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Collected Thoughts

FOWX Notes: September 10 Edition

Business LeadershipGeneral InsightsTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

Some picked-up pieces from across the industry, which we call “FOWX Notes,” for the week ending September 10:

  • The Biden Administration yesterday announced its most sweeping vaccine mandate measures thus far in the pandemic, requiring all all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated (with limited exceptions in specific cases). Furthermore, all private businesses with 100 or more employees must require vaccinations or weekly tests for its workforce. These measures will affect nearly 100 million Americans and is seemingly a result of a rightfully frustrated government that wants to control the wild and raging Delta variant. Expect lawsuits galore over the coming weeks, as well as push-backs from unions and similar labor groups.
  • The truth is that the Biden Administration was left with no choice; while the Delta variant has caused some vaccinated people to spread the virus, this is still a pandemic driven by the unvaccinated. For a vaccine campaign that is considered the most important and biggest in world history, only 54% of the American population is fully-inoculated. A mandate such as the one announced yesterday will hopefully get the United States to a safer place going into 2022.
  • According to Future of Work Exchange research, 64% of businesses plan to leverage workforce management technology to augment their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, a sure sign that enterprises across the world are now considering this pivotal Future of Work attribute as a key focal area for workforce planning the months ahead. Many professionals are committed to being more diverse and more inclusive in how they think about and structure
  • There needs to be more discussion and focus on non-medical leave for working parents, especially “bonding leave.” Child bonding leave is a separate entity from maternity or paternity leave; for example, in Massachusetts (where FOWX headquarters is located), parents may “take up to 12 weeks of family leave to bond with a child,” which must be taken within the first year of a child’s birth. Currently, only eleven states in America currently offer this type of leave.
  • “Massachusetts’ paid bonding leave is late to the dinner party but a welcome guest. As an HR professional, I have seen too many low- and middle-income employees struggle and in despair to learn they didn’t have disability pay benefits at all, or only had enough for a maternity leave of six weeks postpartum. This was even more heartbreaking of a reality to me when I took my own maternity leave and couldn’t imagine having to bring my new baby to daycare at 6 or 7 weeks old,” says Caitlin Klezmer, Senior HR Business Partner at JLL. “I was fortunate enough to have paid leave far in excess of those previously mentioned. As a working mother who recently returned to work from her bonding leave, I encourage anyone who may think they are eligible to look into these benefits – birthing and non-birthing parents alike. I reserved my bonding leave for the end of my child’s first year, taking it for the last two months before he turned one. The opportunity to temporarily pause my focus on my career unburdened some of my mental load that was becoming overwhelming. This leave allowed me the guilt-free space to focus on my family, including my relationship with myself, my spouse, and my children, while also allowing me to recharge for my return to work.”
  • U.S. jobless claims hit an 18-month low, according to Reuters; this is the lowest weekly figure since March 14, 2020, which, for those keeping track, is the lowest during the pandemic. This may signal optimism that the labor market will continue to grow even in light of a summer surge of coronavirus infections. There are some expectations that the conclusion of federally-expanded unemployment benefits, plus a 2021-2022 school year that is focused on in-person learning, could spark additional growth in the immediate weeks ahead. All of this, however, underscores the fact that the “Great Resignation” is still very much a stark reality that hangs over any labor market news. There are still millions of unfilled jobs/roles, with a standoff between employers and potential candidates (many of which are demanding more flexibility and better benefits). Engagement is going to continue being a critical issue in the months ahead as both businesses and workers haggle over aspects like remote work, work/life balance, and other non-compensatory aspects. (The Future of Work Exchange will feature an exclusive piece on labor market disengagement in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!)
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Future of Work Friday: A Collection of Thoughts

Business LeadershipDiversity and InclusionHRTalent by Christopher J. Dwyer on

From time-to-time, it’s beneficial to take a moment to collect random thoughts regarding the Future of Work movement, since there’s so many varied pieces of the complex, evolving puzzle that is the world of talent and work. It’s been a whirlwind year thus far (can you believe it’s already JUNE!?), but the next six months promise to be even more impactful when business leaders think about talent, their workforce, and how work gets done.

  • This week, CNN reported that although unemployment rates are at their lowest since before the pandemic hit, there are still over 8 million job vacancies across the country. Retail, hospitality, light industrial, restaurants, etc. are the particular industries where the vast majority of these roles are open. Much of the discussion revolves around the deeper conversation of wage and compensation (and rightfully so), however, businesses in these sectors should seriously consider direct sourcing as an avenue to get candidates into the door, even if they’re not for full-time/longer-term positions.
  • My wife has worked in the veterinary industry for nearly 20 years. Over the past year, this industry has faced their biggest mass exodus of workers in its history. The main culprit? Employee burnout. Hospitals are so short-staffed that many roles in veterinary medicine, from doctors to specialists to veterinary technicians, are clocking incredible hours, all the while dealing with pandemic restrictions (clients not allowed into the building, hospital employees must come outside and retrieve animals, etc.). This is not the only industry in which its workers are facing extreme burnout. While much of the focus of the past year has been on the rollercoaster of boom-or-bust workforce scalability, business leaders should never forget that the biggest piece of the overall talent experience is whether or not its workers are running on fumes. Worker mental health and well-being should be at the top of the priority list when it comes to how executives manage their total workforce.
  • Last year, Ardent Partners predicted that the global business landscape would experience a sharp uptick in the utilization of non-employee labor as a direct result of the pandemic’s sweeping organizational ramifications. Going into 2020, 43.5% of the average organization’s total workforce was considered “contingent.” Today, that number sits at 46.5% and promises to grow as the transformation of talent and work continues. Furthermore, 82% of businesses direct state that the challenging times of 2020 created a bigger need for extended and non-employee talent. If there is one thing that the past 12 months has revealed, it is that workforce scalability is essentially linked to economic survival in the now-chaotic, hyper-competitive world of global business.
  • In mid-March 2020, safety took precedence over anything else in regard to traditional workplace environments across the world. Stay-at-home advisories, social distancing recommendations, and curfews/lockdowns ruled the day and forced businesses to push the vast majority (or all, in some cases) of its workers into a remote setup. I’ve been reading so many articles recently that state that the hybrid model (mix of in-person and remote work) won’t survive past the end of the pandemic. Well, these pundits couldn’t be more incorrect. Ardent’s research finds that businesses are expected to double the amount of its staff working remotely moving forward, a factor which not only takes into accounts the productivity and efficiency gains experienced over the past year via remote and distributed teams, but also the incredible flexibility that these setups offer.
  • Ninety-three percent (94%) of business leaders in Ardent’s upcoming State of Contingent Workforce Management 2021 research study stated that their agile or extended workforce is a critical and strategic facet of their organization. If anyone ever had doubts about its continued growth, this finding should alleviate that concern. By the end of 2022, nearly half of the global total workforce will be considered agile/contingent/extended.
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