“Our systems are not set up to help immigrants and refugees integrate into the workforce,” says Jina Krause-Vilmar, president and CEO, Upwardly Global. “We have to change that because we have labor market shortages that are not just right now. This is our new normal.”
WorkingNation sat down with Krause-Vilmar at JFF Horizonsin New Orleans.
“We know that 85% of jobs are secured today through your social networks. For immigrants who are new to the country, their networks are very insular,” explains Krause-Vilmar.
“They’re in the Vietnamese community. They’re in the Sudanese community. They’re in the Somali community. That means the access to information, resources and opportunities that they’re getting are consolidated and confined within that network.”
Krause-Vilmar says building social capital outside of that insular community is important. “We work with employers to be able to set up spaces where their employees can come together with our community, and they can really start building some of those connections,” she says.
“What we see is that informational interviews are critical in having people connect for long enough to where they’re able to bridge that trust deficit. That helps those individuals build enough of a relationship where that person is willing to give introductions, make recommendations, and network on behalf of the immigrant job seeker.”
Learn more about Upwardly Global.
© Copyright 2024 by Structural Unemployment, LLC dba WorkingNation
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.
