Employee Training and Development at Spotify: Learn From the Best Learning Organizations

Learning and development are critical factors that drive success at Spotify, the world's top music streaming platform.

For them, learning is not just a trendy word in a corporate values document nobody reads. It is part of their business and ingrained in their DNA.

"I'm a big believer in continuous learning. It's really the only way to stay ahead in such a fast-moving industry." Daniel Ek, CEO at Spotify, in an interview with Forbes, November 2019.

The same sentiment is shadowed by Spotify's Chief HR Officer, Katarina Berg: "The only certainty in tech is change."

Spotify is known for its strong focus on innovation, reflected in its work culture. 

They believe learning and personal development are crucial to success and growth and gaining an edge over competitors. 

Therefore, Spotify invests heavily in providing its employees ample opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge.

In this case study, we will explore Spotify's approach to learning and development in greater detail. 

We will delve into the various initiatives and programs that the company has in place to help employees stay on top of the latest technology trends and advancements and how these have contributed to both individual and company success.

🎶 How does Spotify enable employee learning and development?

"Growth is our mantra. So at Spotify, we don't just ask you to embrace learning, we ask you to own it. When you do, you'll find all the guidance and support you need to truly thrive." Life at Spotify.

Employees are encouraged to stay updated with the latest technology trends and advancements from day one. 

Spotify provides employees with various resources, including online courses, workshops, and training sessions, to help expand their knowledge and expertise.

Spotify's learning and development initiatives are not just limited to technical skills. The company also places a strong emphasis on personal and professional growth. 

Employees are encouraged to explore their passions and interests. They get the freedom to pursue projects that align with their goals and aspirations. 

Autonomy not only helps them grow as individuals but also helps them contribute to the company's growth and success.

"Career [at Spotify] is all about growth. But this does not mean a linear career. Career is all about developing where you want to develop to be able to take on a bigger scope or a more exciting project." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

Spotify rewards high performance thoughtfully, and it's not just about achieving goals - it's also about the learning and growth that happens along the way. 

💡 Check out our detailed overview of Spotify's team organization and performance reviews system.

💬 One-on-ones and development conversations

"Weekly one-on-ones with the managers are where the [development] magic happens." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

One-on-ones are when employees and their leaders set goals, course correct, and talk about ambitions. 

These meetings are complimentary to development talks, which can happen as often as the employee and the manager would feel they are needed, the recommendation being to have them at least twice a year.

📈 Spotify has an AI-powered internal talent marketplace, Echo

Echo is an internal talent marketplace launched by Spotify that uses AI to match people's skills, experience, and development goals with growth opportunities. 

The current skills and aspired skills represent one vital element of the marketplace. Then on the other side, there are opportunities: projects, mentorships, and jobs. 

As a result, the platform enables hiring managers, project owners, and mentors to work with talent worldwide and expand beyond traditional backgrounds.

The platform amplifies growth opportunities for all employees, from recent college grads seeking mentorship to senior leaders wanting to give back. Echo goes beyond traditional growth opportunities, highlighting part-time projects and mentorships across multiple disciplines and filling critical talent gaps.

"[Echo] is all about increasing movement in the company, increasing development, and also making all the opportunities more transparent. It's a way of scaling as well. It's also making it [growth] more equitable." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

Spotify's distributed-first culture and commitment to Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DIB) are at the core of Echo's design, ensuring inclusivity and removing biases. 

One year after implementation, ECHO shows exciting results for Spotify:

"More than 6,000 of our band members have engaged with Echo in the past year, and over 70% of the project assignments and 50% of the mentorship assignments have been made cross departments or between employees in different location and/or countries." Michaela Krantz, Talent Growth Lead at Spotify.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Social learning: Taking advantage of peer knowledge

Spotify believes that one of the most effective ways to foster a learning culture is through social interaction and mutual teaching. This shared responsibility for learning creates an interconnected, dynamic environment where knowledge flows freely, and learning becomes integral to daily interactions.

"All Spotifiers are responsible for their own learning and the expectation is that they learn from each other and teach each other. The GreenHouse team [...] supports Spotifiers in driving their own development as well as the development of others around them. Some call this approach peer-to-peer learning, we call it Play it forward, and we think it's one of the best ways to keep learning happening." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify.

