At Culture Foundry, we provide opportunities for ongoing training because we know the world moves fast.
At Culture Foundry, we believe that the learning never stops. We also believe in investing in our employees. But what does that mean, in concrete terms?
Culture Foundry invests dollars and hours in helping team members level up. (Note that the information in this post is correct as of this writing, but will likely be revised in the future, as our budgets and processes evolve.) We’re a small company so we don’t have a concrete educational plan. But we make up for that in flexibility. At Culture Foundry, we have the following educational opportunities:
- Adhoc, self-directed training time. This is non billable and is usable at an employee’s discretion. This is great when you have or need a bit of downtime but want to brush up on something that is useful to your professional life. It’s also good if you learn by doing.
- Regular role specific meetings where you can discuss new concepts and challenges you face. For developers, that’s dev club.
- Access to two Culture Foundry funded video course providers (Treehouse, Udemy). This is good when you want a bit more structure. We’ve had folks take these courses over time or during a hackfest. This is a good option if you learn by watching others.
- Ask for the purchase of any book related to their work. After you read the book, it’s great if you write a blog post about what you took away from it. This is a great option if you are a book reader or want a reference book. One time a book I ordered saved me hours because I was able to reference exactly what I needed to do and find it in the book. However, for some technologies that are evolving fast, this may not be a good idea.
- Encouraged to attend one conference a year, with a stipend for the conference fee and for travel. If you get a book, we ask that you talk about the conference during dev club and possible write a blog post. Employees are also encouraged to submit to conferences. Conferences are great for taking time away from work, energizing yourself, and cross pollination with people from different companies and industries. I find them a bit exhausting at the end, but full of promise.
My favorite vignette about educating employees (sorry, don’t know the source):
CFO: “What if we invest in our employees and they leave?”
CEO: “What if we don’t and they stay?”
Technology moves fast and keeping on top of new technologies, tools and solutions requires both employee effort and company support.