If the challenges of 2020 taught us anything, it was the critical need for organizations to transform their people experience to be ready for whatever tomorrow may bring.
That’s what this week’s FuelX Talent Mobility Conference by Fuel50 is all about.
FuelX celebrates best-in-class talent strategies that deliver internal talent mobility and workforce reskilling. More specifically, FuelX brings together a line-up of great speakers — experts and influencers all — from award-winning organizations that have been working to both learn AND grow from the global challenges of the past year.
Fuel50 CEO Anne Fulton kicked off the Spring 2021 FuelX conference by making the case that Fuel50’s dream is to transform the people experience for organizations everywhere.
“Our utopia is for every person to have the opportunity to contribute and grow their talents,” Fulton said. “To us, a fair, humanitarian, powerful and energized work experience delivers impact for everyone – employees, organizations and their customers.”
Changing talent dynamics are part of what organizations are facing, and they need to amplify and grow their talent strategies to be better able to grow and compete moving ahead. Fuel50’s Predictive Career Mobility Impact Model can help transforming the value of talent as well as transforming the cost of talent as well.
For example, Fulton said that Fuel50 internal mobility program reduces employee churn (that is, increases retention) by 60% overall, dramatically increases employee reskilling, and unlocks greater levels of productivity overall.
The talent marketplace is… the center of everything
Anne Fulton had a lot more to say, but there were other great speakers on the FuelX agenda too including one you might have heard of — Josh Bersin.
Global HR Industry analyst and founder of the Bersin Academy, Josh Bersin ALWAYS has interesting things to say. Here are some of insights from his presentation on The Big Shift: From Management-Led to Marketplace-Led Talent Models:
- “There are 26% more jobs open in US and Canada than were open a year ago. … I have never seen the job market grow 26% in a year … what has come out of that is a lot of internal recruiting … (and) more than 50% of hiring today is either internal or re-hiring. … We have a big shortage of applicants … and we are going to have a VERY different talent market.”
- “With so many people working remotely, you can recruit for skills anywhere in the world … if you want to build a company with the best skills, you will need to look around the world to find them…”
- “We need organizations that can create human resilience and engagement … there has been a big change in the perception and role of management … what we have discovered over the past 15 months is that the underlying management change is a focus on empathy, trust, listening, and caring for people … creating an experience that is developmental, enjoyable, flexible, and empowering …”
- “The talent marketplace is becoming the center of everything,” and the marketplace model is changing everything … the job market and labor market is forcing companies to (take) a marketplace approach.”
He ended with this: “We need to redesign careers for the dynamics of work today.”
New skills or job needed
Another speaker with great, research-driven insights was Dr. Kelly Monahan, Global Lead Talent Researcher for Accenture. She talked about Unlocking the Future Workforce’s Potential: Leaving People Net Better Off.
Her opening comments were sobering: “All of our lives have been upended … our day to day is no longer normal … the human side of what we do has never become more important …”
She said that by meeting six fundamental human needs through work, companies can unlock their people’s full potential. Accenture calls this framework “Net Better Off,” and it measures and brings into focus what inspires workers’ potential.
Accenture research found that each of the dimensions of “Net Better Off” were significantly correlated with people trusting their employer.
- Employable – Having marketable, in-demand capabilities and skills to obtain goods job and advance a career;
- Financial — Being financially secure without undue economic stress or worry;
- Purposeful — Feeling that one makes a positive difference and that life has meaning and a greater purpose;
- Relational — Feeling a strong sense of belonging and inclusion; having strong personal relationships;
- Emotional & Mental — Feeling positive emotions and maintaining mental wellness;
- Physical — Being in good physical health with a lack of stress.
According to Deloitte, even in today’s weak GDP environments, organizations stand to gain upwards of 5 percent revenue growth by employing practices that leave people “Net Better Off. ” And during a strong and growing economy organizations can realize double-digit revenue growth.
She added: “As employers boost these dimensions and create meaningful and trusting relationships with employees, they see an increase in business performance.”
