Telenor CEO: Spend 40 hours annually on upskilling
“Digitalisation is fundamentally changing our societies. Embracing this change can help turn it into an opportunity; we need to work in new ways, dare to think differently about career development and we need to stimulate life-long learning. I want all of us in Telenor to continuously transform our skills,” says Sigve Brekke, CEO of Telenor Group.
Telenor Group’s management and People function have identified key competency areas to strengthen to continue delivering what matters most to its 176 million customers globally. The five areas are digital marketing, digital channels, applied analytics, design and product development. Going into 2018, Telenor’s digital learning portal, Telenor Campus, was relaunched with curated courses from recognised online learning providers such as Lynda (from LinkedIn) and Coursera (online courses from leading universities and business schools). In addition to courses in the five key competency areas, there are training modules within leadership at all levels, agile and traditional project management, growth mindset and the strength-based development practice. Telenor Campus courses are free to use.
To engage all employees in life-long learning, CEO Sigve Brekke has given all employees a “40 hour challenge” – to accomplish 40 hours of learning during 2018. With more than 30,000 employees, this sets a stretch goal of potentially 1.2 million hours. At least 20 of these hours should be within Telenor Campus and the rest can be learning opportunities related to responsibility, such as on-the-job training (stretch assignments, mentoring, job rotation) or external courses to develop new skills.
“As our and other industries transform, the future of work is that you may not have one career, but several - and we as an employer must cater to that. 1.2 million hours is a significant investment across our workforce, and I truly believe that the return on this bet will put us at the forefront of the digital race. I challenge myself every day to gain new knowledge and skills relevant for the future. So far for the 40 hour challenge, I’ve taken a Growth Mindset course, delved into Data Analytics and look forward to more,” says Brekke.
The learning programme on Telenor Campus has been specially curated by Telenor’s Learning and Development team to respond to the requirements and needs expressed by employees as well as the company’s strategy. In addition, Telenor Group has run a tailored 5-week online course for all top managers in partnership with INSEAD to mobilise for effective strategy execution, one-year training journeys for experts within critical capabilities, and leadership programmes focusing on growth mindset and strength-based approaches.