Incubeta Insider: Learning and Development – The Pioneers of Global Collaboration

In our latest Incubeta Insider, we sat down with Ruth Steele, our European Learning and Development Manager and a valued member of the Incubeta Learning & Development team. As a global brand that values upskilling and training, Incubeta strives to create an educational and inspirational setting for our people. Ruth spoke to us about Incubeta’s learning, training and onboarding methods, and how we create an inclusive office environment that fosters independent development. 

Ruth Steele

Launched in 2019, Incubeta’s Learning and Development (L&D) team was the first global department created at the business – and has since proved that global collaboration is the way forward. Despite only being a team of three, they’ve completely reinvented the way Incubeta approaches L&D – implementing a Global Learning Management System with hundreds of relevant, interactive and exciting courses, for both soft and technical skills.

Incubeta Onboarding Programme

With 69% of employees being more likely to stay with a company for three years if they have a great onboarding experience, it’s clear that onboarding is a crucial part of the success of employees and the business. In fact, organizations with a standard onboarding process experience 50% greater new-hire productivity.

At Incubeta, all of our new joiners have individual tailored, and fully supported training programmes. A mix between e-learning and live sessions, both soft and technical skills, these materials are available on our LMS so that new joiners have access to the materials whenever they need it.

We make sure to provide the managers with a comprehensive list of training and ask them to tick which training their new joiner will benefit from, so on day one, every new employee has a personalised new joiner programme which managers have full visibility over.

It’s important to us as a business that each new joiner feels that they are in a safe, warm and inclusive environment, especially in this challenging time of hybrid working, so we’re setting up a buddy system where new joiners will have an opportunity to speak with someone outside of their team and get to know people in the wider organization. Across our global offices, the regions have been open in sharing their processes and content so we’re able to collate this into a comprehensive and relevant onboarding programme.

New joiners and manager’s experience with our process

The onboarding process at Incubeta is well-structured and organised. On my first day, I received a detailed training program outlining everything I need to know to perform my role successfully. Other than that, the great company culture at Incubeta ensures that you always have someone to turn to when you are stuck or have a question.” – Delaine Nel, Junior Data Analyst, Cape Town South Africa

‘’Having training plan and LMS trainings make the coaching the new joiner so much easier. First of all, there is a clear plan on what the junior member should learn. Secondly, there are links to trainings and all those decks make it so much easier to explain on the basics. Finally, help to schedule the training on LMS are also valuable so that when we are short on time, this is well sorted for the new joiner.  Very impressed with the new process.’’ Daria Kekkonen Search Account Manager UK

Incubeta Training Philosophy and Method 

Our courses are designed by learning specialists, and built by our knowledge experts; taking our award-winning know-how and making it relevant using our day-to-day experience. When learning new skills we are vulnerable. We need to feel comfortable letting our guard down and be open to new ways of working. At Incubeta we pride ourselves on creating an environment that is collaborative, safe and appealing space to learn.

Aiming to strike a balance between teaching and facilitating – we strive to allow learners to share their knowledge, skills and understanding with one another and consolidate new ideas in relevant tasks that reflect their work. We don’t use generic training. Working with our people to design bespoke learning that fully recognises their team’s strengths and empathises with their challenges. Drawing on our day-to-day, real-life experiences we can be flexible and adaptable to the learners needs during course creation and delivery. To make sure our courses are delivered at the highest standard every time, we ensure we measure the impact the sessions have on the team members.

Soft Skills Stepping Stones 

Earn Trust, Exceed Expectations, Dare to Lead and Help Others Succeed are the core values of all that we do at Incubeta, and help us define what is important and relevant within our business. Within this, we’ve developed a soft skills training programme that allows our people to live these values fully in their day to day roles.

Recognizing that training is far from a one size fits all we’ve split this into a ‘Stepping Stones’ process, as we understand that each individual will be on a different part of their learning journey. Our overarching aim is that globally, every team member will be confident with the foundations of how to live each value, and that they feel supported as they enhance and refine their skills.

We let the teams define which courses will be prioritized by being totally transparent with our offering and asking teams to register their interest in the courses that will benefit them the most. We make sure to listen to the needs of our people and reflect this within our strategy and planning – running the two courses that are most in demand each month. 

L&D is something that everyone benefits from, no matter where you are, and these soft skills courses have been fantastic in bringing our teams together from all over the world.

Global Knowledge Pods

Part of the business strategy is to become one global brand and collaborate with team members worldwide, and our Global Knowledge Pods help us to achieve this. Used to build training that can be used globally (both internally and externally) on a specific subject matter, our pods can ensure we’re creating training as efficiently as possible and that every market is moving forward together. By joining a pod, employees can collaborate with colleagues from across the globe.

We’re also encouraging both senior and junior members of the teams to sign up, which helps keep an energy and enthusiasm to learning. This also allows us to cover every level of training in that topic and exposes the pods to team members they wouldn’t speak to on a regular basis – which further enhances the idea that we really are one team.

We’ve started this process with GA4 which has already been a great success. So much so that we’ve been able to move forward much more efficiently and with a more holistic view. So far we’ve created 6 training sessions  in one month – with a further 11 scheduled to be built.

Want to learn more about Incubeta and our culture? Read our previous Incubeta Insider, 5 Minutes with The Women’s Affinity Network where Scarlett Rushby-Smith and Sidra Iqbal, co-network leads of the network discussed our infamous Incubeta Tea Shares and what they mean for the wider community.

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