Advising | Strategy Consulting

The Future of Work

Upskilling is all about preparing for the future. Over one billion people will need new skills and capabilities over the next ten years. Keeping people’s skills in sync with the constantly changing world of work is the biggest talent challenge of our time. To meet this challenge, companies need to continually upskill their people. And that means investing in all types of learning, identifying and filling skill gaps, and keeping people employable. 

Advising

Kelly ​advises on the future of work, company culture, upskilling the workforce, business strategy, and career development. She is a senior advisor for several venture funds where she advises “future of work” portfolio companies and CEOs on culture, talent, diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as remote and distributed work.

When founding a company, culture is an important component of success. A company can have the best technology, the best strategy, incredible products, and even some of the best talent, but founders risk fully realizing their vision without a strong culture. 

It’s not enough to just talk about culture. You have to be passionate about it, internalize it, and live it. Kelly will walk you through a process to create a forward-thinking, human-centered “future of work” culture. The culture you create becomes the foundation for everything else you build at your company. 

Kelly Palmer

“Kelly helped me create clear values and operating principles that drive our culture.  She understands what it takes to develop a culture in which teammates can share what they are thinking honestly instead of bottling things up. This has had a clear quantitative impact on our business because it enables us to surface information and make decisions quickly to help us achieve our mission.”

Bharani Rajakumar, Founder and CEO, TRANSFR VR (Virtual Reality Upskilling)

Strategy Consulting

Upskilling the workforce is one of the most urgent issues of our time. Kelly consults with companies and leaders around the world to help them design and develop actionable learning, upskilling, culture, talent and technology strategies so you can stay competitive in the marketplace.

You might need to have stakeholder buy-in or to develop a technology “build versus buy analysis.” Maybe you are trying to create a learning culture at your company or develop an actionable upskilling strategy to help leaders and employees develop future skills crucial to the success of your company. Kelly can consult with you to develop and create buy-in for your strategies.

Contact Kelly if you are interested in having her advise or consult with your company or organization.

Why Company Culture, Talent, and Upskilling Strategies Matter

Research shows that company culture greatly impacts a company’s ultimate success. At the core of culture is the idea that if you have engaged, inspired, and motivated employees, they will help make the vision and mission of your company a reality. It will take a talented and committed team, as well as inspiring leadership, to make your startup a success. Here are some of the quantitative measures that show how important culture is:

  • More than 50% of CEOs and CFOs ​say corporate culture influences productivity, creativity, profitability, firm value, and growth rates.
  • Actively disengaged employees cause U.S. companies ​between $450 – $550 billion ​in lost productivity per year.
  • 88% of employees ​believe a strong company culture is key to business success.
  • 47% of active job seekers ​cite company culture as their driving reason for looking for work.
  • 15% of job seekers ​turned down a job offer because of the company’s culture.
  • 35% of U.S. workers ​would pass on the perfect job if they felt the company culture wasn’t a good fit.
  • Employees who don’t like their company’s culture are 24% more likely to quit their jobs.