Case study
Industry
Technology
Company HQ
Manchester, UK
Number of Employees
700
Office Locations
6 countries
Matillion Attracts, Retains & Develops Top Talent Using Online Learning & Development
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
Having tripled its employee count in less than three years, Matillion – The Data Productivity Cloud – has gone from strength to strength, demonstrating its commitment to fostering the world’s best talent. Matillion realized it needed to scale its Talent Development resources in line with its rapid growth. Using Udemy Business, Matillion’s Talent Development team has developed a portfolio of employee development resources — including custom Learning Paths — helping drive continual career development and safeguarding the company’s core guiding principles.
Rapid growth outstripping existing L&D capabilities
Matillion is the brainchild of two intrepid entrepreneurs — Matthew Scullion and Ed Thompson — who began writing their platform’s code and the company’s values simultaneously on day one.
It’s these values — confidence without arrogance, integrity, customer obsession, innovation, quality, bias for action, and care for people and communities — that continue to be the blueprint for how Matillioners conduct themselves in everything they do.
But as Director of Talent Development, John Nardone, explains, there was a point where Matillion suffered from its own success: “Three years ago, we employed around 200 people. That’s since risen to more than 700. But even before this huge headcount rise, we were very aware that we had to continually improve our Talent Development offering to stay ahead of our competition. As a values-based business, losing sight of our guiding principles was non-negotiable.”
Part of Matillion’s scalability problem was the need to onboard new employee cohorts each week across as many as ten time zones — all without sacrificing consistency, quality and engagement. What’s more, Matillion also wanted to nurture the right home-grown talent for its leadership positions based on pre-defined, structured pathways.
As the company’s list of ambitions grew ever longer, Matillion realized the need for an online learning platform that could offer a wide range of courses, covering everything from technical certifications to mindfulness techniques, which would allow people to learn at their own pace in an asynchronous way.
Director of Talent Development
A comprehensive learning tool driven by human investment
With countless nuanced roles at Matillion, the company needed to find an online learning solution that could match the same breadth of skills necessary for growing operations. Selecting Udemy Business for its 6,000+ courses and Learning Paths capabilities, the company’s Talent Development team got to work creating custom learning paths for its people.
It’s these learning paths that help to ensure structured, targeted learning across the business. Using Learning Paths, Matillion’s Talent Development team can now create custom course programs based on individual roles or team goals.
Seamless and consistent onboarding with the company’s roots at its heart
With each new fortnightly hire intake averaging around 25 people globally, Matillion’s Employee Enablement Manager, Jordan Newbrook, explains the thought process behind the company’s new Onboarding Academy: “Our CEO wanted a close connection with each new employee, but with so many people entering our ranks, holding weekly onehour sessions with people across multiple time zones soon became unsustainable. That’s when we came up with our Onboarding Academy.”
Issued with a timetabled program of courses and learning material across their first week on the job, each new starter now benefits from comprehensive onboarding with everything in one place. This means new hires don’t waste time searching for resources across different systems — a critical lifeline for those anxious to hit the ground running on day one.
“Our onboarding program is about helping new people learn the business in a way that protects and fosters our core values,” says Jordan. “Of the several hundred people who’ve completed it so far, 98% are still with the company. Udemy Business has revolutionized our onboarding experience. There’s no way we could have created our Onboarding Academy without the platform — it underpins everything.”
Leaders’ proving their mettle before stepping up
In addition to onboarding, rapid growth also poses a problem for leadership. With new teams being created all the time, Matillion has found a way to develop its next generation of leaders before they enter managerial roles.
Its People Leader Academy is designed not only to nurture future leaders’ broad skills but also to help them understand administrative aspects of the job — such as processing holiday requests and collaborating with the People Operations team.
By using learning paths specific to leadership skills, Matillion has removed the uncertainty many future leaders face around what to prioritize. Rather, the company now offers a custom program of courses designed to create maximum impact on leaders and their teams.
“Each year, we map our talent to identify our future leaders,” says John. “We then put them into our People Leader Academy to ensure they’re prepared for the reality of heading a team. Everything we do is about attracting and retaining the world’s best talent — nurturing upcoming leaders is no different.”
Fostering a progressive workplace with soft skills and wellbeing resources
For a company with a globally-spread workforce, focusing on soft skills is of vital importance. From cultural awareness to interpersonal skills, the company now benefits from a wide range of handpicked courses designed to help bridge any gaps and maintain consistency across its operations. Jordan has even gone one step further. Conscious of the mental strain remote working and long hours can take on the workforce; he’s set up a mental wellbeing program in Udemy Business. It uses the platform’s third-party integrations to offer complete mental health support to anyone who needs it.
“We’re putting the spotlight on mental health at Matillion,” explains Jordan. “By building a mental health awareness Learning Path in Udemy Business, we can not only link to our own content but also integrate features from additional resources we offer, Headspace and Blinkist.”
“From where we started to where we are now is like night and day,” says John. “Whereas previously we would have told people to go and search for a course, everything is now pathway led. And the amount of support we get from our Udemy Business account manager is fantastic — they’re responsible for a lot of our success.”
Employee Enablement Manager
Making good on the company’s long-standing values
In line with Matillion’s core values, the company and its people always strive to do more and be better. It’s why John and Jordan are always looking for what to do next to make the employee experience exceptional.
“We want our people to be as effective as possible,” says John. “And Udemy Business gets people’s heads in the right space. It’s why we’re trialling Udemy Business Pro. The hope is it’ll complement our existing Learning Paths with real world hands on experience in coding”
Director of Talent Development
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