The challenge: How to secure much needed but hard to find skills?
Rapid digitalization has radically changed the business of telecommunications. To fulfill customer demands, they must transition from phone providers to providers of online and mobile services, such as cloud services and mobile apps, for which programming is essential.
However, recruiting programmers is complicated by the ubiquitous shortage of IT specialists. That is why Deutsche Telekom decided to train the required IT specialists from within its own ranks. Deutsche Telekom chose our tailored learning solutions to train suitable employees to become programmers.
The solution: reskilling programs to turn current employees into developers.
We analyzed Deutsche Telekom's requirements and designed a tailored curriculum for the program. Together we identified the exact need and the locations where the need was greatest. Deutsche Telekom could in turn decide whether to offer the program to every employee or only to certain groups. This approach allowed us to tailor the program to the learners, target it at specific branches, and ensure it met their needs. The final group of participants in the program were selected from those who passed our rigorous testing and interview process to ensure they had the right cognitive skills, motivation, and behaviors for their new role.
Since 2020, we have held several different reskilling programs for Deutsche Telekom, typically lasting three months. At their request, we have also expanded some of the programs to provide more in-depth knowledge that they found they still needed. So far, 77 Deutsche Telekom employees from all over Europe have successfully completed one of our reskilling programs.
The reskilling programs were held entirely online. By removing organizational hurdles, the participants didn’t need to leave their workplace for three months and could instead concentrate exclusively on the training.
The result: Fresh, motivated developers, without expensive hiring rounds.
Many of the participants have always wanted to work as developers and had consciously decided to switch careers, meaning that both sides have benefitted from our reskilling program: Deutsche Telekom has gained the much-needed, well-trained IT specialists who are already familiar with the company's culture and processes, and the employees have launched a new career in their dream role.
Deutsche Telekom has found that participants in our reskilling programs are more likely to stay with the company than external hires. Additionally, the solutions they come up with are better suited to DT’s needs as they have a deeper understanding of the processes involved and have even sometimes been directly affected by the problem in their previous role.
Angjela Kostova-Trpeska, People Development Tribe, New Skilling Squad at Deutsche Telekom said:
“Brights has customized the boot camps to our needs and impressed us with their flexibility. Even in the case of short-term changes or unforeseen events, Brights has always found practical solutions.
Brights has taken on the entire project management, and they are able to provide the full package from marketing, recruiting to training – which proves to be very useful if you don´t have the knowledge or the resources to do it all.
The experiences with the first project were excellent, and the feedback from the participants was consistently positive. The high success rate was the reason why we decided to work with Brights on further programs. We definitely want to continue this cooperation.”