Does your business and your workforce have the skills that are required for the future? Are you set up to meet the constantly changing needs of your customers in this insanely fast paced world?
That’s exactly the questions Atos, a global leader in digital transformation with approximately 120,000 employees in 73 countries, asked themselves, and as a result, launched a program called ‘Future Fit’. Future Fit is their approach to developing their people, ensuring they have the right skills within the business to meet the needs of their clients today and in the future.
"It’s about future proofing our people and future proofing our company, making sure together we can adapt to continuously meet the needs of our clients," says Cheryl Allen, HR Director for Transformation.
What impressed me the most with this program is that it isn’t just a one-dimensional HR program. Instead, it’s an entire cultural and business shift that’s been developed by looking at the requirements in a more holistic and strategic manner. Future Fit has proven to be a real game changer at Atos, developing a highly skilled workforce and at the same time giving employees new opportunities, with 78% of all of their roles filled internally.
The Play
The Future Fit program begins in the traditional way, with workforce planning. But there’s nothing traditional about how they manage this process, for instead of just looking at headcount, they look at the skills which are required for the existing landscape as well as those required looking forward.
By using both pieces of data, Atos is able to deliver against their key objective of “Future proofing our people; Future proofing Atos”, achieving the following:
Anticipating future client needs and building skills and capabilities to deliver.
Building a flexible workforce which can be leveraged, with agility, to meet priorities.
Creating a learning culture whereby their people are committed to developing and expanding their skills.
Developing their people to deliver excellence to their clients both today and in the future.
Future Fit consists of these three key parts:
Digital Growth Networks
Digital Growth Networks, or DGN’s as they are known, have been created for their six hot growth areas and are focused upon building capability in these skill areas. Employees can join one or more of the DGN’s that they are interested in and find out more. Once they have joined, they can find out more about the roles, the learning paths, the market, and the available learning paths which are designed to enable people to start to develop their own skills and capabilities and help them plan how to move into new exciting growth areas.
Career Development Center
This is ‘the Hub’ of Future Fit and have been set up to provide support and guidance to employees to assist them in making their next career move. Whether that be the next step in their current career or expanding out into totally new skill areas, employees can come here to get that support and assistance in helping them identify and move towards that new opportunity. The main mechanism in which employees ‘join’ the center is through ‘Hands up’. This is when employees can raise their hands and express their interest to take on a new opportunity. Once they have done this, the team then make contact and support them with their Future Fit journey.
Career Support
The final part supports employees with more personalised support. Whether that be support in critiquing their resume, preparing for an interview, career coaching or advice in building your network. This care ensures employees feel valued as individuals and enables them to feel equipped to embark on their Future Fit journey.
Future Fit is available to all employees and has proven to be extremely successful with engagement levels continuing to rise since its launch. And it’s not just participating, for as a result of Future Fit, 78% of roles are filled internally and over a third of employees are actively involved in the program. The program has truly set both the business and the Atos workforce up to be fit for the future.
To end, here are some testimonials from a few of Atos employees who have been through Future Fit:
I joined the Digital Growth Network as it offered me the opportunity to develop my career as a Data Scientist. I am delighted with my career change and I look forward to achieving more skills and accreditations.
It is fantastic to see re-skilling is supported and encouraged. I am excited for this new chapter and thankful to everyone who has supported me.
For anyone who wants to challenge themselves and develop new skills, Atos really does provide the best environment for this.
In Practice
