Growth and Opportunity Are the Lifeblood of Employee Experience

Cornerstone OnDemand is a Business Reporter client.

Today’s world is incredibly unpredictable. Consider all the upheavals that businesses have had to weather in recent years, from Brexit and Covid-19 to the Great Resignation, and more. Before that, there was the 2008 financial meltdown.

A company’s workforce is the key to surviving such challenging periods. If an organization has unhappy people, high turnover and poor motivation, it will find itself in choppy waters. 

Striking the balance of you, me and we

So, what do employees want when it comes to learning and the broader talent experience? Put simply: a lot.

For one, employees don’t want to feel as though talent development is something that is being “done to them.” Rather, they want to feel like all the talent activities that exist in their workplace are there to help nurture their growth and engagement. Employees want to feel as if the experience has been designed and personalized for them and their needs, and will evolve as they evolve.

They also want to understand and have a measure of control over their career direction and progress. They want to feel like they can share and evaluate their own expertise, and that they have a pathway to the future. They also want to feel connected to the purpose of the business.

To juggle all of this, a balance needs to be struck between what the employee wants and needs, and what is good for the overall organization. This is a balance of the “you,” the “me” and the “we.” Let’s break down these components:  

• The you: corporate strategy. The organization defines its collective talent needs to reach its goals, manages the distribution of required and prescribed knowledge and defines HR processes. 

• The me: individual empowerment. The organization meets individual needs and provides an engaging experience for employees to discover and access knowledge, networks, learning and career pathways in a self-directed way.

• The we: collective intelligence. Using a common skills language, this is the intersection of employee and company needs and priorities that augment and accelerate innovation, and drive maximum retention, engagement and productivity.

Make learning as constant as the North Star  

Learning provides a critical business benefit, as it can be a strategic agent of change. Learning leads to curiosity, creativity, discovery, innovation and disruption.

Companies with employees who are constantly learning are better placed to weather unstable and unpredictable times. Cornerstone’s recent EMEA People & Workplace Trends Report highlights the importance of agility and resilience, as the organizations leading the way are those that challenge assumptions, reset the way they work, enhance the employee experience and bridge skills gaps. 

Learning and development are also important to employees, who expect the talent experience to be integrated into their day-to-day working lives. They want to continually develop themselves, grow professionally and collaborate with colleagues as they learn together.   

This is especially important to younger employees. These younger workers are the future, and the consequences of failing to incorporate a strong learning culture into their employee experience will become evident in reduced satisfaction and productivity. With trends like “quiet quitting” and “resenteeism” on the rise, organizations need to prioritize L&D to build a strong, happy workforce.

Focus on internal mobility   

Finally, organizations should also be laser-focused on improving the internal mobility of their workforce. Why? Because it is hugely important to employees, and facilitates hiring. According to Cornerstone’s 2023 research on talent mobility trends, 73% of employees want to know about career opportunities inside their organization, and 47% would be more satisfied if they had more opportunities to explore careers internally. Facilitating internal mobility can mean the difference between high turnover rates and high retention rates. 

Cornerstone’s recently launched Opportunity Marketplace is addressing the above challenges and redefining workforce agility and talent mobility. It offers customers a fully connected learning ecosystem, with a unified user experience and an AI-powered talent experience. This holistic solution fosters a more engaged, self-developing workforce and better positions organizations for longevity and success—no matter what may lie ahead.

Of course, talent mobility is only one part of the wider strategy to empower a future-ready workforce. Organizations need a solution that can improve workforce planning, adapt to quickly changing strategic priorities and market shifts and create a work environment of growth, resilience and agility. This enables employees to be aligned with the success of the organization—a rewarding talent strategy for all. Using the power of AI, organizations can reinvigorate their learning and development experience, make relevant content accessible anytime and anywhere, accelerate talent and career movement and make skills the universal language of growth and success.

Header image: iStock id1313265071

Body images: Courtesy of Cornerstone OnDemand

Author’s image: Courtesy of Cornerstone OnDemand