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Progress is being made, but there are still workforce challenges needing to be addressed

A conversation with Art Bilger, founder & CEO of WorkingNation, and Jane Oates, president of WorkingNation
By Ramona Schindelheim
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In this episode of Work in Progress, WorkingNation founder & CEO Art Bilger and WorkingNation president Jane Oates join me to discuss how the labor market and workforce priorities continue to evolve after two-and-a-half years of global disruptions.

September marks the sixth anniversary of the launch of WorkingNation, the nonprofit media organization founded by Art Bilger focused on the evolution taking place in the labor market and how to prepare workers for those changes.

A lot has changed in those six years, but the mission remains the same.

“The original mission – still the mission today – was to identify where the jobs of the future will be, and I don’t mean 20 years from now. I’m talking about today, but also three years from now, five years, seven years from now and then identifying and then telling the stories about the solutions,” explains Bilger.

As we’ve discussed many times in articles, podcasts, and videos, COVID altered the way we work, for all of us.

The most recent U.S. employment report showed 20 straight months of sustained job growth and we’ve more than recovered the 20 million jobs lost at the start of the pandemic two-and-a-half years ago.

But, there are still very real labor issues that we, as a society, must continue to address – underemployment, inequitable access to economic opportunity, and labor shortages in key industries due to a lack of workers with certain in-demand skills, to name a few.

Oates cites the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 as a wakeup call that there was gross inequity in every part of our society, including in access to economic opportunity. “That’s become really a mission for everyone, including us.

“I would say the word ‘mobility’ has become much more important. It is no longer just getting you in the door for your first job. It’s making sure that every single person has the opportunity to move up the pay scale, the job title scale, and advance themselves,” she adds.

Bilger agrees. “I do believe there is a lot more discussion (about access to economic opportunities) than when we first began six years ago. That’s great, but there’s a lot of learning that still has to happen. I would very much like the subject that we’re talking about and the solutions to be elevated much more quickly in this society,” he says.

“I feel as strong, if not stronger than ever, about the whole idea of the link between employment and purpose in life,” Bilger adds. “Yes, dollars and cents are critical, but I do believe there’s much more to employment.”

“It’s hard for me not to think that most people are still worried about salary, because with right now at 8.5% inflation rate, everybody’s dollar is worth less than it was before. But I think that Art’s right when he says it’s more than money. It’s flexibility. It’s, ‘Are you investing in me?,'” Oates adds.

“More employers than ever are looking at the importance of, A, providing a quality job, B, getting workers’, both incumbent workers’ and prospective workers’, input on what quality means,” according to Oates.

In the podcast, Bilger weighs in on another issue he is concerned about – the increase in remote working and its impact on team work and innovation. Oates also shares her thoughts on the way we talk about higher education as a pathway to a good career – let’s not send the wrong message to job seekers and workers.

There is a lot more to talk about here. You can listen to the podcast here, or download it wherever you get your podcasts.

And to all my WorkingNation colleagues, happy anniversary.

Episode 243: Art Bilger, WorkingNation founder & CEO and Jane Oates, WorkingNation president
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 4.0
Download the transcript for this podcast here.
You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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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.

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