"One of the things that's been really important for me is to continue to develop my own skills as a leader, and to do that, I have to surround myself with people who are smarter than me." Daniel Ek in an interview with Business Insider, April 2021.

Echo and the Greenhouse learning portal enable social learning. One can sign up for face-to-face or virtual sessions in several different areas and topics.

The internal marketplace also offers the possibility to find mentors or mentees, thus catering to those that want to develop their technical or leadership and coaching skills.

"Some of the brightest people in the industry work at Spotify, so there will be plenty of opportunities to learn from your colleagues. Preparing and holding a course or a workshop is also a great way to learn even more about a subject." Anders Ivarsson, Organisational coach at Spotify, Personal development at Spotify.

🕴️ Business Driven Action Learning (BDAL)

The Business Driven Action Learning at Spotify is a carefully curated initiative that aims to bring together a diverse group of 16 individuals from various departments and age groups.

The program provides a unique opportunity for the selected individuals to learn from each other and apply their newfound knowledge to their respective job roles while aligning with the organization's business goals.

The selection process for these individuals is meticulous, with managers considering growth potential, performance, and overall potential to excel. The chosen individuals may be rising stars, high-performing employees, or those with significant growth potential.

By bringing together a diverse group of individuals with different backgrounds and experiences, the training program at Spotify facilitates cross-functional collaboration, which is essential in today's dynamic business environment. 

Plus, the program empowers individuals to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses, resulting in a well-rounded and highly skilled team that can effectively tackle challenges.

📐 Knowing what success looks like: Measuring the impact of L&D 

Figuring out if someone's growing and improving is no walk in the park. And when we're talking about an entire company, that's even harder.

"I think that's the key of learning. It's not just about understanding a concept. It's about figuring out how to apply that concept in different ways." Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, Interview with CNBC, April 2021.

But can you guarantee that upon completing competency-based training, your people will know how to apply the knowledge to the real world?

Spotify knows all of this.

"Just by learning something, it doesn't mean that the person will know how to put the new knowledge to use, or that using the competence in a business setting is the specific reason for a particular business success." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify. 

To mitigate the ambiguities of measuring L&D success, Spotify embraces creativity and a mix of direct and indirect assessment methods: 

1. Team maturity assessments measure the development of teams over time, highlighting how they are becoming higher-performing teams.
2. Training evaluations occur at the end of training sessions, seeking to determine if the users saw the learning session as useful and if they think they can apply the information in their work.
3. Skill assessments. 
4. 360° assessments measure leadership development. These assessments track behavior change over time.

In addition to these more traditional tools, Spotify works with the People analytics team to draw correlations or patterns that can indicate development. They use data from various sources, such as:

• engagement surveys; 
• leadership development activities;
• team and individual development activities;
• productivity measures, and more.

One example of using data analytics for getting insights into leadership development was the correlation between band members having recurring 1:1's with their managers and their scores in almost all areas in our engagement survey.

"When you as HR and L&D professionals are asked to state the ROI or business impact from the development activities, don't get stuck in only direct measurements or think that everything needs to be counted. Look at the bigger picture. And remember that learning employees are curious employees.

Curiosity comes with engagement, and engaged employees will be more easily retained, and will affect productivity." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify.

🗺️ The technical career path at Spotify: The Steps framework

It took almost eight years before Spotify created a career path framework. 

Some clear signs indicated the need for it, such as no formal acknowledgment of career growth for individual contributors and a belief that becoming a Chapter Lead or product owner was the only way to be promoted.

The goal was to create a framework that aligned with their culture and worked for employees from diverse backgrounds, at all levels of experience, and in different roles. 

The technology organization at Spotify took responsibility for programs that impact their culture, and they partnered with HR to drive the creation of the framework.

"The goal was to create a framework that would make sense with our culture, work for employees at all levels of experience, and in many different (some unique) roles." Kevin Goldsmith, former VP of Engineering at Spotify.

The building blocks for creating this technical career path were: 

• guiding principles for creating the framework;
• key employee characteristics;
• a set of four steps (individual, Squad/Chapter, Tribe/Guild, Technology/Company);
• a map of career growth;
• replacing the career ladder with a Discipline-Role-Step framework.

