WorkforceRx

What if the daily commute in your car became one of the most productive parts of your day? Today’s WorkforceRx guest, Dr. Linda Ng Boyle of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, is going to help us understand how close we may be to that level of human-machine interaction and what it means for the future of work and mobility. “It's going to be a really dramatic shift for a lot of workers. As more driving responsibilities are handed over to autonomous vehicles, there will be more people using their car as a mobile extension of the office." That coming reality is prompting interior design changes that involve lighting, acoustics, larger displays and even using windows as digital whiteboards. In this fascinating conversation, Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan explores the implications of these changes for safety, productivity, well-being, and which sectors, including healthcare, will be impacted most. You’ll also learn about the complex relationship dynamics between humans and technology; the positive aspects of autonomous vehicles for seniors and people with mobility challenges; and the career path into human factors engineering. Mentioned in this episode: NYU Tandon School of Engineering

Tech occupations are projected to grow at roughly twice the rate of the overall U.S. workforce over the next decade, yet 87% of technology leaders say they face challenges finding skilled talent. On this episode of WorkforceRx, we're going to take a look at a model for supplying that talent developed by Per Scholas, which provides no-cost, employer-aligned technology training to adults at more than 25 locations across the U.S. “What makes our model work is we train people for real jobs that employers are actually hiring for, which means our curriculums are co-created with industry partners and updated continuously so that our learners are graduating with skills that are immediately relevant,” says Per Scholas President Caitlyn Brazil. As she explains to Futuro Health President Van Ton-Quinlivan, the non-profit has helped more than 30,000 people launch tech careers, generating a collective $2.1 billion in income gains. In addition to sharing real stories of learners who have changed their economic trajectories working in tech, Caitlyn also offers insights on why the tech skills gap is structural, not cyclical; why millions of tech roles are projected to go unfilled by 2030; and why technology can be a tool for equity instead of a barrier to it. For more information visit: https://perscholas.org/

"In many ways, they're worse off than people who had never gone to school at all." That's how Terah Crews describes the 43 million Americans who hold some college credit but no degree because they’re often saddled with debt and lacking economic opportunity. The company she leads, ReUp Education, is focused on reconnecting these “stop outs” to their education journey by working with institutions to reduce the friction points to re-entry and by using personalized, long-term outreach that meets people where they are. “Everybody has their unique journey back. Some are going to come back relatively quickly. Others will need time to reorganize their life to get ready to take that step back to school,” she explains. ReUp’s results in states like New Jersey and Michigan suggest the approach is working, but Crews realizes more needs to be done to change the institutional policies that drove people away in the first place. “It's a journey we're on to make our higher education system more aligned to the adult learner.” In this hopeful conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, you’ll also hear about the policies Crews singles out as surprisingly stubborn barriers to adult re-enrollment and why AI’s ascendance may accelerate interest in continuous learning.

Surveys of college faculty about the challenges posed by AI show their concerns, understandably, center on academic integrity, but today’s guest suggests the larger challenge to higher ed is happening outside the classroom: AI disruption in the workplace. "If entry-level jobs are being abruptly taken apart by AI, how do we think about what higher ed should be doing to integrate experiential learning into the curriculum so students get some knowledge base before graduating,” says Dr. Zakiya Ellis, whose experience in the field ranges from the White House to state government to K-12 schools. But, as she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, expanding experiential learning in higher ed will require incentives for employer participation and clarifying the sector’s mission as preparing students for success in work and in life, not just helping them earn credentials, both of which are tough assignments. This thoughtful discussion also covers what Ellis means by needing both "firefighters” and “architects" in higher education; her student-centered vision for what post-secondary access could look like; and the main public policy challenges facing college leaders. Mentioned in this episode: “A Girl Is No One” Substack

Market competition and the consequences of federal education policy have fundamentally changed our system of higher education and distorted the values of mission-driven schools. That's the stark reality depicted by Dr. Joshua Travis Brown of the Johns Hopkins School of Education in his book, Capitalizing on College: How Higher Education Went From Mission-Driven to Margin-Obsessed, which we’ll be exploring on today's episode of WorkforceRx. The deeply researched book draws on 150 in-person interviews with leaders at religious institutions to detail the non-traditional strategies they pursued to generate needed revenues, and analyzes what those choices mean for current and future students and the system at large. “It goes back to the moment where those institutions were about to close and the leaders said ‘we have to change in this moment of crisis. We've got to jettison norms and innovate.’” In this revealing interview with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, Dr. Brown shares candid conversations he had with leaders struggling with the tension between mission and margin. He also addresses the financially burdensome residential model and the case colleges need to make about the value of an on-campus experience, or getting a degree at all, in the age of AI. You’ll also hear why Dr. Brown thinks Americans have a distorted view of higher education, learn about the principles of innovation used by the schools that can apply to many types of organizations, and why he’s optimistic about the future of the sector.

What characteristics do changemakers in healthcare have and how can the system cultivate more transformational leaders? As provider organizations grapple with a growing number of complex problems -- including physician burnout and increased demand for care -- there’s a growing sense of urgency to find answers to those questions. Our guest today, Dr. Andrea Austin, has been focused on that task, and on this enlightening episode of WorkforceRx, she shares the results of her research on changemaking and her insider’s perspective on how to encourage it based on her work as an emergency medicine specialist and medical educator. As she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, many physicians possess the creativity, persistence, sense of purpose and appetite for learning that define changemakers, but lack the environment in which to put those qualities to use. “Culture influences all of this. Organizations have to make sure that the work environment is one in which people can share their opinions and take risks. It is fundamental to changemaking.” This episode also explores key themes in Dr. Austin’s book, Revitalized: A Guidebook to Following Your Healing Heartline, which provides practical steps to overcoming burnout and creating a values-aligned medical career.

Offering only one degree; developing a cloud computing program in collaboration with Amazon Web Services; working with high schools so students can earn an associate degree before graduation: these are examples of the kind of innovation community colleges must pursue to stay relevant to students and employers alike, according to our guest today, Dr. Pam Eddinger, president of Bunker Hill Community College. “This is where the next iteration of community college must be. We can’t just stay in a classroom. It doesn’t work that way anymore.” Those examples and others are included in the new book Dr. Eddinger is co-editing, Beyond the College Walls: Partnerships and the Future of Community College Reform, which is due out from Harvard Education Press in September, 2026. As she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, who contributed a chapter to the book, community colleges must work to blur the boundaries between high school, college, and careers and make it easier for students -- especially adult learners -- to gain the skills they need in ways that fit their lives. Join us for a forward-looking WorkforceRx conversation on how community colleges are reimagining pathways to economic mobility and building partnerships that connect students more directly to opportunity.

