WIP Kerry Hannon (1)

5 enduring changes to the workplace that midcareer workers should know about

A conversation with Kerry Hannon, author, In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work
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In this episode of Work in Progress, columnist and author Kerry Hannon discusses her new book, In Control at 50+: How to Succeed in the New World of Work, which examines how changes in the workforce – accelerated by COVID – are impacting older, midcareer workers.

This is a space Kerry Hannon knows a lot about. She’s a renowned expert in the employment and workplace space, writing and speaking about career transitions, retirement, and the future of work.

The first words of her new book paint a very clear image of just how far and fast COVID cut through the older workforce.

“Crush. Covid-19 ripped through the workplace starting in 2020. It spawned job losses and shattered businesses. It triggered many older workers who lost jobs, or were offered early retirement severance packages to leave the workforce — often earlier than planned. It happened fast. It was breathtakingly brutal. And no one was prepared. Older workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic did so at a higher rate than their younger counterparts.”

But this is more than a rehash of the fallout of the pandemicit is a guide to navigating today’s altered career and job pathways for midcareer workers.

Her message is always a positive one: you don’t have to take a backseat in today’s job market.

Hannon dives deep into what was making it difficult for older workers to find work even before the 2020 health crisis and then looks at the five enduring changes in the way we work today. Most importantly, she offers very practical advice for midcareer workers who are weighing retirement versus a career reset in this new era.

Kerry and I have been having this discussion for more than a year now. And I am so happy we can finally let you listen in.

Episode 228: Kerry Hannon, author, In Control at 50+
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch and Melissa Panzer
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.