Grow your employees

– Suggestions on how to do it in a large organization

CFO asks CEO: "What happens if we invest in developing our people and then they leave us?"
CEO: "What happens if we don't and they stay?"
"Train people well enough so they can leave. Treat them well enough so they don't want to"
- Sir Richard Branson

Alexander Vassbotn Røyne-Helgesen

Principal Engineer, Knowit Objectnet
alexander.royne-helgesen@knowit.no | @phun_ky | @phun-ky

Makers of a sustainable future

A sustainable and humane society through digitalization and innovation

94% of employees said they would stay with their employer if it invested in their development

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/27/94percent-of-employees-would-stay-at-a-company-for-this-one-reason.html

What do we want to achieve by increasing skills?

For the employer

  • Increase inhouse skills in predefined areas
  • Be transparent
  • Increase sales opportunities and revenue

For the employee

  • Take care of employees
  • Share knowledge
  • Develop and grow our employees (skills and careers)

For students/jobseekers/other employers

  • Make Knowit sought after
  • Make employees desirable
  • Improve reputation

For the for clients/prospects

  • Increase client relations
  • Be a professional power house
  • Have a wow-factor

For the employee

  • Take care of employees
  • Share knowledge
  • Develop and grow our employees (skills and careers)

If we do nothing

Shit hits the fan

If we do something

Shit works

So, what can we do?

Low level fruits

  • Give employees a mandate to carry out skills work
  • Give the skill groups/chapters/guilds a mandate to operate
  • Minimize secondary activities*
  • Help the employees to build their own career* (profile, mentor-ship, coaching, resume ++)
  • Involve the employees from the beginning (on-boarding -> offers, competence work etc)
  • Review the seminar setup
  • A public crowd source place for competence and skill sharing (Fagboka/Atlas)
  • A common communication channel (slack?)
  • Joint social group

High level fruits

  • Cultivate a professional group model that works across the subsidiaries
  • Involve the entire company (meetings like the one today is key) "seat at the table"
  • Coach the coaches/Coaching
  • Expand Knowit Academy
  • Use incentives for what it's worth!*
  • Change/review the salary model/invoicing rate to something that allows skills development
  • Pure-breed the professional roles
  • A joint skill management group

Could we?

No one wants a dead-end job

Happy employees, happy life

The employee is not made for the company, the company is made for the employee

Questions?

Alexander Vassbotn Røyne-Helgesen

Principal Engineer, Knowit Objectnet
alexander.royne-helgesen@knowit.no | @phun_ky | @phun-ky