In the extremely competitive telecommunications industry Symbian currently provides the operating system for approximately 60 million phones worldwide.  After four consecutive years of more than 100 per cent growth, Symbian has a clear mission to establish Symbian OS as the world standard for mobile phones.
With over 1200 employees across Europe, Asia and the US, personal development is a key focus for the organisation. 

As part of the business objective to deliver leading edge learning & development solutions, Symbian faced the challenge of creating a bespoke personal training programme for its senior employees. 

With a highly technical workforce Symbian wanted to create a programme, which:

• connected with the core Symbian business values
• equipped employees with a tool kit of management & leadership skills
• strengthened cross functional working
• was driven by the individual over a period of six months

Symbian worked in partnership with learning & development supplier, Thales. Chris Ollieuz, Training Manager at Symbian was keen to work with an organisation that could offer this level of tailoring: 

“We’ve had a relationship with Thales for a number of years and over this time they have built a real understanding of Symbian’s working culture.  This was a key factor in deciding to partner with them for the Pathway programme.  We have been impressed with the quality of their trainers and felt we could trust them to create a programme that would deliver real business focused change for our delegates. Using feedback from the first Pathway programme, the Symbian Core Values, and expertise of our in-house training team and the Thales team, I believe we have created a truly excellent development programme for our senior staff.”

A Blended Learning Approach

Key to the success of Pathway was for the delegates to attend the programme without taking a considerable number of days out of the business, the solution needed to fit in with their demanding work schedules.  The learning style of the audience meant the programme had to have some practical element as well as time for reflection.  Traditional classroom led training was not an option.  The Pathway Programme was initially created in 2004 and after careful revision in 2005, the programme currently includes:

• 360 Degree Feedback to help identify relevant learning objectives
• A Learning Contract between the delegate and their manager to ensure visible business benefits
• One to One Executive Coaching with a Thales trainer
• Attendance on three core Competency Workshops 
    - defined around the Symbian Core Values and the  specific learning objectives of the delegates
• Action Learning Groups
   - as a tool for problem solving which can be carried on beyond the formal part of the programme
   -  groups specifically defined to maximise cross-team working
• Evaluation – scheduled in the programme at three key stages

"One of the undoubted strengths of the programme is its relevance to both the company and its employees," said Wayne Coomey, Head of Human Resources.  "Pathway is a tailor-made programme which is effective in its objectives to develop key management and leadership skills which will have a positive effect on the whole company and Symbian culture.  The programme has been designed to dovetail with senior executives high pressure working environments to help increase their productivity without disrupting their daily work routines." 

Delivering Results

The Pathway Programme is a long-term development solution for Symbian with positive feedback and results from the 2004 delegates.

Corinne Dive-Reclus, Chief Systems Architect commented, “I discovered that I knew more than I thought about addressing the difficult challenges I had to face. I also learned how to redeploy my skills to be more effective at a higher level of the organisation”. 

The structure of the programme was well-received and new relationships formed between delegates.  Symbian expects to see on-going progress of its senior employees, benefiting especially from the cross team development that the Action Learning sets out to create.  By using the Symbian core values as a platform for the Competency Workshops the organisation hopes to make subtle changes to the role of management and leadership for technical and non technical experts.

How will we be able to tell if it has worked?  There are three key criteria of success:

1. Does the delegate and their manager see changes in behaviour which are delivering real business benefits?
2. When we run the 360° feedback tool for the group after the programme, can we see measurable improvements?
3. Are some of the Action Learning groups continuing to meet after the end of the formal part of the programme and are they delivering real benefits to those taking part?

We are confident that all three criteria will be successfully met. Symbian plans to carry on rolling out Pathway to its senior staff to ensure they have every opportunity to develop in the best way to contribute to the continuing success of Symbian,  as the market leading provider of operating systems for mobile phones.