We are presenting a look inside the WorkingNation Town Hall, co-hosted with the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University before it airs on public television.
Our first town hall – entitled “Re-Skilling the Mid-Career Workforce” – was held on August 8 at the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. The town hall was recorded for a special to be aired on December 27, 2017 at 8 p.m. on New Jersey Public Television.
The event focused on the challenges individuals aged 45 and older face when re-entering the workforce. These workers must overcome stereotypes about age and long-term unemployment gaps as well as adapt to the changing demands of the labor market.
Our town hall moderator, PBS NewsHour’s Hari Sreenivasan, is joined by panelists Carl Van Horn, Kimberly McLain, John Colborn and Jane Oates. The town hall also featured the debut of WorkingNation’s Do Something Awesome mini-documentary on the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network, which is tackling the issue of long-term unemployment in New Jersey.
Our first video features Joe Konopka from the aforementioned DSA video talking about the psychological impact of joblessness. John Colborn, COO of JEVS Human Services, explains how his company is helping people cope with this transition.
Next up we have Hari and the NSCN Director Maria Heidkamp discussing the mission of the innovative program aimed at helping mid-career workers get new jobs, but also erasing the stigma which is applied to older workers.
Amanda Mullan, from the New Jersey Resources Corporation, explains how her company is recognizing the changing demands on the labor force as a result of automation and technological change.
Kimberly McLain of the Newark Alliance talks about how employers are working with her program to break down barriers for workers to find meaningful work, irrespective of their economic background or age.
Finally, we close with Maria from the NSCN on what her program is doing to help older workers improve their skills with job seeking and networking.
© 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.
