WIP at Equity SUmmit 2023

Don’t underestimate the value of investing in midcareer and older workers

A conversation with Hector Mujica, Google.org; Dr. Mona Mourshed, Generation; and Taylor McLemore, Future State
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Workers over age 50 will soon represent 25% of our nation’s workforce. Yet, few reskilling and upskilling programs are built to meet the needs of older workers and connect them with employers.

Earlier this month, WorkingNation collaborated with the Center for Workforce Inclusion and CWILabs on the Equity Summit 2023, a daylong event addressing the workforce needs of midcareer and older workers.

In this panel – Recruiting, Training, and Retaining an Age Inclusive Workforce – we discussed connecting older workers with the resources that empower them to pursue sustainable economic opportunity in today’s workplace.

My guests on stage were Hector Mujica, head of economic opportunities, Americas for Google.org; Dr. Mona Mourshed, founding global CEO of Generation; and Taylor McLemore, an investor and a partner at Future State.

The panel explored the challenges faced by older workers in terms of reskilling and upskilling, as well as the lack of programs tailored to their needs. We also looked at potential solutions, such as successful skill development programs and the importance of continuous learning.

My guests emphasized the need for employers to value the experience and skills of older workers and what they bring to the job, and for individuals to proactively invest in their own training and development. Organizations such as Google and Generation are providing that training and support for older workers. And all the panelists agreed that it is important that we re-imagining work and learning to create an age-inclusive workforce.

You can listen to that discussion here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 291: Hector Mujica, Google.org; Dr. Mona Mourshed, Generation; and Taylor McLemore, Future State
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
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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.