Welcome to Hot Off the Press, a new series that will feature stories of collaboration and innovation from leaders and changemakers across the Retail Opportunity Network. In each installment, we’ll explore the ideas, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of work in retail and beyond. We’re thrilled to launch this series with reflections from Patti Constantakis, Director, Opportunity at Walmart.org, on a decade of progress and looking ahead to what’s next as we move from silos to systems.
The RON 2025 Convening brought together diverse voices from across the workforce ecosystem. What surprised you most during the convening? Were there any unexpected insights, stories, or perspectives that stood out?
One of my favorite things about RON is the multitude of perspectives that are brought to the work of economic opportunity. And I love to see that come to life at the annual convening. New to the mix were the perspectives of our organizations that focus on supporting Opportunity Youth. I also appreciated the addition of several frontline employees’ perspectives, not just on the panel presentations but in our working design sessions as well.
What I witnessed throughout the convening were lots of small A-HAs at different moments. I saw one long-time RON member see how a worker reacted to and refined an idea they put forth as a solution in the design session. I saw new partnerships start to develop as organizations started to realize how each other’s work complemented the other’s. I saw new RON members start to see the potential that a skills-based approach to hiring and advancement will help Opportunity Youth find pathways to careers that are aligned to their skills and interests. And I saw several AI skeptics start to warm up to its potential as a tool to enhance and accelerate our work.
Taken together, these small moments reflect the reason the convening is so valuable. Diversity of perspective, collaboration, silo breaking. System change only happens when we bring it all together.
As we look toward the next year of RON’s work, what innovations and activities are exciting you right now? Where do you see bright spots?
There’s so much great work happening across the Retail Opportunity Network and it’s hard to choose just a few. Here are some bright spots that are especially energizing right now:
- Skills-first Workforce Initiative (Burning Glass Institute) & JobSIDE (U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation): These efforts are tackling one of the biggest barriers to skills-first adoption—defining the skills needed for in-demand jobs. By creating common language and frameworks, they’re helping employers get started with skills-first practices, enabling educators to align training, and supporting workers in discovering new career paths that match their skills.
- Credential Value Index (Burning Glass Institute): This tool helps learners, educators, and employers understand which non-degree credentials actually lead to good jobs. It’s part of a broader push to improve the quality and transparency of credentials, giving workers and employers better signals to navigate the marketplace.
- Opportunity Youth Work: We’re seeing momentum in building full community models to support pathways to good jobs for Opportunity Youth. The Unlock Potential program—with partners like Big Thought, Responsible Business Initiative for Justice (RBIJ), and Persevere—is laying the groundwork for scalable, equity-driven hiring strategies that connect young adults to meaningful careers.
- Small and Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs): With nearly half of the U.S. workforce employed by SMBs, we’re just beginning to dig into how to support these employers in adopting skills-based practices. Early research from the SHRM Foundation, Northeastern University, and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s UpSkill America is helping us understand their unique challenges and opportunities—from tech constraints to ROI clarity—and we’re excited to build on that
There’s often a gap between promising pilots and sustainable systems change. What needs to happen to move skills-first innovations from small-scale experiments to embedded practices that transform how the workforce system operates?
This is one of the most critical challenges we face—and it’s exactly what Julie emphasized in her opening remarks when she said we need to “move beyond pilots” and embed innovation into how the system operates.
I think about this in terms of several key shifts:
- First, we need shared infrastructure. So much great work is happening in isolation. We need to align strategies and connect efforts into a more comprehensive system—one that provides transparency on job roles, helps workers match their skills to opportunities, and identifies where skill gaps exist.
- Second, we need to address the validation gap. Employers want to hire for skills, but they don’t trust what they can’t verify. Validation must become standard practice—not treated as optional.
- Third, we have to get serious about data mobility. Skills data is stuck in silos. Without aligned standards and interoperable technology, we can’t scale opportunity.
- Finally, it comes down to commitment and coordination. Moving from pilots to systems requires sustained investment, collective alignment, and the will to build together.
Throughout the convening, AI emerged as both a tool and a topic of deep discussion. How is your thinking evolving about AI’s role in workforce development? What principles do you believe should guide how we deploy AI to expand, rather than limit, opportunity for frontline workers?
AI clearly took center stage at the convening—and rightly so. It’s reshaping how we think about work, learning, and opportunity. My thinking continues to evolve, but a few ideas stand out.
- First, every job is changing. The challenge—and the opportunity—is to design work that blends the best of human capability with the best of AI, so that jobs remain meaningful and purposeful. We also need to help communities and employers see more clearly which jobs and skills are emerging, so they can prepare their people and plans for an AI-enabled future.
- Second, our systems for learning and upskilling must catch up. We need agile, continuous learning models that help workers adapt and thrive as technology advances.
- Finally, AI can be an accelerant. Used well, it can help employers adopt skills-based practices more easily, personalize career navigation, and connect people to opportunity faster. The guiding principle is simple: AI should expand human potential, not replace it.
What is one call to action or challenge you want to leave with the RON community to keep the energy and learning moving forward?
Take on a future-focused lens. We’re standing at a turning point in how work is defined, how skills are valued, and how opportunity is created. The pace of change—driven by AI, new technologies, and shifting labor dynamics—can feel daunting, but it also opens enormous potential.
Our challenge as a community is to lean into that change together. Let’s help employers and communities see what’s coming next: the jobs and skills that will define the future, and the systems we’ll need to support them. Let’s keep experimenting with new tools and models that make work more human, more agile, and more equitable.
The RON community has always been strongest when it breaks silos and builds bridges. If we stay curious, collaborative, and bold, we can help shape an economy where innovation expands—not limits—opportunity for every worker.
