In this HCI Webinar, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Alexandria Agresta about why the workplace needs more fun! Disco balls. DJ decks. Dancing queens. Alexandria Agresta brings it all. As the World’s First DJing Speaker, she fuses the insight of a TED Talk with the electricity of a music festival to deliver her groundbreaking keynote, The Business Party. Her mission is simple: to spark the next wave of bold leadership and transform the workplace into a WOWplace, where possibility, creativity, and fun take center stage. Now, let’s get this party started!

The video addresses a critical and persistent issue in the modern labor market: the disconnect between millions of open jobs and millions of capable, qualified candidates who remain overlooked. At the heart of this problem lies the outdated reliance on the bachelor’s degree as a default hiring criterion. Employers have long used college degrees as a proxy for intelligence, perseverance, and job readiness, but this practice now functions more as a barrier than a gateway. Many talented individuals—those with community college education, military service, apprenticeships, certifications, or years of hands-on experience—are unfairly excluded from consideration because their skills do not come with a four-year degree credential. Highlights 🎯 The bachelor’s degree requirement is a key barrier preventing many capable workers from accessing good jobs. 🔄 Skills-based hiring shifts focus from credentials to actual competencies and job-relevant abilities. 🌍 Employers like Google, IBM, and Accenture have removed degree requirements for many roles, tapping into diverse talent pools. ⚙️ Breaking down job roles into core skills enables more precise hiring and better candidate-job fit. 💼 Degree inflation leads to smaller talent pools, longer hiring cycles, and higher costs without better job performance. 🤝 Skills-based hiring promotes workplace diversity, innovation, and resilience by broadening the hiring criteria. 📈 Recognizing lifelong learning outside traditional universities creates a fairer, more efficient labor market. Key Insights 🎓 The bachelor’s degree as a hiring proxy is outdated and exclusionary: The reliance on a four-year degree as a default screening mechanism originated as a convenient shortcut for employers to assess intelligence and perseverance. However, this shortcut now excludes a vast and diverse segment of the workforce who possess the necessary skills but lack the formal credential. 🛠️ Skills-based hiring redefines qualification by focusing on demonstrable abilities: Instead of relying on where a candidate studied, skills-based hiring evaluates what a candidate can actually do. This approach uses practical assessments, work samples, and structured interviews to measure competencies directly relevant to the job. 🌐 Deconstructing roles into core skills improves hiring precision: By identifying the essential tasks and skills needed for success in a role—whether technical abilities, teamwork, communication, or problem-solving—companies create clearer job descriptions that attract truly qualified candidates. 🚀 Leading companies demonstrate the effectiveness of skills-based hiring: Firms like Google, IBM, and Accenture have publicly removed degree requirements for many positions, enabling them to access hidden talent pools. These companies report faster hiring, improved team diversity, and more innovative outcomes. 💸 Degree inflation imposes significant costs on businesses and workers: The practice of raising degree requirements for roles that do not demand such credentials shrinks the candidate pool artificially. Companies then face higher competition for fewer candidates, often needing to offer inflated salaries without gaining proportional performance benefits. 🌈 Credentialism stifles workplace diversity and innovation: Hiring through a narrow academic filter homogenizes the workforce, limiting diversity of thought, experience, and problem-solving approaches. 📚 Lifelong learning outside traditional academia is critical: The video underscores that learning is an ongoing process occurring in many contexts beyond four-year universities. Recognizing multiple pathways to skill acquisition makes the labor market more inclusive and responsive. If this helped, please like and share to spread the idea of inclusive hiring. #SkillsBasedHiring #DegreeInflation #TalentStrategy #WorkforceEquity #HiringReform OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - Why Good Jobs and Good People Can't Find Each Other 00:00:40 - From Paper to Proof — The Shift to Skills-Based Hiring 00:01:10 - How Skills-Based Hiring Works — And Why It Wins 00:02:30 - Evidence, Steps, and the Skills-First Future 00:03:48 - The Costs of Degree Inflation, Five Steps, and Three Pillars

Abstract: Organizations across sectors are confronting a dual crisis: unfilled positions despite millions of qualified individuals being systematically excluded from opportunities based on credential requirements that fail to predict job performance. This article examines how skills-based hiring practices dismantle structural barriers in talent acquisition while addressing critical organizational capability gaps. Drawing on empirical research and organizational case evidence, we analyze the prevalence and consequences of degree inflation, explore five evidence-based implementation strategies—competency architecture redesign, validated skills assessments, alternative credential recognition, equitable evaluation systems, and talent development pathways—and outline three pillars for sustaining inclusive talent systems: embedding equity in workforce planning, building internal mobility infrastructure, and cultivating skills-forward organizational culture. The synthesis demonstrates that skills-based hiring represents not merely a tactical recruitment shift but a strategic imperative for organizational performance, innovation, and social equity.

