Caroline Tervoort: 'Fear of AI taking over your job? It's down to your learning mindset'

CEOs want to invest massively in AI. But the problem: their people are nowhere near ready for it. Caroline Tervoort of KPMG explains why a course alone is not enough and how to build a powerful learning culture. "Making employees resilient and agile is the most important thing for me," she says.

KPMG recently surveyed 1,300 global CEOs and discovered a glaring gap. While 64 percent are willing to invest in AI regardless of economic conditions, only 38 percent are sure their employees have the right skills to fully utilize AI. A classic mismatch between aspirations and reality.

We spoke with Caroline Tervoort, Partner Business & HR Transformation at KPMG Netherlands and winner of the 2023 CHRO of the Year Award, about how organizations can close this gap.

Your research shows a clear divide: CEOs want to invest massively in AI, but their people are not ready. Where does the problem lie?

"You can buy tooling, but if employees don't feel competent, it won't work. In some cases, employees may even perceive the use of learning tools as threatening. Then you get friction between what you want to achieve and what is possible."

"According to our survey, 80 percent of CEOs believe that organizations themselves should invest in lifelong learning. That's not for nothing. There is a whole generation of new skills that are needed, for which education does not yet have an appropriate offer. In addition, the needs of the business community do not always match with what is being offered in education. And that mismatch is not going to disappear any time soon. So organizations need to invest in training themselves."

"In addition, investing in training and development is part of the 'duty of care' of organizations. Keeping your employees sustainably employable extends beyond the doors of your own organization. As an organization, you also have a responsibility for a well-functioning labor market. By continuously developing people, you enable them not only to grow within the organization, but also offer them job prospects outside your organization."

What reactions do you expect as AI becomes more a part of our work?

"All people looking at something new that could potentially have a big impact on their role will initially think, 'What is this?' Then questions like, 'Can I do it? Do I want it? And what will it do to my job?' That uncertainty is quite understandable.

Take, for example, a service desk where people answer questions on the phone. That can already be pretty well taken over by a virtual bot. That's where you see tremendous uncertainty among employees: 'What does that do to the very existence of my job?'"

"But at the same time, the majority of functions simply remain. Only they are significantly affected. An example is a function where most of the computational work is taken over by a machine. It is important that these people learn to work with AI, and not oppose it."

How do you make sure people don't kick into resistance?

"The answer lies in your organizational culture.If you work in an organization where there is already a learning mindset, it's probably easier to put AI in people's hands without making them feel anxious. People who are used to learning and experimenting are more open to change."

"The composition of your workforce also matters. The younger generation is much more accustomed to working with new technologies than succeeding generations. And these generations have seen major revolutions in work that they have had to face. Think of the Internet and e-mail, but also many major developments in the manufacturing industry."

"In our experience, AI adoption is strengthened if you do two things at once: Working from the bottom up to raise awareness by, for example, AI awareness weeks and giving people tools to experiment with from the beginning. And in addition, from the top down, work out a clear AI strategy, in which you think carefully about how you deploy AI responsibly and where it delivers the most value. With that, you give direction as leadership and that gives peace of mind. Leadership also plays a very important role in this."

"If you have invested in a healthy culture for a long time, it also becomes easier for people. Then they have more confidence in exploring and experimenting. Trying something new or failing once is then okay, instead of feeling like you'd better keep your mouth shut because you're unsure of what it says if you don't do it right."

So why do organizations usually turn to loose training as a solution?

"It's the familiar recipe. And it's useful and important, sometimes a way to energize people. But from a leadership course you take away maybe two or three insights that stick. The rest sink in."

"The problem is that isolated training is not focused on developing a learning mindset that really gets people moving. What you actually need is a culture where people want to keep learning from within themselves. And that starts with space: mental space, practical space and trust."

So how do you build such a learning culture?

"At KPMG we sometimes say: we are like a university. Of course we have classic L&D offerings, but where we make the difference is in how we have team-based learning."

"For that, for example, we developed the PTO methodology: Predictability, Teaming and Open communication. It starts very simply: in each team we do a kick-off where we discuss what you want to learn as an individual, what we want to develop as a team, and how we link that to customer expectations."

"After that, we check in weekly. Are we still on the right track? Am I getting what I need? Is the organization happy and is the team okay? If you keep up that rhythm, learning comes naturally. Because we make learning so concrete, it creates space to express yourself, ask for help, or say, 'I want to continue to grow, so challenge me.'"

What are the biggest pitfalls if you want to implement this?

"Lack of leadership commitment. Leadership makes the difference. They must embrace it and live it through. It requires continuous attention and active sponsorship from leaders. Otherwise it sinks in. Rhythm makes the difference, thus it becomes part of the regular process and thus "normal. Compared to ten years ago, 'people' were often an afterthought. Now it is the core to being successful at all as an organization."

What concrete steps can organizations take now?

"First, look at learning and development with a business lens. Ask yourself what the organization's strategy is and what this means for learning within the organization. Providing training and education programs should support your strategic ambition. In today's times, investing in learning & development is one of the most important managerial priorities."

"Second, make sure you have an integrated offering, not just separate training courses. And finally: just do it. Slice the elephant into small pieces, we always say. Start small, but think about how it fits into the bigger picture. Perfect is the enemy of good."

Ultimately, what do you think is the real promise of talent development?

"Making employees resilient and agile. Because if you are open to experimenting and not afraid to fail, then you have a kind of steering wheel in your hands for yourself. To me, that's the most important thing: giving people control over their own development and their own path. That's exactly what you need at a time when AI is changing everything."

About Caroline Tervoort

Caroline Tervoort is Partner Business & HR Transformation at KPMG Netherlands and won the CHRO of the Year Award in 2023. She is SER Top Woman and TopVoice on LinkedIn. She is considered one of the most influential HR leaders in the Netherlands.
Also curious about Erdinc Sacan's vision on AI and talent development? Read his interview here.