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  • July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
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AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:18
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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

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.)
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About The Authors

William R. Kerr

Entrepreneurial Management
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Joseph B. Fuller

Entrepreneurial Management
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Related Work

    • July 2019
    • Faculty Research

    AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

    By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg
    • July 2019 (Revised May 2020)
    • Faculty Research

    AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow

    By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg
Related Work
  • AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow By: William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg
  • AT&T, Retraining, and the Workforce of Tomorrow By: William R. Kerr, Joseph B. Fuller and Carl Kreitzberg
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