrence of hate and hate crimes. From growing up in Northern Ireland during the Troubles to his current role at the Cohen Center, Peter has long studied the psychological impact of community trauma and draws parallels from our current situation to other countries and other eras of American History.  From the emigration of the Irish to today’s rise in Anti-Asian racism and popularization of “replacement theory”, Peter examines the particular character of hate crimes.  We discuss the evolutionary origins of fear, how language fuels the othering of different groups, the role of trauma, the strategy of scapegoating and why we won’t be seeing a rise in anti-British hate crime as a result of the prevalence of the UK variant of Covid19.  

What if your organization could deliver twice as much innovation, boost customer satisfaction ratings, grow the human capital return on investment (HCROI) by 270 percent, improve efficiency up to 15 percent, and increase profitability by 25%? It is possible according to a new report from The Conference Board, Accelerating Value by Using Human Capital Analytics to Understand the Workforce Experience. Organizations that address employee experience objectives with data analytics to fine-tune their HC program design and execution could potentially create more innovation, boost customer satisfaction ratings, grow human capital ROI, improve efficiency, and increase profitability. Join the report’s co-authors, Solange Charas, PhD, Stela Lupushor, and Robin Erickson, PhD, as they discuss the strong relationship between investment in people, worker productivity, and the resulting business performance.

The recent shootings in Atlanta have thrust Anti-Asian racism into the media spotlight.  But Anti-Asian racism was not news to the Asian American community that has faced discrimination throughout its history.  From outright bans on immigration from specific countries, to lynchings, organized attacks on specific communities, WW2 internment, to the current wave of assaults and verbal abuse linked to Covid, Asian Americans have always been targets of racism. In this episode of DEI-logue: Conversations on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Bryan Lee of Salesforce reflects on this current moment and some instances he encountered racism.  We discuss the specific forms Anti-Asian racism takes, particularly the myth of the model minority and the way in which the rich diversity of Asian cultures and nations becomes reduced to a single “other” identity. Brian shares some of the initiatives Salesforce have implemented to address this issue inside and outside the organization as well as how individual managers can suppo

In this second episode of DEI-Logue, John Brewer discusses the important topic of privilege with Sofia Bonnet, Director Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Github. From humble beginnings growing up in Mexico, Sofia identifies how privilege and the support of allies helped her build a successful career in D&I and a safe and prosperous life in the USA.  Starting out benefiting from having paler complexion than her siblings and peers and a mother who believed in her and the value of education, Sofia’s story is on the one hand an inspiration but also a lesson in humility and awareness.  Whereas many define privilege as those advantages you have through no effort of your own (skin color, accent, appearance, inherited wealth) even when Sofia’s own hard work enables her to achieve a goal such as learning English, she recognizes that that too confers a privilege.

In this first episode of DEI-logue: Conversations on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, our guest is Deanna Ransom, Chief Marketing Officer at Televerde. John Brewer, Program Director of the Conference Board’s Diversity & Inclusion Conference and Deanna Ransom discuss Televerde’s work employing incarcerated women, and Deanna shares her experiences of the last year - the impact of Covid-19 and her thoughts on the increased discussion of race in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd. She shares her work experiences as a Black woman and an overview of her recent Forbes article “Three Ways Business Can Empower Black Families”. Throughout the conversation Deanna demonstrates her commitment to equity in the workplace and the need to create cultures where everyone feels they belong. This aligns with Televerde’s mission to equip the women it employs to make a positive contribution at work and in society once they are released - the ability to contribute being a cornerstone of true belonging. Deanna will be p

The SEC is now requiring that US public companies disclose information about human capital management “to the extent such disclosures would be material to an understanding of the registrant’s business”—such disclosure is no longer voluntary. Organizations will need to determine whether human capital is material, what they need to disclose, how to contextualize human capital performance, and how they should communicate this to the community and stakeholders. This podcast will explore the issue further and how we can think about this critical trend.

