IBM - Customer Service Training Team of the Year

Company: IBM, Armonk, NY
Company Description: IBM is a values-based enterprise of individuals who create & apply technology to make the world work better. Today, more than 400,000 IBM employees around the world invent and integrate hardware, software and services to help forward-thinking enterprises, institutions and people succeed on a smarter planet.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Training Team of the Year - Internal - Technology Industries

Nomination Title: Skills Market

Between September 2019 and February 2020, a total of 55 of our colleagues offered to share their skills and knowledge. All together, we have delivered 63 classes and events with the participation of over 630 employees and over 800 people being on the waiting list for the events.

Offerings ranged from Advanced Microsoft Excel, Design Thinking, Linux Bash Scripting, Artificial Intelligence, IBM Cloud, IBM Business Insight, SAP integration, Technology, Innovation, Corporate Financial Awareness, Client Readiness, Slack, Effective presentations, Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness, and Personal Influence to events like Yoga, Mindfulness, Anxiety in the workspace, Crocheting, Vegan cooking and more.

Our punch line become “from people to people, from IBMer to IBMer”. Not only did it boost engagement in our centers, but also some people found their new hobbies. We are proud that we built a strong platform holding onto three major pillars which are upskilling, networking and raising an engagement.

With COVID-19 taking it over theworld, all of us suddenly started working from our homes and it was very hard to cope with this situation. However, we have found our ways and we created the virtual Skills Market. Our employeesare now able to exchange their wisdom with a community of over 3,500 people globally, and do it online.

Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

Quote-to-Cash Europe & MEA organization has a primary function to support pre-sales and fulfillment activities. In 2019 it run the employee engagement survey to find out what motivates and engages our employees to deliver great business results and innovation whilst putting the clients first. Population of this organization is around 4,000 employees located in 40 counties.

Data gathered during this survey showed, that one of the aspects negatively affecting employees was lack of hand-on opportunities to learn and grow new skills and gain new knowledge.

These statements helped us to understand the need, which if fulfilled, could lead to developing new skills among employees and increasing the employee engagement.

IBM Quote-to-Cash Talent Advisors, team of 9 people, were dealing with hard task, as there was not enough capacity to support all of the people with given resources. However, what we realized was that our organization has a wealth of knowledge, experience and expertise among all of its employees. Why not to simply create a space to share those skills and knowledge between people, while acquiring some new ones in exchange? Just like a marketplace! This is how the Skills Market has been created.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the team's past performance (up to 250 words):

The initial pilot has been deployed in 2019 in Quote-to-Cash Bratislava, Slovakia.

We have engaged the population by creating a simple form to ask people what their unique and notable skills or knowledge are, and if they would agree to share them with others, and also what they would like to learn in return. Based on the collected data, we created a lively marketplace of face-to-face events, educations and workshops led by enthusiastic individuals who aspire to share their skills. Our idea took the organization in Bratislava by storm, generating big interest, and galvanizing our colleagues into action.

We had a huge responsibility towards our population on our shoulders. We started working harder than ever to meet expectations we set for ourselves. We treated the Skills Market as a living organism, allowing it to grow and develop over time. Every new organism also needs to expand and discover new territories. This is when we started communicating with other Quote-to-Cash centers and locations and presenting our idea to them. Before we knew it, the Skills Market was thriving in centers in Spain, Bulgaria, France, United Kingdom and India.