Employment Sustainability: 2013 Roundtable on Employment and Technology

This past February, a colleague, formerly with The Conference Board, told me of an interesting project she was working on for Cornell University’s ILR School.  They had been asked to look at “where have all the jobs gone?” And more specifically, how technology was changing employment.  Was the recession an “opportunity” to downsize?  These are interesting questions themselves, then on a call with the organizing team, I was asked  “Do you think employment sustainability should be a pillar of corporate social responsibility just as environmental sustainability, social issues and governance are pillars?   My head started spinning and correlations to this topic and much of what we think about in corporate citizenship started connecting. I was asked to participate in the Roundtable as their “CSR expert” and to present an essay on the topic.  The essay is titled “Jobs… a Pillar of Corporate Social Responsibility?  Perhaps It Should Be.”  A link to the essay will be here soon.   More than 30 participants filled a room at Cornell’s New York City Conference Center on April 12.  It was a mix of professionals  from academia, media,  government, labor, NGOs and business.   So many issues were covered and discussed from different perspectives.  Instead of trying to put the highlights here, there is a good recap on the Cornell ILR website.  As with any convening of this type, my question is usually, what’s next?  How will this discussion be used as a catalyst?  The answers are evolving, but one thing clear is that the topic needs to be addressed at both the policy and business decision maker level as the long term ramifications will greatly impact quality of life and society on so many levels.
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ICS/InsightsAndConvenings/EmploymentSustainabilityInitiative/