AI is introducing a new era of disruption.
Businesses need to rapidly adapt to AI in their workflows, products, and services to stay competitive while their people’s jobs move and shift beneath them. Organizations are in the impossible position to do more with less and achieve even better results. It's a tall order, and the responsibility falls on the shoulders of talent leaders to answer so many questions:
• How do organizations keep their top performers and re-energize the idle?
• How do talent teams fight friction and empower agility to apply the right people and skills to critical business priorities?
• How do organizations inspire the continuous learning and development needed to keep up with the impacts of AI?
Experts and practitioners at levels all the way to the C-suite agree: there's no playbook for this moment.
At LinkedIn, here's what we know. Talent leaders cannot depend on familiar patterns. They must take a fresh look at upskilling programs, develop new partnerships across the organization, tap into the power of individual ambition, and provide clear evidence of their impact. Easier said than done.
We are most excited about talent strategies that ignite people to do the best work of their lives — that fuel their "why."
Because for organizations to do more with less, they need talent at their best. We know that the No. 1 motivation for individual skill growth is progress toward personal career goals, yet two out of three workers have considered leaving their job due to a lack of career growth opportunities. When a job promotion is the only step that allows people to feel a sense of career progress, it’s common for people to get frustrated and leave. Others stay and stagnate.
But when an organization offers tangible career progress through upskilling, coaching, and internal role changes, they fuel the motivation of individual dreams. We believe the power of career ambition enables your people to be their best, so your company can be too.
To achieve this, talent leaders will need not only a product that supports multifaceted career growth, but also strategic and tactical advice about how to make the necessary systemic and cultural shifts. We recognize this new imperative for the audience we serve, and as a result, we are making two commitments:
Our commitment with LinkedIn Learning
We have been expanding LinkedIn Learning to include comprehensive career-driven learning.
Upskilling in the age of AI is an obvious need, and we will continue to have the most engaging and dynamic course content on the market to help meet that need. But the demands of development programs in the age of AI are broader than upskilling with courses. That’s why we have already developed capabilities, such as next role career pathing, role guides, internal job boards, hands-on skills practice, and AI-powered coaching — all customized to align an employee’s personal career goals with organizational needs.
We will continue to invest in new features that align individual growth with business priorities. To name just a few: personalized learning plans powered by AI will guide employees with relevant and adaptable paths to career progress. Intelligent talent architecture customization will help customers efficiently create and maintain talent architecture, to use both inside and outside of LinkedIn Learning.
Our commitment to career-driven learning is powered by the unique knowledge and data of the LinkedIn ecosystem with 1 billion members, 14 million jobs, and 5 million profile updates per minute. And LinkedIn Learning and LinkedIn Recruiter work seamlessly to drive internal job discovery for employees who are eager to grow into new roles.
Our commitment to conversation and resources
We are leading an ongoing conversation about the toughest challenges facing talent leaders today.
We will also publish a library of effective strategies and frameworks to guide innovation. We've engaged with many of you at the forefront of strategy and its execution around the globe. It's evident that you're eager to learn from one another and have a wealth of insights to share. We are committed to amplifying those insights out in the world.
Next era talent development strategies for an AI world
Next era talent development strategies for an AI world
Our commitment to sharing conversation and resources starts now. We want to listen, learn, and team up with all of you to create tools and tactics on the most pressing innovations for the new era of talent development. The following five foundational topics are where we will start our journey together:
Our commitment to sharing conversation and resources starts now. We want to listen, learn, and team up with all of you to create tools and tactics on the most pressing innovations for the new era of talent development. The following five foundational topics are where we will start our journey together:
Talent development needs to build skills faster.
How can talent development upskill their people when those skills keep changing?
In the months ahead, we will deliver more guidance on how to harness individual career ambition to drive career-led learning.
Globally, skills are projected to change by 50% by 2030 (from 2016) — and generative AI is expected to accelerate this change to 68%.
Talent development needs to help people and their skills move more easily.
Organizations are desperate to make internal mobility easier and more accessible, but few are set up to do this well. In a world where organizations are being asked to do more with fewer resources and achieve even better outcomes, internal mobility is a must-have. We need to break down walls between talent functions and figure out how to do this well together.
We don't claim to have all the answers, but we will bring you insights on how internal mobility is working across organizations globally.
Only 33% of organizations have an internal mobility program.
Talent development needs better ways to measure success.
If talent developers are going to be a critical driver of upskilling and business outcomes, they need to be able to show their impact.
There may be no one-size-fits-all measurement approach, but we are determined to publish proof of impact strategies from organizations around the globe on how talent development can reliably demonstrate their value.
Only ¼ of talent leaders said their training programs measurably improved business performances, and most companies report they don't even track the returns on their investments in training.
Talent development needs to harness the power of managers.
Imagine a world where managers are incentivized to grow their talent and help find the best place for them in the organization — even if that means moving a strong performer off of their team. The ideal manager is someone who helps people get the skills, experiences, and connections to succeed and lead anywhere.
This doesn't need to be a pipe dream. We are committed to talking to the right folks about how to engage managers as major champions for their career development programs.
47% of Gen Z employees say they would rather ask ChatGPT for advice than their manager.
Talent development needs to evangelize individual career empowerment.
There's so much pressure on organizations to pave the way for individual career development. How can talent leaders foster a culture of employee-led career development?
We believe resources and tools that track and support individual career progress can go a long way. We are dedicated to providing examples of these resources to help you build your own. We will also show how LinkedIn Learning can help visualize career progression and offer ways for employees to grow.
The No. 1 motivation for individual skill growth is progress toward personal career goals, yet ⅔ of workers have considered leaving their job due to a lack of career growth opportunities.
Data sources: 2024 Work Trend Index Annual Report; 2024 Workplace Learning Report; McKinsey’s “Getting More From Your Training Programs”; Intoo; Workplace Intelligence (survey of U.S. workers).
