‘The United States continues to run a deficit in developing a skilled workforce that meets the needs of our growth industries’

Reflections on the big issues shaping our workforce in the coming year from our WorkingNation Advisory Board

December 10, 2023

We asked our WorkingNation Advisory Board to share their thoughts on the most important issues and challenges facing the workforce and the labor market in 2024.

Michael H. Kelly is executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University which aims to strengthen organizations and society through outreach, executive education, and leadership and management training.

Here are his thoughts on The Future of Work 2024.

“As the new executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University, I oversee an annual ranking of America’s largest publicly-traded companies according to Peter Drucker’s principles of effectiveness – ‘doing the right things well.’

This work brings together five dimensions of corporate performance – Customer Satisfaction, Employee Engagement and Development, Innovation, Social Responsibility and Financial Strength – to create a holistic perspective based on Peter Drucker’s core principles.

“The three things that stood out most for me with this year’s data – 1) technology and health care companies continue to maintain the top spots in the rankings, 2) the biggest gainers excelled in satisfying their customers and engaging and developing their employees, 3) the companies that did not, declined the most.

“Microsoft and other all-star companies who have sustained themselves at the top of the rankings look to have developed a virtuous cycle that continuously reinforces their successes in Peter Drucker’s mantra – ‘doing the right things well,’ which is what the rankings have always looked to categorize and highlight.

“This allows these companies to secure the resources and capital needed to innovate and secure talent and, in turn, allows them to achieve greater and greater successes. I have no doubt that these companies will continue to develop their workforce pipeline (recruiting, selecting, developing, engaging), while also figuring out how to recalibrate the culture of their respective organizations, as they face demographic and intergenerational value shifts and post-Covid mindsets about what people value most.

“But not everyone will or is able to work for the superstar companies in the coolest jobs. The United States continues to run a deficit in developing a skilled workforce that meets the needs of our growth industries – health care, tech, life sciences, newspace, etc. and the businesses that sustain our local communities, hospitality, local government, health care, and educational services, etc.

“Secondly, there has been an increase in regulations in two key growth industries – finance and health care, which require a number of newly-created jobs focused on managing, responding, and mitigating these regulations. A lot of these jobs don’t have the same allure of jobs in tech, finance, entertainment, etc. that are less routine and more socially interactive and have a ‘change and shape the world mindset.’

“I think that is still a big question: how to incent more people, especially young men, into the workforce, and help them learn to operate in the world of work and guide them to an upwardly mobile career path that includes lifelong learning opportunities, better wages, and quality of life.”

Read more from our WorkingNation Advisory Board members on The Future of Work 2024.

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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.