In today's workplace, career development is critical for attracting, engaging, and retaining talent. Employees expect a job with opportunities for growth and advancement. Managers can shape the employee experience and drive team performance.

In this episode, The Edge of Work Founder and Podcast Host, Al Dea shares some of the research that he and the team have been doing around how to promote a culture of career development inside of your organization.

In this episode, Al covers:

• The importance of career development as it relates to performance, agility, and talent attracting and retention
• What employees are looking for out of managers for support
• What managers can do to support employee career development
• What steps organizations can take to create a culture of career development

Additional Links

• Research Highlights: https://theedgeofwork.com/people-growth-equation-career-development-report/
• Al’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/itsaldea/

Chrissie Arnold is the Director of Future of Work Programs at Slack. In her role, Arnold is tasked with identifying and testing new and novel ways of working that can help improve the way that Slack employees work so that they can improve key business results including productivity, employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

During our conversation, Chrissie spoke about some of the lessons she’s learned about experimenting with new ways of working and thinking about work as well as some of the examples of different experiments that she and her team have run to help employees work better. Chrissie also shares some of her thoughts on how leaders can challenge workplace norms, build a culture of experimentation inside of their company, and her own perspective on how leaders can think differently about work.

Links

• Chrissie’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissiearnold/
• Slack Workforce Lab Research: https://slack.com/resources/collections/workforce-lab#explore-workforce-lab-research-

Dr. Michael Arena is an author, researcher, and co-founder of Connected Commons and former talent executive at companies including General Motors, Bank of America and Amazon. With a passion for research in the studies of collaboration, social connection and organizational dynamics, Michael has a keen sense and understanding of the state of today’s workplace, and ideas for what organizations can do to create opportunities for their people to work productively and collaboratively.

During our conversation, Michael spoke about key topics including the importance of social capital, the power of intentional collaboration and what organizations can do to maximize the impact of the work of their teams. Michael also shared his thoughts on the true impact of serendipity, the importance of creating the right conditions for collaboration, and his own thoughts on how to create a better world of work.

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-arena-21b6164/
• Articles: https://www.hrexchangenetwork.com/contributor/michael-arena
• Book: Adaptive Space:

Note: This is a special episode from our conversations with talent development leaders at the ATD ‘24 Conference in New Orleans back in May 2024.

Jason Hudgins is a Senior Consultant of Leadership Development at Wellstar Health. During our conversation, Jason spoke about the challenges that many hospital leaders face today, and the important characteristics that leaders need to effectively lead in complex healthcare environments.

Jason also highlighted a coaching program that he helped roll out to leaders inside Wellstar, providing details on some of the key business objectives the leadership development program and coaching helped solve, and his advice to other organizations looking to leverage coaching as part of their leadership development programs.
- Jason's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonkhudgins/
- Sounding Board Inc: https://www.soundingboardinc.com/

Jelena Djordjevic is the Chief People Officer at Thumbtack. During the early months of the 2020 Global Pandemic, Thumbtack made the decision to go virtual first, and subsequently and iteratively implemented a people strategy that enabled its thousands of employees to work effectively in a whole new way. Three years later, Thumbtack remains virtual first, and under Djordevic’s leadership has taken a strategic and intentional approach to aligning their people strategy with their business strategy to drive results, for both the business and their people.

During our conversation, Djordjevic shared her own philosophy as a Chief People Officer about how she strategically thinks about the role of the HR function in enabling business strategy. Jelena also shared some of the programs and policies that are a part of their people strategy for a virtual-first organizations, how she and her team use data to drive strategy and programs, and how she and Thumbtack thing about critical levers of a virtual first organization, such as fostering connection, in-person experiences, and the role of their managers.

Links:

• Jelena’s Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jzdjordjevic/
• https://blog.thumbtack.com/two-years-in-our-virtual-first-model-is-here-to-stay-and-its-only-getting-better-18d33c443d80
• https://blog.thumbtack.com/new-report-finds-employees-perform-their-best-when-working-virtually-and-senior-leaders-agree-59eee67c8aac

Note: This is a special episode from our conversations with talent development leaders at the ATD ‘24 Conference in New Orleans back in May 2024.

Terence Morley is the VP of Global Talent Development at NBC Universal. Under his leadership, Terence and his talent and learning team have launched a number of key talent development initiatives to help employees develop, grow and manage their careers across the diverse business lines within NBC Universal ranging from theme park to news and media employees.

During our conversation, Terence spoke about the importance of helping employees learn the critical skills for managing their careers, the benefits of this approach, and how he and his team are bringing this to life through their Talent Lab Program. Terence also shared some highlights from other leadership development programs for managers at NBC Universal and his own thoughts and perspective on how to create a better world of work.

• Terence's LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terence-morley-cptd-5554243/

Mitch Joel is a Keynote Speaker, Author, Entrepreneur and Host of the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast. Through his podcast and keynote speaking, Mitch regularly speaks with entrepreneurs, leaders, founders and executives about the workplace, and has diverse and keen insights into the world of work. During our conversation, Mitch spoke about his own observations from his many conversations on key topics in the workplace ranging from changing employee expectations, organizational culture and the value of connection. Mitch also spoke about the expectations around remote and hybrid, the importance of continuous learning, and the opportunities for employees who embrace a squiggly career in today’s world of work.

Links

• Mitch’s Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchjoel/
• Mitch’s Podcast: https://www.sixpixels.com/category/podcast/

Note: This is a live episode recorded from the Association For Talent Development (ATD) International Conference and Expo in New Orleans.

Kimberly Currier is the Global Vice President of Learning at AECOM. As a Global Leader of Learning, Kimberly has a large responsibility in shaping the talent and learning strategy at AECOM.

In this conversation live from ATD '24 in New Orleans, Kimberly shared her thoughts trends on what she is following as a talent development leader, as well as her thoughts on relevant skills for talent development leaders to stay ahead in today's changing world of work.