Worldwide, the top two drivers of business transformation are new technology adoption and workplace digitalization.
Changes happening at BT Group mirror this trend perfectly. The London-based giant is transitioning away from its roots as the well-known British Telecom into a technology company with a reimagined name and a broader scope.
But a business can’t change unless its people change. And now, Degreed Automations is making workforce development at BT Group simpler for L&D—and more personalized for employees.
Driving Change at the Speed of Technology
BT Group employs 100,000 workers globally, including customer-facing units, network maintenance employees, and infrastructure support staff members. The company needed a way to upskill its massive, diverse workforce without overwhelming its L&D and admin teams.
Echoing the experience of many Degreed customers, the BT Group L&D transformation began with the launch of a skills taxonomy mapped to 600 core roles across the company. Still, the L&D team needed a way to ensure employees in any role could evaluate their current skill sets—and stay motivated to upskill at the speed of technology.
Source: PwC, Our status with tech at work: It’s complicated
Degreed Automations power upskilling at every opportunity.
BT Group used Degreed Automations to surface the right learning to the right workers at the right time. Using this tool, Degreed administrators can build a variety of automations—like nudges and reminders—that lead employees down personalized learning journeys. Degreed clients can use Automations to power learning during onboarding, to support learning journeys (for example training prior to a new product launch), drive career growth, and more.
At BT Group, learning leaders deployed nudges and reminders that helped the company launch its growth into a full-fledged technology company —while supporting each employee in the process.
“We know that self-led learning can sometimes be a bit of a lonely place,” said Andrew Seddon, Learning Experience Platform Specialist at BT Group. “We want to be able to provide a journey for colleagues as they go through some of that learning.”
Onboarding Every New Employee
BT Group uses Degreed automations to ensure every new employee had the guidance and training they needed from their very first day. As soon as users log in, they see auto-pushed content designed to get them started at the company.
Because Degreed integrates with so many other systems easily, the L&D team pulls in HR data automatically. This data continually indicates who needs onboarding content, triggering Degreed Automations to deliver it at the right time.
“That’s a massive win for our admins… who don’t have to manually find who the right people are,” Seddon said. “You can set and forget. And that’s been brilliant.”
Nudging Learners Along a Comprehensive Experience
Employees at every company at times face critical learning needs—like a new product launch, compliance deadlines, or upskilling for a role change or promotion. Degreed Automations empower admins to easily package and promote content, then deliver it to individual employees at exactly the right time.
BT Group used Automations to keep pushing and pulling employees down tailored journeys with a reminder to finish a Pathway they’d started or take a skill assessment. Seddon likened his strategy to reminding online shoppers to complete the checkout process after abandoning their carts, all without feeling clunky or pushy. “Because the emails and the notifications and everything are from the same platform, users feel that the journey is connected from start to finish,” Seddon said.
BT Group L&D also used the tool to recommend next steps, such as content recommendations, assignments, and follow-up suggestions—creating long, self-led journeys tailored to each employee. “That’s where I think this gets exciting,” Seddon said.
Less Effort for L&D—and IT
On the administrative side, automating learning journeys requires no coding, so Seddon’s team didn’t have to wait on IT to custom build any automations.
The Dawn of a Simplified Learning Tech Stack
“We’re really looking forward to working with Degreed in the future,” said Seddon, whose team—thanks to Degreed Automations—sunset a separate tool it had used for L&D admin.
Now, all nudges and content suggestions come from Degreed automatically with minimal management from staff.
In addition, the BT Group IT department now has more time to focus on other important tasks.
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