Coming Together Again, CEOs of the World's Largest Companies Met Virtually to Discuss the Evolution of the Workplace
Virtual Roundtable Focused on the Future of Work
December 7, 2020, New York /3BL Media/ — With the U.S. grappling to determine a path forward towards recovery and stability, 10 leading corporate CEOs gathered virtually with Deanna Mulligan, Board Chair, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, for Chief of Executives for Corporate Purpose’s© (CECP) CEO Virtual Roundtable Series. This closed-door roundtable focused on the evolution of work and trends CEOs need to know related to reskilling, retraining, and education. Set against the stark picture of record unemployment, participants brought a sense of urgency and action to the conversations. Attending the session were CEOs who are a part of CECP’s coalition of more than 200 corporations collectively representing $11.2 trillion in annual revenue and $23 billion in societal investment.
Key takeaways from the conversation include:
- Training employees is critical. The cost of having under-skilled employees overshadows the cost of potential attrition after investing in their training.
- External partnerships are proven opportunities to support upskilling and reskilling employees, as well as creating an additional pipeline of new hires.
- Along with providing time capacity to learn, creating a culture of learning encourages employees to continuously develop with company needs.
- The skills gap continues to grow from the impacts of Covid-19, and companies have an opportunity to provide skills trainings to develop potential employees.
- Hybrid office environments will become more prominent as companies embrace remote work, but CEOs still see the value of interacting in-person to build culture and cultivate innovation in potentially smaller, spatially redesigned office spaces.
“Early in my tenure as CEO, business was becoming digitized and the company had a lot of work to do in order to survive in a digital world,” said Deanna Mulligan, Board Chair, Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. “Guardian’s values are to do the right thing, hold ourselves to high standards, and know that people count. Putting people out on the street didn’t align with the company values so we knew we had to invest in reskilling our employees.”
“Since January, companies have proven the essential nature of purpose-driven leadership and continuous work in supporting their significant stakeholders,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “Deanna’s insights on the future of work – which is right now – are invaluable as our country seeks to find a path forward to revitalization.”
Mulligan’s outlook on the future of work underscores why skill building must be a pressing concern for the current generation of leaders in both the private and public sectors. In the next 10 to 15 years, rapid change in a post-pandemic world and emerging technology will revolutionize nearly every job, eliminate some, and create new forms of work that we have yet to imagine. How can we survive and thrive in the face of such drastic change? Deanna Mulligan’s book on the subject, Hire Purpose, offers a look at the effects of workplace evolution and automation and why the private sector needs to lead the charge in shaping a values-based response.
CEOs from the following companies took part in the discussion: Abercrombie & Fitch, Empire State Realty Trust, Equinix, Inc., Herman Miller, Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Smith & Associates LLC, Tata Consultancy Services, and USAA.
CECP launched this series of CEO-only events building on learnings from CECP's Board of Boards, providing an opportunity to pause and share insight among CEOs who are leading the world's largest companies during unprecedented times. These virtual sessions are designed to convene CEOs for intimate conversations at a time when they seek the counsel of their peers on key issues.
Past CEO conversations include a session with James White, former CEO, Jamba Juice, on his DE&I Playbook, featured in Harvard Business Review and with Brian Moynihan, Chairman & CEO, Bank of America on the World Economic Forum ESG metrics effort. Upcoming CEO events include:
- January 13, 2021 with Joe Ocuzoglu, CEO, Deloitte, sharing his point of view on the impact of recent events, including the US presidential election and developments in the fight against Covid-19, to both the near-term business outlook and the future of stakeholder capitalism.
- February 4, 2021 with Richard Edelman, CEO, Edelman, on the annual Edelman Trust Barometer
- And more to be announced.
The events are limited to CECP CEOs. CEOs interested in joining another event in the series, register, here.
CECP is grateful to KPMG, Newman’s Own Foundation, and USAA for their support of the Board of Boards and CEO Virtual Roundtable series.
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About Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose
CECP is a CEO-led coalition that believes that a company’s social strategy — how it engages with key stakeholders including employees, communities, investors, and customers —determines company success. Founded in 1999 by actor and philanthropist Paul Newman and other business leaders to create a better world through business, CECP has grown to a movement of more than 200 of the world’s largest companies that represent $11.2 trillion in revenues, $23 billion in societal investment, 14 million employees, and $21 trillion in assets under management. CECP helps companies transform their social strategy by providing customized connections and networking, counsel and support, benchmarking and trends, and awareness building and recognition. For more information, visit http://cecp.co.
