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Organizations win when they build adaptability into how people work, learn and respond to change. In this People Developing People interview, Trent Savage explains why agility, continuous skill-building and a development mindset help companies stay ready for AI, economic turbulence and whatever comes next.
In July 2023, visionary HR leader Trent Savage, then Senior Vice President of HR for Mountain America Credit Union, sat down with Jason Lavender, the co-founder and CEO of Electives, a learning platform that helps HR and People teams build AI-first organizations. In his People Developing People interview, Trent shared his passion for building high-performing organizations.
During this segment, Trent shares why he believes the ability to adapt is essential for businesses to succeed.
Why does adaptability still matter for HR and L&D leaders?
Trent’s point has only become more relevant as AI accelerates how work gets done. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, which makes adaptability and reskilling ongoing business disciplines, not one-time initiatives.
For HR and L&D leaders, the takeaway is practical: build learning that helps people practice new behaviors, apply skills quickly and stay flexible as priorities shift. Adaptability is not just a mindset. It is a capability that has to be built, reinforced and measured over time.
Read the transcript:
Trent S: I think the organizations that have the ability to adapt, adjust and be agile to build skills and be flexible to what comes, I think they're going to be the winners because things are changing. I do believe that AI is going to have a huge impact when we look at what that can do from just a talent and a skills perspective in terms of identifying, developing and helping accelerate some of that stuff. I think that's huge.
Trent S: We've been through a lot of turbulence. We had Covid. We had the great recession. We have the great resignation. Now we have this inflationary market and we're in turbulence, and I'm not convinced that the turbulence is necessarily going to go away. So the organizations that build this agility to adjust and rescale and people are willing to embrace that rescaling.
Trent S: I saw some research that showed a third of any given person's job is, you know, the skills are changing about every 3 years. I'm going to guess that that probably is going to keep accelerating. So that's one of the things that we focused heavily on here with our people. Because you get some people say "I like my job. I don't want to move jobs. I just want to do my job well. So why do I need to develop?"
Trent S: So we've really focused on having a development mindset as a company. And that's part of why we're doing it. We're saying, "The 30 year job is gonna go away and the skills are going to change. So if you're not actively developing, you're going to be left behind."
Read Trent's full interview here
About Trent Savage
Trent Savage is a visionary and strategic human resources leader with a remarkable 18-year track record of driving success at market-leading companies. Passionate about fostering high-performing organizations, Trent excels in partnering with business leaders to provide clarity of direction and alignment to goals. His expertise in strategy development, executive coaching, leadership effectiveness, organizational design and strategic talent management has left a lasting impact across diverse industries, including technology, retail, consumer product goods, transportation and finance.
Trent has held significant leadership roles throughout his distinguished career at esteemed organizations, including Procter & Gamble, Amazon and eBay. At the time of this interview, Trent served as Senior Vice President of HR at Mountain America Credit Union, where he spearheaded transformative initiatives that shaped the company's HR landscape.
Committed to giving back, Trent invests his time supporting his family, colleagues, fellow BYU alums and the community. He envisions an HR legacy focused on empowering employees to excel, ensuring that the profession transcends transactional tasks and enables employees to achieve greatness. Trent’s unwavering dedication to HR excellence continues to shape the profession's future with every step he takes.
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