HBS Managing the Future of Work

The restaurant industry has been especially hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. Restaurants quickly shifted from indoor dining to a greater reliance on online ordering, curbside pick-up, outdoor dining, and delivery. Toast, a restaurant management services company, provides tools for all facets of running a restaurant. CEO Chris Comparato talks about the future of dining and explains how the company helped its clients adapt to the new normal, facilitated access to capital, and advocated for restaurant relief.

Can public-private partnerships do the heavy lifting of workforce development while promoting upward mobility? And can they help underserved groups participate in a post-Covid recovery? IBM’s P-TECH high school STEM program works with community colleges and industry partners to support students as they earn a high school diploma and an associate degree. The company recently launched SkillsBuild, a training program for adults from vulnerable populations. IBM VP of corporate social responsibility Grace Suh discusses integrating workplace requirements into education and training; digital certificates; virtual internships; on-the-job training; and what it takes to extend access during the pandemic.

Polling fatigue is normal in the runup to a presidential election. Employers are finding ways to tap into worker sentiment less obtrusively. Glint-LinkedIn equips firms with survey tools and AI analytics to keep tabs on the collective mental state of their employees. Justin Black, head of people science at LinkedIn, explains the potential benefits: productivity gains, a more engaged workforce, and less burnout; and the pitfalls: disengagement and a loss of trust. Covid-19, social strife, and the strains of remote work raise the stakes.

How will US community colleges emerge from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic and social disruptions of 2020? Dr. Walter Bumphus, President and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), discusses the role of the nation’s over 1,000 2-year post-secondary institutions in responding to the multiple crises disproportionately affecting their 12 million students. As the AACC enters its second century advocating for community colleges, it looks to bolster their workforce development capacity and their ability to foster upward mobility.

For some families online learning is a rocky road. For others it’s a dead end. To address the uneven distribution of digital infrastructure, public-private partnership EdConnect provides students in underserved areas with broadband. Tennessee’s Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Bryan Johnson and CO.LAB startup accelerator CEO, Marcus Shaw talk about how, working with municipal utility EPB, they rallied stakeholders to deliver funding, resources, and access.

The US is facing a tsunami of demand for skills training and job placement. Its 1,100 community and technical colleges offer the best institutional infrastructure and student support for the task, but key reforms are needed. So argues The Indispensable Institution: Reimagining Community College, a June 2020 report from nonprofit Opportunity America. The group’s president, Tamar Jacoby, discusses the report’s findings, which stress the need for better workforce development.

In confronting the economic and social crises roiling the US in late 2020, it helps to have deep roots in local communities. San Antonio’s Project Quest brings to the task decades of success in advancing upward mobility in underserved areas. The nonprofit’s savvy, resilience, and willingness to learn from experience yield lasting improvements in the prospects of its participants. President & CEO David Zammiello explains how the group partners with employers and community colleges and provides the “wraparound” support services individuals need to gain skills and secure good jobs.  

What's in store for the gig economy and how will Covid-19 change the nature of work? Managing the Future of Work project co-chair and podcast co-host Joe Fuller was the inaugural guest on The Way Work Should Work, the new podcast produced by Braintrust. We present the "away" half of the home-and-away pair of episodes that saw Joe interview the freelance platform's co-founders, Adam Jackson and Gabriel Luna-Ostaseski, in Episode 18.    

Can neuroscience and AI improve on traditional approaches to hiring and evaluating workers? Pymetrics’ co-founder and CEO, Frida Polli, argues that the combination is necessary to overcome inherently biased human judgement and to bring empirical rigor to the task of matching talent to fast-changing job categories. The neuroscientist-turned-Harvard MBA shares her journey and explains how her company helps the likes of Unilever, LinkedIn, and Accenture factor workers’ cognitive, social, and emotional aptitudes in their personnel decisions.        

Managing the Future of Work co-chair and podcast co-host, Joe Fuller, is a close observer of the care economy. He recently appeared as a guest on Behind Bundle, the podcast produced by employee benefits startup Bundle. The concierge service, which combines care and education coverage, was founded by HBS graduate Kayla Lebovits. Fittingly, we’re posting this episode the week of National Working Parents Day.