What does it take to run a successful business? A commitment to an idea. An understanding of how to meet audience needs while positioning the business against competitors. A talent for finding and keeping people who will help the business sustain itself and prosper.
You may only view the last of these factors as something that intersects your responsibilities as a reentry workforce professional. But all of them come into play for an employer in an unstable business/consumer/labor market environment. (Which means they affect that employer’s outlook and decision-making across the board.)
The good news is that you don’t need a business degree to gain an edge in relating to employers. You just need to understand three key factors that are impacting employer expectations and priorities, because they will shape your ability to build lasting relationships that better serve your justice-impacted job seekers.
Technology: Continuous, Considerable Change
According to Moore’s Law, computing power doubles roughly every two years. That power is continually harnessed for new technology applications, each of which needs time for training and a stable period during which users can catch up. Yet the landing stage between one iteration and the next keeps getting shorter.
Employers are feeling it. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that nearly 40% of the skills required on the job will change by 2030. Already, 63% of employers cite skills gaps as their biggest barrier to an expected transformation led by AI and emerging technologies.
That means employers are grappling with decisions that pit workforce against profitability. Should they invest most heavily in technology like AI? Focus on people and use technology only to augment human efforts? Find a happy medium? And where does training fit on a timeline that keeps moving?
When everyone is reacting to constant change, the edge goes to individuals who can adapt and progress quickly. Candidates who demonstrate they have transferable skills and openness to role-specific training are a strong sell to employers whose available options may play an increasing role in determining how and where they invest their resources.
Productivity: It All Comes Back to the Bottom Line
Business success is measured in bottom-line metrics, and uncertainty is expensive. When leaders can’t predict what’s next, decisions stall, teams hesitate, and output slips. An empty seat or a poor placement that results in turnover compounds the problem further by slowing productivity, dampening morale, and adding additional recruitment costs.
Although you can’t control every source of uncertainty, you can ease an employer’s mind by showing you understand barriers to productivity. Businesses are trying to do more with fewer resources. Employees are stressed living under the same economic and technology impact uncertainty as employers. Upskilling or reskilling takes time that seems to be in scarce supply.
According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 report, employee engagement has been dropping after hitting a peak in 2022. Last year, that dip cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity. Although the stakes aren’t in the literal trillions for your local employer partner, their expectations for maintaining their labor force and output are just as important.
Your contribution? Helping to lessen employee disruptions to the bottom line by serving as both a source of stability and adaptability. That means bringing candidates who are prepared for the job as it exists today, agile enough to respond to changing needs or priorities, and, most importantly, supported so that they can continue to evolve along their career pathway, even in the face of uncertainty.
Economic Uncertainty: Low Hire, Low Fire
The current “low-hire, low-fire” market is unusual for what economists have deemed a relatively healthy economy. Former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell noted earlier this year that people without jobs “will have a hard time breaking in.” For justice-impacted job seekers, that reality makes a familiar barrier that much steeper.
Yet the current landscape isn’t uniform. Hiring is stagnant in some sectors and regions while other industry verticals and locations can’t find enough workers. As we have seen, markets shift, pivot, and reverse, and an employer’s expectations and needs may do the same.
It may be tempting to think of chasing the prevailing winds as your course of action, but you have an opportunity beyond simply navigating uncertainty. While you’re doing your market research and building relationships with amenable, appropriate employers, you’re also preparing your job seeker; making sure they have an opportunity mindset and that they are positioned with all of their lived experience and transferable skills demonstrating their suitability for the role.
Both calm and chaos are “contagious.” Reentry workforce professionals who not only meet the challenge of the highs but check in during the lows provide the quiet confidence that leaves employers feeling supported as well. Now you’re the trusted partner who remains top of mind during times of both scarcity and growth.
A Partner Who Anticipates
There is already a strong business case for Fair Chance Hiring (including strong performance and lower recruitment costs due to trusted referrals and higher retention). On top of that, the short- and long-term shrinking of the labor pool and an increased employer focus on transferable skills such as communication, problem-solving, initiative, and collaboration offer a new wave of opportunity for justice-impacted job seekers.
Still, an employer needs someone who understands the technology, productivity, and economic pressures transforming their business for the long-term, not a stream of in-the-moment talent. They need a talent partner who can anticipate the impact of change and bring solutions before they’re even asked.
That’s how the reentry workforce role must evolve to meet the demands of the future of work. In the process, practitioners earn themselves a seat at the table as a respected member of the employer’s workforce team, employers gain eager and agile talent, and those partnerships open even more doors to sustainable opportunities for justice-impacted job seekers.
We invite you to join us on December 4 for the next webinar in our “Future of Work” Thought Leadership Series where we’ll hear from experts on how you can understand and respond to changing employer expectations to remain a credible partner and ensure justice-impacted workers are positioned for success.