In the first three months after the job exchange launched, staff created 74 opportunities and made 27 selections for a 36.5% fill rate.
Participants described the exchange as intuitive and easy to use. The pilot resulted in an estimated payroll savings of at least $50,000 during the three months, a figure expected to expand dramatically as the program grows, according to learning leaders.
Personal & Professional Growth: Workers who participated built new skills by breaking out of their comfort zones and applying new knowledge. One customer services specialist who normally focuses on renewals rotated into a customer experience manager role and got deep insights into the entire customer experience across the organization’s entire product portfolio, she said. “During this time, I had an opportunity to meet many talented people throughout our organization whose knowledge, drive and positive approach I found very inspiring, and it helped me to grow professionally and also on a personal level.”
While some built skills, other workers primarily benefited by expanding their professional networks, the learning leader said. “They chose gigs that they could already do. For example, maybe they’ve already mastered a skill and know they’ll do it well but want to purposefully meet with and be exposed to a certain leader. Maybe a project manager in Product chooses to do a gig within Marketing because they want that exposure. That was an ‘aha’ moment for us.” In another important benefit, Degreed decreased unconscious bias in opportunity selection processes, by broadening people’s exposure to opportunities, the learning leader said.
Positive feedback from workers answering questions like “Would you recommend this? Did you find it valuable? Did you learn?” was powerful, the learning leader said, adding managers also embraced the program.
Manager Support: Broadly speaking, managers tend to do well checking in with workers, rating people’s performances, and providing feedback about goals specific to their workers’ roles. But skill development and career coaching can be more challenging. The Degreed platform provides a vehicle and a structure for development.
In addition, Degreed experiential learning provides managers anywhere in the world, some of whom might have limited visibility to talent, with exposure to workers they might otherwise never see. Two senior managers said the program provided them with extra help and diversity of thought and helped them get work done faster. In one instance, time was limited and hiring a contractor didn’t make sense. In another situation, a manager was able to help his team get work done thanks to help from a participant who tackled projects while learning Microsoft Power BI.
L&D Insights: Using Degreed, the learning team gained new insights that can help improve learning programs.
“For example, maybe there are opportunity owners who are not getting responses. That’s reflected, giving us an opening to explore why,” the learning leader said. “Conversely, sometimes people gravitate to a project with a leader whose leadership is exceptional. And while there are certainly hard skills learned, perhaps just being able to see that manager’s vision is valuable. The platform gives us data we can use to explore these factors further.”
Democratized Development: By increasing mobility and democratizing exposure to opportunities, the platform advances an already strong culture of inclusivity across the organization — and learning leaders hope to keep expanding access. The company’s IT team is next, piloting Degreed-powered experiential learning to boost innovation by engaging with new talent.
“Degreed-powered experiential learning takes career development to a whole new level,” the learning leader said. “And while employee development has been our primary focus, Degreed has helped us in certain areas of our business where there are projects that we’d like to get after but perhaps we can’t resource them or they’re not prioritized. It offers the business the capability of doing that at no additional cost.”
“The pilot resulted in an estimated payroll savings of at least $50,000 during the three months, a figure expected to expand dramatically as the program grows.”
