BMC Software

Seeking an online learning partner to upskill employees

BMC’s Director of Data Architecture and Governance, Doug Redfield, sought an online learning provider to increase employee efficiency, upskill employees on critical IT and soft skills, and scale learning through its internal “Dojo” learning program.

“We wanted to create a continuous learning culture,” shared Doug. “Our learning needs increase more and more each year as we upskill staff and continue to grow. It was important to us to find a learning solution with high-quality content to support our team and level set the knowledge they need in their roles.”

Empowering employees through the Dojo program

A dojo is a hall or space for immersive learning. Traditionally used in the field of martial arts, it involves a sequence of progression for students to advance after illustrating mastery of certain skills. The dojo concept has increasingly been seen in technical fields to support employee career growth and allow employees access to consistent, sequential learning based on skills development.

The BMC Solutions Delivery Organization recently launched an innovative and comprehensive internal dojo learning program. Teams like Architecture, Master Data Management, DevOps, Salesforce, Digital Solutions, Oracle and the Enterprise Coaching Group participate in the dojo program where Doug’s team and SMEs have created 14 disciplines to scale continuous learning.

Each discipline is comprised of a combination of online Udemy Business courses, in-person proprietary training and coaching, and work experience opportunities to demonstrate their learned skills. Each year, employees must complete a minimum of 80 hours of learning to support career growth, succession planning, mentorship, and specific niche training required in each technical role. BMC’s methodology for continuous learning is to allow staff to take classes in anything of interest, but also provide them with a program that they can follow to meet their career goals.

Udemy Business’ vast collection of courses on the latest technologies and foundational soft skills enables the BMC team to provide adequate resources and opportunities for employees to develop their skills in their dojo program.

“We leverage Udemy business courses on technical topics like DevOps, Information Management, Java, .NET, Agile, as well as leadership skills like communication, relationship building and public speaking. These courses are a core part of our Dojo program to help our employees be successful in their roles and clearly identify what they need to do to qualify for a promotion and continue to grow at BMC,” shared Doug.

Building thought leadership across BMC employees

As a result of its innovative Dojo learning program and access to high quality, fresh content to support the IT organization’s growth, Doug’s team not only had higher engagement scores compared to other departments in the company but are learning new skills at a faster rate than other teams in this field.

At BMC, the Dojo learning program has provided an innovative and impactful resource for employee skills development. Because of this consistent and comprehensive learning program, Solutions Delivery team members are regarded as thought leaders in their industry, leading to an increased sense of pride and accomplishment as well as credibility across BMC’s customer base. The DevOps, Agile, Salesforce, Business Intelligence and Data Architecture Teams are regularly asked to speak at industry conferences. Looking forward, Doug plans to increase the scope of BMC’s learning program through additional disciplines and topic areas, and scale the use of Udemy Business courses across departments both within and beyond IT.