Having people who are well-rounded, always informed and curious, because they are well-prepared and motivated employees, guarantees a high dose of competitiveness and allows the company not just to be in tune with the latest developments, but also to be more flexible in the face of abrupt changes in the scenarios under which they operate. For many years Pirelli has been extremely attentive to training its own teams, using dedicated programmes and innovative digital platforms.
“Pirelli has the goal of building an enterprise culture, of promoting the culture of learning and of making sure that everyone can acquire an ever-richer professional store of knowledge in order to handle new challenges”, explains Donatella De Vita, Head of global Learning Engagement and Welfare. It is a matter of developing “employability”, which for anyone who has a job means developing the ability to keep it over time, whilst at the same time facilitating transfers between different roles within the same company, by satisfying the requirements demanded for their performance.
The training model at Pirelli is based on two principal ways of accessing training - one which is requested and agreed with the company, and the other which is “self-paced”. The former is programmed and established with employees' own managers based on the company's strategic objectives and the current professional challenges being addressed, whereas the latter allows employees the freedom to choose a personal journey guided by the individual interests and passions of each employee, exactly as if it were a journey of “self-education”.
“The core of the training package is the Learning Lab platform, a digital hub which hosts both the agreed courses which need to be completed and all the other forms of learning”, explains Gabriella Giglio, from the Learning team and head of the Learning Lab. “And to orientate those who, faced with the multitude of resources available, want to start a personal training journey, within the portal there is a course available entitled How to learn, which, as the name suggests, provides suggestions and techniques for a focussed and efficient learning process”.
In fact the Learning Lab also hosts, alongside its permanent didactic content, a selection which is continually updated based on the company's requirements and any new features of the market, and which, in order to render it more accessible, is from time to time highlighted on the platform via a pop-up banner.
The portal also features an introductory section, headed Welcome on board which is recommended for all new recruits and is designed to help new arrivals to familiarise themselves with the Pirelli world and to learn about its history, its culture, its strategy, its products, its technology, its business and the people who make up the company. It shows a series of digital contents which complement the introductory courses available which new recruits are expected to attend once they have joined Pirelli.
Amongst the main sections showcased on the platform is the one dedicated to working and developing the Key Behaviours, a virtual space dedicated to 6 areas of behaviour which Pirelli has identified as being strategically important in reaching its corporate goals and levels of performance excellence: accountability, agility, cross-functional approach, forward thinking, initiative and drive, teamwork and collaboration.
The 6 key behaviours are also assessed each year during the Performance Management process, that is to say the process of evaluation and improvement of employees' professional levels of service, a fundamental process for the receipt of feedback about their own contribution and ideas for improvement and growth in the future. The section within the Learning lab dedicated to Key Behaviours, primarily consisting of an on-line digital proposal, is designed in order to develop and strengthen these behaviours entirely autonomously, specifically on the basis of the results and feedback received during the annual Performance Management appraisals.
Aside from that, one section seeking to reinforce more technical areas of expertise is the one dedicated to the Professional Academy, a selection of courses differentiated according to areas of expertise which allow all employees to keep themselves continuously up to date and to share best practice between the various functions.
You can go, for example, from the Commercial Academy, with its selection of courses which explain the various Pirelli products, and which are particularly useful for the sales force, as well as for others, to the Digital Academy, where you can fine-tune your own digital skills. Or also from the Finance & Administration Academy, in order to broaden your financial expertise, to the R&D Product Academy, where you can find out how a tyre is built and what processes are used in research and development.
The remaining Learning Lab portal sections are those for People management, which are useful for those who have to manage a team, because they provide ideas, tools and courses to become a good manager, by working on leadership, team management and coaching and the section for Insights which, in partnership with external experts, provides in-depth analyses of world scenarios, of insights about the market or of trends for the future.
