Future of Work Hughes-Cromwick

“(Apprenticeships) are helping to supply well-trained workers in areas that are really the future industries’

Reflections on the big issues shaping our workforce in the coming year from our WorkingNation Advisory Board
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We asked our WorkingNation Advisory Board to share their thoughts on the most important issues and challenges facing the workforce and the labor market in 2024.

Ellen Hughes-Cromwick is an accomplished economist and senior resident fellow for the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way, a boutique think tank.

Here are her thoughts on The Future of Work 2024.

“I hope in 2024 we talk more about the U.S. competitiveness and focus our attention on the importance of workforce training and education in fostering a more durable competitive advantage of the U.S.

“Many economies are investing in their labor markets. They’re moving ahead, especially in future clean energy technologies. China in particular surpassed the U.S. many years ago in terms of production of technologies like wind and solar equipment or batteries and EVs.

“In the U.S., the automotive sector is 3% to 4% of GDP and only employs about four million people. If the U.S. does not undergo a successful transition to EVs, when the rest of the world is going and racing ahead, we will lose out and we will fall behind.

“We also need lots of training and different types. As you know, and WorkingNation has been so arduously putting forth an effort in terms of awareness about apprenticeship programs, these are now part of some of the climate laws that were passed in the last two years.

“It’s helping to supply workers, well-trained workers in areas that are really the future industries here in the U.S. including solar, wind, batteries, energy storage, upgrading our electric grid, hydrogen, geothermal installations, and direct air capture, just to name a few. Those apprenticeship programs are critical. We need high volume.

“We critically need immigration reform. This would lift up our labor force, allowing us to take advantage of an important workforce that has been part of the history of the United States from really Day One  –getting more work visas out for those in the U.S. that are waiting to hear about their immigration application status.”

Industries of the future, including climate-resilient industries, need a big, well-trained workforce

We asked our WorkingNation Advisory Board to share their thoughts on the most important issues and challenges facing the workforce and the labor market in the coming year. Ellen Hughes-Cromwick is an accomplished economist and senior resident fellow for the Climate and Energy Program at Third Way, a boutique think tank.

Watch Ellen Hughes-Cromwick on The Future of Work 2024

Read more from our WorkingNation Advisory Board members on The Future of Work 2024.

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.