“How do we leverage what we have more intentionally to have greater impact in our communities?” That purposeful question is posed and answered in this thought-provoking episode of WorkforceRx by David Zuckerman, president and CEO of the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), whose seventy health systems and 1,000 hospitals are committed to improving economic equity, vitality and community health through their hiring, purchasing and investment decisions. The approach is built on the acknowledgement that healthcare organizations, as well as institutions of higher education, are “anchors” of local economies due to the scale of their economic activity, and it is fueled by the appealing alignment of mission with good business practices. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton- Quinlivan as she explores the accompanying workforce development strategies, how to make the business case for this approach, and the importance of having internal champions at the executive level. And stay tuned to hear about innovative examples of HAN members in St. Louis, Chicago, New Orleans and elsewhere that are reimagining the role health systems play in economic development.

Even though use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has nearly doubled for US employees in the past two years, a recent Gallup poll found that only 22 % of companies have a clear, communicated strategy for integrating AI. On today's episode of WorkforceRx, we’re going to explore how organizations can help their employees adjust to AI disruptions and redefine their value in an AI context with Teresa Chapman, Chief People Officer with Santa Clara Family Health Plan, which serves over 300,000 members across California’s Santa Clara County. “We want to make sure to equip our employees to be expert users of a multitude of AI tools so that they have the confidence to evolve with the surrounding environment,” she shares. As Chapman tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, the company is also working to develop a “co-architecture” with employees and AI to achieve a symbiotic relationship that draws on the strengths of each and keeps the special attributes of humans in focus. “The future of work is going to really be more around problem solving and creativity and emotional intelligence and relationship building. It's going to be about understanding where the human fits in.” Don’t miss this timely look at how forward-thinking employers can maintain, and even strengthen, the human touch in healthcare and other sectors.

“There are persistent and critical gaps between education and industry that hinder economic advancement and we share a belief that those gaps need to be bridged,” says Julian Alssid, summing up why he and his business partner, Kaitlin Lemoine, created Work Forces, a consulting company that serves stakeholders in those sectors and beyond. On this episode of WorkforceRx, they join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an informative dialogue on how to create and sustain effective workforce development partnerships based on insights gained during their decades of work in the space. They also discuss trends they’re learning about in their client work and as co-hosts of the Work Forces podcast. “One thing that stands out is that workforce development for a long time felt kind of peripheral to education, and I think it’s more now than ever the center of things,” shares Kaitlin Lemoine. In this thoughtful conversation you’ll also learn about: • The biggest changes in preparing learners for work • Trends in skills-based learning • A promising shift toward regional initiatives • How AI is forcing clarity about the durable skills workers need. As you’ll hear from these nationally recognized experts, the pressure to get these relationships and programs right is growing as the pace of change in the workplace accelerates on a daily basis.

We start the new year by bringing you a fresh perspective on key sources of concern for American society at large and the workforce development sector in particular: AI disruption in the workplace and education, and the many challenges presented by our rapidly aging population. For Professor Mitchell Stevens of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University, a shift from anxiety to optimism about these changes is urgently needed. “I’m not trying to say that the future will be all good, but that the future can only be good if everyday people, politicians and corporate leaders sort of ambitiously anticipate a positive future and then imagine ways to build it,” says Stevens, who helps lead Stanford’s Center for Longevity and its Learning Society Initiative. Thinking about aging as longevity instead, and working to extend the functional part of our lives through better health and educational opportunities is a prime example of this mindset. Other recommendations he offers include: • Recognize that schooling and learning are not the same and reward learning wherever it occurs; • Link conversations about AI, aging and the future of work; • Draw on lessons learned from previous responses to mass economic disruption caused by technological advancement. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for a deeply-informed and encouraging contemplation of how to leverage this current moment of consequential change.

According to recent studies, micro-credentials are experiencing a surge in interest and acceptance by learners and employers, which is creating both a challenge and an opportunity for educators trying to meet the demand for them. One of the major players helping educators in this task is the Education Design Lab, which is working with more than 100 community colleges and state community college systems to implement “micro-pathways” that map to 100 different job roles. “What colleges need to be concerned about is the relevancy of these programs to high demand jobs and careers, and that people need short-term options to move towards their larger goals,” says CEO Lisa Larson. Key criteria for the pathways include being affordable, stackable, less than one year in duration and validated by employers. As Larson explains, animating this work is EDL’s interest in meeting the needs of what it calls the “new majority learner” – mainly working adults who require additional access points and flexible options for earning credentials. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan as she explores how community colleges are developing deeper employer partnerships and shared curricula to help learners leverage the power of micro-pathways in building their economic futures.

“There are so many myths that we’re left brain, we’re right brain, we’re creative, we’re analytical, but none of that’s true. We’re all whole-brain humans and we all have the ability to be creative,” says cognitive scientist Dr. Tessa Forshaw, co-author, with design strategist and CEO Richard Braden, of the new book, Innovation-ish, which aims to demystify creativity and make it accessible to everyone in the workforce. But while we may all have creative potential, studies show that less than 50% of people see themselves as being creative, largely due to socialization that discourages embarrassment and risk-taking, and misconceptions about innovators. Overcoming that “innovation hesitation” and providing practical steps that give people the confidence they need to be creative is the mission of the book, which is built upon the system the authors use in their classes at Harvard and Stanford universities. Their message is timely: in a fast-changing economy, as Braden notes, “the ability to be creative and solve problems and adapt as you go is becoming less optional and more necessary all the time.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an insightful look at the mindsets that are needed to tap creativity, the role of leaders in cultivating innovation, and real world examples of out-of-the-box solutions that emerged from an inclusive problem-solving process.

