Latest news with #FortuneWorkplaceInnovationSummit
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How AI agents are transforming work—and why human talent still matters
Good morning. AI-powered digital labor is fundamentally changing the way work is accomplished. 'We have jobs today within our own organization that didn't exist 60 days ago,' Andy Valenzuela, EVP and COO of employee success at Salesforce, said during the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit last week. The future of work is increasingly collaborative and dynamic, and will be augmented by tools like AI agents—autonomous programs that perform tasks on behalf of users, Valenzuela explained. That requires companies to rethink existing jobs, invest in talent, and maintain organizational flexibility to accommodate agents, he said. In four years, automation for frontline workers has ramped up, said Mahe Bayireddi, CEO and cofounder of Phenom, an HR technology company, during the session. The use of automation among knowledge workers is catching up, he added. Change management may be a factor for many companies as they structure ways to deploy AI agents. However, many AI agents are already on the job. PwC's May survey of 300 senior executives found that 88% say their team or business function plans to increase AI-related budgets in the next 12 months due to agentic AI. Likewise, 79% say AI agents already are being adopted in their companies and, of those, two-thirds report that they're increasing productivity. As companies determine the best use cases to integrate AI agents into their operations, some leaders are grappling with a fundamental question: What should be automated, and what still requires a human touch? Bayireddi offered this analogy: 'Agents are like ants.' Just as ants efficiently handle repetitive, essential tasks, AI agents can take on the routine work that often drains employee energy and engagement. You have to continually evaluate where AI agents can create efficiencies and allow human talent to focus on higher-value opportunities, Valenzuela said. He offered the example of Salesforce launching a pay planning system: 'We actually built an agent that did the entire enablement for those 11,000 people,' he said. Every manager could engage with this agent to learn the new system. Instead of his team focusing on the enablement piece, they could focus on more strategic work. The primary reason for deploying AI agents is to achieve autonomy, Bayireddi said. He explained three types to consider: operational autonomy (automating specific tasks), functional autonomy (automating processes within business units), and hierarchical autonomy (how agents fit within organizational power structures). Deploying agents among knowledge workers requires careful attention to hierarchy and decision-making authority, as organizational structure greatly influences where and how agents should operate, Bayireddi said. At Salesforce, they're building scorecards to balance workloads between agents and humans, Valenzuela said. Managers must learn how to manage both agents and humans, he said. However, deploying teams of agents in very complex, revenue-driving, regulated industries can be concerning for some. It's about balancing innovation with compliance, ensuring agents are integrated thoughtfully into existing structures, and maintaining trust through transparency and strong governance, Bayireddi said. Sheryl This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Post
22-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Gen Z whines about everyone else calling them lazy workers: ‘People like to talk about us but not talk to us'
They've been called lazy, entitled, screen-addicted and allergic to hard work — but Gen Z isn't having it. Now, the youngest members of the workforce are firing back at the finger-wagging boomers and eye-rolling Gen Xers, claiming they're misunderstood — not malfunctioning. 'People like to talk about us but not talk to us or build with us,' said Ziad Ahmed, head of UTA Marketing's Next Gen Practice, said at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit this week. 'I think that is rooted in a lot of presumption. It rarely gets us to where we need to be.' Translation: Don't call them slackers — they're collaborators. At this week's summit held by the publication, Gen Z leaders made a plea for older generations to stop clinging to outdated stereotypes and start listening. Gen Z isn't trying to overthrow corporate culture, they say — they just want to tweak it. 'You can't walk in the door on day one and say 'we're changing everything for [Gen Z],'' said Jonah Stillman, co-founder of consulting firm GenGuru. Instead, he suggested employers give younger staffers a real seat at the table. 'Every voice is relevant amongst generations.' 3 Gen Z is snapping back at boomer finger-waggers and Gen X eye-rollers — insisting they're misjudged, not defective. fizkes – 'The most productive, multi-generational workforce is one that prioritizes this idea of evolution instead of revolution.' But not everyone's convinced. With five generations squeezed into the modern office, friction is inevitable. A recent Korn Ferry report found just 17% of Gen Z workers said they had no issues working with other age groups, compared to a whopping 45% of boomers. A big part of the disconnect? Communication. Nearly half of Gen Z employees want better teamwork and meaningful dialogue on the job. 3 At a Fortune summit this week, Gen Z leaders begged boomers to drop the tired digs — and start actually listening. Seventyfour – Which might explain why so many young workers are ready to walk. According to SWNS reporting last month, a staggering 73% of Gen Zers say they're looking to switch jobs — the highest of any generation. Millennials aren't far behind at 70%. Why the job-jumping itch? Burnout. Two-thirds of Gen Z workers (68%) report feeling burned out, according to iSolved and Talker Research. That's more than any other generation. Their top complaints: Doing the same thing every day, more work without more pay and a general feeling of being unappreciated. And don't forget the workplace itself. Nearly one-third of full-time employees say they're stuck in a toxic environment. Half work while sick, 31% skip lunch breaks, and many cite stress, rigidity and negativity as serious culture killers. 