The Discipline is a domain of expertise and impact (e.g., coaching, project development).

The Role is the way in which employees engage with a team, a project, or a discipline (e.g., software engineer, technical product owner).

A Step is the combination of a well-defined set of expectations and behaviors associated with a particular degree of impact on Spotify. 

"As you take Steps on your career path, your impact grows." Kevin Goldsmith, former VP of Engineering at Spotify. 

Guiding principles

• Advancement in this model depends on demonstrating behaviors rather than achievements. It is a genuine professional development model, focusing on who one is rather than what they have done in the past. Spotify encourages taking big risks and does not penalize employees for failing.
• The word ladder was shunned from the start, influenced by career ladder skeptics and the desire to support multiple ways of development. Spotify was not a fan of the up-or-out mentality of career ladders. 
• They preferred a "steps framework" to describe their career pathing, "thinking more about rocks in a stream than a staircase." This framework supports movement side-to-side or backward to move forward eventually.
• The Steps framework accommodates role changes without penalizing individuals for self-improvement. It is not a siloed system like other career ladders, where switching roles can result in demotion since the requirements of a level tie to specific areas of achievement in a particular role.
• The framework supports both generalists and specialists, catering to individuals who prefer to gain a broad skillset by moving around the organization and those who prefer to develop deep expertise in specific technological areas.
• The Steps Framework mirrors Spotify's team-oriented and autonomy-driven culture, where teamwork is critical to the way of working, and personal development is a part of it.
• Career progression is marked by an increasing impact on progressively more extensive areas of the organization as the individual's sphere of influence expands.

Expected employee characteristics

Spotify has leveraged the technology organization's efforts to develop a unique framework enabling employees to thrive. The Agile Coaches guild was pivotal in laying the foundation for this framework.

The framework identifies five critical characteristics of successful Spotify employees, including:

1. Prioritizing team success over individual success, fostering collaboration and a sense of community among colleagues.
2. A commitment to continuous self-improvement and team development, driving a culture of growth and learning.
3. Holding oneself and others accountable creates a culture of ownership and responsibility.
4. Understanding the business impact of one's work and aligning their efforts with the company's goals and objectives.
5. Demonstrating mastery in one's discipline, a commitment to developing deep expertise, and a track record of excellence.

By embracing these five characteristics, Spotify has built a culture that enables its employees to make meaningful contributions, achieve their goals, and succeed in their careers. 

The framework has set the stage for Spotify to continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible in the music streaming industry.

The Steps framework

At Spotify, all employees should have the opportunity to advance their careers and enhance the impact of their work, regardless of their position. 

The Steps framework serves as a means of achieving this without requiring a transition to a Chapter Lead or PO role.

Each step in one's career path at Spotify is marked not only by increased responsibility but also by increased impact.

As individuals progress through their careers at Spotify, they will inevitably assume various roles in diverse contexts. 

For example, they may collaborate with multiple business units on various projects, possibly spanning disparate domains or specializing in a particular area. 

Through this process, they will enhance their competencies and expertise, expanding their impact on Spotify and increasing their sphere of influence.

The career development journey at Spotify is fluid, featuring sideways movements, forward strides, and an adaptable approach. 

Although specific trends exist regarding the sequence of roles and disciplines that people gravitate towards, there are no strict guidelines. 

Instead, with support from their manager, each individual's responsibility is to select a path that aligns with their interests and the company's objectives, allowing them to flourish and achieve their distinct career goals flexibly.

The Steps framework empowers employees with a range of compelling advantages:

1. The chance to delve into new roles, abilities, contexts, and disciplines throughout their journey, unencumbered by a predetermined, inflexible "track."
2. A means of gauging their progress towards increasing levels of impact, detached from any particular role or field.
3. A set of transparent expectations corresponding to specific milestones in this process.
4. Together, these elements of the Steps Framework offer a dynamic, supportive pathway for professional growth, enabling individuals to continuously expand their skill sets, broaden their impact, and achieve greater fulfillment in their careers at Spotify.

"We are in this paradigm shift, where human beings are getting older, the pace of technology shift is increasing, so we really need to constantly learn. We can't just do the old way of career. You went to school for twelve years, then you had a linear career in the same industry, and then you retired.