Hospice care in the US has undergone major shifts in recent years, with a significant jump in usage and a 400% increase in private equity ownership as major factors driving it to become the most profitable subsector in healthcare, according to a 2023 RAND Corporation study. To understand these trends what they mean for healthcare workers, patients and families, we turn to Fran Smith, co-author of Changing the Way We Die: Compassionate End of Life Care and the Hospice Movement, an Amazon bestseller. As she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, what started as a non-profit, mission-driven movement has evolved into an industry dominated by for-profit entities -- including a growing percentage backed by private equity -- with major implications for quality and consistency of care. “There is some data showing that staffing is poor at privately owned and private equity hospices compared to nonprofits, and that the for-profit hospice companies use more licensed practical nurses than registered nurses,” she explains. And while Smith believes it’s better for there to be a mix of business models in the sector, she does advise that people seeking hospice care evaluate their options using tools on the medicare.gov website, and by asking providers in their circle about the reputation of various organizations. This super informative episode of WorkforceRx also provides advice on when and how to talk to loved ones about end-of-life wishes, and a takes look at the future of this crucially important type of healthcare.

“If we can’t get the private sector to lean in and play the right roles, we’re going to miss the mark,” says Francie Genz, CEO of Formation, a national organization helping communities build resilient, industry-led workforce systems. In an episode packed with practical advice, Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan explores how Genz and her team are working to turn decades of fragmented employer engagement into a disciplined model for collaboration through the NextGen Sector Partnership framework, now active in 100 communities across 20 states. Rather than viewing businesses as passive beneficiaries of training programs, the model positions them as co-owners and co-investors in developing talent pipelines and regional competitiveness. “Part of it is raising the bar on what we expect from the private sector, but then also it's about good process and relationships. It's about getting organized to create the conditions for the private sector to play those different roles.” Tune in for real world examples of how building “shared tables” and checking egos at the door can produce action-oriented partnerships that evolve with the economy, and why the future of workforce development lies in adaptive, data-informed collaboration, not static skills-gap models.

Among the knotty issues that dementia forces on family caregivers is when to know if their loved one with the disorder is in need of in-home supports and ultimately, when moving to a skilled facility is warranted. Often making those decisions more difficult is a loss of self-awareness caused by the disease, which can lead to rejection of needed services. As geriatrician and dementia researcher Dr. Thomas Tannou puts it, “If you forget that you forget, you will not be aware that you need to go on a path to be supported.” The impact of self-perception disorders on aging in place and the capacity of older people living with dementia is the focus of Dr. Tannou’s research at the Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, and it has led him to advocate for a reframing of Alzheimer’s not just as a disease of memory, but an inability to adapt to new circumstances. That distinction in turn, he says, should trigger a reconsideration of the wisdom of aging in place in favor of relocating people when they can still learn new routines and maintain social connections. Join WorkforceRx host and Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for a deeply informative and wide ranging discussion of related issues such as overlooked early warning signs of dementia, how clinically-informed technology can support independent living, balancing safety with dignity as we support those with dementia, and the workforce implications of a relentless increase in people needing dementia care.

Could earning a traditional undergraduate degree actually hurt your chances of getting hired? A 2024 survey from Hult International Business School suggests as much, reporting that 89% of companies avoid hiring recent graduates due to their lack of real-world work experiences. On today’s episode of WorkforceRx, we’re going to focus on closing the gap between what employers are seeking and what colleges are teaching with Dana Stephenson, the Co-Founder and CEO of Riipen, a platform that partners with academic institutions and employers to offer experiential learning opportunities. "Employers are looking for durable skills like collaboration, leadership, initiative, and the ability to learn and unlearn. These have become more important than ever in an era where AI is beginning to take on more of the entry level tasks," he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. To create more of those opportunities, intermediaries like Riipen are helping colleges offer more flexible learning formats – such as project-based work and micro-internships – and simultaneously relieving employers of administrative burdens and finding creative ways for students to do meaningful work for them. “We’re really trying to find the right experiences to meet the students where they are, meet employers where they are, and break down barriers to increase access in a cost effective way.” This conversation also highlights states that are fueling work-based learning, and offers a fascinating look at a future of education in which AI-supported experiential learning experiences help students to develop soft skills.

“Community colleges play this really unique role because we balance this idea of a general education with integrating skills that get you ready for employment. Those things can dance together, and I think community colleges do that dance so beautifully,” says our WorkforceRx guest, Professor Kate Connor of Harry S. Truman College in Chicago. One example of that dance is integrating the life and work experience of students directly into coursework, something Connor has seen play out in her own specialty of early childhood education where college students are already out in the field leading classes of their own. “Figuring out really great ways to integrate their knowledge into class assignments while also building additional expertise is I think the magic sauce of working with adult learners.” Professor Connor met Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan when they were serving together on the National Skills Coalition’s Care Workforce Advisory Council, so this episode’s conversation also takes a broad look at what’s needed to support workers in the caring professions, who do what she describes as high stress, low wage jobs that involve helping people through difficult and sensitive life changes. “If we come together, we can communicate about the care workforce in a new way that hopefully leads to the pay and support they deserve, and increases respect for the work they are doing.” This wide-ranging interview also offers insights on prior learning assessments, work-based learning experiences, and how credential structures can help align education with workforce needs.

“Caregivers come to this work because they have a big heart, but having a big heart doesn't mean that they are prepared to do what is a both a mentally and physically taxing job,” says Corinne Eldridge, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Caregiver Advancement. That’s where CCA’s training programs come in, which have upskilled more than 70,000 in-home caregivers in the last 25 years in courses that cover the essentials of doing the job as well as managing a variety of specific conditions such as diabetes, autism, and heart disease. As Eldridge explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, CCA has formed a number of academic partnerships so that its trainings can be informed by research and data analysis. For instance, a recent study on the efficacy of online training for workers caring for people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias showed that it improved knowledge and caregiving skills, and also boosted self-efficacy in managing symptoms. Beyond developing relevant job skills, Eldridge sees training as a critical component in creating jobs that will attract and retain workers. “Access to training makes you feel more confident in your work and actually keeps you in the work because you have something to look forward to and a way to advance.” In this valuable discussion on WorkforceRx, you’ll also learn about the need for culturally and linguistically competent caregivers, the complexities of providing care to family members, and why Eldridge thinks these challenging times call for creativity.

