2026-12-11 · StartUp VA — 1717 E Cary St, Richmond, VA
Henry Ford gave us the 40-hour week 100 years ago. Dolly Parton sang about the 9-to-5 in 1980. It looks more and more likely that AI is bringing change to how we work. Some jobs may disappear, but most will be rewritten task by task. Responsible organizations are treating this change as an opportunity to redesign the workforce they need to compete, in a way their people can trust. In this interactive session, Jared Jarreau shares a practical framework for workforce design and planning: start with a commitment to the people doing the work, define the outcomes a role delivers, then break that work into tasks and decide who does what, from employees and contractors to automation and AI agents. Then identify the skills now required for the role, and use these results to execute your strategic workforce planning from the bottom up. Working in small groups, you'll apply each step to a real role as the framework unfolds. Bring a role or a challenge if you have one. Learning Outcomes Understand why most work is being redesigned rather than replaced, and why outcomes, tasks and skills are the building blocks of workforce planning. Learn how to choose the right mix of resources for the work, and how much human oversight to design in. Use AI responsibly to identify the skills a role requires, and know where human judgment must own the final call.