Today, you'll have to really learn along the way throughout your work. You're probably learning and working at the same time to some extent. This means that you'll probably not have only one career in one industry. You'll have multiple careers, maybe a portfolio of careers." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

At Spotify, career development is a journey that progresses through four distinct stages, each building on the previous one and driving impact across the company.

• Individual: This stage marks the beginning of an employee's career at Spotify. At this level, they are still learning the ropes and figuring out how to be productive and make meaningful contributions to the organization.
• Squad/Chapter: As employees become contributing members of a team, they become valuable resources for their colleagues, helping them achieve success daily.
• Tribe/Guild: With time and experience, employees will develop specialized knowledge in a particular technology or become skilled at solving complex problems that span multiple business units. They become valuable resources beyond their immediate team and contribute to the success of their tribe or guild.
• Technology/Company: The highest level of career development at Spotify is marked by employees who have become valuable resources to the entire organization. They leverage their technical expertise and leadership skills to drive success across the company, collaborating with colleagues from different business areas and making an impact far beyond their immediate team.

By embracing this framework, Spotify has built a culture that enables employees to develop their careers and make meaningful contributions to the company's success at every level.

🗝️ The keys to Spotify's L&D success

Spotify is a company that has significantly impacted the music industry by changing how people consume and discover music.

But what's equally impressive is their success in their employees' learning and development (L&D). 

In fact, Spotify has become a case study for other companies in creating a successful L&D program. 

So, what's the key to their success?

"Growth is our mantra and we are the pioneering company in our verticals so we place a special focus on the combination of on the job learning and cross-org collaboration that helps Spotifiers perpetually grow their skills profiles. [...] Echo, our internal talent marketplace, makes sure that every single bandmate has equal access to growth opportunities." Katarina Berg, Chief HR Officer at Spotify, in an interview with The HR Digest.

✔ Making learning a core component of all people processes and not an isolated process

Incorporating learning into every facet of Spotify's people processes is core to their learning philosophy.

"Personal development is more than going to a course once per year, it's something that happens every day." Anders Ivarsson, Organisational coach at Spotify, Personal development at Spotify.

By making learning a fundamental part of all processes and approaches, Spotify ensures that continuous growth and improvement are not just isolated events but ingrained in the company's DNA. 

This learning strategy fosters a more proactive culture where employees are consistently encouraged to enhance their skills and knowledge. But, more importantly, it cultivates a mindset where learning is viewed not as a mere obligation or an extra activity but as an integral part of the job itself. 

"Embed learning into everything you do. Into all your approaches, all your processes. It has to be alive everywhere." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

This approach to learning fosters a more engaged and versatile workforce ready to tackle the ever-evolving challenges of the business landscape.

✔ Dedicated L&D team: Spotify GreenHouse

At Spotify, the Learning and Development (L&D) team, named GreenHouse, operates much like careful gardeners nurturing a thriving ecosystem. 

Their role isn't just about facilitating learning; it's about fostering the right environment where every team member can grow. 

"The GreenHouse team members see themselves as gardeners, nurturing, fertilizing, creating the right environment for growth – we enable and empower our band members to learn – always with a growth mindset. Learning and learning agility is what will keep us as individuals, and the business as a whole, adaptable and innovative over time." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify.

The L&D staff at Spotify do not simply provide learning materials. 

They serve up a buffet of tools and methods to stimulate learning. 

They not only focus on the 'what' of learning but the 'how' too, empowering team members with the knowledge and skills to become effective, lifelong learners.

"The L&D team, we have the buffet of tools and ways of learning, both learning and learning how to learn, and we also support the managers in how they can be good coaches and mentors for their people." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

Another critical function of the GreenHOuse team is providing crucial support to managers, empowering them to become adept coaches and mentors. 

The goal is to cultivate an environment of mutual growth and constant evolution, reinforcing Spotify's innovative spirit at every level of the organization.

When thinking about a piece of advice for HR leaders developing the learning strategy for their organization, Johanna Bolin Tingvall stresses the role of leadership as owners and promoters of growth: 

"Talk about this with senior leaders, with the CEO, with the leadership team, because it needs to start there. I don't think that we can have an HR leader that owns learning. It has to be owned by everyone, including the lead team."