One way to close the historically large and growing gap in income and wealth in America is for more wage earners to become business owners so they can start building assets. That’s a theory that our WorkforceRx guest, Alfredo Mathew III, has seen working in California using a state-supported community capital fund in under-invested communities. “The big opportunity is to help shift businesses that are sole proprietors to build up to $500,000 or more in revenue so they can hire employees and ultimately grow beyond the labor of the founder. That way, you are creating an asset that is going to grow, which is the foundation of wealth building,” says Mathew, a former educator turned social entrepreneur and systems thinker who was instrumental in launching that fund. He is simultaneously pursuing a shared ownership model through an organization he founded called SPCC.1, that groups small business into cooperatives so that members can enjoy the benefits that scale brings, including higher potential for income growth and purchasing power for insurance and other business needs. In this wide-ranging and provocative conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, you’ll also learn how pre-distribution, micro assets, financial literacy and regenerative lending are essential elements of an alternative approach to building both individual and community prosperity in the U.S.

“The pace of change is just so rapid right now and that requires people at all levels throughout the organization to be agile and to continue to learn and grow,” says Carole Bennett, vice president of Talent Management and Development at Sutter Health, a twenty-four hospital system serving Northern California. In addition to building an ‘every day, everywhere’ continuous learning culture to keep employees up to date, Sutter Health also needs to solve for the workforce shortages plaguing the industry by preparing the internal workforce for new roles. “Part of what we're really trying to do is help people map their career aspirations and then provide development opportunities so that they can achieve those goals,” she shares with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Studies show this grow-your-own approach results in higher employee retention and satisfaction, and also gives a boost to recruitment efforts, which Bennett has seen first-hand. As for new employees, they engage with Sutter Health University, the organization’s learning arm, which Bennett believes is helping the system become a talent destination. Spend some time learning from this leading voice in employee development as she illustrates the important role of mentoring and coaching, describes how learning opportunities build agility and resilience, and offers tips on how to gain leadership support for learning resources.

Eleven thousand people turn sixty-five every day in the US, a pace which is continuing to intensify the challenges of providing adequate care for seniors. On this episode of WorkforceRx we're going to learn what this means for the quality of life of the elderly population -- especially for those with dementia and their caregivers -- from Jarmin Yeh, associate professor in the Institute for Health and Aging in the School of Nursing at University of California, San Francisco. “There is a big gap between what people desire and what services and programs are available and accessible in two ways: physically accessible, but also accessible from the standpoint of language, being culturally inclusive, and accommodating to the different needs that an older adult may have,” she explains. Closing that gap, Yeh says, requires a collective approach that includes policy makers, municipal planners, caregivers, care recipients and community members at large, all focused on creating the age-friendly built environment and opportunities for social connection that seniors need to thrive. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an in-depth look at those issues, plus promising workforce training programs for direct care workers, efforts to boost community-wide awareness of the signs of dementia, and small adaptations in the home that can enhance comfort and safety for seniors.

“The traditional workforce training system has really focused on a very rigid model that doesn't work for how technology has shifted and how demographics are shifting,” says Sabari Raja, who is trying to accelerate the availability of more flexible training models as managing partner of JFFVentures, an impact fund that was spun out of the forty year old workforce development nonprofit, Jobs For the Future. With 45% of the US workforce making less than $50,000 a year, Raja and her team are investing in solutions that support economic mobility for middle-to-low wage populations through access to skills, job opportunities, work-based learning, and wrap-around supports to remove barriers to getting and keeping a job. She is also looking for a certain type of entrepreneur. “We want to support founders that are coming to the table with lived experience, with passion and purpose, but also with the right technical skills to build a viable business,” she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Tune-in to learn about emerging companies that are using AI for ESL learning, college advising, supporting solopreneurs and helping small businesses offer personalized training to employees. You’ll also come away with an understanding of how impact investing is lifting up mission-driven companies that can thrive and return capital for all stakeholders

On this episode of WorkforceRx, we take a close look at a successful model for assisting a part of the U.S. workforce that faces more challenges than most others: formerly incarcerated individuals. Among the headwinds they face in the job market are social stigmas, legal barriers, and a lack of up-to-date skills, which explains an unemployment rate of over 27% for this population. Over the last several decades, the Center for Employment Opportunities has developed an effective approach for reducing recidivism that combines immediate employment after release with one-on-one case management, job placement and job retention services, propelling it to become the nation's largest re-entry employment organization. As the Center’s CEO Sam Schaeffer explains, nearly half of its funding comes through contracts with public agencies, such as parks departments, which are in need of supplemental labor that's highly flexible. “We go in and make the case that you need this work and we can provide it in a cost-effective way. It’s a testament to the amazing work that our crew members do every day that once we're in and people see how strong the work is, it’s very rare for us to not have that become a multi-decade relationship.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan as she explores other success factors in the Center’s model such as cash incentives, daily paychecks and helping participants find higher level work that provides both purpose and economic mobility.

While it’s customary for companies to claim that ‘people are our most important resource’, today’s WorkforceRx guest, Dr. Angela Jackson, knows that amounts to lip service at many firms. In her new book The Win-Win Workplace: How Thriving Employees Drive Bottom Line Success, Dr. Jackson shares what it looks like when a company walks the talk. In researching 1,700 companies for the book, and based on countless meetings with business leaders, Dr. Jackson spotted commonalities among the most successful workplaces. “I saw investments around centering worker voice, I saw that the leadership was doing deep employee training -- not just for the skills for today, but really looking around the corner and seeing the skills of tomorrow -- and many of these thriving workplaces had a very specific initiative around measuring this so they could actually tell you how those had a correlation to lift on the bottom line,” says Dr. Jackson, who is also a lecturer at Harvard University and CEO of Future Forward Strategies. In this super informative conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, Dr. Jackson shares many examples of how companies effectively incorporate worker input, track employee wellbeing, and build trust, all while achieving strong financial performance. “We looked at real ROI and saw increased share price. It's not fluffy. It's not soft. These are real results.” Tune in for a deeply-informed look at how to unlock organizational potential by redefining traditional approaches to human capital, and also learn how companies are navigating pushback on DEI programs in this high stakes environment.

