Robert Walters Group
Leverages IT Skills to Stay Competitive and Drive Career Development
Started from a single office in London in 1985, the Robert Walters Group has grown into a global recruitment consultancy offering outsourced and managed services — across diverse sectors — in more than 30 countries. As a company built on human relationships and career expertise, it prides itself on developing its people and maintaining competitive services driven by the latest technology.
However, major IT system transformations were happening across several lines of business — including a company-wide shift to the cloud. The Group turned to Udemy Business’ online learning and development (L&D) courses to help its IT staff keep their skills cutting-edge and quickly deliver key systems, all while developing upward career paths.
Challenge: Managing digital transformation using in-house expertise
With its operations spread across multiple locations worldwide, Robert Walters’ lines of business are truly global, as are its IT team, which boasts an impressive multinational team of engineers.
But as Ismaeel Ameen, Head of Data Engineering, Development and Data Management at the Group, explains, introducing lots of new technology and processes into a business without the right skills in place is a significant challenge and cost risk. “The company was transitioning many of its key internal systems — such as HR, CRM, and ERP — to bespoke solutions in the cloud, helping us become more agile,” says Ismaeel. “But bringing people up to speed on new technology without the right focused learning and proven support in place can slow transformation and stifle career development.”
As the business looked increasingly to cloud development to deliver the new technologies it needed, Ismaeel also sought to consolidate the team’s existing L&D program into a single platform, making it easier to maintain and keep a record of DevOps skills in various certifications — such as AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes.
With Agile development already firmly embedded in its processes, the Group’s IT team required an online L&D solution that could deliver key IT skills training and certification preparation — assessable 24/7 — to ensure consistency across its remote staff.
Solution: A scalable online solution that delivered L&D at speed
As an existing Udemy marketplace customer accessing course materials on an ad-hoc basis, Ismaeel & team put LinkedIn Learning through its paces before choosing Udemy Business.
“Many of my team were already coming to me with requests to complete Udemy L&D courses,” says Ismaeel. “But with a strict budget, we used to heavily rely on internal knowledge transfer. With Udemy Business, our people now feel empowered to drive their own learning at a pace that suits them. It produces far better results.”
The company also benefits from Udemy Learning Paths, which helps it tailor L&D programs not just to the needs of the company but towards individuals’ specific career aspirations — including soft skills, considered essential for upward mobility.
