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ARTICLE | September 9, 2024 | VOICES

The biggest little marketplace

Grow with an AI-powered enterprise ecosystem 
By Spencer Beemiller, Workflow contributor

Back in 2018, I watched a documentary called The Biggest Little Farm, in which a couple of first-time farmers—and full-time dreamers—learn that a lot can unfold before your eyes when you approach a new endeavor with curiosity. When the farmers approached every problem on the farm individually, they found themselves burning through time and money fast. But when they zoomed out to look at their problems holistically, they realized that nature had a way of presenting solutions that addressed multiple issues at once.

This comes up a lot in the world of employee experience as well. How do you develop integrated, connected solutions to a broad range of issues? And it’s not theoretical.

Businesses are facing two seemingly unrelated employee experience issues. On the one hand, employees want more opportunities to learn on the job and collaborate with skilled peers. On the other hand, retention remains a pressing problem for companies around the world. How do we resolve both at the same time?

AI can help businesses match the consumer-level experience by turning the enterprise into a series of interconnected networks where every employee and every business need are visible. Then, AI can intelligently manage the organization so employees can reach their potential and business priorities can be addressed in creative ways using existing talent. With AI at our side, we can build an enterprise ecosystem that supports employee growth and business needs at the same time, without sacrificing either.

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The rise of the employee experience platform

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Workers are not just ready for learning—they're hungry for it, with growth opportunities leading to increased job satisfaction and employee retention, according to research by McKinsey. This is especially true for those entering the job market for the first time. Gen Zers in particular are excited to learn on the job, according to a recent Handshake report. Creating new opportunities for employees to grow in their roles is essential for attracting talent. 

Collaboration is an important part of learning. While training modules and other formal learning opportunities are valuable, employees love having opportunities to work closely with their peers to solve problems. Butsiloed departments and teams can make it hard to identify potential collaborators. 

Fortunately, AI excels at knowing what your employees are good at. AI can collect data on employee performance, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, and areas where they’d like to grow. This information could be collected in a centralized platform, or enterprise ecosystem. That ecosystem would then connect people who might want to work together and learn from each other. 

Skills mapping could even happen visually as an employee walks the office floor. Imagine a scenario involving an engineer who is struggling to solve a problem: As they walk into the break room, their smart watch sends them a notification that there are five people in the room who are skilled in the areas that are giving the engineer trouble. One of them is a strong visual thinker, one is a talented project manager, and so on. The engineer could then approach these potential collaborators and strike up a conversation.  

An enterprise marketplace for skills isn’t just a boon for individuals. It’s a powerful tool for the enterprise too. Budgets are tight, and the job market is competitive. An enterprise marketplace could save the company a lot of money and headaches by enabling HR teams to create better hiring plans. The skills marketplace can showcase underutilized talent that teams can tap into instead of hiring more people. With AI, the marketplace can also point out areas for growth so managers can set aside time and resources for upskilling. It’s a win for everyone. 


Creating an enterprise skills marketplace might seem like an uncertain source of ROI. But I’ve already heard a few exciting success stories from businesses that have pulled it off.

A pharmaceutical company developed an employee growth and development portal to boost retention through on-the-job training, upskilling, and skills matching. The organization built the portal into a platform that employees were already using to submit service requests. This was smart for a few reasons. One, it saved time and development resources. Two, it ensured employees would use the portal, since it was right there on a platform they were familiar with.

Similarly, a large consulting firm created an internal talent marketplace to streamline big projects for clients. This is a massive organization with hundreds of thousands of employees. So, although it has a wealth of talent, it’s not always easy to route people to the right projects. With the internal marketplace, however, the firm can simply match employees with projects that suit their skills.

With AI at our side, we can build an enterprise ecosystem that supports employee growth and business needs at the same time, without sacrificing either.

Both of these cases required a cultural shift and technical investment. Before investing in an AI-powered platform, these organizations had to commit to their employees’ growth and development and understand that an enterprise ecosystem can solve a lot of problems with one umbrella solution, much like the one nature uncovered in The Biggest Little Farm, where the intricate interwoven environment ultimately flourished in harmony. The only way a business can realize its full potential is to realize the full potential of its employees. And that starts by showing them that we are there—for them and with them.

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Author

Spencer Beemiller is director of executive innovation and strategy at ServiceNow. He focuses on driving growth and transformation for ServiceNow customers. 
Articles by Spencer Beemiller