Steve Cadigan

Future of Work, Talent Strategist & Company Culture Expert

What Steve is Passionate About

The Future of Work - Experience Matters 

The modern workplace has experienced a radical transformation over the past 30 years. There are many forces that have driven this transformation, and today we find ourselves faced with the new reality that we have the most fluid and disengaged workforce in history and we have a massive skills gap.

What it takes to attract, hire and create value in an organization is substantially different than it used to be. What skills and abilities you need to thrive in this new reality of work are also quite different. Steve Cadigan has built some of the most successful cultures in business at LinkedIn and Cisco and today he advises some of the most dynamic organizations in the world on how to build a talent strategy and culture to thrive in this constantly evolving new world of work.

Acquisition Retention Engagement - Your Most Valuable Asset 

At a time when employment is at an all-time high, engagement is at an all-time low. Retention is becoming harder and harder. Organizations that want to thrive need to rethink their entire talent strategy and that includes how they attract, retain and engage top talent. They need to build a new model.

In this frank, actionable keynote, Steve reveals what’s really going on in the job market today and how organizations need to rethink how they attract and look to retain top talent. The talent pool of today is changing rapidly and those who expect to survive will be forced to change their approach or be left behind.

World-Class Culture - The New Deal 

In a world where employees have more choice on where they work than ever before, if you want to hire and retain the best talent you must become the place where the best talent wants to be. This is all about culture.

Steve helped create one of the most valuable cultures in the modern era of business at LinkedIn and since then, he has advised dozens of leaders and organizations around the world how to turn culture into a competitive advantage. In this engaging story-packed keynote, Steve offers new insights and practical measures you can take to fully leverage your culture, hire a world-class team, and realize world-class results.

Why You Need Steve

Steve Cadigan has been at the forefront of global talent strategy and company culture for the past 30 years. Most famous for scaling Linkedin from 400 to 4000 in 3.5 years, Steve also led the development of LI’s legendary company culture and was at the helm of the Talent function for its period of highest growth and through their IPO.

Having worked in 5 different industries and 3 different countries while also leading dozens ofacquisition integrations all over the world, Steve has built an unparalleled expertise for the Talent arena. He has been recognized by both the Wall Street Journal and by Fortune magazine for building world-class teams.

In 2013, Steve formed his own firm taking the lessons learned during his corporate experiences and offering them to leaders and organizations around the world. Steve’s focus today is to help leaders and organizations build winning talent solutions to compete in an increasingly complex digital economy.

Winning the Battle for Talent

Steve knows how to compete for talent and win against sexier brands and talent competitors with bigger budgets and higher salaries.
During his tenure at LinkedIn, Steve drove the team that successfully hired world class talent in the shadows of Google, Facebook, Apple and Twitter, who were all seen as much sexier and all offered more money and “cooler” benefits.

When Steve joined LinkedIn in 2009, they had no talent brand and were seen as a relatively “boring” professional network. Steve catalyzed the executive team and the entire company to join him in building what even today is considered one of the most dynamic and most sought-after organizations in the world.

The Secret? Culture

In an era where digital transformation is the ‘new normal’, the temptation is to lean on technology to solve organizational challenges. However, what Steve can prove to you is that being human and having an amazing culture is the greatest possible competitive advantage. The number one driver of value creation today is talent. The companies that recognize this and elevate their talent agenda to the top of their priorities list will find that they can leverage culture in compelling ways and turn their company around.

Digital disruption requires a new strategy for building great teams.

The workforce today is going through a dramatic transformation. According to Gallup we have the most actively disengaged workforce in history. The Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. indicates we have a workforce that is leaving their companies faster than ever before. On top of this, the documented cases of stress and depression in the workplace across the world are higher than they have ever been, and it feels like a very gloomy picture.

Is the Digital Economy and the media forecasts of Robots, AI and Technology eliminating our jobs contributing to these trends?

Do we have anything to look forward to when it comes to the Future of Work?

As a thirty-year Talent leader, Steve Cadigan has dedicated his life to understanding the future of work and its implications for professionals and organizations. He has concluded that the future of work is decidedly exciting, but it will require a significant reframe of the employer-employee relationship, and an entirely new understanding of what a “career” means and looks like.

Today, no company can promise long-term employment as the future is just too unpredictable. What employers can promise is growth and development, and this is the focus of Steve’s work – helping companies reframe what they offer to employees, and help employees take ownership of uncertain careers and futures.

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Why You Will Love Steve

His familiarity with both tech industry and people issues made him a great fit for our needs.

Roger Coles
Learning & Development Manager, BBC

Steve addresses the most important yet most overlooked part of any endeavor: People.

Zubin Chagpar
Venture Capital & Accelerator Focus EMEA, Amazon

Steve understood the issues we were facing in our local tech industry and provided ideas from his own expertise.

Allison Rutherford
Founder, HR Tech Group

Without a doubt, Steve Cadigan is my #1 go-to for all things HR. He takes a machete to the noise and gets right to the heart of the issue.

Janet Van Huysse
VP of Human Resources, Twitter


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