How developers are trained in MyOffice. Features and formats
external training (online courses, face-to-face trainings, professional conferences);
access to the Alpina Digital corporate library or the opportunity to buy a paper book on professional topics;
regular internal seminars from experts from various departments;
English language training (individually and in groups with a teacher or on the self-development platform SelfStudy from Skyeng);
marathons and collections of useful materials for the development of soft skills;
training on MyOffice products for new and existing employees.
We have made it a practice to hold such meetings once every 2 months, since many new employees join the company and we want to keep everyone in a single information field. Also, every week we send newsletters about planned training events so that colleagues have the opportunity to participate and no one misses anything.
How is the training during the adaptation period in the company
In the first few months of an employee’s employment, we focus on learning about our products and learning about processes. Since we have quite complex solutions, with a lot of microservices and interconnections, it takes time for new team members to dive into them. Our own competence center helps here “MyOffice Knowledge Hub» – colleagues prepare training materials depending on the activities of employees.
New employees have access to materials prepared by the training department on self-development of soft skills, which are posted on the corporate portal:
collections of articles on developing public speaking skills, effective meetings, etc.;
video lectures on intellectual property, cryptographic data protection, etc.;
free e-courses and literature.
You can find the achievements of colleagues in hard skills accumulated over the years of the company’s existence in the knowledge base.
In addition, we invite everyone to join webinars from external and internal experts: for example, we recently held a seminar on cross-team interaction, where we discussed with employees the intricacies of working with colleagues from other departments, as well as a series of meetings on stress management and self-regulation in period of change.
What do we offer for development in the current position
After summing up the results of the first three months of work, the employee, together with the manager, determines the training goals and can choose core competencies to increase efficiency in current tasks.
If necessary, each employee can apply for an external course or professional conference to develop skills through third-party expertise. Since we hire strong people, basic group courses are usually not very suitable, and the guys themselves choose the most relevant topics and speakers for them. We help you register and complete all the necessary documents. Priority is given to topics that directly affect business tasks and relate to hard skills – they are the easiest to justify and get support from budget holders. So, for example, this year our guys studied English for Engineers, took courses in psychology in IT for managers, algorithms and data structures, attended Heisenbug, SQA Days, CodeFest, HolyJS and other educational events.
We actively encourage the exchange of experience and presentations of our experts – both within our division and with the invitation of colleagues from other teams. The guys create their own informal communities with mutual learning, choose the most relevant technical topics and prepare reports. For example, this year we had a series of internal meetups in one of the development departments, where colleagues shared their experience and cases with each other – one of the articles based on its results already posted on our blog. Despite the fact that preparation requires a lot of time, the output from such meetings is often much more than from reading a scientific article.
What do we do to train team leaders
We have identified key management competencies for all MyOffice managers. Why was it necessary?
Each of our leaders has a unique set of personal qualities, backgrounds and life hacks that help them solve difficult problems and lead different teams.
However, there are also similar traits in behavior – they increase the efficiency of working with a team, regardless of the number of employees, the specifics of the unit, or the management style.
It was them that we included in the basic training course for team leaders, which was joined by both novice leaders and “hardened” ones. In a mixed group, everyone finds something useful for themselves – they get a squeeze of proven team management tools, structure their knowledge and pay attention to detail to increase their effectiveness.
How do we allocate roles in training
The ability to self-learn is a skill that we highly value in our company. Training is most effective only when the employee himself realizes why he needs to develop certain competencies. You can’t force learning, you can only help. Of course, we support our colleagues along the way — MyOffice has training specialists and HR business partners.
Now we are working to ensure that every person in the company knows what competencies are in demand in business, how to identify gaps in knowledge using simple assessment tools. This will allow you to highlight priority topics for study and work on them. HR BP helps the manager formulate expectations for a specific role, and the training specialist selects the appropriate training for the employee.
In the team lead, we see a mentor who will be able to give detailed feedback, highlight the main areas for development and mark progress in building up expertise. In addition, we expect him to share his experience and tell practical life hacks.
What are the learning formats
The pandemic, of course, has made its adjustments. Many guys are used to participating in meetings online. In addition, we have employees who work in hybrid mode or remotely in cities where offices have not yet been opened.
Mass training events are held online mainly in the evening, when all teams have already had stand-ups and the main sprint tasks have been completed. We make sure to post recordings of meetings on the corporate portal and send abstracts so that people who did not attend online training can study the information at a convenient time. It is optimal to schedule a webinar for 1-1.5 hours, so colleagues are more likely to postpone work tasks and fully focus on learning.
As a rule, we conduct skill trainings and workshops in person at our offices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, inviting a trainer for a group of 6-12 people. Even if it is a distributed team, it is important for us to bring everyone together. We pay for business trips and try to combine training with team building or a strategic session in the department. Here, the duration of training can vary from 4 hours to a full day.
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We are 100% sure: lifelong learning is a new reality for everyone who needs to stay in demand. Therefore, we will continue to invest time and effort in developing a culture of exchange of experience within the company so that each employee can reveal their talents.
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