The Future Of Work Podcast With Jacob Morgan | Futurist | Workplace | Careers | Employee Experience & Engagement |

Today's Future of Work Podcast is a very exciting topic!  My guest is Mark Levy, the Global Head of Employee Experience at Airbnb.  Airbnb has been making headlines lately, as they shifted their focus from a Human Resources Department to Employee Experience.  Airbnb has core values that really put their employees first, and want them to feel like they belong with the company.   During today's podcast, I sit down at their main campus, and you can feel the energy of their open floor and hear new programs being implemented as the podcast is recording.  Airbnb is an alternative accommodation site that connects hosts and guests all over the world.   Mark has spent over 20 years in Human Resources roles spanning his career.  When Mark joined Airbnb, the Human Resources functions were split into multiple groups, which included talent, recruiting, and a group called "ground control" which was responsible for the workplace culture. Talk of bringing the departments together occurred, and Mark questioned, if Airbnb had

The role of IT inside of an organization is transforming. With all of the new technologies being created and utilized in today's workplace, there are a lot of discussions how best to expand the organizations technology infrastructure. Today's guest on the Future of Work Podcast is Jim Fowler. Jim is the Chief Information Officer of General Electric.   This podcast discusses how IT and the CIO role in particular, is now one of the most exciting departments of an organization.   From device deployment, to production lines, and even keeping an organization secure by maintain badge security, IT touches many different activities within a company. Not only does IT touch employee facing functions, there is a lot of back end work, such as building new applications, technologies and analytics. Jim describes in detail how GE's IT department has worked closely with other departments to create new technologies to advance the company for the future of work. Jim has been with GE for over 15 years.  GE is a conglomerate tou

Today on the Future of Work Podcast, my guest is Abhijit Bhaduri, the Chief Learning Officer of Wipro Group. Wipro has almost 170,000 employees around the world in IT services. Since Abhijit is the Chief Learning Officer, today's topic is all around the future of learning and careers.  In his role, he prepares all of the employees in the company for the future so they can be "future ready." Abhijit's background has prepared him for his current role in the IT space, as he has to be able work with clients in any field.  As the Chief Learning Officer, he is able to gather information with Wipro's customers, on where the future of work is going in their fields, and helps prepare their companies for the changes to come.  Abhijit brings his insight to future learning.  He speaks on how future learning will not be driving by others, but by what an individual wants to learn.  Learning will come from our peers, as well as the accessibility of experts and leaders in the fields in which we want to acquire more knowledge

Today's Future of Work podcast guest is Ellyn Shook, the Chief Leadership and Human Resources Officer of Accenture.  Accenture is a global professional services organization and has over 360,000 around the world.  Their mission is to help improve the way the world works and lives, and lead the digital disruption on behalf of their clients. Ellyn is responsible for leading the global team of human resources experts, who aim to deliver exceptional employee experiences for Accenture's people.  Today, we speak on talent practices for the 21st century.  Accenture believes that the growth of their people, leads to the growth of their business. Ellyn has been with Accenture since 1988 and became a partner in 2003. She is also on a number of boards including the advisory board of Women in Business at Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and the Women's Leadership Board of the Women and Public Policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School.  Ellyn is helping lead how the workplace is changing, not j

For the first Future of Work Podcast for 2016, I speak with David Rodriguez the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer of Marriott International. The topic of this podcast is all around the business impact of employee health and wellness. This is a huge theme that we will see and increase in investment for 2016 and beyond. David provides insight on why Marriott is investing in health and wellness promotions, and the benefits of healthy employees who participate in these programs. With over 400,000 employees in their managed locations, Marriott spans 31 brands, across 100 countries all over the world. They are the largest hotel company in the world, knitted together by their people centric culture.   David has been with the company since 1998, holding the Global CHRO title since 2006. Marriot was founded on the principles that if you take care of employees, they will in turn, take care of customers; employees feeling good about themselves will be inspired to serve others. It is this belief t

Today my guest for the Future of Work Podcast is Alexis Gonzales-Black.  Alexis is the former organizational design lead for Zappos, and is currently the co-founder of Thoughtful Org Partners.  Previously, I spoke with Brian J. Robertson, the creator of the concept of Holacracy.  This concept received fame because of Zappos initiatives around Holacracy.  Alexis is one of the people who helped lead the entire Holacracy transition there.   Alexis was a part if the pilot group at Zappos for Holacracy.  She worked on the implementation team for over 2 years.  Currently, Alexis works with Thoughtful Org, which she co-founded, to help companies explore what the future structure of their organizations look like.  In Holacracy, as an operating system, individuals are not confined to one group or team.  Reaching across the organization for opportunities is available and encouraged. Self-organization can be used as a diversity and inclusiveness tool as well.  Alexis provides great insights to alternative organizational

