As work is recast in terms of skills and credentials, is the labor market awash in too much information? Credly's founder and CEO argues that more detail--verified and expressed in a standard taxonomy--can benefit both workers and employers.   

In Episode 3 of the Covid-19 Dispatch series, we talk to The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson, who recently wrote about contact tracing. In the fight against Covid-19, this critical public health tool has been used unevenly. Thompson notes that South Korea and Singapore have had success with smartphone apps, but that South Korea’s reliance on GPS, along with surveillance video and credit card transactions, raised privacy concerns and may have discouraged participation. Singapore used Bluetooth proximity data, which doesn’t reveal geolocation information. The latter may provide the model for tracing efforts in the US and elsewhere.    

The pandemic has magnified Amazon’s role as household supply line and pushed the company to quickly adjust how it does business. The retail giant has revised scores of operating processes in response to customer demand, workplace safety requirements, and public health directives. For an enterprise with half a million employees in the US, implementing these changes has been a mammoth management challenge. Ardine Williams, the company’s vice president of workforce development discusses how the coronavirus has changed business as usual.

Artificial intelligence seems to have repealed the laws of business physics, allowing “digital native” companies to grow at the stroke of a key and cross traditional market boundaries unimpeded. In their new book, Competing in the Age of AI: Strategy and Leadership When Algorithms and Networks Run the World, HBS professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani show the inner workings of the “AI factory.” Traditional businesses can’t bolt on AI and analytics and expect to compete. Marco explains how firms can adapt and discusses the implications for workers and public policy.

HBS alum Stephen Moret led Virginia’s winning proposal for Amazon’s 2019 HQ2 expansion. A crucial factor in the Commonwealth’s success was its billion-dollar commitment to developing talent, particularly in computer science and engineering. In beating out states that pledged vastly greater subsidies to the retail giant, Virginia validated the view that targeted investments in workforce development can spur economic development. Moret draws on his experience in Virginia and Louisiana, and his doctoral research on higher education to explain how public and private sectors can boost growth and improve worker prospects. He also sheds light on the role post-secondary studies play in determining the arc of graduates’ career opportunities.

Art Bilger is sounding the alarm over systemic trends in the world of work—the mismatch of labor force skills and job requirements; automation; underemployment and structural unemployment. The Wall Street veteran, whose CV includes successes in media and high-tech, founded nonprofit media production company WorkingNation in 2016 to bring attention to these sweeping and rapid changes, which he warns could lead to economic and societal crises.  Through news coverage, short documentaries, a podcast, and town hall-style events, WorkingNation focuses on individuals and groups whose stories underscore the difficulties and illustrate solutions.             

The Washington Technology Industry Association’s Apprenti apprenticeship program is a creature of the Seattle tech industry. But since its 2015 founding, it has become a national player in the workforce development market. As a partner in the federal government’s push to extend apprenticeships beyond construction and the trades, Apprenti is addressing the skills gap while diversifying the tech workforce. Executive Director Jennifer Carlson discusses how Apprenti connects employers with promising candidates, many of whom lack 4-year degrees, and helps them navigate the complexities of federal and state systems.