Lepaya Talent Talks: How Frontify is creating its next generation of leaders through a customized approach to learning

Welcome to Lepaya Talent Talks – an interview series uncovering best practices for developing skills that drive individual and organizational success in a rapidly changing world.

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‍‍Having a flexible, hybrid workforce spread across several countries has obvious advantages, including team members who bring international experience to their roles. But it’s also a challenging set-up that requires a strong culture and a cohesive learning strategy.

Victoria Furlan, Senior People Partner at Frontify, was born in Argentina and currently calls Zurich home. In her role at this growing brand management software company, she supports people-based needs. At the moment, her focus lies in strengthening the product team’s middle management. By creating a strong community of leaders with the skills needed to build high performing teams and further the organization’s Employee Development Philosophy, she makes an impact through growth plans and career tracks that serve as a North Star for behavioral alignment.

Tell me about the Frontify way of working!

We have a hybrid structure with 3 main hubs. One is in Switzerland, another is in the UK, and then there is one in the US. Most of our employees live and work around  these hubs, but we have a very flexible culture, so we go to the office whenever we decide it makes sense and it's going to be meaningful for collaboration.

Can you tell me more about how you focus on talent development at Frontify and support your international teams?

With people partners across every area of the business, we take a customized approach to supporting each area’s people needs. We always start by listening carefully to diverse voices. Once we identify a need, we run initiatives to solve it while ensuring there’s alignment with the greater company strategy.

For example, we’re about to launch our career tracks. Our primary goal is to foster employee-led contextualized skill development . With a common framework, we transparently share the behaviors we need to be successful in this stage of growth. This is one of the boldest initiatives we have for talent development this year. 

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How does creating employee career tracks benefit Frontify as a business?

Essentially, they’re important because they establish a neutral framework to guide and codify our culture. As we grow, it starts to be more difficult to have everyone aligned. With this skills framework, we can give clarity on what our leadership believes is important in order to ensure everyone is aligned.

Though the main focus is on collective success, we also offer team members a platform to individually take charge of their own development. It helps them become well-rounded professionals while at the same time, making our teams and company successful.

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How do you develop leaders in specific?

Frontify is no different than other scale-ups in many ways. There are many home grown leaders who were exceptional individual contributors, and at some point, they found themselves in a people leadership role. Sometimes they choose the role, and sometimes the role chooses them. We are conscious that this is not only a promotion, but a career change. In product, we have an individualized approach to leadership development. In the past, I’ve tried cohort-based trainings and very structured content, and even one-on-one coaching for everyone.

Nowadays, for leadership development in the engineering and product team, we take a more pragmatic approach centered on the idea that everyone is on a unique journey. We have one monthly group session to ensure that there's a strong community among the leaders. They choose the topics according to what’s top of mind, we vote on them, and I facilitate. It's very specific to the needs that they have. Then I combine that with a monthly 1:1 coaching session where we focus on their leadership journey and the skills they need.

We also created a Figma board that is full of resources related to foundational leadership principles, frameworks and theories. We really focus on what's important for them. So, instead of very structured programs, I try to meet them where they are.

Are there any specific skills that you're trying to get your leaders to develop right now?

Yes, I would say coaching is foundational. It’s the number 1 skill that we focus on. We want our leaders to be coaches for their teams. With that, of course, comes feedback. Particularly these difficult, but necessary conversations. 

People need the courage to have those conversations. We also invite our leaders to be more self-aware and emotionally intelligent. Those are the priorities across the board, but every person has a little bit of a different focus. 

Can you tell me how Frontify measures the impact of talent development? And how do you know that what you're doing is successful?

I would say we look at 3 things. Of course, the first is retention. It’s key for us to make sure our employees are having a positive experience. We know that one of the main drivers of that experience is development. Skills progression is correlated with retention. So, retention rates would be the first one. The second is employee engagement, keeping our engagement levels high.

Lastly, I would say the number of internal promotions. So, do we have a leadership pipeline, and are we able to cover most of the higher level positions with internal talent? Luckily, that is the case. So, I would say these are the main metrics that we follow.

Supporting employees in their growth is good for individuals and businesses. But first, you need to know what skill gaps exist in your teams. Do you have a process for this?

We don't have a formal process for that yet. It's more based on observations from our culture. 

And now with the launch of launching the career tracks. They consist of 5 main competencies we’re prioritizing based on our leadership advice. This will help us look across all departments and see the strengths and the weaknesses, and hopefully ensure the teams are equipped with the skills they need.

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What led you into a career focused on helping people train, learn and develop?

I studied psychology and I have always been drawn to understanding people and also very passionate about unleashing their potential and supporting them to achieve their goals. I would say that this is something that was like a little fire in me since I was very young. Now my main focus is people and leadership development. I get a lot of energy and passion from seeing people grow.

Finally, is there a skill you'd like to learn, or something that's really helped you succeed?

Well, I would say a game changer for me was the coaching certification. Learning coaching as a skill, I think it's fundamental for the kind of work that we do in HR. It was a real game changer for me. It helped me ensure that we ask the right questions, help people to reflect, and to guide them to find their own answers.