A tool to “figure out how to invest in your career”
Some other FuelX insights worth mentioning:
Mike Groesser, Vice President of Learning at Fidelity, spoke on Grow@Fidelity: A Data-driven Approach to Career Growth. Here is some of what he said:
“We narrowed in on a mission … ‘Our opportunity (is) to better equip our associates to self-determine their career paths and apply their newly formed skills to deliver customer value.’ ” Fidelity then zeroed in on a talent marketplace and a pilot program with Fuel50 to try it out.
Engaged leaders had high adoption … when we had a leader who was disengaged, we had a group that was disengaged … we needed to reach out to them and help focus on leader enablement …
(We told associates to) use this tool to figure out how to invest in your career … once the tool knows more about you, it can give you better recommendations … (once people) can understand themselves better, (they will know) how to create a plan on how to invest in their career better.”
Another presentation — Future Ready@ KeyBank: Positioning our teammates for today and the future — came from KeyBank‘s CIO Dean Kontul and CLO Carole Torres.
They said, in part:
We have a strong foundation of “future ready” initiatives, tools and capabilities and are gaining traction areas across Key. Changes to the way we work, and our workforce are gathering pace like never before … and with them, learning and growth in the workplace faces an unprecedented level of change.
We are on a journey to equip our employees with the right technical, analytical, business and people skills focused on today AND the future. By providing the tools, resources, and technology to equip employees … we can foster a mindset of continuous, lifelong learning and growth. Future Ready, including Grow at Key, is a differentiator for attracting, developing, and growing talent at Key.”
“From selling out to lights out in the blink of an eye”
Other speakers with provocative insights included:
- Candy Baptist, Director of the Career Transformation Center at Texas Health Resources. She said, “Just like our consumers, THR employees want a work experience that is safe, reliable, proactive, efficient, caring, and seamless. Texas Health Resources University partnered with Fuel50 … to develop “My Career Journey”, an electronic career development platform. Our team created a framework aligned with Texas Health behavior tenets – Mission, Vision, Promise Behaviors, and Leader Behaviors—to advance our current work force in a way that meets both the needs of the individual and the needs of the organization.
- Madison Square Garden‘s Carolyn Rooney, Senior Director of Leadership and Talent Development, and Marina Sideli, Senior Specialist of People Development. They said, “We went from selling out to lights out in the blink of an eye” when 2020 happened. It challenged every part of our work … and it challenged our employees and the future success of our company as well … internal mobility is a big focus for us, and Fuel50 helps us to do that. We can better leverage the tools and resources to make that possible. That’s where Fuel50 comes in.”
Robin Erickson, Principal Researcher of The Conference Board, closed our Day 1 of 2021 FuelX with an engaging presentation on To AI or Not to AI in Career Management and Talent Mobility. She was up very frank when she said:
We are predicting that the labor market will again get tight … if organizations don’t treat employees well, they will lose them … and when the job market opens up, employees will leave if they don’t feel they have been treated well during the lockdown … career development is an expectation employees have, and it even impacts employee engagement.”
She also talked about AI and Internal Talent Mobility, using the example that, “Trane Technologies first piloted the Fuel50 talent marketplace three years ago to provide effective suggestions for employee moves. After finding that employee engagement was 3 percentage points higher in the pilot audience, Trane launched the marketplace, known internally as My Career Navigator, across the entire organization with 42,000 employees. Since the launch, Trane has seen an improvement of 67 percent in internal talent mobility, with a significant lift in lateral movement from 37 percent to 55 percent. Further, 97 percent of employees have had a career conversation with their managers, and Trane is achieving a key talent retention rate of 96 percent across the business.”
All in all, Day 1 of FuelX 2021 had a great lineup of speakers with insights and thinking that it is hard to get anywhere else. Day 2 promises more of the same with presentations from Dave Ulrich (well known as “Mr. HR”), and other speakers from Deloitte, NetApp, Waystar, Q4, RTI, and HR.com. It all kicks off tomorrow at 11am Eastern time.
Fuel50 Talent Mobility Benchmarking Study 2021
Fuel50 Capability Trends Report
ABOUT FUELX CONFERENCES
Hosted all over the world since 2017, FuelX Conferences by Fuel50 bring together like-minded HR aficionados and top industry thought leaders to celebrate those implementing best-in-class talent experiences and growth journeys for their people!
For more information or to recap on previous FuelX events, click here.
