Building a New-Collar Workforce: How Boards Can Help America Heal: Look past a college degree to find the right employees.

• Author: Beckmann, Deborah
• Position: COMPENSATION MATTERS

The turbulent events of 2020 have heightened many American corporations' sense of political and social responsibility. With the pandemic exacerbating income inequality and climate change still a long-term threat, investors and critics are calling on companies to care for all stakeholders, not just investors. Many boards are attending to their long-standing interests in environmental, social and governance issues more than ever before.

In addition to these good efforts, companies can address another major challenge confronting America --people left behind as a result of globalization and technological disruption.

Companies can lead here in three ways:

1. Companies can build up human capital in positions that don't require advanced skills. Instead of relegating unskilled people to part-time positions with minimal benefits, companies can pursue a "good jobs" strategy in which people add value over time. As MIT professor Zeynep Ton explains, fulltime work with standard benefits fosters employee commitment to the business and their organization. Their greater engagement pays off in higher productivity and greater responsibilities, justifying higher wages.

2. Companies can invest alongside government in training programs for skilled, high-demand jobs that require only vocational training, not four-year college degrees. They can do this directly or they can work with local community colleges and other schools.

3. Companies can counter the prevailing belief that people need college degrees to succeed in life. Instead, companies can weigh vocational training and experience in hiring and promotions.

These efforts will better include high-school graduates in our economy and our democracy while helping companies fill gaps in crucial skills. The pandemic has heightened concerns over human capital and pressing social problems. In representing investors, boards can be a crucial force in convincing management teams to go ahead with these investments.

A new path for skilled workers

With offshoring jobs and rising automation, the American economy might seem to be closing off workers' chances at a middle-class life. But there's rising demand for digital skills. "New-collar" workers are essential for building and maintaining the digital plumbing of 21st-century infrastructure --in every industry. They'll have to work with artificial intelligence and other new and existing technologies, and they'll be in demand for the long term.

That's how Lockheed Martin...