In this episode of On Boards, hosts Joe Ayoub and Raza Shaikh welcome Dr. Angela Jackson, founder of Future Forward Strategies, an award-winning social entrepreneur, a global C-Suite executive, and an experienced board member. She discusses the board's role in holding leadership accountable for “people strategies” and ensuring companies remain competitive in a rapidly evolving business environment.
Her new book “The Win-Win Workplace: How Thriving Employees Drive Bottom-Line Success” will be published on March 11, 2025 and will be available from all major book retailers.
Key Takeaways
1. Workforce Wellbeing as a Strategy:
○ Dr. Jackson emphasizes the importance of viewing employee wellbeing as a core business strategy rather than just a set of HR policies, noting that companies with high employee wellbeing see 23% higher profitability and 43% lower turnover.
2. Board Oversight and Accountability:
○ Boards should regularly evaluate metrics such as employee engagement, retention rates, and turnover costs, and tie executive compensation to key people-related outcomes.
3. The Role of Inclusion and Investing in Employees:
○ Despite changes in external policies, companies should maintain their commitment to inclusion to foster trust, reduce risk and drive business outcomes
○ Staying proactive on workforce sentiment helps companies respond to potential risks before they escalate.
4. Grow Your Own Deep Talent Bench Strategy:
○ Developing internal talent pipelines reduces turnover by 40%, increases employee engagement by 20%, and builds a more resilient organization. Companies prioritizing internal mobility fill 63% of open roles internally and are 2.2x more likely to outperform competitors.
5. Mitigating Workforce-Related Risks:
○ Dr. Jackson highlights how companies can reduce legal risks and avoid reputational damage by staying consistent with core values and policies.
Quotes
“At its core, DEI was about creating workspaces where people could actually show up, be their best selves, and contribute. I’m not going to die on the sword of an acronym, but we must maintain that spirit.”
“Keeping our finger on the pulse of employee sentiment is going to be more important than ever. When there’s uncertainty at the highest levels in the country, that trickles down to the day to day.”
“Win-Win Workplace strategies protect companies from workforce instability, reputational damage, and labor crises in a tight labor market.”
“When employees love where they work and what they do, they tell everyone. They are our first customers if you’re doing it the right way.”
Guest Bio
Dr. Angela Jackson is the founder of Future Forward Strategies, a labor market intelligence, design thinking, and strategy firm that helps leaders transform organizations and develop the human capital infrastructure essential for maintaining competitiveness while driving positive impact. With a focus on public, private, and non-profit sectors, Dr. Jackson’s work centers on creating innovative solutions for the future of work.
As a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Dr. Jackson teaches the next generation of students about entrepreneurship in the education marketplace.
She was also the architect of the Future of Work Grand Challenge, a groundbreaking initiative designed to rapidly re-skill 25,000 displaced workers into living-wage jobs within 24 months. Dr. Jackson’s expertise lies in crafting a future of work that is inclusive and sustainable. She has shared her insights at prominent conferences such as TEDx, Concordia Summit, Techonomy, ASU + GSV, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Digital Empowers National Summit, and Black Women Talk Tech. Her work and thought leadership have been featured in outlets including CNN, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Quartz, Harvard Business Review, and more.
Links
Win-Win Workplace: https://www.readwinwinworkplace.com/
