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

Having a flexible, hybrid workforce spread across several countries has obvious advantages. Team members will be ready to work from any location and 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 focuses on creating leaders equipped with the skills needed at a fast-paced organization and developing ambitious career tracks centered on growth. We spoke with her to learn more about Frontify’s approach to talent development. 

_{Can you tell me about the Frontify way of working?}

We have a hybrid structure and basically, 3 hubs. One is in Switzerland, another is in the UK, and then there is one in the US. Most of our employees work in countries where we have these hubs. But then 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.

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

As I mentioned, we have 3 hubs that we’re supporting across different areas of the business. We take a customized approach toward them and think about their needs. Then, we run initiatives that are meaningful in terms of the greater company strategy, or maybe a need we have globally.

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For example, we’re about to launch our career tracks. Our primary goal is to foster contextualized growth, ensure that everyone has clear expectations, and that everyone is aligned with the behaviors we need to be successful. This is one of the boldest initiatives we have for talent development this year. We also focus on creating a feedback culture, and of course, leadership development.

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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 unlock collective impact and ensure everyone is aligned.

With this project, we can make sure that we don't get lost in individualization, when everyone starts thinking more about their own development. We keep the main focus on unlocking collective success. We can also become more well-rounded professionals individually, but the real purpose is making our teams and our company successful.

How do you develop leaders in specific?

Frontify is no different than other scale-ups in many ways. We have a lot of talent, but when people who are very successful in their individual roles are given the opportunity to lead their team, they usually lack the support and the skills they need. So, 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.

Now, for leadership development in the engineering and product team, we have one monthly group session to ensure that there's a strong community among the leaders. We choose the topics, 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 with me where we focus on their leadership journey and the skills they need.

I 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. It can become a wider conversation that asks, where are we heading? How does this team structure fit the organizational needs?

People need the courage to have those difficult conversations. I 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 tenure and retention. It’s key for us to make sure our employees are having a positive experience. One of the main drivers of that experience is talent development. Knowing that they are advancing their career with us is correlated with retention. So, retention rates would be the first one. 

The 2nd is employee engagement, which is also very connected with retention. So, keeping our engagement levels high. And finally, how satisfied or unsatisfied our employees are in terms of growth.

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 feedback culture. We look at how we can improve and how we can have the courage to have those difficult conversations.

And now we’re launching the career tracks. They consist of 5 main skills 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.

That’s wonderful. 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.