Developing a Talent Marketplace Inside Your Company

BY Katie Chambers | November 07, 2023

Watching football on Sundays isn’t just a great way to unwind, the game also provides an important takeaway for employers. Robert Gulliver, chief talent & capability officer at Prudential Financial, knows this firsthand, having previously served as head of human resources for the NFL for nearly a decade.

“I saw world-class Hall of Fame coaches really make a difference on the field with the power of coaching,” Gulliver said. “I wanted to be able to impart that power of coaching and bring that to Prudential. So, we've been doing a lot of work to democratize access to coaching, leveraging it, and working to bring the power of coaching to our employees at scale.” In both a sports and a business setting, coaching goes far beyond tactical management, it’s a form of inspirational leadership that encourages team members to be the best versions of themselves.

During a fireside chat at From Day One’s Manhattan conference, Gulliver discussed how Prudential Financial is making coaching accessible to all levels of employees through its internal digital platforms. As the chief of talent for a 150-year-old company with 40,000 employees, Gulliver develops workers with a combination of technology, coaching, and a culture of listening. The goal: creating a democratization of opportunity.

How Technology Impacts the Hiring Process

More and more, employers are turning to the digital world for talent cultivation, including online job listings. “The wonderful thing about online applications is that it democratizes access to opportunities,” Gulliver said. “It continues to be an important source of candidates that we’re investing in.” From the employer perspective, online job postings can bring in a wide, diverse selection of candidates to choose from. But for the applicant, the number of competing applications on an online platform can be daunting and demoralizing. With hundreds, or even thousands of other resumes and cover letters in the mix, it’s easy to feel lost in the shuffle.

Since online applications work well for employers, though, they are not going anywhere. Gulliver suggests a few crucial steps to get yourself noticed among the applicant pool. He encourages candidates to set email or app notifications so they can be the first in the queue to apply as soon as an appropriate position becomes available, as early applicants tend to have an advantage over the rest. And while online applications are the way of the world now, personal connections can still make a difference. Gulliver suggests attending recruiting events and job fairs to get face time with hiring managers and learn more about the application process.

The Ever-evolving Labor Market

Jamie Heller interviewed Robert Gulliver in the grand finale fireside chat at From Day One's Manhattan event.

After several years of turmoil amidst the Great Resignation, when employee turnover numbers were at what Gulliver calls “an all-time high,” employee retention has now evened out. “There’s not as much movement in the labor market as we had previously seen,” Gulliver said. And despite doomsday talk of artificial intelligence coming to take our jobs, Gulliver says it’s not something to fear. “Technology is going to become an enabler,” Gulliver said, and there will be “More of an emphasis on talent that can work with this technology.”

Moderator Jamie Heller, business editor of The Wall Street Journal, notes that the AI conversation tends to be lumped into a broader conversation about efficiency, with companies asking themselves as an employee exits, “Do we really need to even fill this job? Maybe we can find a way to spread it out among other people, or have computers take care of it.” Gulliver says that while efficiency may be top of mind, it’s always in service of generating the best product or service possible. That can include leveraging technology or “Looking at our organizational structure to make sure that we continue to evolve and be more nimble as an organization.”

With many companies, especially in the tech space, eliminating mid-level management positions and flattening the corporate structure in the name of efficiency, opportunities for promotion might seem slim, Heller posits. Gulliver says that in turn there is a renewed focus on skill-building as the mode of career advancement. “We have been taking a skills first approach, as we think about really what's going to be the currency of the future for our employees,” Gulliver said.

Developing an Internal Talent Marketplace to Grow Leaders

In order to facilitate employee growth through professional development, upskilling, and even opportunities for new roles internally, Prudential Financial was one of the first corporations to create a talent marketplace, what Gulliver calls a “digital destination” rich with content to help employees grow and evolve.

Gulliver shares an anecdote about a colleague who used the talent marketplace to develop his skills in compliance, and then also found an opportunity posted within the marketplace itself that allowed him to leverage those skills in a brand-new role. Having an internal marketplace helps employees feel valued and respected, with the opportunity to grow professionally within the company. And of course, by pairing that upskilling with what is essentially an internal job board, it also helps the company retain top talent so that they don’t automatically take those skills elsewhere. The organization plays multiple roles within one individual’s career journey.

Prioritizing Talent as the Key to Sustainability

“Our strategy is to make sure that we've got the right talent in the right roles with the right skills,” Gulliver said, whether that skilled talent ultimately comes from the internal marketplace or external sources. No matter the state of the labor market, be it a boom or a bust for employers, a company’s success will ultimately be driven by the people that it hires. Prudential Financial is a fine example. “You don't get to be a 150-year-old company without wonderful employees, employees that are continually reskilling and upskilling and are there for the transformation,” Gulliver said.

“When we talk about continuing to evolve as an organization, our employees and their skills journey goes hand in hand with talking about how we are evolving as a company.” With its internal talent marketplace, the organization is positioning itself for the next 150 years and beyond.

Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost, Honeysuckle Magazine, and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

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