HFS Highlight report – PwC seeks to drive an innovation culture with their ProEdge upskilling offering

In this report, HFS highlights that, ‘In the midst of the “Great Resignation” there is no topic more important than talent – how to attract it, cultivate it, and keep it. However, the narrative has tended to emphasize people and their relative satisfaction with current jobs versus available ones. The root problem is not actually people. The problem is the work itself. In many cases across industries, work is far too manual and lacking in innovation. If enterprises want to address their attractiveness as employers, they need to digitize rote work, enable employees to deliver more effectively, and take their employees on the journey to be part of the strategy.’

It goes on to say that, ‘The Situation is exactly where PwC found itself several years ago. As a leading Big 4 tax, audit, and consulting firm, basically a people-based business heavy on expensive skilled resources, it realized the need to amp value, quality, and tech-enablement while bringing down time-to-solution and cost. The firm decided to make a massive $3B global investment in its own digital transformation, pointed at upskilling its people and investing in technologies for supporting “clients and communities”.’ 

"Clients are eager to digitally transform their operations and are finding that enabling their own people through upskilling to generate a citizen-led innovation movement is the missing component of that strategy, says Kevin Kroen, Principal PwC US “ProEdge is the solution that tackles solving this problem by bridging the learning and digital technology space to scale a citizen led program."

The report mentions that, ‘One of the most visible offerings from PwC is ProEdge, a digital upskilling platform, launched in 2021. As ProEdge hits its one-year anniversary, HFS checked in with PwC leadership on what it has achieved.’

HFS observe, ‘PwC was the first out of the Big Four to launch a productized platform, which was adopted by 75 client organizations in its first year. While the ProEdge platform is an end-to-end journey, it contains three distinct components which may be utilized independently: Plan, for skills identification, curated learning pathways, and skills gap analysis; Learn, for contextual, active learning with credentialing; and Share, the pillar for collaboration and sharing of digital assets. The key differentiator is the ability to bring these three functions together for clients in a seamless way.’

In HFS’ view, ‘A clear challenge for organizations is activating skills, so that employees don’t just learn but apply those skills into new ways of working. ProEdge aims to bridge the gap and embed a culture of innovation in the process.’

Click here to read the report