Too many students go through college focused on fulfilling course requirements for their major with insufficient attention to their actual personal and career interests. The result is they earn empty college degrees that are not connected to the life that comes after graduation. Those provocative conclusions come from a new book called Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn't Matter and What Really Does by veteran college administrator Ned Scott Laff, and Scott Carlson, senior writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education. “A singular focus on the major winds up confusing students and not allowing them to take advantage of all the other things that are in the college space and how they could marry some of these things to their actual interests,” says Carlson. To make their college education more relevant to them, Laff says it’s critical that advisers help students determine what they are really interested in. “All of a sudden, a sociology major can be a pre-med program or a business program or a marketing program. When you change the conversation, students begin to see the learning opportunities on campus and the whole nature of the college changes without the structure of the college changing at all. It's just how students take advantage of the opportunities that are right there.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for a fascinating exploration of how students can explore the college system, the surrounding community, and the hidden job market to connect their learning with their true interests and get on the path to building a fulfilling career.

There’s a growing consensus that the best patient care is delivered by multidisciplinary teams, but as you’ll hear on this episode of WorkforceRx, generating solutions to problems facing healthcare and medical education can benefit from the same interprofessional approach. That’s what our guest, Dr. Patricia Cuff, has learned leading the Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine with a membership that includes academic experts and practitioners from many specialties. “Everyone has a voice in the Forum and everyone is considered an important part of the team. This is actually quite rare in education as well as healthcare, where everything tends to be much more siloed.” One of the top concerns identified in workshops and larger Forum convenings is a lack of required education in geriatrics even though the growing elderly population presents a major challenge to the health system. Other key concerns highlighted by Forum members include incompatibility of electronic health records, the high cost of education and provider burnout. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for a look at what solutions Forum members are identifying for these and other problems and what’s changing, and needs to change, in the education of healthcare providers to create a future with more team-based, patient-centered care.

States are often described as laboratories for public policy development on major issues, generating new best practices that can spread to other states and influence federal action. As an acknowledged leader in working to improve healthcare access and quality, California’s innovations in this area are closely watched, including the unusual step it took in the last few years to allow non-traditional providers to participate in its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. According to our WorkforceRx guest, Carlina Hansen of the California Health Care Foundation, the idea behind it is to tap provider resources that are more closely connected to the patients being served. “California is interested in seeing how we can amplify the role of community-connected workers such as doulas, peer support specialists and health navigators who often act as trusted bridges between the healthcare system and our communities,” she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. A new Foundation report reveals the approach is gaining some traction thanks in part to the role of Community Care Hubs which help providers new to the system navigate administrative requirements that can serve as barriers to entry. “Hubs act as sort of the connective tissue between health plans, providers, and communities. They hold the promise to make it easier to connect those community-based providers and their patients to Medi-Cal.” This in-depth conversation offers a ground level view of promising innovations in providing community-based, whole person care with an expanded interprofessional team.

Persistent labor shortages have spurred some healthcare systems to take a “grow-your-own” approach that involves upskilling current employees to supplement external recruitment. Today on WorkforceRx, we’re going to learn about an innovator in this area, Ochsner Health System in Louisiana, which uses coaches, apprenticeships, and flexible pathways to help advance its employee’s skills and careers. “You really have to have that mindset shift that we are a learning culture and we're all-in on employee development,” says Missy Hopson, PhD, Ochsner's Chief Learning and Workforce Development Officer. As Hopson shares with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, there have been some impressive results. Using medical assistants as an example, 94% who went through Ochsner’s apprenticeship pathway program were still on the job 18 months later, a huge jump over the normal 18-month retention rate of 55%. Broader retention efforts include making in-house career coaches available to all employees and deploying life coaches when employees face difficult circumstances that might create barriers to staying on the job, such as problems with transportation or family instability. “If needs go unmet, you often end up rolling out of the organization and we miss out on the opportunity of having that win-win relationship between the person who's joined us and their future self,” says Hopson. Tune in for the illuminating details of how Hopson and her team have won over hiring managers and senior leaders with a compelling business case for DIY workforce development and providing holistic support for employees.

As a physician for many decades and former Secretary of Health and Human Resources in Virginia for eight years, Dr. Bill Hazel has come to believe there is one necessary ingredient to unraveling the very knotty problems the healthcare system faces: collaboration. As he explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, he used his power as Secretary to breakdown government silos to develop multi-agency solutions. Now as CEO of Claude Moore Opportunities -- a public charity focused on workforce development -- he’s pulling players in that space together in a regional and sector-based approach. “I’m a big fan of bringing folks into a room, agreeing on what the problem is, and then thinking about different ways we can contribute to solving it.” Dr. Hazel believes collaboration is also the basis for addressing the physician burnout crisis, arguing that moving to more of a team-based approach will yield a more efficient and supportive environment. “Physicians are overwhelmed and lousy jobs will not attract and keep people. We have to fundamentally look at how we're providing services going forward and make use of teams, which then can support each other and add expertise.” In this wide-ranging episode of WorkforceRx, Dr. Hazel also describes the role of philanthropy in providing flexible funding for innovation, advocates for starting career exploration earlier in the K-12 journey, and discusses why growing the behavioral health workforce is a top priority.

To mark the fifth year of our founding and the 100th episode of WorkforceRx, we've tapped a very special member of the Futuro Health family, board member Dr. Joanne Spetz, to share her insights on the nation's healthcare workforce landscape and how Futuro Health fits into efforts to meet the growing demand for allied health workers. “Part of the reason I agreed to be on the board is that Futuro Health is creating a model to really think about how to do allied health training at scale. What components of education can be delivered remotely or delivered on a convenient schedule for the learner, and what modules really require the in-person component,” says Spetz, director and presidential chair in healthcare financing at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at University of California, San Francisco where she also directs the Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care. As for areas to focus on going forward, Spetz thinks Futuro Health has opportunities to help its graduates succeed once on the job through creation of peer support networks. “Can those workers continue to be connected to each other for their lifelong career development and all the other things that workers do together?” This reflective conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan also covers workforce challenges in long-term care, the tricky trade-offs healthcare employers face in hiring and retention, and why Futuro’s mission to create education journeys into allied health careers is so important.

We may soon face a future where AI Agents handle the bulk of low-skilled, entry-level work, forcing educators to figure out how to train people to start their careers in the middle of the ladder instead of on the first rung. That’s the conclusion our guest Matt Sigelman is drawing from research on AI conducted by the organization he heads, Burning Glass Institute, a leading labor market analytics firm. “I think there are questions here both for how AI helps people get into work, but also for whether people can move up within it,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. This challenge comes on top of deficiencies Burning Glass has identified in how high schools handle workforce training. “When you look at all the credentials students are earning in high school today, only about 18% are actually in demand and lead to high mobility jobs.” Those roles, which Sigelman calls “launchpad jobs” have helped two million workers in the US without degrees earn six figure salaries. Conversely, Burning Glass research shows if you pick the wrong type of job at the start of your career, it can lead to poverty by age forty. In his encore appearance on WorkforceRx, this pioneer in real-time labor market data shares other research on career mobility in the US and abroad, provides an update on the movement to increase skills-based hiring, and reveals what he thinks are the new “power skills” of the 21st century workforce. Don’t miss this wide-ranging and revealing conversation.

