How SD Worx Talent helps Telenet employees

As a provider of telecommunications and media services, Telenet’s goal is to help people and businesses stay ahead in the digital age. To enable its employees to respond to their customers’ fast-evolving needs, the company was already putting much thought and effort into talent management. But, as it turned out, its approach didn’t always strike exactly the right note.

Joke Van Gestel, Talent & Leadership People Partner at Telenet, explains: “Although we were always convinced that fuelling employees’ strengths is how you spark their development, our day-to-day approach didn’t support that belief. As we kept resorting to pinpointing people’s weaknesses and guiding them to improve on those, we were overlooking the skills they already had.”

Aiming to build upon employees’ strong suits and align their development paths with their own aspirations, Telenet’s Talent & Leadership team motivated its colleagues to actively take the lead in their growth and career advancements. “Everybody is in the driver’s seat of their own career. That’s what we put out there,” says Joke.

For the employees, however, knowing how to start or where to find learning opportunities was no easy feat. “Our people were getting lost in the ERP system we used to manage career paths. It was too elaborate, not user-friendly and clearly built for HR leaders.”

After reviewing multiple tools on the market, Telenet quickly realised that SD Worx Talent  was exactly what they were looking for.

Joke: “Our companies’ visions of employee growth and empowerment aligned perfectly. And, most importantly, the platform proved to be the most user friendly – offering multiple intuitive features that support employees by revealing their strengths, enabling feedback and stimulating continuous learning.”

To make sure the new talent management platform ticks all the right boxes for its employees, Telenet first assembled multiple pilot groups to test the waters. “By involving various employees in the creation process from the start, we were able to adapt and refine the platform based on real employee feedback.”

When co-creating software with the end users, finding a balance between responding to your team’s specific needs and improving usability is a challenge. “Luckily, the project team safeguarded the tool’s simplicity at all times. If one of our requests would overcomplicate things, they challenged us to keep it simple,” says Joke.

As a result, as Telenet started to gradually onboard more staff onto the platform, new users quickly got a hang of using SD Worx Talent. “In fact, we wanted to help our colleagues navigate the platform by providing them with user guides and introductory videos. But their response was that they just didn’t need these things.”

What sets SD Worx Talent apart from other talent management tools is its ability to initiate a conversation about growth, empowering employees to take ownership, igniting their performance, and accelerating business success.

Joke says: “In essence it’s just a tool. But, as our employees really started to rely on it, it quickly became clear that it’s helping them take a new perspective when it comes to their career paths. It’s unlocking a cultural shift toward continuous development and 360° feedback in our workplace.”