Human Capital Briefs

With the World Health Organization declaring the Coronavirus outbreak a global health crisis and cases arising around the world, Jeff Hoffman, The Conference Board's Corporate Citizenship & Philanthropy Institute Leader, offers companies six steps they can take as they consider how to respond.

2019 was a pivotal year in CSR and 2020 promises to bring more challenges and opportunities to the field including these developing global trends: searching for truth, achieving carbon neutrality, employee relations, pursuing purpose over passion, and looking for the next big thing.

There is much we can learn from other fields and sectors to inform and advance our D&I work. Restorative Justice offers a compelling way of thinking about and managing differences in ways that resonate with D&I principles. By working together, with our differences, we can collectively build stronger organizations and communities.

Of the nearly 24 million U.S. children under the age of six, 15 million kids have parents who are participating in the labor force. This begs the question: Do working parents have access to affordable, high-quality child care?

What principles, priorities and desired outcomes should inform the design and implementation of a corporate mental health policy – specifically one that is created to respond to episodes of mental illness experienced by employees rather than just addressing more generally mental health and wellbeing?

Does your grantmaking consider input from the communities it's intended to serve? Known as participatory grantmaking, this process helps shift traditional power imbalances that exist in philanthropy. For foundations, this could mean including grantees in priority setting, strategy development, and research, or having them sit on advisory councils or boards.

It is not news that the US labor market is very tight. That is, with the unemployment rate near historic lows, employers are facing significant recruitment and retention difficulties. What is less known is that the labor market is tighter for blue-collar and manual services jobs than for the highly educated white-collar jobs. The exact opposite of prevailing trends in recent decades.