Chike Aguh on preparing for an inclusive workforce

Thought leaders share ideas with WorkingNation Overheard at JFF Horizons 2023
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“[I’m] really looking to see how we create a future of work that includes all of us and make an economy that makes us prosperous and that also makes us proud – where no one is left behind and everyone is doing that part,” says Chike Aguh, former chief innovation officer, U.S. Department of Labor.

WorkingNation sat down with Aguh at JFF Horizons in New Orleans.

When asked about the progress being made to provide access to opportunity for workers, Aguh says, “I think we’re at halftime right now. Between the beginning of the pandemic and now, we’ve had some low points.”

“We’ve also had some high points. I think particularly with this administration in terms of –number one – making the investments in the industries of the future and also helping prepare people for them. And the question is, are we going to prepare all of our people for all of these jobs? The opportunity that we have is that we have so much work that needs to be done. We have to go to communities we’ve never really engaged before to make sure that there are people to do that work.”

Aguh says, “From my time in administration, I saw many, many employers say, ‘Hey, we need to hire for skills versus college degrees.’ And the other question was, ‘How?’ This is where tools like registered apprenticeship, tools like true skills assessments where employers actually know the skills that they want. We have to make sure that when employer puts a job posting up that all the people within the company actually agree on what should be in that posting. I think that’s how you get there.”

Learn more about the U.S. Department of Labor.

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.