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Jane Oates delivers keynote speech at ‘Future of Work’ conference

Watch a speech delivered by WorkingNation President Jane Oates at the annual "The Future of Work" conference in Plainsboro on NJTV News.
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Jane Oates speaking at 'Future of Work' New Jersey

At the annual “Future of Work” conference hosted by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) and Einstein’s Alley, WorkingNation President Jane Oates delivered a keynote speech that addressed the role automation and robotics play on the future workforce, the role consumers play in those changes, and the reality of the challenges workers face.

“The more we choose: getting out of there [a retail store] faster, ‘I only have three items, I’m going to self-checkout’ — we are endangering a job,” Jane said.

In the second quarter of 2019, Jane pointed out that orders for industrial robots increased by 19%. What does that mean? “Robots used to be employed by manufacturing by large employers, like GM,” she said. “Now, robots and industrial robots are cheap enough that small businesses can have them.”

“Think of any job that is overly repetitious or could be done as well by a machine, and you can see there are many middle-class jobs that are white-collar.”

Jane also highlighted the four factors impacting jobs around the world: technology, globalization, longevity, and a disconnect in the education system.

And as artificial intelligence dramatically expands the types of tasks that can be automated, Oates emphasized the fact that blue-collar jobs are not the only jobs susceptible to automation.

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Watch part of Jane’s speech here: The human role in an increasingly automated workforce

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.