✔ High management leads by example

At Spotify, the importance of a strong learning culture permeates from the top down. The leadership, starting with the CEO, Daniel Ek, sets a precedent for a growth mindset.

"I think it's really important for anyone who's in a leadership role to always be learning, to always be seeking out new perspectives, to always be willing to admit when they're wrong." Daniel Ek in an interview with Fast Company, May 2021.

Daniel Ek's personal commitment to leadership development is a testament to the culture of continuous learning at Spotify.

Spotify's CEO understands that growth is an ongoing journey, and leading by example, he inspires others in the organization to pursue their development.

Ek frequently discusses the significance of growth and learning in shaping the company's future direction. This approach is not limited to organizational expansion but extends to individual development as well. 

"Our learning philosophy is very much connected to our culture. We have a very strong learning culture. And if you ever hear our CEO talking about where we're going, he always talks about growth. He talks about learning. He talks about how we need to grow as a company and how we need to grow as human beings.

And innovation is very much about learning. Isn't it? Because if we're doing things we've never done before, then learning will be a part of that." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

This leadership-driven culture contributes significantly to cultivating a growth mindset across the entire organization, leading to greater innovation and adaptability.

Moreover, innovation, a cornerstone at Spotify, is closely linked to learning, underlining the importance of continuously venturing into the unexplored and embracing new learning along the way.

✔ Culture of innovation, experimentation, and collaboration

Spotify is a company that encourages experimentation.

"The greatest learning you can do is not from success, but from failure." Daniel Ek, Interview with CNBC, April 2021.

They have created a safe environment where employees are encouraged to experiment with new technologies, techniques, and approaches to problem-solving. 

"Career growth is characterized by behaviors and not by achievements. This is counter to the way career advancement works at many other companies. It was something that we not only felt strongly about; it was something that we were proud of.

‍In a culture that encourages innovation, failure (and learning from failure) is a natural occurrence. If we only rewarded success, then we were consequently punishing failure and discouraging risk-taking." Kevin Goldsmith, former VP of Engineering at Spotify.

This experimentation mindset is vital to fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.

"We believe in uplifting and investing in our homegrown talent, so we encourage everyone to expand their skills, no matter their seniority. All so we can learn faster than the world is changing and stay a few steps ahead." Spotify, Grow with Us.

✔ Focus on individual ownership and flexibility

Spotify's Learning and Development (L&D) philosophy emphasizes personal responsibility and initiative regarding growth and development.

They encourage employees to take the wheel, set goals, and map their development path. 

"Our [L&D] philosophy is really a lot about how the individual can learn. We ask our people to drive their own development, for example. That means that you need to be in the driver's seat. You need to be the one setting your goals for where you want to be and what you want to develop.

But it's not a kind of laissez-faire. It is more that you can't put someone else in charge of your development because only you know where you want to go. You might not want to spend your whole entire career in one place, and you might have another manager in a year or two or three. We also have a great support system around that." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

The underlying belief is that individuals are the best judge of their aspirations and potential. This self-guided approach leads to more personalized, meaningful, and effective growth. 

However, this doesn't equate to an unchecked or disorganized approach. Instead, it's about acknowledging that only individuals can genuinely navigate their development journey.

The "Steps Framework" allows employees to explore new roles, skills, contexts, and disciplines over time, avoiding a specific, rigidly-defined "track."

The underlying belief is that individuals judge their aspirations and potential best. This self-guided approach leads to more personalized, meaningful, and effective growth. 

However, this doesn't equate to an unchecked or disorganized approach. Instead, it's about acknowledging that only individuals can genuinely navigate their development journey.

✔ Managers as coaches

While Spotify empowers employees to steer their growth, managers also play a pivotal role. 

Their responsibility extends beyond administrative or operational tasks. They are expected to support their team members, acting as coaches to help them actualize their potential.

Managers are instrumental in opening up opportunities, providing guidance, and being there for their employees to see them grow. 

This balance of individual agency and supportive coaching creates an environment that encourages self-driven learning and team collaboration, enabling comprehensive personal and professional development.

"The managers have to coach and be there for their employees to see them grow. And I think it's their responsibility to open up the possibilities and opportunities for their people to be able to grow." Johanna Bolin Tingvall, Global Head of L&D, Talent Growth, and Community Experience at Spotify, in an interview with HR Over the Counter podcast.

