For all of the horror, unspeakable challenges, and both personal and professional disruptions that we all have faced over the past eighteen months, the labor market’s initial plunge was only the beginning of a series of major issues for the workforce that continue to this day.

In September, U.S. businesses only added 194,000 new jobs, a figure that shocked economists and labor market analysts alike. In addition, however, the true unemployment rate hit 4.8% in September; while this figure may seem like somewhat of a positive note amidst a weak rate of added positions, it’s really just hiding the many disparities that remain across today’s total workforce. And if we really want to dig deeper into how the lowest unemployment rate of the pandemic thus far just masks massive inequalities, there’s another stat that should shake business leaders to the core:

In September alone, 309,000 women (above the age of 20) dropped out of the workforce, according to the U.S. Labor Department. 309,000.

No, that is not a typo. 309,000 talented and hardworking women left the labor market within a 30-day span. That’s 309,000 women who are not part of a so-called “Age of the Worker.” These are women who are hitting pause on their careers due to factors way beyond their control.

Unemployment is low. The economy is thriving despite a Delta variant surge. One miraculous coronavirus vaccine has been approved and in use as a booster, with the two other major shots on their way. However, these same disparities in job growth are also occurring in other segments, such as in black men and both black and Hispanic women.

What is happening here?

The main problem is this: no matter how great the economy looks and no matter how low unemployment rates are, there is a foundational gap between 1) what we conceive the workforce to look like, and, 2) what that actual workforce looks like when broken out into gender, race, and cultural background, due to continued uncertainty in peripheral areas of the market that have a ripple effect on working mothers and people of color.

As we discussed previously here on the Future of Work Exchange, any level of uncertainty in the world of working parents is catastrophic. Any new COVID cluster in a school that eschews masks and precautions forces those parents to pause their professional lives and attend to remote learning. The continued shortage of staffing within daycare and pre-kindergarten facilities is astounding; too many working parents are having to make the difficult choice between their business personas and their roles as parents of young children.

Two years ago, if a third-grader woke up in the morning with a sore throat and runny nose, a parent could chalk it up to seasonal allergies or the common cold and send him/her off to class without a worry. Today, quarantining is disruptive and COVID testing can cause massive delays in a return to the live classroom. While some educational departments are leveraging “Test and Stay” models that enable quicker returns if children are asymptomatic, there are tens of thousands more that are not.

Those workers that are “between” pre-pandemic careers and a more settled return to the workforce are unsure of what is on the horizon. There’s no crystal ball that will tell them if the coming fall and winter seasons will spark yet another COVID surge. Millions of workers that were once toiling in more blue-collar-oriented positions are reevaluating their careers entirely, fighting as hard as they can for better pay, safer working conditions, and more flexibility in how they work before returning to work. Unfortunately, gender- and race-led disparities are caught in the middle of all of this and are suffering as a result.

So, what’s the answer here? It’s not so simple. The fact that organizations have implemented new diversity-led measures for gender diversity (82% of businesses are currently implementing these measures, according to FOWX research), cultural diversity (72%), and generational diversity (65%) speaks volumes about where businesses want to be, however, the hard truth is that they just aren’t there yet…and it’s going to take some time.

There are reasons to be both optimistic and pessimistic. COVID vaccines from Pfizer for 5-to-11-year-olds could be only weeks away, helping to curb some safety concerns regarding live and in-person learning. Not all of those 309,000 women that exited the workforce will remain out of the workforce permanently; between digital staffing outlets (such as The Mom Project) that promote on-demand and diverse talent, and the hiring managers that truly understand that a diverse and inclusive workplace culture is the best culture to build deeper talent pools, things can and certainly will change.

However, if there’s anything we’ve learned over the past eighteen months, it’s that planning for just a few months ahead causes nothing but disappointment in eventual retrospect. Businesses could stand pat in their months-long standoff with workers that are clamoring for enhanced pay, benefits, and working conditions. More COVID hotspots around the country could exacerbate the workforce inequalities that we’ve been facing since March 2020.

The question remains, though: will the “Age of the Worker” truly help those that aren’t just leaving the workforce because of culture or flexibility issues, but rather because they have no choice? The Biden Administration’s $650 billion initiative for childcare programs, universal pre-kindergarten, and the establishment of a robust paid family and medical leave program could be a boon here, although this is a measure that is months away from being approved and finalized. Many parents will choose to vaccinate their children as soon as they’re able to do so, and many will not.

Like everything else that’s occurred within the world of talent and work in this pandemic arena, there’s more ambiguity than anything else. Let’s hope it changes…soon.

The post The “Age of the Worker” Still Has Too Many Disparities appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

• 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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For the millions of children under the age of 12, the first few months (at the very least) are going to have to leverage the same non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) used during in-person learning last year, including masks, social distancing, better ventilation, altered activities, etc. Once one of the major vaccines (most likely Pfizer’s or Moderna’s) is approved for children under 12, the game changes tremendously. But for now, we’re experiencing increased anxiety as working parents.

