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What will the future of remote work look like?

A conversation with Jeff Wald, founder, WorkMarket
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The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the economy. Millions of workers are now working remotely and millions more have lost their jobs. It is too early to say how many will be hired back, or for what kind of work, once businesses rehiring. It is also too early to say how many people will continue to work from home once the stay-at-home orders are lifted.

Jeff Wald, WorkMarket Founder (Photo: WorkMarket)

In this episode of Work in Progress, I am joined by Jeff Wald, the founder of WorkMarket, an online marketplace and platform used to manage freelancers, contractors, and consultants.

“There are a lot of people who theorize that remote work will be the work of the future, but I would dispute that,” says Wald.

He points out that only about three percent of the American workforce was already working remotely before the COVID-19 pandemic, and now that number is closer to 50 percent.

“It’s not going to be the case that companies all over the world are going to say ‘wow, this worked great’ and ‘everybody just stay where you are’.”

He says that while we’ve been moving toward an on-demand workforce that will be “team-based, fluid, work-from-anywhere job” thanks to technology like Slack, Zoom, or other project management software, the majority still will be needed to work in offices, manufacturing, retail, and in other facilities.

You can listen to the rest of his thoughts on the future of work in the full Work in Progress podcast, which you could get wherever you get your podcasts.

Also check out Amazon. You can pre-order Jeff Wald’s new book, End of Jobs: The Rise of On-Demand Workers and Agile Corporations, which will be released in June.

Episode 125: Jeff Wald, Founder, WorkMarket
Host: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch, Melissa Panzer, and Ramona Schindelheim
Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0.

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.