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The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant societal changes and altered how much of the construction industry operates. This study investigates the impacts of pandemic-related changes, how these changes may apply to different companies, and which changes should continue post-pandemic.

We aim to identify pandemic-driven changes that have affected the construction workplace and the advantages and challenges associated with them. We then make recommendations for what could and should endure through the pandemic and beyond, and under what circumstances. To achieve this objective, we conducted both qualitative and quantitative analyses of 40 semi-structured interviews with US-based construction professionals.

Identified through these interviews were 21 pandemic-driven changes across six categories: management and planning, technology, workforce, health and safety, supply chain, and contracts. This study noted both positive and negative impacts of the changes on cost, schedule, productivity, collaboration, employee retention, flexibility, quality, and risk mitigation. Participants indicated that some changes should remain after the pandemic and others (e.g. select safety measures, schedule adjustments) should be temporary.

By incorporating these lessons learned into recommendations, the findings of this study will help businesses identify and implement the most appropriate improvements for their organizations. The findings also provide policymakers with valuable insights on how to promote innovation in the construction industry and potentially enact more effective policies during crises to drive long-term improvements.

Purpose: Significant structural changes are currently occurring in the Indian labour sector. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies are redefining the activities and skill requirements for various jobs in the healthcare sector. These adjustments have been accelerated by the economic crisis brought on by COVID-19, along with other considerations.

Need for the Study: Skills shortages, job transitions, and the deployment of AI at the company level are the three main challenges confronting the Indian labour market. This chapter aims to discuss policy alternatives to address a rising need for health workers and provide an overview of changes to the healthcare sector’s labour market.

Methodology: A review of the available literature was conducted to determine the causes of the widening skill gap despite a vibrant and prodigious young population. The background of the sustainable labour market is examined in this chapter, with a focus on workforce migration and mobility.

Findings: This chapter gives a comparative review of recent policy papers and evidence, as well as estimates of the health workforce and present Indian datasets. Furthermore, it highlights how important it is for all people concerned to invest in today’s workforce to close the skill gap and create better future opportunities.

Practical Implications: This chapter’s findings imply a severe shortage of human intellectual capital in India and a need to bridge this gap in the Indian labour market.

This chapter provides a comprehensive exploration of the pivotal role of family planning in advancing sustainable development goals (SDGs). It elucidates the intrinsic connection between family planning and sustainable development, scrutinizes the harmonization of family planning initiatives with SDG targets and indicators, gleans insights from global approaches, and identifies formidable challenges, with a particular focus on marginalized communities. This chapter culminates with a set of substantial recommendations aimed at surmounting these challenges and propelling SDG attainment through the prism of family planning.

In the quest for better construction workforce management, this chapter explored the background of workforce management and related theories, models, and practices. Through a review, the chapter provided meaning to the concept of construction and workforce management. The chapter concluded that while the construction industry worldwide is important to the economic growth of the countries where it operates, the industry’s management of its workforce is challenged by several problems. These problems include the nature of the industry, skill shortage, unhealthy working environment, and poor image of the industry, among others. Also, while the construction industry is rich in diversity, this has been a major source of problems for workforce management. The chapter further revealed that to improve workforce management and attain better-performing construction organisations, careful recruitment, effective training, providing a safe working environment, putting policies to promote diversity, and ensuring innovativeness, among others, are essential.

This chapter discusses various aspects of family planning initiatives on a global scale, with a specific focus on their influence in Asian contexts, including Bangladesh. This chapter examines the diverse range of family planning programs and policies implemented worldwide, in Asia and Bangladesh considering cultural factors that significantly shape family planning decisions. By highlighting the unique approaches and challenges faced in different regions, it provides valuable insights into the evolving landscape of family planning efforts and their impact on population dynamics.

This case documents an innovative human resource management (HRM) practice adopted by an Australian organization in the energy sector, purposefully introducing lived experience informed “mental health advocate” (MHA) roles into the organization, to address pressing mental health workforce issues. MHA roles provide experiential, first-hand knowledge of experiencing mental health issues, offering a novel, common-sense and impactful perspective on supporting employees with mental health challenges.

Data that informed this case came from desktop research using publicly available resources, as well as a series of conversations with four key stakeholders in the organization. This approach allowed insights into Energy Queensland’s journey towards establishing novel MHA roles to delineate the day-to-day work practice of these roles.

This is a novel HRM practice that has only recently emerged outside of the mental health sector. We discuss key considerations that enabled the success of the roles, including taking an evolutionary perspective, obtaining support from senior executives and relevant stakeholders, making a long-term financial commitment, and providing autonomy and flexibility in role design. This is the first article that documents this innovative practice to offer new insights to HRM scholars, as well as practical guidelines to other organizations in addressing workforce mental health issues.

