The challenge
Fellowmind is in the midst of a transition, from implementation partner to the role of digital transformation partner. Fellowmind employees want to upskill and reskill to ensure they can keep growing in their role as trusted Business Partners for their clients.
The solution
Set up an L&D program that offers structured development, within the flow of work, and in the areas of consultancy, coaching, people management and vitality. So that employees grow in their role of Business Partner and can guide their clients even better in their digital transformation.
Reskilling and upskilling to meet customer’s needs
“Since our founding in 2005, we have grown enormously. Where in 2017 we still counted around 100 colleagues in the Netherlands, we now have more than 2000 employees throughout Europe! We are well on our way to becoming the European market leader in Business Applications, Cloud Infrastructure, Data & Analytics and Modern Work.”
“We are an organization with a lot of technical, as well as business consultancy and change management expertise on board. These teams together have the expert knowledge and experience concerning the full Microsoft platform. Our consultants are working daily to help customers navigate the Microsoft environment. And what we hear from our colleagues is that they experience a clear change in dynamics with regard to customer relations; the customer demand has changed. This is what we would like to capitalize on.”
“We’re talking about reskilling and upskilling. Getting consultants to develop new skills so they can take the next step with clients, and take a new step in their career. This is exactly why we wanted to talk to Lepaya.”
“With our experts, and the entire organization, we are working towards the role of business partner. We want to support our customers not only with the implementation, but together with our committed experts and solutions we want to be able to support the complete digital transformation of client’s organizations.”
“Our employees are all business partners and work on building a valuable relationship with their clients. With the further integration of our brands, we are broadening our services and together with the HR team I want to support our colleagues in their development. So that they will be able to support their customers in the very best way while feeling comfortable in their role.”
Power Skills that fit
“It is important for our consultants to not just support from a gut feeling, but to help clients based on skills, models and practice with like-minded people in a structured way. With that in mind, we partnered with Lepaya in order to find the right Power Skills to support this development.”
“Consultants need to be able to take clients along in their story, convince and offer insight. For our consultants, it is very important to find out what the question behind the question is. The first problem on the table is usually not the ultimate challenge. It’s about the underlying problem, and how you as a business partner can solve it well and get stakeholders moving.”
“We work a lot with young colleagues, and work to upskill and reskill them. So that they feel empowered to take a seat at the table with clients.”
“Together with Lepaya, we create relevant modules and train skills in Leadership, Business Consultancy and Vitality programs. We want to strengthen the authenticity of colleagues. Who are you? What are you good at, or less good at? It’s about developing self-insight, knowledge and values.”
“Whereas professionals often think that you need mostly hard skills to solve problems, Power Skills – the combination of functional and non-functional skills – actually give you the power to use skills in the right way.”
“We train Power Skills because they are not inferior to our focus on hard skills and technical development. Lepaya’s Power Skills training courses combine self-study with practical exercises, including practice with an actor. This form of blended learning is very effective, its power lies in the combination of exercises and practical tools. Because the material is immediately accessible within the employee’s own work environment, via desktop or the Lepaya app, our colleagues learn coaching and leadership skills on the job as well as how to balance energy efficiently. What they learned yesterday they can apply today.”
Impact
“We see and hear that colleagues really feel they can work on personal development within our organization. The best part is that everyone is super positive about our training programs. Employees are developing into their role. What we hear often is: ‘This is very concrete, very applicable and gives energy.’ Our colleagues enjoy training with each other in support of the work they do.”
“At a Lepaya training, the link between what was learned yesterday and is applicable today is very strong.”
“We believe that it is better to turn a 7 into a 9, than a 5 into a 6. We want to empower employees. If people don’t like it, they won’t be involved and they won’t improve during the training. We do not believe in mandatory training, but in colleagues who develop skills based on intrinsic motivation. Together with Lepaya, we see that only with the right Power Skills at the right time development can turn into a success.”
“Whether our experts are good business partners will mainly become apparent when looking at our customer relations. This is difficult to catch in a simple NPS score, we mainly gather it from customer feedback. A good training program will translate itself into happier customers, happier colleagues, a more efficient form of work and personal development.”
Fellowmind and Lepaya: a partner that understands the context
“As an HR professional, offers of development programs and platforms are certainly not foreign to me; I see a lot of them pass by. In the case of Lepaya, it was timing. One of our marketing colleagues came to me very enthusiastic about a business track he had followed. He wondered whether it could be of interest to the other marketing consultants. This immediately struck a chord with me. When a colleague comes to us with enthusiasm about a training course, it means there is a training party behind it that understands our world well. That is beyond interesting.”
“It can be difficult to find a training partner that understands the context of your organization. Often training courses are broader and on the general side. But with Lepaya, I feel understood, having to only use a few words. Lepaya has the expertise to understands our industry, and is also a tech partner with a Microsoft Teams integration.”
“Lepaya is an educator that comes in respecting context and background. With Strategic Account Manager Lisanne, I communicate effectively and well about our development programs. She is an industry expert and understands our market. Together, we have also involved the Managing Director NL in setting up the development programs, to see if we can also support our colleagues internationally in their development.”
Up next: “Within Fellowmind there is a strong connection between the HR Managers, from Poland, Sweden, Finland and Germany. We exchange a lot of best practices. Right now we are in transition as to how we can collaborate and roll out international programs in the best way. I will keep recommending Lepaya.”
“Ultimately, the ideal is to create training tracks for each role, with the appropriate Power Skills necessary to perform well in that role.”
A L&D Partner like Lepaya
“By offering training from Lepaya, we offer our employees many benefits. Including learning in the flow of work, through and integration with Teams. But what really sets Lepaya apart is the focus on practice. The theory covered in the ‘bites’ via the Lepaya app, are always extremely practical and directly applicable. The trainers do their preliminary work to perfection, and know what our colleagues need. Also, the training is not limited to the classroom. Colleagues also get together in pairs, as part of the ‘buddy system’, and remain actively engaged in their own development even in between training modules.”
“We have a nice partnership, and are unburderned when it comes to all aspects of L&D. Take for example, sending out invitations. This is a great advantage for every HR team!”
“Also, the communication in terms of feedback is very good, they listen to our needs. The training courses are based on our needs and there is a lot of evaluation. Lepaya puts itself in the client’s shoes. They constantly ask themselves whether the trainer is the best fit for the learners. For example, our leadership program involved two trainers, where one trainer scored an 8.5 and the other a 9 – both fantastic scores – and yet Lepaya looks at whether we can continue with the 9.”
“Lepaya focuses on the human connection. People are clearly at the center of the work they do with their clients. They exude that in everything. That’s a win-win for us, because that’s in our culture too and also something we have with our own clients.”
About Fellowmind
Fellowmind helps customers in Europe use Microsoft cloud solutions and offers an integrated approach to digital transformation. They support organizations by encouraging agile development, implementing integrated platforms and by offering end users the right tools. With the goal that people enjoy working with technology and that technology works for them.
Fellowmind is a reliable business partner that really wants to connect with you and with whom you share what you want to achieve. They know exactly what is happening in your market, now and in the future.
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