By providing new joiners with personalized onboarding experiences and addressing their needs at a faster rate, AI-powered solutions can help decrease the regrettable attrition of new joiners, enhance overall onboarding and work experience, and improve the work productivity of onboarding professionals by taking over administrative, repetitive tasks. In this podcast, The Conference Board Researchers Barbara Lombardo, PhD and Amy Ye discuss how AI can elevate the onboarding function and drive business results. To help onboarding professionals respond to a new work environment with various AI tools, they also reveal the impact of AI on the roles and skill sets required for this function and identify common issues and concerns with employing AI technology in onboarding. https://conference-board.org/topics/AI-HR/AI-for-onboarding

The phrase “What a difference a year makes” was never truer than in 2020. A year ago, The Conference Board published its first report on the topic of how organizations manage social change, Higher Expectations: How Organizations Engage With Social Change Issues. We highlighted the fact that organizations are now being judged on the quality of their relationships with customers, employees, owners, and communities while being expected to play a role in social change conversations. These higher expectations accentuated organizations that were purpose-driven, as well as profitable. In November 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and as it spread globally, a domino effect ensued that demonstrated weaknesses in health care systems (national and private) which cracked under the pressure of managing the magnitude of serious and fatal cases. The shock of the pandemic and shutdown measures plunged the global economy into a severe contraction, as millions lost their jobs to furloughs and layoffs. Remote work became the nor

Join us to gain insight on the biggest issues that will keep business leaders up at night in the new year. We will discuss the findings of the 2021 C-Suite Challenge™ survey, which asks executives around the globe to identify the key strategies they intend to use to meet their critical business challenges and grow their companies. Globally CEOs expressed concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and recession but are hopeful about the widespread availability of a vaccine as a game changer in 2021. US CEOs ranked concerns about higher corporate taxes and increased regulation higher than their global peers but ranked global political instability and disruptions to global trade lower than did CEOs worldwide. Unlike leaders outside the US, American CEOs are placing a high priority on employees returning to the physical workplace. The C-Suite Challenge surveyed more than 900 CEOs and 600 C-suite executives in late 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered both a global health crisis and an economic crisis. These crises have generated an extraordinary level of uncertainty, creating another crippling crisis and a considerable threat to employee well-being—anxiety. As of September 2020, according to the Center for Disease Control, 4 out of 10 Americans have a medically diagnosed case of anxiety—and think of how many more haven’t been diagnosed! The solution to this rising anxiety epidemic is to develop our resilience. In this podcast, Principal Researcher, Robin Erickson, PhD, and Distinguished Principal Research Fellow, Leo Flanagan, PhD, review their recently published report, COVID-19 Reset & Recovery: Developing Resilience to Move through Uncertainty to New Beginnings with information on why we become anxious and 12 practical recommendations for leaders and employees. For more information on the Resilience Model mentioned in the podcast, see Leo’s blog:  Beating Back the Anxiety Pandemic: The Science of Resilience.

The Conference Board expects that COVID-19 will have many lasting impacts on the world of work and Human Capital processes. To gauge how organizations are reacting to the changing business environment in the context of their workforces, we conducted an online survey in September 2020 with 330 human capital executives, mostly in large companies—a follow-up on our survey from April 2020. Our findings were published in the report Adapting to the Reimagined Workplace: Human Capital Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic. In this podcast, we share the survey findings about remote work and hiring, productivity and well-being, workforce cost reduction actions, and plans for returning to the workplace.

The Conference Board recently conducted two short surveys about organizational and employee readiness to return to the workplace after the lockdowns required by COVID-19. In the August survey with over 1,100 leaders across industries in 20 metropolitan areas, we found that 35% of organizations said the timing of reopening is unknown. Most organizations had implemented safeguarding measures to protect employee health, but only 59% surveyed their employees about their readiness to return. Those organizations that did survey their employees were very responsive, demonstrated by the fact that they were 20-40% more likely to put all of the safeguarding measures in place.   The September survey was focused on employees and found that only 17% of employees feel very comfortable returning. The top employee concerns were contracting COVID-19 personally, the risk of exposing family to COVID-19, and the lack of an effective, available vaccine. We also found that some groups of employees feel more pressure to return th