engagement - Publications - Faculty & Research

24 Apr 2020
Podcast

Freelancer.com: On-demand Skills and Ideas

The Covid-19 pandemic appears to be accelerating the global workforce shift toward freelance and contract work, as it makes remote work a more attractive option. For many, the traditional employment model is being replaced by digital labor platforms like... View Details

27 Nov 2019
Podcast

Rebooting the apprenticeship for tech jobs

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... View Details

09 Oct 2019
Podcast

Handy’s CEO clears up the gig economy

Oisin Hanrahan, co-founder and CEO of home services gig platform Handy, has succeeded by finding order and opportunity in chaos. The former HBS student has navigated messy transitions, cutthroat competition, and a challenging venture funding environment. He is also on... View Details

11 Sep 2019
Podcast

How carefully managed career restarts can benefit individuals and employers

Life events, personal interests, and a host of other factors lead people to step away from work. The key is how to handle reentry. Carol Fishman Cohen, HBS ‘85, draws on her own experience to consult and write about what it means to come back from a career break in... View Details

26 Mar 2019
Podcast

How the U.S. is driving away foreign talent and what happens when American companies miss out

Foreign talent is critical to the success of American companies. But the barriers to hiring skilled foreigners are rising: increased bureaucratic scrutiny and new regulations make it harder to bring workers into the country, and hostile anti-immigrant rhetoric pushes... View Details

26 Feb 2019
Podcast

AI and the value of expertise

AI has been predicted to replace humans in professions ranging from customer service representatives to medical doctors. But many have pointed out elements of human work that would be difficult to imagine being performed by AI. HBS Professor Raj Choudhury discusses his... View Details

16 Jun 2021
Podcast

Taking stock of Eastern Bank’s expansive community banking model

Eastern Bank is betting that bigger is better when it comes to serving small businesses and supporting local communities and philanthropic causes. Until recently the oldest and largest mutual bank in the US, Eastern has gone public and is pursuing an aggressive growth... View Details

19 Jun 2018
Podcast

Ep 5: Big-game fishing in rural Mississippi: Attracting employers to the Golden Triangle

Joe Fuller speaks with Joe Max Higgins, the CEO of Golden Triangle Development LINK, to discuss how a rural region in Mississippi became an attractive destination for global businesses after several local factories were shut down. Though a small part of the process,... View Details

10 Feb 2021
Podcast

Parsing 5G’s potential for work and learning

As the realities of 5G wireless networking and the Internet of Things catch up to the hype, the effects are expected to be sweeping, from smart infrastructure to enhanced education and training and new business models. Mo Katibeh, AT&T’s Chief Product and Platform... View Details

03 Jun 2018
Podcast

Ep 4: Jobs lost, jobs gained: Focus less on predictions, more on potential

Michael Chui, Senior Partner at McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), and an expert in artificial intelligence, believes that many jobs are going to disappear – including those done by MBAs and doctors – just not as quickly as people think. As he says to Bill Kerr, there is... View Details

08 Jan 2021
Podcast

How we can avoid the robot apocalypse

As AI and automation take on more and more sophisticated tasks, being human can look like a career liability. But not when you consider inherent advantages like our capacity to collaborate, create, and think critically. Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina... View Details

Research Summary

Overview

By: Ashley V. Whillans

Engaged with field work in East Africa, South Asia, and in several large hybrid organizations in the United States, Professor Whillans places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the social psychological literature and relevant... View Details

28 Aug 2019
Podcast

How teaching robots the way the world works changes the world of work

Robots aren’t necessarily primed to take over, but advances in machine learning are readying the mechanical components of the workforce for more complex and autonomous tasks. Startup Osaro specializes in deep reinforcement learning systems, artificial intelligence for... View Details

17 Jul 2019
Podcast

Advanced placement at work: a 21st Century apprenticeship model for the US

CareerWise Colorado is redefining job training and expanding the talent pipeline. The nonprofit apprenticeship program, patterned on the successful Swiss system, places college-track students in businesses from advanced manufacturing to finance. Founder Noel Ginsburg... View Details

03 Jul 2019
Podcast

Expanding access and conveying competencies: How Western Governors University is rethinking higher education

Western Governors University was founded in 1997 to expand access to affordable higher education and to offer instruction grounded in the requirements of the job market. WGU President and HBS alum Scott Pulsipher tells Bill about the school’s innovative online model,... View Details

24 Apr 2019
Podcast

How edX is redesigning learning for the future

In a world where jobs are constantly changing, the workforce must be able to continually add skills, and receive credit for them, to remain relevant. In this episode, Joe speaks with Anant Agarwal, MIT professor and CEO of education platform edX, who says “the future... View Details

06 Nov 2018
Podcast

Bridging the employer-educator divide

America’s skills ecosystem is broken. Employers are confounded by workforce development institutions. Middle skills employees can’t get the training they need. Educators aren’t held accountable for outcomes. Now, innovative providers are aligning stakeholders around a... View Details

02 Oct 2018
Podcast

Ep 14: The gift of global talent: Why talented people are the world’s most precious resource

In a special episode, Professor Bill Kerr talks with co-host Professor Joe Fuller about his new book on global talent. Talent, Bill argues, is the world’s most precious resource. It is the most important factor in driving innovation – critical in today’s knowledge... View Details

13 Jan 2021
Podcast

Keeping remote workers at the center of the action

Video conferencing and other communications technologies have been a lifeline for many during the Covid-19 pandemic. But they can exacerbate existing inequalities and create new ones. How can organizations help employees thrive in the post-Covid hybrid workforce of... View Details