Connecting Aspirations to Talent Development: Using Technology for Personalized Growth

BY Carrie Snider | January 02, 2024

What if employee development felt so ingrained into your company that your workforce had a great experience and became better at whatever they were lacking? Everyone wins. 

It sounds hard. And time-consuming. Thankfully, companies don’t have to run out and develop upskilling programs from scratch and tailor them to their people’s unique needs. Because there’s already one out there, and companies can easily integrate them into their workforce.

Dror Yaacobi, VP of global HR at SimilarWeb, talked about how he used GrowthSpace to do exactly that at From Day One’s September virtual conference. Omer Glass, co-founder and CEO of GrowthSpace, joined the thought leadership spotlight, noting how the platform is meant to bring the above-tier experience so employees would not only use it, but thrive with it. 

“First of all, your employee doesn’t log on to a platform,” said Glass. “They log on to a branded platform that speaks your company’s language and actually looks like your company’s website.” 

From there, they see which skills they need to work on, but there is a level of choice. From a list of 80 different skills, they decide which they want to develop next in order to further their career. It’s important to note, Glass added, that upskilling isn’t only about their current job position or company; these are skills that can stay with them no matter where they go. 

“We’re linking the career growth to what we’re trying to achieve,” he said. Since they’re investing in themselves, they’re on board. 

Next, GrowthSpace recommends coaches who can work with employees in one-on-one sessions to help develop their skills. Again, the employee is offered several options to choose from, and they can compare and decide who they want to work with. The power to choose helps the employee own the experience.

“It’s kind of like shopping on Amazon or Airbnb. They see the best engagement scores and feedback on the experts,” Glass said.

Omer Glass of GrowthSpace and Dror Yaacobi of SimilarWeb led the thought leadership spotlight (photo by From Day One)

Expert coaches are vetted before coming on board, but the real sell is that feedback. Are employees happy with what they’ve gained from the coaching sessions? Reviews and comments help your workforce build trust from the beginning. Thousands have already used GrowthSpace and given feedback, including 500 employees from SimilarWeb.

While SimilarWeb is a tech company operating in the digital intelligence market with about 1,000 employees, there’s more to its success and growth than tech knowledge.

“We believe there are two important things to focus on when you work on your career development: technical skills and your behavioral skills,” Yaacobi said.

Technical skills are software. Behavioral skills are how to behave, like being a good team member, he added. 

“We think both are important, but behavioral skills are the engine for growth. Therefore, we’re basically telling our employees they need to focus 70% on behavioral skills and 30% on technical skills.”

To grow into the next role, or even cross over into a different discipline requires various skills. The way SimilarWeb accomplishes this is by using GrowthSpace’s platform to offer a service called Similarcoach to its employees. 

“You might need to learn some technical skills, but for all of them, improving how you behave at work is crucial,” Yaacobi said. Changing behaviors isn’t easy, which is why one-on-one coaching is so helpful. Someone who already has the skills you need, who is impartial, can point out where you lack and expand your perspective. 

Yaacobi showed viewers how their workforce can register for SimilarCoach. Since it’s customizable, it can have the same look and feel employees are used to at SimilarWeb. Employees can then choose their location, language, seniority, and role. 

“Then it asks me, ‘How do you see your next career move at SimilarWeb?’ So I would say, grow within my role.” As an example, your career aspirations could be from account manager to senior account management. From there, the system provides the different competencies SimilarWeb views as most crucial for that move: relationship building, driving value communication, problem solving, and self driven.

“I can share with you, it works,” Yaacobi said. “At SimilarWeb, because we are an analytical company, we very much believe in measuring everything.” An impressive 82 percent of people who visited the landing page registered, and 120 employees participate every year. So far, half of their employees have completed coaching, with a 90 percent satisfaction rate.  

“Those are very good numbers,” Yaacobi said. The employee is actively working on skills that will help them achieve their career goals. Those employees are more engaged, happier, and therefore, better at their jobs.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, GrowthSpace, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

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