Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2019 (Revised May 2020)

AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

by William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg

Abstract

By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T’s management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called the “biggest logistical challenge” they had ever seen: retraining 100,000 workers by 2020. In 2012, internal company analyses found that AT&T’s workforce would lack the skills it needed to fulfill emerging job requirements. AT&T responded by creating “Workforce 2020,” a company-wide initiative that sought to address potential skill shortfalls. The initiative aimed to transform AT&T’s workforce by implementing multiple changes, such as redesigning job roles, developing new educational curricula with Udacity, and incentivizing employees to retrain themselves for high-demand careers. Some gave high praise to the “Workforce 2020” model, going so far as to call it a new “social contract” between employers and employees. Others worried that the new program was systematically disadvantaging specific groups of workers. In 2018, AT&T rebranded Workforce 2020 to “Future Ready,” signaling the company’s commitment to retraining its workforce beyond 2020.

Keywords: AT＆T; workforce; skills; future of work; telecommunications; Unions; technological change; layoffs; MOOCS; Strategic Planning; Employees; Training; Competency and Skills; Labor; Learning; Labor Unions; Technology Adoption; Talent and Talent Management; Telecommunications Industry; Communications Industry; United States;

Language: English Format: Print 18 pages EducatorsPurchase

Citation:

Kerr, William R., Joseph B. Fuller, and Carl Kreitzberg. "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow." Harvard Business School Case 820-017, July 2019. (Revised May 2020.)

Related Work

  1. Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | July 2019

    AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

    William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

    A Teaching Note for the "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow" case study (HBS#820-017). The case describes how AT&T designed and implemented a program to retrain 100,000 of its workers. The case first reviews the technological forces that compelled AT&T to change its competitive strategy in the late 2010s, which in turn threatened to make its workforce’s skillsets obsolete. The case then performs a deep dive on AT&T’s solution, the “Workforce 2020” retraining program. The case concludes by reviewing the early results and potential societal implications of the workforce model.

    Keywords: AT＆T; workforce; training; future of work; telecommunications; Unions; technological change; layoffs; MOOCS; Strategic Planning; Employees; Training; Labor; Learning; Labor Unions; Technology Adoption; Talent and Talent Management; Transformation; Telecommunications Industry; Communications Industry; United States;

    Citation:

    Kerr, William R., and Carl Kreitzberg. "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 820-018, July 2019.  View Details
    CiteView DetailsPurchase Related

  2. Case | HBS Case Collection | July 2019 (Revised May 2020)

    AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

    William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg

    By the late 2000s, rapid changes in the telecommunications industry forced AT&T’s management team to take on a task that CEO Randall Stephenson called the “biggest logistical challenge” they had ever seen: retraining 100,000 workers by 2020. In 2012, internal company analyses found that AT&T’s workforce would lack the skills it needed to fulfill emerging job requirements. AT&T responded by creating “Workforce 2020,” a company-wide initiative that sought to address potential skill shortfalls. The initiative aimed to transform AT&T’s workforce by implementing multiple changes, such as redesigning job roles, developing new educational curricula with Udacity, and incentivizing employees to retrain themselves for high-demand careers. Some gave high praise to the “Workforce 2020” model, going so far as to call it a new “social contract” between employers and employees. Others worried that the new program was systematically disadvantaging specific groups of workers. In 2018, AT&T rebranded Workforce 2020 to “Future Ready,” signaling the company’s commitment to retraining its workforce beyond 2020.

    Keywords: AT＆T; workforce; skills; future of work; telecommunications; Unions; technological change; layoffs; MOOCS; Strategic Planning; Employees; Training; Competency and Skills; Labor; Learning; Labor Unions; Technology Adoption; Talent and Talent Management; Telecommunications Industry; Communications Industry; United States;

    Citation:

    Kerr, William R., Joseph B. Fuller, and Carl Kreitzberg. "AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow." Harvard Business School Case 820-017, July 2019. (Revised May 2020.)  View Details
    CiteView DetailsEducatorsPurchase Related

About the Authors

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William R. Kerr
Dimitri V. D'Arbeloff - MBA Class of 1955 Professor of Business Administration
Unit Head, Entrepreneurial Management
Entrepreneurial Management

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Joseph B. Fuller
Professor of Management Practice
General Management

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