✔ Engaging & fun learning environment

They've created a program designed to be enjoyable and entertaining rather than a tedious chore. 

For example, they've created a "Hack Week" where employees can work on projects outside their everyday responsibilities. 

These special experimentation and learning events encourage creativity, collaboration, and learning while fostering a sense of community and belonging.

✔ Leveraging technology to support learning

They've created an internal learning platform called "Greenhouse Learning," accessible to all employees. 

The platform includes courses on everything from technical skills to leadership and management. They've also created "Spotify Academy," a series of internal talks and workshops on various music, technology, and business topics. 

These tools allow employees to learn at their own pace and provide a wealth of knowledge and resources that employees can access whenever needed.

✔ Commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace

They understand that a diverse workforce leads to better ideas and outcomes, and they've created a program supporting this philosophy. 

They've created a "Diversity and Belonging" program that includes training, workshops, and events that help employees understand the importance of diversity and inclusion. 

This program encourages employees to embrace their differences and to learn from each other.

🌱 How can you run a development process like Spotify? 

Zavvy lets you run a people development process like Spotify.

The process is simple. Here is a step-by-step breakdown. 

😊 Identify key expected employee characteristics

The Agile coaches at Spotify have identified five key employee characteristics that define an ideal employee: 

• teamwork; 
• continuous self-improvement; 
• accountability; 
• ability to understand business impact;
• mastery in an individual discipline.

You, too, can set expected employee behaviors and outcomes using Zavvy. 

You can create competency-based career paths for each role.

Career paths:

• Are an easy way to define a role's competencies, skills, and expectations in the company. Plus, the leveling framework showcases how expectations adjust once the employee moves upward to more senior positions. 
• Create transparency on expectations and team and company alignment.
• Guide everyone in creating relevant growth plans aligning with their skill profiles, career goals, and business expectations.

Step 1: Create career frameworks for each department. E.g., Sales Team, Customer Success Team, etc.

Step 2: Add career paths. Create descriptions and leveling for each role within each department in your organization. E.g. Junior, Intermediate, Senior.

Step 3: Define roles and competencies. When defining the competencies, let your managers and HR team have an equal weigh-in. You can also consider consulting your top performers.

Include a mix of role-specific (functional) and core competencies. 

Bonus: You can ask Zavvy AI to help define competencies across levels.

‍

Step 4: Assign career paths

Involve the manager in reviewing career paths and assigning them to each team member. 

To assign a career path, click the "Assign employees" button on an individual role level.

Once assigned, the assignee will receive a notification via email and can view their career path on their Zavvy home dashboard.

🚀 Enable employee growth in just a few clicks

Spotify empowers its talent pool with a holistic and flexible growth path. 

They encourage employees to move around disciplines, take up new projects, and expand their skillsets within their existing purview of work.

Moreover, Spotify documents and measures their accomplishments. Based on these, employees can move up a squad, chapter, guild, and so on. 

Zavvy's Growth plans can easily replicate this transparent people development process.

Let's understand what the Growth feature on Zavvy enables you to do:

• Growth plan: This is a set of focus areas (somewhat similar to goals) with corresponding action items that people define for themselves to improve.
• Focus area: An area to focus on/improve, e.g., "Improve my communication skills." These can directly link to competencies. 
• Action item: Concrete tasks that are measurable and timely, with deadlines (e.g., "Read book X about communication" or "Complete Y course on leadership") 

Employees can set action items and consult with their managers.

Alternatively, they can enlist Zavvy AI for suggestions of concrete steps that would allow them to meet their development goals.

Our AI will also automatically create recommendations for each user, based on their career path, level and competency profile.

How to enable growth plans for employees?

Decide on only three settings then you are ready to go!

Step 1: Choose the start date

Select a date (either today or in the future) when you want your employees' growth plans to be enabled.

Step 2: Notifications

Choose the way you want to inform your people about the growth cycle.

Notifications remind employees to stay on track.

Step 3: Choose your audience

Creating continuous growth is beneficial for everyone in your company. You can enable growth plans for every employee and leave no one behind! But you can also specify the departments or groups that can create growth plans!

Track growth plan performance

You can view all employees' growth plans and progress as an administrator. 

