Giving Compass' Take:

• As part of The Next Move blog series, Aspen Institute asked three experts in worker representation and management how business leaders can better incorporate the needs of their workers into significant decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Workers feel that they are at higher risk, undervalued, and facing an economic crisis. Business leaders can step in and offer protection. How can donors do the same? 

• Learn more about how to prioritize domestic workers during COVID-19. 

The Next Move is a new series that explores the critical choices facing business leaders as they respond to the extraordinary impacts of COVID-19. Each month, we bring a diverse array of expert voices into dialogue with the public across blogs, webinars, social media, and digital seminars.  

Companies routinely declare their employees as their greatest asset. And yet, in the face of today’s health, social justice, and economic crises, many workers feel that their well-being is at risk, and their voices devalued.

After decades of underinvestment in employee welfare, how might we balance the equation to truly serve the long-term interests of the company as a whole? One path forward identifies the meaningful engagement of workers in corporate strategy, drawing strength from a diversity of voices and perspectives. As leaders wake up to the interdependency of their organization’s success and the well-being of their workers, innovative business leaders will ensure that worker voices are no longer discounted or drowned out, but seen as valuable inputs to operational redesigns and new products or processes. At this moment where preconceived notions are dissolved, a new path forward is possible.

How can businesses start out on that path? We asked three experts in worker representation and management: What’s the next move business leaders should make to meaningfully integrate worker concerns and insights into decision-making processes?

Carmen Rojas, President & CEO at Marguerite Casey Foundation

Business leaders play an outsized role in our democracy and economy. At their best, they can engage in practices that put people before profit, motivated by the understanding that our collective well-being is more important than the wealth accumulation of a fraction of us.

Read the full article about how business leaders deal with COVID-19  at The Aspen Institute.