A Discussion with Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. of SHRM on the Future of Work
Burton Goldfield: Hello, I'm Burton Goldfield, President and CEO of TriNet.
My guest is Johnny C. Taylor, President and CEO of SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management.
Thank you for joining me today, Johnny, and welcome.
Johnny Taylor: Thank you, man. Good to be here.
In light of everything that's occurred over the past year, it is clear to me, that the future of work will be a significant shift from the status quo.
Johnny: And what's driving this future of work, and by the way, it’s a little murky, so we're not totally sure what the future is. Anyone who tells you—I love these futurists, they're like, this is what the world's going to be. Good luck with that.
But what I will say is every indication, because of the American birthrate, is that we're going to have a war for talent for a long time. This is a sustained war.
Americans stopped having children in meaningful numbers in the year 2000. And for the last two decades, the numbers have been decreasing. Last year alone, 4% drop in the fertility rate in the United States. So the reality is there are just fewer children, fewer who will be adults at one point to work for us. Right?
Burton: Right.
Johnny: Now, the easy answer would be, well, automation. You may say to me, Johnny, automation is the answer, and it's true. Automation is going to displace, based on our best research, 85 million jobs.
But guess what? The robot revolution, which is created by that revolution, by the automation, is going to create 97 million jobs. Right?
Burton: Right.
Johnny: So net-net, we're going to have 10 to 12 million new jobs with a smaller population of people to do those jobs. That's a problem.
And therefore, you have seen like nothing else in our sort of history. We're trying to figure out what are we going to do? You and I will be retired sitting on a beach somewhere. It's the people who are coming behind us who are going to have to figure out how do we power these organizations in a knowledge-based economy?
See, you remember when, when the economy was very agrarian?
Burton: Right.
Johnny: And you can automate your way out of it by getting, you know, tools. That's one thing. We don't have that anymore because everything now is knowledge. And so, you're seeing the rise of machine learning.
The machine is trying to be a human being. And as much as we talk virtual reality, it's virtual, but it's not actual reality. So you need human beings.
So what's our challenge right now? We've got to do more with fewer people.
And we also two quick takeaways, one: That means we've got to invest in reskilling and upskilling in a big way. This is no longer a nice to do. It's a have to do.
We're going to have to encourage older workers prior, you know, this is an untapped pool. We were pushing people out at 55 years old like, oh, they only have… they're on the other side of the mountain. We need that mountain to extend a little bit longer. We want people working well into their seventies. We'll need them to do that.
And that means retooling them because of the paradigm shifts, right? The technology that you learned doesn't apply 10 years from now. It won't likely apply five years from now.
Burton: Yeah.
Johnny: So a lot of reskilling organizations are investing heavily, heavily and reskilling and upskilling their employees.
The other major shift that will occur is therefore, you've got to adjust with this multi-generational workforce. See, it's easy to say, and this is fact, right now we have five generations in the workforce at one time. My God, you want to talk about a diversity challenge; keeping them all engaged, right? But at the end of the day, they want different things.
Burton: Right.
Johnny: And you've got to give it to all of the generations. You've got to make sure that your older workers get what they need and want to keep them in the workforce, because they'll leave.
And the younger employees, you got to keep them in the workforce.
So, giving everyone what they want is what the future of work is about. Reskilling, making sure that we focus on culture and that we're building strong cultures where people actually feel like they belong. That’s the future.
Let me just highlight this... want to make this one... on top of all of this is the commitment to diversity. Our country is not just a black and white country anymore.
Burton: Right.
Johnny: And so as a result, we've got to figure out... We know for the first time in history—pre-pandemic, women were the majority of the workforce, the American workforce. That hadn't happened before.
So, all of this is really the most compelling case for strong diversity, equity and inclusion. It's a business case because we're going to need this talent and the future of work relies on this diverse talent pool.
Burton: Right. So doesn't that make the cultural issue that much more complex with a much more diverse workforce on many different accesses, including the age difference?
Johnny: Oh my gosh, that's the challenge.
I'll give you one. We don't talk about it. We, you know, when you say diverse you think race, age, gender, national religion, that kind of stuff...
What about the formerly incarcerated? Fact of the matter is 700,000 people per year are going to come out of America's prisons and jails and guess what? They want to work.
And guess what? We need them. We need them to work.
Burton: We need them to work. Right.
Johnny: Not only do we not want them to recidivate and go back to prison so that they become a tax burden, but we actually need them to build these unfulfilled jobs, right?
And it's only going to get worse. So, when we talk diversity in the various dimensions, it's broad. It's older workers, it's everybody. We need Americans working. And that means employers have got to figure out how to appeal to all of these various groups.
Burton: So is it possible to have a strong culture with a remote workforce and a dramatic level of diversity on all the axises you discussed?
Johnny: Not only is it possible, we must figure it out. It's just not an option. I would love to say that, you know, for every job, we've got three Americans, but we don't. Right?
Now, you're bringing up some issues, and we always think that means we'll have some more immigration, because we've got to supplement the American workforce so we can, but at the end of the day, we need Americans doing jobs.
Burton: Well. This is fascinating. Because at the end of the day, the culture needs to accommodate this broad and diverse group of individuals.
Johnny: Yes.
Burton: We need to attract and retain those individuals for a long period of time. And I would suggest that it is yours and my problem because I'm building an enduring company that needs to be here in 20 and 30 years.
And if I don't set up the culture right today, it doesn't matter who succeeds me in the future.
Johnny: That’s right. I’ve got a ten-year-old baby girl and I want her to have as bright as future as we have.
Burton: Exactly.
Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Johnny: Thank you.
