Personal Development
The new CLA has been in force at Swisscom since 1 July 2018. Article 2.4 - short and inconspicuous at first glance - introduced a number of innovations for employee training and development. Two years after its introduction, we look back on our experiences so far.
"Be ready for the digitalised working world of tomorrow" was the main driver behind the discussion of further development opportunities in the CLA negotiations between the social partners and Swisscom. Those who know their strengths, interests and ambitions, and who continue their training and development accordingly, will have a good chance on the labour market of the future. Article 2.4 was anchored in the CLA in order to create space for this discussion about one's own employability and the associated development opportunities:
"From 2019, each employee will be entitled to 5 working days per calendar year for training and development in accordance with the "Entitlement to 5 training days" regulations."
When you hear this phrase, you might spontaneously think of a classic course with frontal sound in a dusty training room. This is not the case: Swisscom has been offering numerous online programmes, for example via LinkedIn Learning or Coursera, even before the coronavirus pandemic. The training providers have invested heavily in the creation of blended learning courses. With this combination of face-to-face events and e-learning, we focus on "on the job" and "near the job" learning. We are convinced that these two forms of learning in particular enable targeted learning and help to increase employees' motivation to develop themselves further, and since the introduction of the new CLA regulation, employees now have the incentive to tackle the often challenging task of analysing themselves, their goals and how to achieve them. This is precisely where the great potential of the five training days lies:
In order to choose the right further development measures, you need to know your own ambitions and strengths. This process requires self-reflection, which needs to be practised. The longer you have been working on your professional development, the more difficult it can be to start this process. The following questions can help you get started:
In some cases, the need for further development and reflection is not recognised independently and can be triggered by an impulse from colleagues by asking the right questions:
Regular reflection as a basis supports a watchful eye for exciting development opportunities. Be it internal training at the "One Swisscom Academy", an insight into other areas of the company or external training and development (online and/or offline).
Managers have two options for implementing the five training days in their teams: Either the development ambitions are discussed openly in tandem discussions or in the group so that they can benefit as a team and gain helpful new skills. Or the topic goes under the radar, which means that some colleagues will use their five training days for more or less arbitrary further development measures.
There is often an exciting overlap between the development ambitions of employees and the future skills needs of the team. If this match can be found and the team can be advanced with the right measures, a positive return on investment can be expected from the five training days.
Anyone can attend a course, but only Swisscom employees have the opportunity to apply new skills directly in business with customers and partners and thus gain first-hand experience.
It can be assumed that up to 90% of learning takes place in or close to one's own job and only 10% in a traditional course with attendance days, including completion and diploma. Swisscom therefore supports and promotes learning within the organisation with various instruments, including projects, stages and other touchpoint experiences. A classic win-win-win situation: employees acquire new skills across different topics, other areas benefit from their outside perspective and the existing team can draw on new skills after the temporary project assignment, stage or taster day.
The five training days do not necessarily have to take employees to a classroom, but could be an introduction to previously unknown tasks and topics at Swisscom.
Since the introduction of the five training days two years ago, we have seen how many areas at Swisscom have consciously developed a learning and development strategy. Managers have thus provided their employees with assistance in selecting the appropriate measures. For example, a new "Human Capital Strategy" has been in place for the private customer area since spring 2020. In this strategy, practically all aspects of employee development have been broken down into divisional requirements and made tangible: regular development meetings, an overview of future key skills, detailed succession planning and specific learning opportunities.
The expectations placed on the introduction of the new training days were therefore largely fulfilled. When all employees and managers work together to get the most out of the five training days, everyone involved wins: employees continue to develop in a direction that is fun and increases their employability. Teams specifically promote the development of new skills that are key to future success. And within the organisation, open discussion about development ambitions becomes a regular part of meetings and conversations.
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