Employees are feeling overlooked. Nearly half of American workers (42%) don’t feel “cared for” by their employers, according to MetLife’s U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study.
These employees work diligently for years, grinding away and making little progress, as their employers neglect to offer any meaningful advice, guidance or strategies to help grow their careers. The result is that these workers become disengaged and their productivity declines, which is bad news for them and their respective organizations.
In a Zoom interview with Yolanda Seals-Coffield, principal and chief people officer at Big Four management consulting firm PwC, the talent executive shared her organization’s blueprint for recognizing the skills of its team members and how it enables them to pursue new internal opportunities.
PwC’s program is called My+ and its mission is to prioritize employee empowerment, well-being, career development and flexibility, in response to evolving market trends and employee expectations within the professional services industry.
Employees’ Expectations Have Changed
Post-pandemic, the mindsets and expectations of workers have changed. They desire to work how, where and when they do their best work, and don’t want to be forced into a work style that is incompatible with their preferences or needs.
People are more apt to flourish when their day-to-day experiences are in sync with their values and what makes them feel happy and serves a larger meaning and fulfillment. This includes a sense of belonging, flexibility and feeling appreciated in the workplace.
“People are seeking opportunities that allow them to live their lives how they want to, including meeting the needs of their families, finding work that aligns with their beliefs and creating an environment in which they are building the skills needed for the future,” said Tim Ryan, U.S. chair and senior partner at PwC, in a company statement.
Employees at the accounting firm are given agency in selecting the type of work they want to do, where they want to work—office or remote—travel preferences, work hours per week and benefits that matter most to them. This approach aims to provide a personalized career experience.
The initiative puts employee wellbeing at the forefront and focuses on delivering leadership and coaching skills, evolving benefits and a tech-enabled talent marketplace.
“To attract and retain the best talent to serve our clients, we have been working to evolve our offerings and create a valuable experience rooted in what we’ve heard our people ask for: transparent career development opportunities, valuable rewards, a commitment to their well-being and the ability to build relationships for the long-term,” Seals-Coffield stated.
My Marketplace
Building on the firm’s My+ people strategy, My Marketplace is an AI-driven platform for workers to either get noticed for new internal roles and engagements, or reach out to ask for new and different exciting challenging opportunities within the management consulting firm.
Within the platform, employees have the ability to view a personalized dashboard that contains prospective opportunities that are suitable to their backgrounds, skill sets and interests. They are able to learn more about how PwC is serving its clients. The platform offers transparency into the skills required to pursue different opportunities and serves as a means for workers to enhance their professional networks.
My Marketplace brings visibility to each individual by allowing leaders to access available talent for short-term projects by searching internally to fill their specific needs. Senior staff members have the opportunity to mentor their colleagues and help grow their careers.
“We know that having personalization and flexibility is important to our people and the way My Marketplace enables them to learn about the firm, connect with others and see potential opportunities is definitely resonating,” said the chief people officer. “We’ve already seen our people get exposure to new areas they may not have previously had access to, and our leaders have gotten exposure to staff projects outside of their immediate teams, as My Marketplace is broadening the way we view the firm for everybody.”
What Other Companies Are Doing
In addition to PwC, other companies are using artificial intelligence to help employees identify their career goals, including Betterworks, Degreed and Workleap. These businesses leverage AI to offer tools and features that assist employees in setting and managing their career goals effectively.
Betterworks has a feature called Goal Assist that provides suggestions based on employees’ titles, company goals, manager goals, historical goals and feedback received. Degreed is utilizing AI to create conversational search capabilities for learning opportunities through its Degreed Assistant generative AI chatbot. Workleap is enhancing its products with AI-powered features like Workleap Officevibe for feedback analysis and workplace trends, Workleap Onboarding for simplifying the onboarding process and Workleap Skills for mapping and assessing teams’ skills to determine progression paths and development opportunities.
Source: Forbes