The video transcript explores the growing trend of Return to Office (RTO) mandates, where companies require employees to be physically present in the office a set number of days per week. While leaders often believe that physical presence drives stronger culture, collaboration, and productivity, the video argues that such rigid policies have significant hidden costs. Mandates can lead to the loss of top talent, reduce workforce diversity, restrict hiring to local candidates only, and erode employee trust—an essential foundation for engagement and innovation. Highlights 🏢 Rigid Return to Office mandates aim to restore pre-pandemic culture and control but often backfire. 💼 Strict in-office policies risk losing top talent who value flexibility and autonomy. 🌍 Location mandates shrink the talent pool and harm diversity and inclusion efforts. 🤝 Trust built during remote work is undermined by sudden, strict return-to-office rules. 💡 Innovation depends on a balance of focused work and collaboration, not just forced proximity. 🏠 The office should be redesigned as a purposeful collaboration space, not a place for solo work. 🚀 Successful future work models focus on outcomes, employee involvement, and leadership development. Key Insights 🔍 The Illusion of Control Through Physical Presence: Many leaders favor RTO mandates because they rely on direct observation and informal interactions to gauge productivity and culture. However, this approach is outdated and fails to recognize that trust and effective management can exist without physical oversight. The desire to control often blinds leaders to the nuanced realities of modern work, where autonomy and flexibility are key drivers of engagement and effectiveness. 💸 The Flexibility Tax and Talent Drain: Imposing strict office attendance creates a “flexibility tax” on employees, particularly high performers who have alternative employment options. This tax is the cost of reduced autonomy and longer commutes, which many skilled workers are unwilling to pay. The result is a costly brain drain, where companies lose institutional knowledge, customer relationships, and innovation capacity that are difficult and expensive to replace. 🌐 Geographical Constraints Reduce Hiring Quality and Diversity: Mandating physical presence restricts hiring to candidates within commuting distance, eliminating access to a global talent pool. This limitation is especially harmful in specialized fields where skills are scarce. Additionally, it disproportionately burdens lower-income workers and caregivers, undermining diversity and inclusion efforts and potentially reversing years of progress in these areas. 🔄 The Erosion of Psychological Contract and Trust: The pandemic reshaped the employer-employee relationship by proving that productivity does not require constant supervision. Sudden mandates to return to the office violate this new psychological contract, signaling distrust in employees’ ability to manage their work. This perceived betrayal reduces engagement, fosters quiet quitting, and damages the foundational trust necessary for a thriving organizational culture. 🔬 Innovation Requires Both Focus and Collaboration: The simplistic notion that innovation stems from random, in-person encounters is flawed. Innovation depends on uninterrupted deep work and carefully structured collaboration. Forced office presence can disrupt focus due to distractions and forced interactions that may not be productive. Distributed teams have demonstrated that intentional digital processes and asynchronous communication can foster innovation without geographic constraints. 🏢 Reimagining the Office as a Collaboration Hub: Instead of using the office for routine work, companies should redesign it to support activities that benefit most from physical presence such as team building, mentorship, problem solving, and complex project kickoffs. This approach respects employees’ need for focused work time at home and makes commuting worthwhile by creating meaningful in-person experiences. 📈 Leadership Adaptation is Critical for Hybrid Success: Managing hybrid or remote teams requires new skills around building trust remotely, delivering effective feedback asynchronously, and running inclusive meetings. Without investing in leadership development, even the best flexible work policies will fail. The future of work depends not on enforcing rules but on cultivating capable leaders who can drive outcome-based, trust-centered cultures. If this helped you, please like and share the video. #ReturnToOffice #RTO #HybridWork #TalentRetention #Leadership #RemoteWork #WorkplaceStrategy OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - Why RTO Mandates Seem Simple 00:01:17 - The Backfire: Talent And Market Costs 00:03:24 - Breaking The Psychological Contract 00:05:26 - Innovation And Its True Sources 00:08:10 - The Path Beyond Mandates

