business backgrounder | education & workforce
Speaker Profile
Best-selling author, prominent researcher on workplace issues and advisor to companies around the world, Jacob Morgan has a compelling story to tell. From working a selfdescribed“ terrible job” to going out on his own to find out for himself what employees value in a workplace, he now shares what companies can do to adapt to today’ s workforce, build a workplace that fosters a greater purpose and help team members build their personal brand through collaborative work within the office. Morgan gave the lunchtime keynote address at AWB’ s annual Policy Summit Sept. 19-21 at Suncadia Resort. Prior to the event, he spoke with staff writer Bobbi Cussins about his in-depth research of more than 250 companies, including global giants like Cisco and Microsoft, how it can be applied to improve any workplace and offered a glimpse into the future of workers and the workplace.
Jacob Morgan
After leaving your self-proclaimed“ terrible job,” what was the motivation to get into the area of foresight to better explain the changing workplace and, by default, the evolving needs of the workforce?
After that terrible job and after college, my goal in life became“ how to make a living without working for anybody else.” In the meantime, I was writing articles for $ 15 each and just doing whatever I could to not work for anyone else. But, around 10 years ago, I was in the world of online marketing, social media and search engine optimization. That’ s where it really started for me and has evolved to now. I started having more discussions with people and my search engine optimization work branched off into social media, which branched into collaboration and social business, and from there it became the future of work and the employee experience. It was a natural progression that all started with never wanting to work for anybody else.
How did you initially convince employers, many of which are worldwide companies, to participate in your work and take a deeper look at what they are doing great in regard to the employee and workforce experience and where they could make some improvements?
I don’ t convince employers to participate; I simply highlight the research that I find from executives that I speak with and share my ideas and findings. I am an open book with regard to the conversations I am having, what I’ m finding and what I think. Ultimately, it’ s up to organizations to decide if they want to do anything with that information. It’ s sort of like hiring a trainer at a gym. The trainer can tell you what to do, but they’ re not going to lift the weights for you. I like to think of myself as that coach, that mentor, that trainer for organizations where I can give them the ideas. I can give them the research and show them what others have done, but ultimately, it’ s the organizations that need to strap on the gym gloves, get into the gym and start lifting the weights.
One of the top concerns from employers is that they are unable to find workers with“ soft skills.” Can you explain your insights on employees who possess soft skills and how employers can encourage more use of them in the workplace?
We are very obsessed with soft skills and there are a lot of employers who say,“ we can’ t find employees with soft skills.” I don’ t really believe that. We’ re all human beings. We’ re not sociopaths or emotionless creatures. We all have soft skills. Some of us are better at using them than others and, of course, I still think it’ s great to teach us and remind us about these things, but it’ s not like we don’ t have soft skills. The bigger problem isn’ t that we don’ t possess these soft skills, it’ s that employers want people to exhibit soft skills in an environment where they don’ t feel safe to do so. We have built organizations where employees don’ t feel comfortable showing empathy, embracing vulnerability and exhibiting all these soft skills that
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