CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

William  Kerr; Michael  Norris; Manjari  Raman

Case | HBS Case Collection | February 2018 (Revised May 2019)

CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap

by William Kerr, Michael Norris and Manjari Raman

Abstract

In 2018, Ann Randazzo, executive director of the Center for Energy Workforce Development (CEWD) is assessing the organization’s performance since its 2006 founding. Founded to address an imminent retirement bubble of middle skills workers in the utilities industry, CEWD had since expanded its mission to focus on workforce development initiatives to improve the skills and diversity of the industry’s workforce. The group was an example of an industry coming together to collectively address a problem facing all members of the industry.

Keywords: Workforce Development; Industry Cooperation; Skills Gap; Middle Skills; Training; Strategic Planning; Competency and Skills; Utilities Industry; United States;

Language: English

Format: Print

22 pages

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Citation:

Kerr, William, Michael Norris, and Manjari Raman. "CEWD: Closing the Skills Gap." Harvard Business School Case 818-081, February 2018. (Revised May 2019.)

Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised October 2019)

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000 person global workforce, had raised concerns of mistreatment, citing instances of pay inequity, social exclusion, and physical endangerment. “Flexible” workers, such as TVCs, were often seen as a key cog for Silicon Valley’s IT companies: they made workforces scalable, they helped firms get access to specialized knowledge for temporary projects, and they boosted innovation by creating “knowledge spillovers” between firms. But, at the same time, many onlookers worried that flexible work arrangements were aggravating social inequality and making more jobs precarious. Google employees, major media outlets, and politicians demanded that the company change its policies on TVCs. One suggestion was that Google convert all of its TVCs to full-time status by early 2020. As tensions reportedly escalated between Google’s workforce and its management team, some began to wonder if Google was still an employer of choice.

Keywords: workforce; independent contractors; labor; talent management; Silicon Valley; google; employee attitude; Employee compensation; employee engagement; future of work; innovation; Innovation and Management; innovation and strategy; inequality; talent acquisition; Labor; Talent and Talent Management; Technological Innovation; Employees; Innovation and Management; Human Resources; Information Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco;

Citation:

Kerr, William R., and Carl Kreitzberg. "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" Harvard Business School Case 820-048, September 2019. (Revised October 2019.) View Details

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