Case study A case study from The Economist Intelligence Unit TELUS Collaboration meets learning: Driving culture change with cloud-based tools TELUS is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides nearly 14 million connections to wireless, Internet, TV and wireline customers, generating $12bn in annual revenue Faced with intense competition within a highly regulated environment, the company regards its strong corporate culture as a critical competitive advantage A key part of nurturing that culture was creating an integrated cloud-based learning and collaboration environment to engage the company’s 42,700 employees around the globe Leveraging human capital TELUS increased employee engagement levels to 85% last year from 57% in 2010 After experimenting for a few years with a variety of digital tools to promote employee conversations, TELUS leaders wanted to create a better “2.0” user experience “We looked at what the user experience was like for the 40,000-plus team members from a perspective of whether or not it was creating good innovations, and the answer was ‘we can better’,” says Dan Pontefract, a TELUS executive with the novel title of Chief Envisioner “So it was an easy decision to adjudicate several different products to create a suite that you might call ‘human capital performance’.” TELUS increased employee engagement levels to 85% last year from 57% in 2010 The company wanted a comprehensive platform that encompassed multiple functions, including collaboration, learning, performance and career development Making knowledge permeate At TELUS, learning is owned by the business, with HR responsible for various policies, processes, standards and guidelines For example, the company’s collaboration platform is used heavily by the call centre organisation to build knowledge and share information among various teams That particular team created a community called “Service 2.0”, where team members engage with one another to “transform the TELUS service model to focus on customer outcomes rather than individual transactions” The community consists of call centre agents, team managers, project managers and business analysts who discuss tools, procedures, new ideas and options that support the Service 2.0 initiative Recognition of this connection between collaboration, learning and behaviour is at the core of the company’s approach to improving customer service—something it refers to as ”Customers First” Evaluating options from different perspectives The shared services teams within TELUS—IT, Finance and HR—worked together to evaluate each alternative tool to determine if it met stakeholder needs, distilling the choice down to a handful of contenders The decision to use cloud was straightforward, Mr Pontefract says, given that the company’s operations are built on advanced technologies: “A growing part of our external strategy is data centres and external storage via those data centres So it wasn’t a difficult conversation in terms of to be on the cloud or not.” © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015 Case study A robust, integrated set of tools TELUS launched its new cloud-based suite in April 2013, integrating collaboration and learning platforms from a single provider and then adding more modules like performance, succession and analytics “We believe that learning is equal parts formal, informal and social,” says Mr Pontefract, explaining that the new cloud-based collaboration platform pulled together multiple components—including some existing components already in the cloud—to create an integrated solution “if you change the culture—that gives you a competitive advantage in the end, and it easily can put your ‘Customers First’.” Dan Pontefract, TELUS Chief Envisioner Tight integration of collaboration and learning is a key part of the design To start with, formal face-to-face learning events have been shortened and “bookended” with collaborative content such as discussions, commentary and videos before and after each event to solidify learning objectives and outcomes But the broader learning process is ongoing, Mr Pontefract says: “We know that our teams and leaders are using [the tool] to have a general discourse about ideas, or new product launches or customer support issues So it becomes a conversation just like you’d find in the cafeteria, or the hall or during a barbecue.” Nothing succeeds like culture change A rapid roll-out of the new cloud platform quickly generated the critical mass needed for real culture change The adoption rate was 75% within three months, soon rising close to 100% The company doesn’t worry about the difference between “lurkers” and power users, Mr Pontefract says, “because not everyone is an extrovert and we believe that lurking is learning, as long as they’re accessing content” Beyond learning, employee engagement, as measured by biannual third-party surveys, is the company’s overriding internal objective; the firm’s leaders are satisfied that an engaged workforce drives improvements in all of traditional enterprise KPIs Mr Pontefract reflects, “If you treat your people well and invest in them, as opposed to just saying so in the annual reports—if you change the culture—that gives you a competitive advantage in the end, and it easily can put your ‘Customers First’.” Mr Pontefract adds that as people began using the tools they became more collaborative: “Because they were free to debate and contribute, everyone became a leader Today our employee engagement is at 85%—we are a collaborative, communicative organisation, and [our cloud platform] is another extension of that.” © The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited 2015 .. .Case study A robust, integrated set of tools TELUS launched its new cloud-based suite in April 2013, integrating collaboration and learning platforms from a single... ‘Customers First’.” Dan Pontefract, TELUS Chief Envisioner Tight integration of collaboration and learning is a key part of the design To start with, formal face-to-face learning events have been shortened... succession and analytics “We believe that learning is equal parts formal, informal and social,” says Mr Pontefract, explaining that the new cloud-based collaboration platform pulled together multiple