Worker Voices – a new report from the U.S. Federal Reserve System looks at how job seekers and workers in lower-wage roles navigated the labor market throughout the pandemic.
There was a lot of discussion in the national narrative around unemployment benefits and stimulus checks that were issued during the pandemic, says Sarah Miller, principal adviser, Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
WorkingNation sat down with Miller at JFF Horizons in New Orleans.
She says, despite some public opinion, a survey of low-wage workers indicated they still wanted to fully engage in the workforce even though they had received these funds.
Miller also notes there was dissonance in the discussion with the workers around how they are talked about, how they feel valued, and how they experience the labor market,
She says, “We had this conversation with a subset of our sample after the research was completed. We did the analysis to ask them questions around whether our findings were accurate and reflective of their experiences and how they’d like us to refer to them.”
Miller continues, “What are the words that we should use when we’re talking about the essential workforce – those potentially marginalized in the labor market? A lot of them took umbrage with the term ‘essential worker.’ They don’t feel like they’ve been treated with the essential nature that they provide to the economy. They’re essential to the business, but they’re not necessarily essential as a person in that role.”
“I hope employers really understand the very nuanced picture that job quality means to all of these workers,” says Miller. “They have different needs. They want to be seen as individuals. While wages are absolutely a part of the conversation, there is a slew of non-compensation factors that are not being met, at least from the perspectives of these participants.”
Learn more Workers Voices here.
Learn more about the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.
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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.