• You can navigate to the Growth tab and select the Analytics view for detailed information about your employees' progress.
• Use filters to compare the progress of each team and identify any team lagging behind. 
• Suppose you notice a significant difference in progress. In that case, you can approach the manager of that team to find out how you can support their growth. 

You can familiarize yourself with their growth plan by clicking on each employee's name.

🌱 Create individualized & fun learning paths similar to Spotify

Spotify creates a unique, individualized learning track for each employee. You can do the same using Zavvy's Learning and Library solutions.

You can design a unique employee journey by using different building blocks such as content, messages, surveys, quizzes, tasks, and group activities. 

You can create your learning journeys and add them to the library for your employees. You can also choose from Zavvy's vast gallery of training resources curated by our team of learning scientists.

Here's a step-by-step process of creating engaging learning tracks for your employees.

1. Publish Zavvy journeys to the library for self-enrollment

You can either assign Zavvy journeys to employees or publish them to the library so that employees can enroll themselves or do both. 

To publish a journey to the library, you must first enable the "self-enrollment" option in the journey settings. 

2. Pick & choose from 1000+ curated training resources

You also have access to over a thousand curated learning tracks created by our learning scientists. When curating the content, they considered the best providers in the world, the most in-demand competencies for the evolving job market, and course ratings. 

Your company can enable both free and paid resources on Zavvy.

For paid resources, you can use our budgeting and approval workflows.

Requesting paid resources

To request a paid resource, learners need to go to the library and find a course they like. Then, they click "Request" and select a price (for some courses, there are multiple price tiers).

Once requested, admins will receive a notification about the request. This way, you can utilize your L&D budget to allow employees to choose their unique learning path.

‍

Enrolling into a journey

People that self-enroll get the same experience as anyone that you assign. The only difference is that the journey will start the day they self-enroll. 😊

What's more?

• With Zavvy Journeys, you create fun ways to test your employees' learning through quizzes, surveys, tasks, or even group activities. 
• There is built-in peer learning and a social element where employees can view all courses and see which ones were rated highly.
• Employees can even recommend a course to each other.

Peer-to-peer learning is a pillar of Spotify's L&D strategy, so do not skip social learning.

Create training journeys with the power of Zavvy AI

Step 1: Add the title of your course and the number of chapters you'd like to include. Make sure to enable quizzes for more engaging learning experiences.

Step 2: Zavvy AI will get to work, creating chapters and quizzes for each chapter.

Step 3: Review the content. Decide if you want to allow retakes for the quizzes.

🤺 Enable your managers to act like coaches with Zavvy

Spotify is constantly pursuing development, not just for its employees but also for its leaders. 

Managers at Spotify are more than simple administrators. They support employees on their growth paths. 

Using Zavvy's training features, you can easily create workshops, self-paced learning journeys, and more for your managers and enable peer learning among them, in a digestible and easy-to-consume format, via email or daily Slack nudges.

➡️ Check out how Zavvy helped Freeletics create a training routine for their leaders.

You can filter our training library by competence. Use the "leadership" filter and discover a sea of possibilities for developing your leaders.

✅ Empower employees with 1:1 check-ins

One-on-one check-ins are vital elements for Spotify's growth and coaching culture. Managers and their people can discuss goals and aspirations and paths for reaching them. 

With Zavvy, setting up recurring check-ins is more than simple. 

Managers can set the frequency, day, and recurring questions and agenda for their 1:1 cadence.

Zavvy sends all involved automated reminders. 

You can customize the check-in forms with questions on recent achievements, priorities for next week, and aspirations for the upcoming months.

➡️ Zavvy, your 360° employee growth system

As remote and flexible workforces are becoming increasingly common, creating effective employee development programs to support your workforce is crucial. 

These programs must be adaptable to individuals and changing work requirements across various industries. 

Using a platform such as Zavvy, it is easy to enable holistic people growth. 

With this platform, managers can gain immediate insight into their employees' development needs and how training can help close competency gaps. 

And with Zavvy AI, you can kickstart strategic processes in just a few clicks. 

No other solution will allow you to launch and run impactful people development that connects skills and competencies, feedback, and growth at this speed.

Try Zavvy today to enable a 360° growth system for your employees.

‍