Coaching is a scientifically validated, highly effective method for enhancing goal attainment, performance, resilience, confidence, and overall well-being, especially in professional settings. Unlike therapy, which focuses on healing psychological pain and mental health recovery, coaching targets individuals who are already functioning well and seeks to amplify their potential through skill development, self-reflection, and actionable change. This process is a structured, collaborative, and future-oriented conversation between a trained coach and a coachee, designed to unlock potential and maximize performance. Highlights 🎯 Coaching significantly enhances goal attainment, moving individuals from average to exceptional performance. 🧠 Coaching focuses on unlocking potential through structured, collaborative, and future-oriented conversations, not on providing answers. 💡 Different coaching frameworks (Cognitive Behavioral, Solution-Focused, Positive Psychology, GROW) offer varied methods but achieve similar results. 🔄 Integrative coaching, combining multiple approaches, produces stronger outcomes than single-method coaching. 📊 Scientific studies, including randomized controlled trials, confirm coaching’s positive impact on performance, well-being, and resilience. 🤝 Successful coaching depends heavily on a strong coach-coachee relationship, clear goal alignment, and coachee motivation. 🏢 Organizations benefit most when coaching programs focus on competence, clear contracting, flexible methods, and long-term measurement. Key Insights 🎯 Coaching’s Large Effect on Goal Attainment: Meta-analyses reveal coaching yields a Hedges’ G of 1.29 for goal achievement, indicating a dramatic improvement that can elevate someone’s performance from the median to near the top 10%. This surpasses many other developmental interventions and underscores coaching as a powerful tool for personal and professional growth. 🧠 Future-Focused and Collaborative Nature: Coaching is distinguished from therapy by its forward-looking orientation and partnership model. Coaches do not prescribe solutions but facilitate self-discovery through powerful questions. This empowers coachees to take ownership of their development, enhancing motivation and commitment to change. 💡 Diverse Frameworks Yield Similar Outcomes: The fact that Cognitive Behavioral Coaching, Solution-Focused Coaching, Positive Psychology Coaching, and the GROW model often produce comparable results highlights the importance of common factors—rapport, goal clarity, and motivation—over rigid adherence to any single methodology. Coaches’ skill in relationship-building and flexibility matters most. 🔄 Integrative Coaching as Best Practice: Coaches who skillfully blend techniques from multiple models—starting with goal setting, then solution-focused momentum building, cognitive behavioral restructuring, and strengths-based motivation—can better tailor interventions to specific client needs. This flexibility accommodates the non-linear nature of change and addresses psychological, behavioral, and motivational dimensions simultaneously. 📊 Robust Evidence from Randomized Controlled Trials: The gold standard of research confirms coaching’s efficacy not only through self-reports but also observable improvements recognized by supervisors. This strengthens the credibility of coaching as an organizational investment that produces measurable, external validation of behavioral change and enhanced performance. 🤝 Importance of Relationship and Contracting: The alliance between coach and coachee, along with clear agreements involving sponsors or managers, ensures alignment on objectives, scope, and evaluation metrics. This triadic contracting prevents vague or unfocused coaching engagements and maximizes return on investment by maintaining accountability and clarity. 🏢 Organizational Implementation Recommendations: For sustainable impact, organizations should prioritize hiring coaches with psychological training and interpersonal skills over celebrity or charismatic appeal. Using integrative methods, setting clear goals from the start, measuring outcomes both immediately and longitudinally, and fostering a coaching culture through manager training and peer coaching circles creates an ecosystem that supports ongoing development and performance improvement. Like and share if you find this useful for your organization or practice. #WorkplaceCoaching #EvidenceBasedCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #PsychologyOfCoaching OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - Intro, Contents, and Proof-First Hook 00:00:48 - What Exactly Is Coaching? 00:03:05 - Who Benefits and How It Works (Psychologically Informed) 00:04:35 - Four Major Styles and Evidence 00:07:56 - Does It Actually Work? The View from the Laboratory + Path Forward

Abstract: Return-to-office (RTO) mandates have emerged as a dominant organizational response to perceived productivity and culture challenges in post-pandemic work environments. However, mounting evidence suggests that mandatory in-office attendance policies generate substantial hidden costs that undermine the very outcomes leaders seek to achieve. This article synthesizes research on talent attrition, employee engagement, and competitive positioning to demonstrate that RTO mandates often function as blunt instruments that erode organizational capability rather than build it. Drawing on behavioral economics, organizational psychology, and strategic human capital research, we examine how policy enforcement approaches trigger psychological contract violations, selection effects that disproportionately lose high performers, and strategic vulnerabilities in talent-competitive markets. Evidence from organizations across financial services, technology, and professional services sectors reveals that companies defaulting to attendance-based mandates experience measurable losses in retention, engagement, innovation capacity, and employer brand strength. The analysis concludes by identifying evidence-based organizational responses that address legitimate coordination and culture concerns without incurring the costs associated with mandate-driven approaches, emphasizing outcome measurement, leadership capability development, and employee autonomy as critical alternatives to policy enforcement.

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In this HCI Webinar, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Francoise Brougher about rethinking the workforce of the future. Francoise Brougher is a pioneering technology leader with more than 25 years of experience scaling category-defining companies and driving AI-first business transformation. She currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Board Member at Pebl (formerly Velocity Global), where she is leading the company’s reinvention as an AI-first global workforce platform. Under her leadership, Pebl is reshaping the Employer of Record industry by combining 10+ years of compliance precision with AI-driven simplicity, speed, and transparency, empowering companies to hire and manage talent across 185+ countries. Francoise has a proven track record of building and scaling global organizations responsible for multi-billion-dollar revenue growth. She took both Square (2015) and Pinterest (2019) public as the executive leader of GTM strategy. Earlier at Google, she scaled SMB Global Sales and Operations into a 15B+ business, pioneering the application of machine learning to customer engagement. She currently serves on the boards of Qonto (Chair, Compensation Committee), Too Good To Go, and as a Board Observer at Alan. She started her career in Japan, working for L'Oreal in a manufacturing plant for three years, where she installed a Computer-Assisted Manufacturing System. After her MBA, she joined Booz Allen and Hamilton in Paris and San Francisco.