Since the start of the pandemic, Santander Poland has developed a range of virtual programmes and initiatives to continue promoting a self-learning culture within the organisation. Now more than ever, our employees are taking the lead in their own development, and their effort and passion for tackling new challenges is making us grow.
 

Although many things have changed since the arrival of covid-19, our priority is still our employees’ well-being and development. But the coronavirus has altered our routines, how we interact with each other, our work spaces and even how we learn. 

Online learning has become especially important, and the development team at Santander Poland has been working tirelessly so our employees can continue to learn. Since April, it has trained 1,376 people in 61 training groups, which has been essential to get participants out of the routine of working from home. 

The onboarding programme for new employees in the branch network has also migrated online, with Skype becoming the key training tool for the trainers to keep participants interested and answer questions in real time. 

More and more courses are becoming fully virtual, such as Design Thinking and Storytelling training. Even an initiative as important as our new manager training programme, Leader Quest, has an online version, because the new reality has not changed our belief in its importance in training future leaders. A few weeks after the pandemic began, the team behind this programme launched an important pilot project in which branches work as multichannel communications centres in collaboration with bank employees.

We know working from home poses many challenges and a key aspect of our workshops and courses is the knowledge and experience shared by participants. We have launched three special continued learning projects in Poland for our employees, in which they are responsible for the growth of the organisation:
 

Development Booster: a recognised brand in Poland

Every two weeks, employees receive an educational and motivational email from bank employees. They are also invited to a webinar where they can learn and acquire tools to manage stress, emotions and change as well as developing resilience.

We hold a virtual session every quarter with a special guest who shares ideas on managing difficulties, with examples and personal stories to inspire everyone and encourage self-reflection.  We broadcast the session live for all employees and record it so that they can watch it again later.

The “Development Booster” project is now a well-known brand among Santander employees in Poland. They value the high quality of its content, its practical solutions and the impeccable organisation of events. On average, 300 to 400 people attend webinars. 

YOUniversity 2.0: fostering our employees’ development

 “YOUniversity” is an initiative for employees to broaden their horizons, acquire new skills and hone their business abilities and interests. It brings together 110 employees from various units who naturally share what they know and encourage development. Our employees can contact YOUniversity project tutors to ask for help in leadership, motivation, communication, personal brand, cybersecurity, data analysis, agile methodologies, sales skills, process management, languages and other areas of interest. They can also contact tutors on a special online portal to make short queries and schedule remote meetings. More than 1,100 employees contacted “YOUniversity” tutors in the first year of the programme.

One of the distinguishing features of “YOUniversity” is that the tutors share their knowledge freely, in exchange for a unique opportunity to further their own development, share their experience with the bank community and participate in special development and networking sessions.

Development Planet: a new self-development platform

This new platform offers our employees very interesting self-development content. Its user-friendly design is based on the 70-20-10 development model, where the most effective learning process consists of: 

• 70% learning and development through experience, taking on new tasks and challenges, assuming responsibilities or participating the “Development Booster” project. 
  
• 20% learning and development through others, with the “YOUniversity” project, mentoring and feedback.
• 10% learning and development through formal courses, programmes and training online.

“Development Planet” offers its training in one place. It provides full information on our self-development programmes, training opportunities and other initiatives. 

Our learning-focused culture strengthens our commitment to having our employees at the centre of our group’s development and growth in an environment that constantly drives innovation.