Today I bring to you a very special Future of Work Podcast.  I speak with Dr. David Bray the Chief Information Officer of the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission.  The FCC is responsible for regulating interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across all 50 states.  The FCC makes decisions on how industry relates to consumers, whether it be telecommunications, television stations, broadband connections and the internet.  Any wired or wireless device will have a FCC logo on it. Industry standards are provided by the FCC so these devices will not interfere with each other so communication can be done in the United States.  The theme of today's podcast is how exponential technologies are shaping the future of work.    Dr. Bray is an Eisenhower Fellow.  Each year the fellowship program sends 9 or 10 exceptional people to two countries of their choosing to meet with industry and government leaders.  David had the opportunity to go to Taiwan and Australia to have conversation

My guest this week for the Future of Work podcast is Hal Halladay, the Chief People Officer at Infusionsoft.  Infusionsoft is a sales and marketing automation company, specifically focused on small businesses.  They have around 700 employees and are headquartered in Chandler, Arizona.  Infusionsoft stands out for having won many awards being a 'Best Place to Work' for different topics such as Women and Millennials, and received numerous awards for all around excellence.  As the Chief People Officer,  Hal speaks on why culture is the greatest competitive advantage in business today.  Hal leads a team that helps design many of the things Infusionsoft is implementing to create a great corporate culture. Infusionsoft has intentionally tried to create a culture that engages people to do their best work.  The company was founded on the principle that people come first. At Infusionsoft, Hal leads the people operations team.  This team supports business leaders by providing resources they need. These resources includ

What this episode is about and why you should care My guest this week for the Future of Work Podcast is Dr. J.R. Reagan, the Global Chief Information Security Officer at Deloitte.  We speak on the importance of being social inside and outside of a company.  While Dr. Regan's title alludes that he would not advocate for being social outside of a company, this is not the case.  There are advantages to using multiple types of social media that can benefit a company and individual employees.  While there are many traditional ways of completing tasks, working and doing the same tasks just because of tradition is not the most beneficial.  Using internal social tools can assist in modernizing an organization and connecting with the emerging workforce.  At Deloitte, Dr. Regan's responsibilities are to protect the firm's information across more than 150 countries, inside and outside of the company, for over 210,000 people.  Dr. Regan reflects on the previous notion that being social at work is taboo, and would cause e

Today's guest on the Future of Work podcast is Micha Kaufman, the CEO of Fiverr.  Fiverr started as a website where you could get any digital task done for $5.  Now, it is becoming a true freelance marketplace with bundled gigs. Organizations are flocking to the website, as well as, individuals who are looking to hire or become freelancers. With the popularity of websites like Fiverr, Micha and I discuss why the gig economy is the future of work. Micha describes Fiverr as the "Amazon for digital services."  It is a full digital marketplace with 'sellers' who are the freelancers and 'buyers' who are mostly small and medium sized businesses.  Right now, 30% of the American workforce is involved in the gig economy.  Trends are showing this number will only increase.  The changing generational workforce is a major factor of the growing gig economy.  Through technology, other types of work in the gig economy, such as driving for Uber, or listing a rental on Airbnb, has brought offline activity to online.  As the o

What this episode is about and why you should care This week's episode of the Future of Work Podcast features two very special guests from Skillsoft. Skillsoft is a technology company that produces learning management systems and the content that goes with them.  My two guests are Jerry Nine, the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Skillsoft, and John Ambrose, who is the Senior VP of Strategy and Corporate Development.   We speak on self-developing organizations and individualized learning.  Self developing organizations and focus on learning is a huge part of the future of work. Skillsoft was started with the vision to leverage the internet to scale.  Meaning, previously many individualized learning opportunites had taken place through physical methods such as CD-ROM or VHS tapes.   As technology evolved, individualized learning has grown to match.  Starting in soft skills, Skillsoft has created many engaging learning opportunities that can be utilized for all learning styles.  Technology can catapult

My guest for this week's Future of Work podcast is Régis Mulot.  Régis is the Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Staples.  We speak on why every company should be a platform company.  A platform company partners and incorporates technology from multiple corporations, partners, nonprofits, and educational institutions, to name a few.  While this concept is not new, it is growing and evolving.  Instead of only concentrating on what is going on inside a company, the focus is shifted to building networks outside of the organization. These networks assist in building a stronger, more profitable platform company. Staples is a very large organization, and the 4th largest online retailer in the United States. With over 74,000 employees, Staples has many different lines of business that each continue to grow in the ever changing market.  Régis has over 25 years of HR experience, working all over the world.  He has spent a lot of his time working to support integration of the corporations Staples has acquir

The Chief Human Resource Officer of the AARP, John Sigmon, joins me today on the Future of Work Podcast.  We talk about what it means to be an employee in the future of work. We discuss the very definition of what being an employee is, and how it is changing.  John describes with personal detail, how an employee would view their career path when it comes to working for a company.  The role of the employee is changing. Organizations need to think differently about the expectation of employees to settle at one company for a long amount of time.  Most positions are changing into more dynamic and flexible roles.  Many distinctions of employee types are becoming less defined as organizations are looking to the future, and changing as fast as the world around them. At AARP, one of their goals is to change the dialog regarding what it means to get older.  In the HR department, John needs to ask if his department is changing as fast as the rest of AARP and other organizations.    His own recruitment to AARP is a grea

