A group of leading companies from several industries has formed People + Work Connect, an employer-to-employer initiative that brings together companies laying off or furloughing people with those companies in urgent need of workers at no cost.
This was done as unemployment surpasses record highs due to the new coronavirus disease or COVID-19.
The business-to-business platform enables companies that are best positioned to rapidly share the experience and skills of their laid-off or furloughed workforces to connect at no cost with other companies on the platform that are seeking workers.
The platform is global and cross-industry to maximise the ability to deploy people with similar skills in one industry into other industries where jobs are being created. It is intended to help shorten the cycle of unemployment for people. The analytics-driven platform pools non-confidential and aggregated workforce information by categories such as location and experience.
“By providing real-time visibility into which companies need people and where, People + Work Connect is designed to lessen the economic and societal impacts of the virus and help us work together to make a difference in the lives of hundreds of thousands of people,” said Ellyn Shook, Accenture’s chief leadership and human resources officer.
People + Work Connect — designed by CHROs from Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow and Verizon – runs on a platform that Accenture.
Launched just just 14 business days since the idea was conceived, the initiative has so far attracted companies like ADM, Baxter, Blue Apron, Cargill, Frito-Lay, Lincoln Financial Group, Marriott, Mondelēz International, Nordstrom, ServiceNow, Walmart and Zenefits.
Accenture said more than 250 companies are expected to onboard over the next week and the platform will soon add public sector jobs.
Also, Accenture said People + Work has been able to quickly scale the participation of companies due to the support and commitment to help put people back to work from Business Roundtable, Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies in the ILR School at Cornell University, Center for Executive Succession at the Darla Moore School of Business, Gallup and the CHRO Roundtable, HR Policy Association, Institute for Corporate Productivity, National Academy of Human Resources, Society for Human Resource Management and World50.