3 Nearly three-quarters of Gen Z are eyeing the exit, with 73% looking to jump ship — topping even millennials, who trail close behind at 70%. BullRun – But Gen Z says their generation isn't soft — just self-aware. 'We like to differentiate generations by generation, but human behavior doesn't change that much,' Tiffany Zhong, co-founder of social media platform Noplace, said, as reported by Fortune. Zhong and others argue Gen Z was shaped by a nonstop cycle of tech, trauma, and TikTok — from climate dread and political chaos to pandemic disruptions and economic volatility. They're not lazy, they insist — just looking for work that works for them. 'We keep being told to be realistic,' Ahmed said at the summit. 'But who decided what realistic is?'
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why executives need to redefine what ‘hustle culture' means for their employees
Good morning! Hustle culture has long defined the American economy, with the general idea being that grinding hard and long enough will eventually lead to success. But a new generation of workers is out to undo that long-held belief and put a focus back on mental health and wellbeing, and it's changing how leaders invest in their people and motivate them to do high-quality work. 'I think high performance and sustained high performance and that leading to business outcomes have never gone away,' said Jolen Anderson, chief people and community officer at BetterUp, a management development platform, during the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit on Tuesday. 'However, we often lack the metrics to demonstrate what exactly is going to lead to outcomes, and as a result, that's been replaced with this idea that face time, that just showing up, and spending more time in the office is going to lead to better outcomes when, in fact, it's exactly the opposite.' Put simply, people don't need to work harder, they need to work smarter and it's leading to a massive decline in performance across organizations. To overcome this, she said, leaders need to go back to what fuels performance: agency, optimism, motivation, and a focus on ensuring employees have the resources available to bring their best selves to work. 'When we focus on wellness and mental health and building resilience, there's a direct tie to whether or not people are driving the right outcomes in the organization.' Cesar Carvalho, CEO of Wellhub, a corporate wellness platform agreed, and took it a step further. Carvalho said bosses need to genuinely care about not just the work, but the person behind the work. 'We focus too much on individuals at work and at the workplace, and we forget about all the other hours that are not related to work. If you're not sleeping well, if you're not exercising, if you're not eating well, it will have huge consequences on the way you perform at work. And we can't forget that part.' And while most large Fortune 500 companies have some kind of wellness programs, what matters more is whether or not workers are taking advantage of them. Carvalho said that too often, benefits like these are implemented only for the company to find out a year down the line that less than 5% of folks are actually taking advantage of them, which is a waste of money. To get participation, Anderson says it starts with offering flexible benefits tailored to real problems employees are facing outside of work, such as help paying off student loans, having a child, or planning for retirement. 'With today's technology, there's so much opportunity to design personal solutions, things that feel custom and give people agency around their experience.' Brit This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Not just ‘slash and burn'—the real reason this major pharmaceutical company ousted 40% of its middle managers
Good morning! As companies look to cut costs, many CEOs are looking to trim bloat at the middle-manager level. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said in March that he plans to flatten the company's corporate hierarchy by eliminating middle managers and giving more power back to individual contributors. And he's not alone in this thinking. In a bid to turn the company around, struggling German pharmaceutical giant Bayer made a drastic decision last year: doing away with middle managers and 99% of the company's 1,362-page corporate handbook. 'This wasn't an effort to just slash and burn,' said Sebastian Guth, chief operating officer at Bayer Pharmaceuticals at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit on Monday. 'Eighteen months ago, we embarked on a very radical transformation and as part of that I eliminated, here in the United States, for example, 40% of all middle managers, which was—which is—hard, but it was necessary to see our organization transform into a world that is significantly more agile and that empowers teams to make decisions.' And he says the decision has led to significant growth for the company, with first quarter results showing 23% growth across North America. Not everyone, he noted, was eliminated just because they were a middle manager. In fact, Guth said that some roles were transitioned from a managerial one to that of an individual contributor. The shift helped them 'realize that part of what they did previously wasn't actually adding as much value as they wanted to.' That said, not all leaders believe that eliminating middle management is the right solution. For example, Edith Cooper, cofounder of professional training and coaching firm Medley, said during the same discussion that the solution isn't about seeing how many roles you can eliminate. Instead, executives should seek out bottlenecks across the organization and target their attentions there. 