Employees yearn to take control of their career destinies by tapping into new experiences. According to our 2023 Talent Mobility Study, the primary preference for employees to learn new skills is through experiences.
With the rise of the gig economy, some of your employees are already turning to outside marketplaces such as Fiverr or Upwork to hone their skills and gain these experiences. An accountant might take on a graphic design task or a marketing manager could have a knack for coding.
Many talent leaders know these eager employees want to grow in new ways but need more tools and infrastructure to truly empower their people. Leaders need a strategic approach to learning and development that supports internal talent mobility at scale and lets employees build the careers of their dreams.
Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace enables talent leaders to fuel internal mobility by offering growth and development experiences for all employees, connecting them to projects, learning paths, mentorships and open roles to discover new ways to contribute and belong. Discover how this revolutionary product can help talent leaders improve employee engagement and retention by unlocking workforce agility, filling skills gaps and empowering people to find new ways to contribute and advance their careers.
Talent marketplace vs. opportunity marketplace
Although “talent marketplace” and “opportunity marketplace” are frequently used synonymously, they may differ in their respective approaches. While talent marketplaces have traditionally been the go-to solution for matching employees with open positions, they aren’t always the most effective tool for empowering internal mobility and career development.
- Talent marketplaces are more focused on giving people the choice of opting into projects to use their existing skills
- Opportunity marketplaces are more focused on matching people to opportunities for internal mobility and growth purposes to benefit the individual
Think of a talent marketplace as a train station where HR professionals and leaders control the routes and schedules for large groups of employees. In contrast, an opportunity marketplace is like a personal navigation system, allowing employees to plot their own courses and explore various career paths within the organization. While both are valuable tools, only an opportunity marketplace promotes self-discovery in career development, empowering individuals to take ownership of their own journey.
By providing employees with transformative end-to-end learning opportunities that explore new career paths within the organization, opportunity marketplaces can help organizations retain top talent and foster a culture of continuous learning.
The future of talent mobility: A closer look at Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace
Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace leverages AI to unify talent and skill data across multiple talent solutions, helping organizations develop and mobilize at scale while improving employee engagement and retention. With Opportunity Marketplace, HR leaders can:
- Improve visibility into workforce skills so organizations can quickly upskill and match employees to opportunities
- Increase productivity by quickly identifying the right people with the right skills for business-critical initiatives
- Reduce recruitment costs by matching your existing talent pool to the necessary internal mobility opportunities of open roles or projects instead of hiring externally
This powerful combination enables your organization to rapidly adapt to your people’s diverse needs from one centralized location.
Complete learning ecosystem
You will have a fully connected ecosystem through EdCast by Cornerstone Learning Experience Platform (LXP). With this seamless integration, your organization can deliver transformative, continuous learning experiences for your employees, supporting their individual growth and career progression.
Unified user experience
As an integral extension of the EdCast by Cornerstone LXP, Opportunity Marketplace ensures your people enjoy a seamless and comprehensive experience that not only grants access to learning materials but also provides insights into career advancement prospects. There’s no need for additional integrations with other LXPs for content or learning recommendations. It’s specially tailored for each user, offering career suggestions that align with their unique skills and aspirations.
AI-powered talent intelligence
Since Opportunity Marketplace is built on Cornerstone’s Talent Experience Platform, advanced AI technology gathers and examines data on people, skills and job roles throughout the organization, which can be used to identify skills gaps and link skills to performance. This allows HR leaders to oversee talent pools, balance supply and demand and enhance learning content management. Plus, the technology provides personalized career options. It suggests growth pathways for your people, including fresh learning content, potential mentors within the organization and ways to explore lateral and upward opportunities.
Transform your talent sourcing strategy
Talent acquisition teams know how challenging and time-consuming it can be to source outside talent. And recent hiring freezes impacting many industries can halt more headcount.
Instead of looking outside, talent teams can turn to Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace to create diverse growth opportunities while streamlining internal talent sourcing by:
- Creating clear visibility into workforce skills – Opportunity Marketplace revolutionizes how talent departments understand their talent strengths, gaps, upskilling and placement by automating the manual work they traditionally require. The true magic of Opportunity Marketplace lies in its AI-powered recommendations, which streamline the process of identifying and tracking your employees’ skills and expertise. By doing so, the marketplace helps your organization quickly match employees to open roles and projects based on their talent, skills and experiences, ensuring a good fit and maximizing productivity.
- Providing equalized opportunities within the organization – By giving all employees equal access to internal opportunities and projects with Opportunity Marketplace, you can ensure everyone can grow and develop within the organization. This can help you increase employee engagement and reduce turnover by providing a clear path for career advancement.
- Reducing recruitment and onboarding costs – By sourcing talent internally, your organization can reduce reliance on expensive external recruitment and onboarding processes. This can ensure a more seamless transition for talent already familiar with the company culture and processes.
- Improving workforce planning – When you clearly understand your internal talent pool, your organization can better plan for future workforce needs and respond quickly to changing organizational dynamics. This can help you ensure that the right people are in the right roles at the right time, leading to improved productivity and better outcomes.
The lasting benefits of talent mobility
When employees have opportunities to move within the organization, they’re more likely to stay engaged and committed to you. This enables more intelligent, holistic organizational decisions because all employee data is connected. You can then focus on your employees' learning and development to equip them for upcoming opportunities and enhance your internal talent pool because 80% of workers prefer self-service technology to begin exploring career opportunities. Opportunity Marketplace enables your organization to harness the power of learning-centric tools, combined with AI, to empower self-directed skills and career growth for all people.
Organizations prioritizing talent mobility have a higher market share growth and a lower turnover rate. This highlights the importance of learning and development in supporting talent mobility and driving organizational growth.
When you combine skills and HR application data across learning, talent acquisition and performance management with Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace, you can map skills to learning content, roles and projects that integrate into your existing skills taxonomy in a flexible architecture.
A greater sense of purpose
When you invest in talent sourcing, internal mobility and opportunity marketplaces, your organization can create a future-ready workforce prepared to tackle unexpected pivots and seize new routes to success. Organizations with a higher ratio of managers and leaders prioritizing employee growth tend to experience better revenue, employee retention and engagement levels. With Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace, your organization can provide your people with the support they need to take control of their career development and feel a greater sense of purpose.
Maximize the potential of your talent and drive agility with Cornerstone Opportunity Marketplace. Learn how you can transform your talent management strategy now.
To learn how to creatively conquer the business challenges of tomorrow and ensure your people feel passionate about work, download this eBook
co-authored by Dr. Edie Goldberg, an expert in the future of work and talent management.
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