On this episode of WorkforceRx, we turn our attention to the challenges and opportunities of one of the fastest growing parts of the US workforce: mid-career and older employees. In fact, the percentage of people over sixty-five who are currently employed is nearly twice as high as it was in the 1990s. “The key driver of the growth we're seeing is an increase in financial insecurity for older adults. Nearly half of adults age fifty-five to sixty-six have no retirement savings,” says Anika Heavener, vice president of Innovation and Investments at The SCAN Foundation, an independent public charity focused on solutions to help adults age well. But, as Heavener explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, the financial imperative to keep working is bumping up against ageism in hiring, particularly a mistaken belief among hiring managers that older people are not well-suited to using new technologies like artificial intelligence. “Our research found that older workers have embraced AI, and they’re actively using it to enhance their work. Employers need to acknowledge and value those workers.” Tune in to this enlightening conversation to learn about other revealing research on the aging workforce and how workforce development programs can evolve to meet the needs of this important demographic, plus you’ll hear about the role of venture capital in fostering intergenerational working environments.

“I really think that everything from this last election to Brexit to the unrest around the country and the world shows that the old economic paradigm of trickle-down economics has left families broke and in debt and in need of a new paradigm,” says Natalie Foster, president of the Economic Security Project. The answer, as she lays out in her new book The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America's Next Economy, is to provide individuals and families with the same sense of security that American businesses enjoy through a web of laws and institutions that provide the stability they need to be innovative and thrive. As Foster tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, she sees the new paradigm -- which would create an economic floor of guaranteed income, housing, healthcare, childcare and education -- as an evolution of American capitalism. “It’s an evolution that's needed if we are truly to tap into the genius that exists all over this country but is unevenly tapped now because opportunity in America is uneven.” Foster says pilot programs in various cities and states have proven the wisdom of the approach, and she’s expects those local innovations to continue during what will likely be a period of national inaction given the outcome of the November elections. Don’t miss this provocative conversation that includes discussion of extending income guarantees to those pursuing jobs in specific sectors with severe workforce shortages, and what federal policy during the pandemic taught us about the power of economic security.

One of one of the most significant attempts to spur economic growth and U.S. global competitiveness since the space race was made a few years ago through the CHIPS and Science Act, but many people in workforce development, economic development and higher education aren’t aware of the new opportunities flowing from it. Our guest on this episode of WorkforceRx, Shalin Jyotishi, launched the Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative at New America to help create that awareness and help localities prepare to take advantage of those opportunities. “We’re focused on building the capacity of higher education and workforce institutions to be better positioned to respond to economic development and industrial policy investments coming into their communities, especially around the innovation economy and emerging technologies,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. One key example is that the CHIPS Act expanded the mission of the National Science Foundation to include supporting the translation of research into technologies, companies and, ultimately, jobs with an eye on regional equity. “The objective here is to make sure that the entire country is able to come along for the ride and not just the traditional tech hotspots like Silicon Valley and Boston,” Jyotishi explains. Tune in to find out which states are early winners in this expansion of opportunity and what else has been set in motion in the attempt to align federal investment with tech innovation to renew the American middle class.

For those who can’t afford to leave their job to earn a degree, there’s a relatively new ‘learn and earn’ model that essentially turns a job into a degree program. It’s called the apprenticeship degree, and we’re going to learn all about it on today’s episode of WorkforceRx from Joe Ross, president of Reach University, which is dedicated to growing this approach. As Ross tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, Reach’s first area of focus is K-12 schools where it can offer classroom aides, cafeteria workers and other staff without bachelor’s degrees a pathway to the teaching profession. A typical student might do online seminars twice per week in addition to working fulltime. Not only will this help with the teacher shortage, Ross says, it also increases diversity. “Paraeducators are much more likely to look like the students they serve in a given community than the teachers.” Find out how the programs are funded, how liberal arts courses can be integrated into the workplace experience and what models Reach is developing for the behavioral health sector as this innovation becomes more popular.

“The job is broken. Primary care is about relationships and building trust with patients, and knowing who they are as people. You can’t do that in a fifteen minute visit,” says Dr. Alan Glaseroff, a longtime family physician and health care delivery innovator affiliated with Stanford University. Add to that the need to do hours of administrative work on weeknights and weekends, and Glaseroff can understand why it’s hard to get medical students to choose primary care as a specialty. As he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, the answer starts with changing the model of care to restore the appeal of primary care as a career. On this episode of WorkforceRx, Glaseroff shares several innovations he helped develop at Stanford that revolved around empowering medical assistants to do more. “Our medical assistants had their own panels of patients. They stayed in touch with the patients between visits and they helped motivate them in activities that would make them more healthy.” Other structural changes allowed physicians to only intervene with patients when most needed, and ensured that everyone’s work was done by 5pm. The result was improved patient satisfaction, job satisfaction and quality of care. Tune in to learn about other innovations in the delivery system and payment system that might help address the chronic shortage of primary care physicians that is hampering efforts to improve health and healthcare.

Studies show that when it comes to getting people interested in any career, early exposure can make a significant impact on their ultimate choice. That helps explain why a program in Nebraska that’s aimed at cultivating interest in healthcare jobs begins in the third grade. As we learn in this episode of WorkforceRx, the Health Careers Pipeline Initiative is just one of several workforce development strategies being pursued by the Nebraska Hospital Association under the guidance of Dr. Stacey Ocander, the association's senior director of workforce and education initiatives. “You really have to start the excitement young. You have to be the people who establish the strongest relationship before something that may be negative in their life gets a hold of them,” says Ocander, a self-described creative disruptor. The program starts with exposing youngsters to thirty-two healthcare occupations and gradually winnows that number down to one or two as students discover their interests through summer camps and internships in middle school and high school. Ocander sees this sustained contact as critical. “My goal is by the time they're a senior, our hospitals are engaged to help them pay for that first two years of college to get them to that first license.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an encouraging exploration of innovative partnerships between hospitals and educators and the benefits of doing ‘business as unusual.’

