Acera Presents to The Conference Board

Carrie Magee and Anne Mounts, Acera Partners’ Founders and Managing Partners, were honored to present to The Conference Board’s Career Strategies Council and Talent Management Leaders Council session hosted by Lilly in Indianapolis on October 24, 2024. The Conference Board is a global think tank and business membership organization that has helped the world's leading companies understand the present and shape the future for over 100 years.  Special thanks goes to John Messman and Denise Broz, The Conference Board Programs Directors, and to Bev Kaye for inviting Acera Partners to share our insights.  

Our audience was Senior Talent Management and Career Development leaders from some of the most prestigious organizations in the world.  These organizations are doing amazing work toenable flexible career pathing and talent agility in their organizations.  

Members shared examples of leveraging generative AI to power Talent Marketplaces. This work is increasing workforce capacity, transparency of career opportunities, access to the right talent at the right time, cross-team collaboration, and a continuous learning environment.  We also heard many creative approaches to empower employees to have more control over their career development.  This included self-exploration of multiple career paths through HR systems that generate customized learning and development roadmaps for shoring up skill gaps.  It was impressive, to say the least!

What is missing in many organizations, however, is a clear focus on linking career advancement to pay advancement.  That’s where Acera came in!  Our topic was “Building Integrated Pathways for Career and Pay: Exploring What’s Possible.”

Acera’s presentation focused on organizations that had taken a more holistic approach to advancement – integrating creative career and pay solutions together to create more “stickiness” in employee engagement and retention.   We focused the conversation on the five most impactful strategies future focused organizations are using to create talent agility through linking career and pay advancement.

1. Making the Business Case – Organizations that are ahead of the game on integrating pay and career advancement build a shared understanding throughout the organization of how these practices align wit hbusiness strategy and goals.
2. Paying for Value Creation – What an organization pays for and rewards communicates what it values. Organizations that understand this are defining what uniquely creates value for the organization and linking pay to that increased value, such as incentivizing increased skills that support the business strategy and non-traditional career moves (e.g. lateral moves, project assignments, etc.) that retain employees.
3. Integrating Career and Pay Paths – Companies that focus on the road ahead are preparing for the future capabilities required in the near- and long-term.  This drives them to reward skills and outcomes, not just tenure and experience.  A natural outcome of this focus is the breakdown of silos between talent management and compensation.
4. Pipelining Critical Roles – Future-proofing an organization requires prioritizing areas that have the biggest impact on business outcomes.  By identifying critical roles and focusing career and pay integration on where the business is transforming and growing fastest and/or where there is a scarcity of talent, organizations can secure their futures by attracting, developing, and retaining talent in these crucial areas.
5. Building an Agile Talent Marketplace –While Internal Talent Marketplaces have been around for a few years, they are just beginning to get significant traction, thanks in part to the power and rapid evolution of AI.  Those organizations that are leveraging an Internal Talent Marketplace to integrate career opportunities with pay advancement are able to anticipate and respond to market disruptions and align talent with the organization’s needs.

It was amazing to hear feedback on how provocative these ideas were from some of the most sophisticated leaders in this space.  In response to what was most valuable across the three-day session, one participant commented, “What the Acera team presented was the most thought provoking. I plan to think about this more going forward..”

We were grateful for the opportunity to present our approach and philosophy to such an amazing group of Talent leaders from some of the world’s largest companies. In addition to sharing our insights, we learned so much from these leaders and look forward to a continued relationship with The Conference Board!

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