The information used in the case study was obtained from secondary sources, such as internal documents, reports, news, and organization websites. Three of the four authors played a hands-on role in the case.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the global challenge of hiring and retaining health-care workers. To address its own challenges, Mayo Clinic decided to fundamentally transform its 30-year-old tuition assistance program: from a model centered on the premise that tuition assistance was an employee benefit for professional development purposes, to one that was more driven to meet the business needs of the employer by preparing internal talent for important roles throughout the institution. Herein, this case study first describes how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted health-care organizations like Mayo Clinic. Next, this study provides details on the original employee tuition assistance program, and then, focuses on the reasons for its need to be changed. Afterward, this study introduces the new tuition assistance programs. Finally, this study follows with examples of how both Mayo Clinic and its employees navigated through initial challenges, such as resistance to change and lack of engagement. In sum, this case study provides critical insight into designing workforce education programs that provide professional development for meeting the workforce needs of the organization.

This case can be used as teaching material in relevant undergraduate- and MBA-level courses, such as human resource management, human resource development and compensation and benefits. This case allows students to critically analyze workforce education programs (e.g. tuition assistance programs) and to plan how to strategically align those with the workforce needs of the organization.

To explore Finnish experts' perceptions of the forms of digital healthcare that are anticipated to be the most utilised in healthcare in the medium-term future (year 2035) and anticipated healthcare workforce impacts those forms will have.

A total of 17 experts representing relevant interest groups participated in a biphasic online Delphi study. The results for each round were analysed using descriptive statistical methods and inductive content analysis.

The forms of digital healthcare that the experts perceived as most likely to be utilised were those enabling patient participation, efficient organisation of services and automated data collection and analysis. The main impacts on the healthcare workforce were seen as being the redirection of workforce needs within the healthcare sector and need for new skills and new professions. The decrease in the need for a healthcare workforce was seen as less likely. The impacts were perceived as being constructed through three means: impacts within healthcare organisations, impacts on healthcare professions and impacts via patients.

The results are not necessarily transferable to other contexts because the experts anticipated local futures. Patients' views were also excluded from the study.

Healthcare organisations function in complex systems where drivers, such as regional demographics, legislation and financial constraints, dictate how digital healthcare is utilised. Anticipating the workforce effects of digital healthcare utilisation has received limited attention; the study adds to this discussion.

This paper aims to “identify,” “analyse” and “categorise” the readiness factors of lean sustainability in health-care organisation using total interpretive structural modelling (TISM).

To obtain the data, a closed-ended questionnaire was used in addition to a scheduled interview. To identify how the factors interact, the TISM approach was used, and the matriced’ impacts croise’s multiplication applique’e a UN classement (MICMAC) analysis was used to rank and categorise the lean sustainability readiness factors.

This study identified ten lean sustainability readiness factors for health-care organisation. The identified factors are resources utilization practice (F1), management commitment and leadership (F2), operational flexibility (F3), workforce engagement and time commitment (F4), sustainability motivational factors (F5), awareness of lean and sustainable practice (F6), hospital design (F7), energy efficiency practices in hospitals (F8), responsible autonomy (F9) and new system adoptability training (F10). The key/driving factors are identified in this study are operational flexibility, sustainability motivational factors, management commitment and leadership, new system adoptability training.

The study focussed primarily on lean sustainability factors for the health-care sector.

This research will aid key stakeholders and academics in the better understanding the readiness factors that influence lean sustainability in health-care organisation. This study emphasises the factors that must be considered when applying lean sustainable practices in health care as a real-world application in a health-care organisation. These readiness factors for lean sustainability can be used by an organization to comprehend more about the concept and the components that contribute to health-care lean sustainability.

This study proposes the TISM technique for health care, which is a novel attempt in the subject of lean sustainability in this sector.

This book aimed to conceptualise a construction workforce management model suitable for effectively managing workers in construction organisations. To this end, this chapter presents the conceptualised model, which consists of seven workforce management practices with their respective measurement variables. Drawing from existing theories, models, and practices, the chapter concludes that a construction organisation that will attain its strategic objectives in the current fourth industrial revolution era must be willing to promote effective recruitment and selection, compensation and benefits, performance management and appraisal, employee involvement and empowerment, training and development, as well as improving workers emotional intelligence and handling external environment pressure. These practices can promote proactiveness, participation, and improved skills and can lead to effective commitment, better quality, and flexibility within the organisation.