This uncertain start to the school year translates into uncertainty for businesses, too (something I talked about during a recent (Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast episode). If we take a quick trip back to a year ago, many of us remember the first day of school as the first day of “remote school,” in which we, as working parents, would simultaneously pop open two laptops and start the day. We would shuffle around conference calls and video meetings, frequently checking in on our children to ensure that they had the proper modules up on their screens. No doubt that this had a tremendous affect on productivity, consistently, and morale within our roles at our respective enterprises.

A year later, none of us want to go through that experience again. However, the reality is clear: the vast majority of school-age children are not yet qualified to receive a vaccine, meaning that those aforementioned NPIs are all we have to combat infection in the classroom (although vaccinated teachers are certainly helping the cause, it still is only one vaccinated person in a room filled with upwards of 12 or more bodies). And again, as discussed on the Contingent Workforce Weekly podcast, there are major ramifications if things get out of hand and we are forced to contend with a hybrid schooling model.

Behind the uncertainty for the new school year is also a ripple effect due to the Delta variant’s rampage. After-school programs, activity centers, and daycare facilities are all dealing with their own staffing shortages and workforce issues. This extreme gap in both daycare and aftercare has a direct influence on whether or not working parents who cannot perform remotely wade back into the labor pool. Although 70% (or more) of the jobs lost during the pandemic have been restored, those difficult-to-fill positions may remain that way for some time as high-contact roles (restaurants, hospitality, retail, etc.) fall out of favor due to the increasing impact of the Delta variant.

Business leaders must approach the coming weeks (and months) with a balance of empathy, flexibility, and strategic planning in order to thrive this wave of the pandemic:

• As always, lead with empathy first. Empathy, as stated here on the Future of Work Exchange, is the only way forward. Personal and business lives have converged in such a way that the world around us has forever transformed the human elements of our persona. Emotions are apparent at work, and work bleeds into our home lives. Working parents have a level of anxiety over unvaccinated children heading back to in-person learning. The upcoming school year is a perfect time for leaders to approach with empathy, understand where their workers are coming from, and develop a positive experience that doesn’t add to the already-rampant concerns. The talent experience is still paramount, no matter if workers are at home or in the office. Leaders can alleviate a great deal of stress by being empathetic (even more so) during the next several weeks.
• The flexible workplace is the ideal workplace. Businesses should be used to this by now. During the more optimistic spring months, execs were tinkering with reopening plans amidst a wash of vaccination campaigns and superior weather. Although many of those return-to-office plans have been put on pause, the typical business should have no problem operating in a virtual, digital, or hybrid environment. There are challenges with remote working and hybrid models, for sure, but a few more months can be a major asset in both seeing how a return-to-school looks for working parents and a possible decline in Delta-driven COVID cases.
• Communication is key with worried working parents. Leaders should be proactive in how they communicate with their workforce, especially during these next several weeks. Working parents, as mentioned, are already nervous enough about the health and safety of their children…they shouldn’t have the stress of what will happen at work on top of that. Managers and leaders must facilitate conversation now about what processes are in place in the event that the work day is disrupted due to child quarantines or a lack of daycare, and stick to a plan that can be executed in an agile manner. Can workloads be balanced? Should projects have additional team members that can “tag in” if someone needs a few hours to attend to their children?
• Experiment with new and innovative work models. If full return-to-office plans have been put on hold, now is the ideal time to experiment with new work models. “Task context” is a critical piece of this strategy, and if more time in remote settings has no negative ramifications on projects and initiatives, then leaders know that a quick shift to fully-remote can support business goals. If the opposite is true, leaders should begin strategizing around how to get work done in a challenging environment; should specific team members be in the office while others are at home? Who requires access to in-office resources, as well? The months ahead are mired in uncertainty, however, enterprises can utilize this time to continue evaluating which work models are right for the organization in the long run.

In addition to the above elements, there is another notion at hand: the range of enterprise skillsets and how they can be shifted within a digital environment. Many businesses have poor visibility into their available skillsets and expertise, including both full-time workers and non-employee talent. Understanding where and how these skills are deployed company-wide can be a crucial advantage in developing new work models. Businesses that operate on a digital scale can easily push skills to where they are needed, and, as an uncertain fall looms (due to both the return-to-school and Delta variables), this dynamic approach can alleviate some of the productivity gaps that may arise if working parents experience disruption.

No matter what the next several weeks brings to the world of talent and work, business executives can act now to ensure that empathy, flexibility, communication, and innovation are at the forefront in how they lead their organizations to success during uncertain times.

The post An Uncertain Start to the School Year Means Uncertainty for Business, Too appeared first on The Future of Work Exchange.

Tune into Episode 605 of Contingent Workforce Weekly below, or subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio.

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