Announcing Opportunity Hub, a single destination for employee growth and development
How we opened our talent marketplace to deliver a unified employee experience
By Brian Hershey, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Gloat
From disappointing to overwhelming: the evolution of the employee experience
The employee-employer relationship is in flux. The days of workers being viewed as cogs in a machine are well over, and labor shortages are now tipping power dynamics in peoples’ favor and raising the bar for employers.
As a result, today’s employees expect more from their workplaces than ever before. The list of asks goes far beyond a steady paycheck. People want to see their organizations moving the needle on diversity and inclusion, committing to sustainability, democratizing access to career development, and prioritizing wellbeing and mindfulness. Since none of these requests are simple tasks, HR leaders are turning to a plethora of tech-enabled solutions to meet them where they’re at. Industry analyst Josh Bersin estimates that companies are now using an average of 70 different employee tools and applications.
Predictably, these disparate tools are creating a problem of their own: bottlenecks, low engagement, and disconnection. People haven’t been taking advantage of the services their employers provide because there have been too many apps and too much uncertainty…until now. Our newest offering, Opportunity Hub, is here to change that by creating a single destination that integrates coaching, learning, volunteering, wellbeing, and more, all into your talent marketplace.
What inspired us to create Opportunity Hub
We’re lucky to count many pioneering organizations as part of our community. One of them came to us with a vision for how to improve employee engagement and satisfaction. They wanted to turn their talent marketplace into every employee’s central destination for accessing all types of development opportunities.
Their leaders asked us to help them move away from fragmented systems and create a unified destination for employee experience. So we tapped into our network of best-in-breed partners to build an ecosystem that touches every element of personal and professional development, including coaching, learning, volunteering, and wellbeing.
We knew that the talent marketplace model would be an ideal foundation for this suite because it puts every opportunity in the context of employee development goals. Workers get meaningful recommendations that are tailored to their professional aspirations while leaders are provided with additional data and insights into what their people are actually looking for.
How does Opportunity Hub work?
What sets our vision apart is an open platform approach. It allows us to unlock the power of the talent marketplace to provide seamless access to our expansive network of partners in a dynamic and centralized way.
By leveraging our AI models, Opportunity Hub combines insights from employee profiles and the data provided by our third-party partners to suggest the best options for people to support their development. These integrated recommendations allow Gloat to not only gain deeper insight into employees’ career goals but also tap into cross-platform data that leaders can use to learn more about their workforce’s ambitions.
And, as a major bonus, our open platform approach means that we can integrate and explore bringing third-party content in from any partner that a business desires. So you can expect that the range of opportunity types available to your employees will only continue to grow.
What can employees access through Opportunity Hub?
Until today, the talent marketplace gave employees access to skill-building opportunities such as mentoring and projects. From course-based content to volunteering, Opportunity Hub now opens up an all-in-one ecosystem supported by a diverse range of partners. Here’s what employees can tap into:
Course-based learning
Learning for the sake of learning won’t cut it anymore. Opportunity Hub proactively surfaces curated, personalized learning recommendations that support employee growth in the context of career goals. Employees can tap into course-based content from top-tier learning partners including Udemy, Edcast, Josh Bersin Academy, and Go1.
Coaching
Seamless access to our coaching partners, BetterUp and CoachHub, ensures support and guidance is never more than a few clicks away. Opportunity Hub leverages Gloat’s understanding of every employee to connect them with relevant online coaching focused on the skills and areas of development they want to prioritize.
Volunteering
Today, employees are putting a premium on purpose. They don’t just want to work; they’re looking to make a real impact and give back to their communities. By partnering with Goodera and VolunteerMatch, Opportunity Hub connects employees to meaningful opportunities to make a difference.
Nanodegree Partners
With Opportunity Hub, leaders can start bridging skills gaps through nanodegree content powered by Udacity. These programs create job-ready talent that will accelerate critical initiatives and unlock the innovation that fuels growth.
Wellbeing
The pandemic underscored the importance of employee wellbeing. Now leaders are going the extra mile to ensure their workforces feel their best. Through a partnership with Thrive, Opportunity Hub users gain access to solutions that empower them to prioritize their mental, physical, and emotional wellness.
A win for employee experience and career development
We know Opportunity Hub is going to be a game-changer, for both employees and businesses. Our research shows that talent marketplaces are already a powerful tool for democratizing access to opportunities, with 70% of employees believing that the platforms are making an impact.
Now businesses can take this proven model to deliver developmental experiences from third-party sources through the same platform. As a result, employees gain access to a wider array of opportunities, which will help them bridge skills gaps and accelerate personal and professional growth. At the same time, leaders benefit from an engaged workforce that is actively developing competencies that will set their business apart.
As labor shortages continue and hiring competition intensifies, every business is going to be held to a new standard. By creating a unified and personalized destination for employee experience, Opportunity Hub all but guarantees your organization will stand out as a best-in-class employer. To learn more about our new offering and our amazing network of partners, book some time with our team!