Today we’re going to take a look at how America’s largest state is tackling one of the biggest challenges in the nation’s healthcare system: increasing the supply of behavioral health providers. As we’ll hear from our guests on this episode of WorkforceRx, heightened attention to the issue from California Governor Newsom‘s administration has led to more funding and a greater degree of coordination at the state level. “Our agencies and departments are coming together in ways they have never come together before to really collaborate and figure out how we can align and leverage resources, expertise, and opportunities,” says Jessica Pitt, assistant deputy secretary of Healthcare Workforce at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. Elizabeth Landsberg, director of the California Department of Healthcare Access and Information, calls out new data gathering and modeling initiatives that support the department’s goals of increasing the diversity of the health workforce and the number of providers in medically underserved areas. “The data allows us to see the race, ethnicity, and the languages spoken by the workforce. We're using that data to prioritize our efforts geographically and by role to address the largest shortage areas,” she explains. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an inside look at California’s strategies for developing and diversifying its behavioral health workforce that include apprenticeships, increasing clinical placements for trainees, and integrating behavioral health into primary care practices.

There are many stakeholders in the ongoing effort to combat healthcare workforce shortages but one of the most important is state governments because of their critical role in providing healthcare services. Today on WorkforceRx, we're going to check in with one of the states that is leading national efforts to find solutions by talking with Jennifer Davis, Senior Policy Advisor on Human Services to Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. Jen has been instrumental in Wyoming's robust efforts to increase the healthcare workforce, particularly with regard to the providers of mental and behavioral health services. “We did some mapping of the behavioral health professions that we actually have in Wyoming and in some of those, we only have one or two people who are licensed and so it's really forced us to have a conversation about what do we want to be, what is working toward that end, and what is not?” Strategies to deal with shortages in mental health and other healthcare fields include clearing barriers in licensing, improving credit transfers from the state’s community colleges to its sole university, and creating clear educational pathways in consultation with industry sectors. There is much to learn in this probing conversation with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan about recruitment and retention strategies for rural areas, efforts to maintain access by upskilling providers, and national initiatives to develop and share best practices.

“Anyone who feels like they want to go to college should be able to go, but having just one choice for every young person entering the labor market seems like a mistake,” says John Colborn, executive director of Apprenticeships for America. Opening a second pathway of apprenticeship would not only serve those for whom college is not a viable option, Colborn argues, but it would also help employers who need workers with hard skills that are often not acquired through degree programs. Colborn is particularly excited about an emerging third path that blends apprenticeships and degree programs that’s being used to grow the ranks of nurses, engineers and teachers. “What schools are doing is putting paraprofessionals already working in the school into a teaching role and at the same time enabling them to get the four-year credential that's necessary to become a full -fledged teacher.” While Colborn hopes this “flex” of the apprenticeship model will boost the country’s low utilization of apprenticeships compared to other industrialized nations, significant growth won’t occur until there is much more federal funding, and different models of funding, than currently exist. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan on this episode of WorkforceRx for an exploration of what those models can be, and the role that states and other actors can play to boost the visibility of a proven option for supplying the workforce the US economy needs.

Boosting completion rates at higher education institutions in the US has been a hot topic for years, with particular concern given to the relatively low 43% rate for community colleges. We're going to take a look at solutions to that problem today with Dr. Steve Handel, director of strategy for Post -Secondary Education Transformation at ECMC Foundation. “Part of the work we would like to do is figure out ways to improve that completion rate, particularly for students who we might not predict initially would have the wherewithal to complete a degree. How do we change the structures that were built for a different set of constituencies in a different age,” Handel tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Key steps include addressing obstacles for working adults and adult students with children and improving the transfer process between community colleges and a four-year institutions. A bigger lift might be changing financial incentives so that colleges focus more on completion than the number of students admitted. “Colleges and universities, like all organizations, are going to pivot to the ways that sustain their institutions,” he says. Tune in for an informative scan of other ideas including expanded use of online education, integrating work experiences into degree programs, addressing the high cost of education, and doing a better job of communicating just how essential post-secondary learning is to social and economic mobility.

One of the oldest forms of training, apprenticeship, has new relevance in the age of AI according to today’s WorkforceRx guest Vinz Koller, a nationally influential voice on the subject and self-described apprenticeship evangelist. Why? Because the pace of change brought about by AI and other technologies has accelerated to a point where predictions about what specific skills workers in most fields will need even a year from now have questionable value. “The model of apprenticeship is particularly appropriate because in my view, apprenticeship is a look into the future. You are actually in the workplace. You don't have to predict what things will be like in ten years. The workplace will evolve and you will evolve with it,” Koller tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. In his role as senior strategist for Capacity Building at Social Policy Research Associates, Koller works with local communities, states, and the US government to determine how to make work-based learning more accessible to more people. On the learner/worker side, a welcome step would be enabling apprentices to earn an associate-level degree upon completion of their training. For employers, key needs include regulatory changes to make hosting apprentices easier and help with setting-up and tracking programs. The aim, he says, is to turn more employers into “co-producers of talent” instead of just consumers of it. This expansive conversation also covers the multi-faceted return on investment for employers, the need for high school recruitment programs, and the role apprenticeships could play in reducing student debt.

Our exploration of solutions for growing and strengthening the direct care workforce continues on this episode of WorkforceRx with a close look at a potentially transformative employee-owned cooperative model that’s gaining traction in California. In the eyes of our guest, Aquilina Soriano Versoza, the higher pay and better working conditions that co-ops can provide will help grow an urgently needed workforce and address current injustices that prevail in the “wild west” of private home care. “Very typically, Filipino immigrant caregivers are receiving $5 or less per hour with no overtime, no job security, and no benefits. Some are earning just above $2 an hour,” she explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. As executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, Versoza has helped pioneer a co-op model that, in addition to higher wages, offers on-the-job skills training, education in operating a co-op business, and the opportunity to work in teams. There are several co-ops up and running now, and a franchise approach is being put in place to increase scale. “In five years, we have the vision that every metropolis in California will have a cooperative option, both for workers as well as individuals who want to access long term care through a cooperative.” Spend some time with this thoughtful national leader who sees the crisis in home care as an opportunity to improve the quality of life for both the seniors receiving care and the workers providing it.