This week on The Future of Work Podcast, my guest is Tara Sinclair. Tara is an Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs at The George Washington University and Chief Economist at Indeed.com.  Together, we look at the talent driven economy, which is the talent pool that is increasing and what that means for the future of work.  The talent driven economy effects everyone, whether you have a job, or are looking for one.  Tara shares her insights on what job seekers desire, and what opportunities and fields we are seeing growth in for available jobs.  At George Washington University, Tara teaches courses in everything Econometrics to Macroeconomics, she also runs their research department that works on developing new forecasting models. Tara's interest in forecasting for labor market applications lead her to Indeed.   She is able to provide a picture of the current labor market, and how it effects the employers who are looking for applicants. Tara is also able to identify positive trends for the

This week's guest on the Future of Work Podcast is William Davies.  William Davies is the author of a book called The Happiness Industry: How the Government and Big Business Sold Us Well-Being.  He is also the Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London. This is a very interesting topic, as engagement, health, happiness, and wellness are all topics that many companies are discussing and investing millions of dollars in. In William Davies' book, he argues that we should be cautious when putting all of our investments in happiness and engagement.  His point of view will make you question if we are a bit carried away with this movement and focus on happiness.  William Davies works on combining the history of ideas and a critical sociology of political and economic institutions. He is very interested in the way our economy is governed, and is shaped by theories of markets, individuals, and in the case of his book, theories of the mind. The ideas and methodologies used by experts, are used to correlate how

This week's episode with Sree Sreenivansan, who is the Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Digital transformation in the workplace is a massive topic, everyone from Chief Human Resource Officers, to people in Innovation and Technology are talking about it. Chief Digital Officers are emergent titles; they are springing up everywhere as we move forward in the new digital workplace.  Sree shares what he is doing and thinking about when it comes to the Digital aspects of work.   Chief Digital Officer's tasks can vary from company to company.  At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sree leads a team that produces all audience facing technologies.  Emails, social media, videos, applications, and development are all part of accomplishing not only the daily tasks at hand, but the goal of his department.  Sree looks at his position as helping to make connections between the physical and the digital content, as he describes, the "in person and online".  He believes that if you can do that, you will ha

What this episode is about and why you should care My guest for this week's episode of the Future of Work podcast is Sophie Vandebroek.  Sophie is the CTO of Xerox and the President of Xerox Innovation Group, she also has her PHD in Electrical Engineering from Cornell.  Sophie shares her extensive knowledge with us today, including her fascinating perspectives on Innovation. We dive in to her personal and corporate history, which is a very inspirational and relatable story. We look at the Five Best Practices for Innovation, focusing on who is going to be effected by the results of your company's Innovation, the end user.  We also go into great detail on how to establish an Innovation culture, providing the resources for the proper research and development, and allowing flexibility and freedom to test and try many different solutions for products and services that will fulfill the needs of the consumer. Xerox is a great example of a company who, is well known for some of their products.  They are constantly lo

  Today I sit down with James D. White, the CEO of Jamba Juice. We speak about what the culture is like at Jamba Juice, what the CEO values most at his company. Jamba Juice has spent a lot of time cultivating their corporate culture, and specifically focusing on heath and wellness. We look at the role of technology and trends that are shaping this shift towards organizations spending more time looking at health and wellness. The goal of this podcast is to look at how creating an effective corporate culture centered on a brand's key values is so important to organizations around the world. The corporate culture at Jamba Juice is centered on their core values. Health and Well-being runs through Jamba Juices's veins. If you can actively engage individuals inside of a company to build a culture they want to live in, you have a much higher chance of being successful. Personal investment of the individuals of your company, helps move the culture and performance of the company as a whole ahead. Many conventional bus

What this episode is all about and why you should Listen Today I have an interview with Stephen Hoover, CEO of PARC a division of Xerox. PARC is the home of the Ethernet and many other Innovative tools that most people use every single day in the workplace. Stephen & I talk extensively about Open Innovation in the workplace. Open innovation is a very interesting topic and we get deep into what is going on, what is it, why it is happening, what are the trends that are driving it, what are the benefits of open innovation, the challenges, the impact & what organizations should be doing and what they should be thinking about. Stephen Hoover explains what PARC's take on the Business of Breakthroughs is all about. Find out what they are working on for the future of work. Stephen's perspective is very intriguing and spot on with exactly what a forward thinking company needs to be doing and implementing. Discover what his number one tip is when it comes to having a Grand Vision. Stephen really believes that i

What this episode is all about and why you should Listen Today dive in with me as I sit down with Mary O'Hara, of Blue Cross Blue Shield of California on the topic of high performing teams and individuals in the future of work. Mary has a mass amount of insight when it comes to different techniques and everything that encompasses "touching the people" within an organization. She has great tips on Workplace Rewards and how to collaborate across an organization. Listen as Mary explains if she feels Employee Experience is more prominent now than it has ever been in the past. All things effect different aspects of having a high performing team and individual in the workplace. Talent is extremely important when finding individuals that are at the heart of specific innovation & strategies which leads to less supply. You need to have an employee experience that is reflective in your specific marketplace. Mary shares with me how different industries have different pressure points, and when you have quality leader