Accenture's HR chief shares what the company has learned from retraining nearly 300,000 employees

A major point of conversation at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, this year concerned the future of work during a time of significant technological shifts in the developed world. At Business Insider's panel, both labor leaders and executives agreed that for companies to thrive during the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" and not leave their employees behind, a focus on internal job-retraining programs would be essential. Accenture's head of human resources, Ellyn Shook, told us in a separate interview in Davos that Accenture can be a case study for this. Over the past four years, the Dublin-based consulting firm has, Shook said, "reskilled" nearly 300,000 of their total body of 469,000 employees, investing about $1 billion annually in training. "You need to inspire this work-learn, work-learn mindset," she said. "You're not going to go to school and practice what you learned in school for the rest of your career. That day is over." Accenture is a large, global company providing a wide variety of professional services to its clients, and employees' roles change at a fast rate. It's been investing in reskilling for employee retention, which keeps it stable and allows it to offer more consistent service.