Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2019 - 56

CLOSING
D E A L S
INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF THE WORKER,
NOT JUST THE FUTURE OF WORK
BY TARYN OESCH

Many publications, including our own, are
exploring "the future of work" in articles,
research and other content. Topics like
automation, artificial intelligence (AI), the
gig economy and the virtual workplace
take center stage in this discussion. We
can't forget, however, that central to the
future of work are workers themselves.
How can we make sure that our business
strategies moving forward are considering
employees' needs and supporting their
growth and development?
You guessed it: Learning leaders must play
a role.
While emerging technologies are
creating a brave new future of work,
they are also supporting the future of
the worker. AI is enabling coaching at
scale, augmenting the personalized
development approach of a professional
coach; online platforms are automating
some performance management tasks,
freeing up managers' time for those oneon-one conversations that are critical
to performance; and remote meeting
and learning platforms are enabling
managers, trainers, employees and
learners to communicate effectively, no
matter where their offices are located.
INVESTORS TAKING NOTE:
THE "GREAT AWAKENING"
Funding for these technologies is following
the demand. For example, BetterUp, a
mobile coaching company, announced
$103 million in growth financing for its
Series C round in June, bringing its total
financing to over $142 million. Fuel50,
creator of a "career experience and talent
mobility platform," closed $14 million in
Series B funding in August, bringing its
total funding to over $18 million.

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When BetterUp launched, says co-founder
and CEO Alexi Robichaux, investors
weren't really interested in what it was
offering. But "BetterUp is focused on the
future of the worker, not just the future
of work," and investors are starting to
understand this reality. "Your competitive
advantage is your people," he says, and
there's been a "great awakening" that
optimizing employees through growth
and development is critical to success.

EMERGING
TECHNOLOGIES ARE
SUPPORTING THE FUTURE
OF THE WORKER.

From an investor's perspective, Will Kohler,
a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners
(which led BetterUp's Series C), says that,
while investing in "technology and tools to
improve visibility into data, into decisions,
into workflow" is important, "investing in
people and their development" is also key.
In fact, Robichaux reports that Workday
has seen a 10% increase in its "managers'
ability to elevate and drive results" after
implementing BetterUp's platform.

deliver a level of transparency that
helps reduce 'skills anxiety' for both
the organization and the employee." By
enabling organizations to know which
skills they're missing and employees
to know which positions and career
paths might be open to them, Fuel50
helps ensure a solid talent pipeline for
the future.
Based on the data Fulton provides, it
works; its clients have seen employee
retention improve by an average of 60%
and employee engagement improve by
an average of 3% to 5%. Organizations
also improve their internal talent mobility;
for example, IngersollBrand has improved
its "internal fill rates from 37.5% to 55%"
since beginning its partnership with
Fuel50 in 2016.
Artificial intelligence enables these
platforms to automatically make career
path and training recommendations
based on each employee's career history,
learning and other data. Matching
employees' skills, performance and goals
to organizational opportunities improves
employee engagement and retention
and helps fill the talent pipeline.

Fuel50, meanwhile, supports organizations'
employee development programs through
what CEO Anne Fulton describes as a
platform that combines "the simplicity
of Google Maps" with personalized
career pathing.

"We're not designing around compliance
anymore," Robichaux says. Instead,
learning leaders are focusing on engaging
learners and ensuring that they are
growing. By formalizing previously
informal learning processes like coaching
and career planning, organizations can
track not only compliance metrics but also
those metrics like engagement, learning
and talent mobility. Then, they can change
their programs to improve them.

"Employees are hungry to know what
their future holds," Fulton says. "We

Taryn Oesch is the managing editor of digital
content at Training Industry, Inc. Email Taryn.

PERSONALIZING CAREER PLANNING
Training Industry Magazine - September/October 2019

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