“I think training is gonna be so different looking in the next few years than what we're used to,” says Anson Green who brings a very seasoned eye to the workforce training landscape. After decades working in adult education, Green is now helping Tyson Foods train an incredibly diverse global workforce and, in the U.S. 60% are immigrants with very limited digital and language skills. As he explains to Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, succeeding at this challenge starts with a belief in their ability to learn. “They're very, very mobile in terms of their models of how to get things done, and they figure things out.” The big change he sees coming is due to AI-powered training programs that allow him to customize content by reading level, language and other factors with a few clicks instead of many hours of effort. Another key factor is that technology is getting easier to use. “We've got this really sweet spot where robots that five years ago would have taken an associate's degree to be able to run, I could teach you how to run in an afternoon.” This is a great chance to learn about leading edge training programs at one of the world’s largest food companies and to find out about a hidden workforce training jewel in nearly every US community.

“I'm able to be here with you today because my son is at a wonderful childcare provider home,” says WorkforceRx guest, Rachel Wick, to illustrate how critical direct care workers are to our lives and economy. Wick, the senior program officer for Blue Shield of California Foundation, describes childcare and direct care provided in the home for the elderly and disabled as ‘the work that makes all other work possible.’ As she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, it’s time our society valued it as such and invested in the sector the way we invest in public schools and healthcare. Wick is hoping the foundation’s new report, Forging a Sustainable Future for California's Direct Care Workforce, will help provide a shared understanding of these workers and their challenges among all relevant stakeholders to help advance needed policy changes. Raising up this worker population and increasing economic security for other low-income communities is part of the foundation’s overall mission to remove barriers to health and wellbeing, especially among people of color, in order to build lasting and equitable solutions that will make California the healthiest state. “As we listen to families across California, what they tell us is that health and wellbeing and stability is just not possible when you are caught in a relentless daily struggle for survival.” Tune in to learn more about the role economic security plays in health, and how unionization and cooperative business models may be part of the answer to elevating a critically important workforce.

If you would love to know what’s on the minds of the leaders of the nation’s largest health systems as they tackle workforce challenges and a host of other issues, but don’t happen to have the time to talk to all 150 of them, then this episode of WorkforceRx is for you. The well-placed source supplying this intelligence is Renee DeSilva, CEO of The Health Management Academy which provides advice, research, knowledge sharing, and leadership development for hospitals and other healthcare companies. Although labor costs and labor shortages continue to vex healthcare leaders, DeSilva is encouraged by the energy and innovation she’s seeing around solutions such as upskilling current employees, leaning into skills-based hiring, and creating talent pipelines with local educators. “I'm seeing a lot of creativity and partnership energy around solving the workforce challenge structurally, and then also just making the folks that we do have more productive and creating more of a thriving environment around them,” she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Leaders are also taking a fresh look at leveraging the knowledge and talents of nurse managers and giving them greater agency to implement solutions. As a student of leadership and a leader herself, DeSilva appreciates the front row seat she has watching members of the C-suite navigate a dizzying array problems. “It's really interesting to see how each of them leans into their unique gifts. I think that's where everyone has their power alley.” You’ll leave this conversation with a better sense of the paths being taken to the future of care and the tactics leaders are using to get there.

Evolving employee expectations for working conditions and years of a tight labor market have created steady challenges for human resources professionals. For a look at how those roles are evolving in response, and, to learn about current best practices, we turn today to Wendi Safstrom, president of the SHRM Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the world's largest HR professional society. “We're problem-solving based on research that we do in the field with our HR pros with the goal to help HR get better and help them lead positive social change in the workplace.” As you’ll learn on this episode of WorkforceRx hosted by Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, that change includes ensuring health equity at work, providing support for mental health needs and adopting a “skills-first” approach to hiring, which can provide opportunity to populations who have often been shut out of the hiring process. “HR professionals have an obligation to contribute to bettering the lives of others, and what better way to do that than by employing an individual and demonstrating a culture that's welcoming for everyone?” In this informative conversation, Wendi also addresses the use of AI in hiring, the need for HR staff to attend to their own mental health, and the free resources SHRM makes available to employers of all sizes.

For those concerned about teacher burnout and retention issues in K-12 education, Curtis Johnson has seen an innovative model in action that could provide an answer: let teachers run the schools. Johnson, a veteran educator, policy analyst and author, says there are already several hundred such schools in twenty-three states, what he describes as a slow growing movement. While interviewing staff at these schools for his book A New Deal for Teachers, he heard a consistent message. “They first convince me that they're working harder than they've ever worked in their lives and then they go on to say that nobody ought to ever take this away from them because they have more fulfillment professionally and personally. These schools hold on to most all of their teachers every year,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Johnson is attracted to ideas that upend what he considers failing models of education, as you might expect from the co-author of Disrupting Class, which argues for shifting to a personalized and mastery-based approach. “Students today are so different from previous generations that you've got to treat them individually, yet in the current system of K-12, it's not financially feasible to regard them as individuals and so personalization is something that people claim, but rarely do.” Tune in for a candid conversation about breaking the grip of centralized systems, how K-12 education should incorporate AI, and why he believes up to half of colleges and universities in the US will close in the next decade.

As almost any employer can tell you, today’s workers have high expectations for compensation, the quality of their work experience, and the level of work-life balance. Today’s WorkforceRx guest, David Jarrard, would add one key item to that list: they also expect to have a voice when organizations make important decisions. That means leaders have to engage with workers, not just communicate to them, and that requires creating opportunities for dialogue. “There's ways for ideas to be shared back and forth so that even if the ideas that are shared aren't the ones that are adopted, there was a sense of being heard, a sense of being listened to. We have found it to be extremely valuable to retention,” he tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. One of the best approaches is for leaders to rely less on the ever-expanding array of digital communications tools and take the old school approach of walking the halls. “To build trust you've got to look somebody in the eye. You've got to shake their hand. You’ve got to have that moment of pause where you can actually listen and be in the presence of another person. It’s a fundamentally important investment right now.” Tune in for a wide array of other insights from a seasoned pro that more than 1,000 healthcare organizations across forty-five states have turned to for guidance on how to communicate with internal and external audiences about restructurings, workforce challenges and other high stakes issues.