Work Here Now

7Hippos Under the Lagoon: The Powerful Effects of Immigration, Migration, and Incarceration on Your Workforce

“We asked for workers. We got people instead.”

—Max Frisch

The most dangerous animal in Africa is a plant‐eater perhaps best known for wearing tutus in a long‐ago Disney cartoon. That's right: hippos kill more people every year than lions. There are a few reasons why they're so deadly, including a territorial attitude and surprisingly large, sharp teeth, but the most interesting one doesn't have to do with any of their characteristics—it has to do with where they hang out. Hippos spend a lot of time in rivers and lakes, so a pretty good proportion of the folks killed by them don't see them coming as they emerge, angry, from underneath a boat.

We spend a lot of time on workforce issues analogous to lions: visible predators stalking the savannah. This chapter, though, deals with three “hippo” issues—immigration, migration, and incarceration—that lurk beneath the surface of organization's workforces. We'll examine how these issues reshape workforces and how a more human approach to grappling with all three forces can be a tremendous source of productivity and improved employee experience for organizations.

Why do these issues qualify as true “hippos”? All three have a direct impact on two of the absolutely seminal workforce issues of our time: labor shortages and creating a more inclusive, diverse workforce. At Mercer, we believe that the current labor shortage—where ...