Plenty of opportunities for development in a rapidly changing world
How to find and develop the right people in a rapidly changing world. In a world that is rapidly changing, it is vital to find the right people and offer them plenty of development opportunities. Sweco gives every young professional the chance to develop to their full potential with Kyden. This makes them employer of choice and ensures that their employees develop essential skills as well as their personal leadership.
Sustainable societies
'Changing the world around us has never been more timely, relevant, inspiring and challenging.' As Europe's leading architecture and engineering consultancy, Sweco designs and develops the sustainable societies and cities of the future. With an eye for the accelerating power of digitalization and the perspective of a green and more sustainable society. It does so with more than 21,000 architects, engineers and consultants active in 13 countries, of which 1,900 employees in the Netherlands.
Sweco wants to stay ahead, be the best partner for its clients and the best employer for talented people. But how do they ensure that they attract and develop the right people to consistently contribute to their mission? Sweco chose to partner with Kyden 5 years ago in a development program for all their young professionals.
"Young professionals want to do meaningful work for our clients and be able to continuously develop. All our young professionals get the opportunity to develop crucial skills and get at the wheel of their own careers. We find that our partnership with Kyden makes us an attractive employer. Kyden is a cooperation partner with a lot of knowledge of the young target group, they keep us on our toes and offer consistent quality. Moreover, Kyden takes a lot of work off our hands," says Isabelle Marcellis, Learning & Development Advisor at Sweco.
About Sweco
Sweco develops sustainable communities and cities of the future. Together with clients and a collective of 21,000 architects, engineers and other specialists, it invents and designs sustainable and digital societies.
Start your success story
Have you been inspired by Sweco's story? And do you also want to grow your business? Please contact Ebba Roessingh.
People make the difference
The best people in their power in the right place, that is what Sweco is and stands for. People drive their success. "People are central to us and an inclusive talent approach is the basis for this. All young professionals are given the same opportunities to discover and develop their talents: project staff, consultants, project leaders and our future managers - we make no distinction. This means that every year we offer 150-200 young professionals a development program."
The challenge
Our challenge was to develop an effective program for young professionals, where fun, innovative learning methods and training efficiency go hand in hand. The program must contain a mix of practical skills, which the participants can already apply the next day, and moments of reflection and 'learning to learn'. With this, Sweco wants to support young professionals in doing challenging client projects and stimulate personal leadership and 'learning by doing'. Besides learning from a trainer, the program should facilitate networking among young professionals and provide a safe place where colleagues in the same stage of life and with similar challenges can meet and share experiences.
The collaboration
Sweco spoke with several parties about the new development program. Kyden was the deciding factor with a proposal that included innovative forms of work, which also considered all the details of implementation.
"Especially the design session that Kyden organized, where all stakeholders were involved to lay down the basis of the development program, gave me the confidence that we were really going to lay this down in co-creation." Says Isabelle. "It is important to us that the development program does not stand alone, but is really part of Sweco's learning culture, onboarding and working practices."
And Sweco and Kyden are living up to that ambition. Sweco experiences through the cooperation for this development program that young professionals advance faster to a medior position and show more ownership. In the years that the development program has been running, it keeps changing along with current events. Kyden collects feedback from participants and managers by working with steering committees. Managers are also satisfied and find that having an attractive development offer is a perk in the application process and serves as an additional condition of employment.
The future
Five years after we began working together, Sweco indicated that the demand from the company would change and together we decided to redesign the program. "We noticed that the need changed to a development program that was a bit more compact and there was more emphasis on certain concrete skills. We entered into that process of redesign in co-creation and produced an efficient and very complete program. This way, the program stays in line with Sweco's needs and we are once again resilient for the years to come."
The future looks bright, and we continue to improve the program to meet Sweco's ever-changing needs. Together we are going to have many inspiring years ahead.
