Memorable employee experiences start with bespoke onboarding

In 2019, ServiceNow launched its Next Gen Programme with the hope of addressing the challenge of a limited talent pool in the IT sector. The programme is designed to improve career opportunities and open the doors for everyone to participate in the digital economy. 

A core pillar of the Next Gen Programme is working with universities and graduates to accelerate their entry into the world of work. The feedback has been extremely positive and it's encouraged us to go one step further.  After assessing the needs of an individual partner organisation and identifying its specific requirements and any skills gaps, we then build these requirements into a bespoke training programme, where learners are empowered to succeed in practice.

An example of this best practice in action is our collaboration with Do IT Wise (Bulgaria), a ServiceNow Elite Partner. 

Transforming the onboarding process

The unique, joint initiative is designed to fast-track and enhance the process of graduate onboarding at Do IT Wise, in response to a challenge set for us by founder and CEO Idan Harel:

"ServiceNow client implementations are a fast-growing part of our business, resulting in an ever-increasing demand for talent that is ready to hit the ground running", Harel says. "We work closely with local universities to attract the best graduates, but our onboarding process takes about six months and requires a huge investment of time, making it difficult to scale." 

With the support and input of Idan's team, we've created an accelerated learning experience that minimises the ramp up time required for new recruits to start working with the Now Platform®. 

The seven-week online programme immerses learners into real-life scenarios that cover  the entire software development life cycle on the Now Platform, from specifications through to design and development. Additional modules also arm participants with essential IT consultancy skills.  

Delivered jointly by ServiceNow and Do IT Wise experts, we've seen how effective the initiative has been for both Do IT Wise and its recruits. The curriculum builds on participants' existing knowledge and adds the technical and soft skills required to join live projects immediately upon completion. It has cut the Do IT Wise onboarding process from six months to seven weeks. 

However, the impact extends beyond cutting down onboarding time. By accelerating the learning approach and introducing hands-on experience with live projects, we've armed fresh talent with new knowledge and practical skills that are relevant from the start of their employment.

When I was reflecting on the outcomes with Idan Harel , he emphasised how important our collaborative approach has been: "I've not come across any other vendor investing such an unprecedented level of time and resource into a tailored training initiative that  addresses a partner's challenge. Our recruits not only gain knowledge and practical skills but are guided to think out-of-the-box. That's driving innovative application ideas internally."

Employee engagement from day one

Streamlining processes and unlocking productivity is just one part of this story. Idan and his team tell me that the onboarding experience has dramatically improved, with new recruits feeling like members of the team from day one, fully engaged and empowered to do their best work. 

Zdravko Verguilov, one of the participants, talked to me about his experience recently: "Taking part has enabled me to be a better programmer, a better team player and a valuable employee right from the start. The opportunity to discuss my thoughts and ideas with ServiceNow experts has been invaluable, allowing me to use out-of-the-box functionalities to deliver new features faster and to a higher standard."

That team aspect is worth emphasising here. It has indeed been a collaborative journey by ServiceNow and Do IT Wise, with experts from both organisations acting as one single team and pursuing a shared vision of highly engaged employees.

A scalable training initiative

Looking ahead, Do IT Wise aims to expand its internal pool of instructors and scale up future iterations of their bespoke Next Gen programme to include a larger number of new recruits with support from ServiceNow.

Following the success of the Do IT Wise initiative, I envision new variations of the Next Gen Programme being developed to meet the unique talent needs of our partners and the wider ServiceNow ecosystem.

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