Learning to future-proof our workforce

Last week I joined Toni Townes-Whitley, Josh Bersin and chief learning officers from around the world at the Microsoft Global Learning Summit to discuss the importance of future-proofing your workforce through learning and skill development.

It was a pleasure to present to this group, and it reminded me of my own (very recent) experience in learning and skill development: When our CEO, Satya Nadella, asked me to lead HR at Microsoft. At that point, I’d led Microsoft Services for six years, and before that I held operations, strategy, management and development roles. But never HR. What made Satya think I could take on a role as Chief People Officer for a global workforce of 115,000 people? A firm belief in a growth mindset and the power of learning.

We both took a leap of faith, and with his help, the help of the Microsoft Senior Leadership Team, my industry peers, and all 1,500+ employees in HR at Microsoft, I have leaned into—and learned into—my role. I absolutely love it, and I can’t imagine my career not taking this path. I continue to learn about what it takes to be a good HR leader, and I’m just one example of the proof that people can change career trajectories and succeed with the right support and training tools.

Our commitment to learning is a natural part of our cultural evolution at Microsoft. We’re actively infusing the concept of growth mindset in our culture to help employees develop beyond what they “know” right now, and encourage ongoing learning through education, growth, and stretch opportunities. This is an imperative as we recognize that as we face a talent shortage, it will be important to re-skill many employees—not necessarily hire new employees. And as we’ve sharpened our focus on technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing, we’ve already begun to transform how we think about re-skilling.

My aspiration is that people see working at Microsoft as an opportunity to attend their dream school, where they are always learning new skills and can explore interests and passions, while making a difference. We offer world-class training opportunities through a personalized portal for each employee, and we achieved this current state by leveraging Azure and SharePoint Online to centralize all our learning opportunities into a single dashboard—no small feat! The idea is that it’s “to me and for me,” as this system uses artificial intelligence to show relevant content for each employee whether they are looking for something that will help them in their current role, build a new skill, or just learn for fun.

Of course, we don’t think we have all the answers, so our learning portal curates best-in-class content from a variety of third party providers including Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning, edX, Pluralsight, and more. Course topics range from public speaking, project management, programming, to even photography—it’s about holistic learning across the board.

And we don’t stop with online learning. We’ve initiated a number of programs to drive this learning mindset including:

• Expanding our annual innovation Hackathon to reach all professions within the company, not just engineers;
• Bringing speakers to our campus through a program we call Outside In, so that we can hear from a wide variety of experts and thought leaders; and
• Encouraging employees to participate in creating, curating, and delivering learning both inside and outside Microsoft.

We firmly believe in the value of learning and we hope that together, Microsoft and LinkedIn will be a lifelong learning partner for everyone who touches technology. From sparking a child’s interest in coding through Minecraft, to using Microsoft devices from adolescence through retirement, we aim to democratize learning by providing access to the very best resources and collaboration tools.

As the pace of technology accelerates change in the world of work and in life, we believe those who are curious about learning will be more adept at navigating and adapting to that change. I know first-hand that change is hard, but I also know the hardest leaps I’ve ever made in my career have turned out to be the best, most rewarding experiences!