'If you are looking to create more impact and productivity from your No. 1 asset, for people, you need to do the work,' said Cooper. 'Really look critically at what needs to happen to unlock the potential of your people. Then, if there are places in that flow that become bottlenecks, you should do the work to understand how you eliminate [them].' Even Guth admitted such an extensive overhaul should be done strategically. Bayer invested significantly in upskilling the managers who remained and eliminated traditional management targets in budgets, he said, which was a 'very important unlock.' And most important, he said, is to let teams themselves have some say in the changes so they're not only streaming down from on high. 'We allow teams to flow resources to where they saw the biggest impact, and most importantly, we allow teams to actually decide, because we have thousands of colleagues around the world that have amazing insight and knowledge,' said Guth. 'Rather than just waiting for others to decide on their behalf, we lean into what they experience and see in the day to day.' Brit This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why this diversity leader says scrapping DEI commitments without recognizing the benefits is ‘morally unjust and bankrupt'
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have come under fire as of late, as the Trump administration cracks down on such policies it deems illegal. And it's not just the political sphere that's polarized on the issue. Business leaders themselves have varying viewpoints on DEI, what it means, and how to talk about it with their employees. While supporters say such strategies are necessary to address persistent workplace inequities, others agree that some companies have missed the mark in terms of these policies. 'There's failure in how DEI has been implemented,' said Anson Frericks, author and founder of venture firm Athletic Capital. Frericks spoke on a DEI panel at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit on Tuesday. 'I think it's perceived in a lot of circles as forcing equitable outcomes for people based on race sex, etc.,' he said, referencing the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case which led to the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action in 2023. Vernā Myers, diversity consultant, author, lawyer and founder of The Vernā Myers Company, joined Frericks for a discussion about the DEI landscape. Myers, who noted she is no longer using the term 'DEI,' defined diversity as 'a mix of culture and identity and experience.' Inclusion is how companies make all of those differences work on behalf of employees by creating environments where people of all backgrounds feel included, respected and reflected. Myers said these themes are necessary to have at work as companies look to achieve true merit-based systems of hiring and promotion by removing unfair obstacles to equality. However, Frericks said the focus on DEI had positive initial intentions for equal opportunities but it had since become perceived as forcing equitable outcomes rather than promoting equal opportunities. Another unintended consequence was that rather than open conversation, DEI has led to a stifling of debate, he said. In addition, the two diverged on the idea of where to go from here. Myers said DEI was essential to recognizing and addressing inequality, while Frericks said the way DEI had been implemented in his experience had the effect of mandating representation and potentially creating new forms of discrimination. Myers' view was that evolving DEI and reimagining its approach was the way to move forward. Frericks said company leaders need to look at their employees 'as individuals.' This means, in his view, defining the skills and characteristics companies are looking for in their workers and then defining those for the recruitment team. He said companies shouldn't prioritize hiring based on characteristics like race and gender over other factors such as whether they're compassionate or hard working. But taking this approach, and scooping out diversity aspirations as a part of the recruiting puzzle altogether can lead to consequences, especially if companies stop collecting data around whether these initiatives are leading to growth and improvement, which experts say they largely have. 'The backlash against DEI is because we're winning,' said Myers. 'What is so upsetting for me, and I would say morally unjust and bankrupt, is to suggest that we could just move forward as if we had somehow managed to level the playing field, and not because of identity, but by allowing people to actually share and exhibit what they're capable of.' Quotas around DEI are illegal and have been for some time, Myers noted. The pushback against these programs is more of a way to 'divide and distract' people and actually keep them from unifying their differences and commonalities. That's why no matter what, she says, it's important to know whether you're making a difference with these programs before eliminating them. 'You cannot get to equality without recognizing inequality and in no other business setting would we have an objective and not look at the outcomes,' said Myers. 'When do we start to acknowledge that there is still an enormous amount of work to do?' This story was originally featured on
