Case study
Industry
Business travel
Company HQ
Barcelona, Spain
Number of Employees
400+
Office Locations
London, Berlin
How TravelPerk Increases Productivity of New Engineers with Zero Turbulence
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
For thousands of professionals, TravelPerk takes the hassle out of business travel. This Barcelona-based company streamlines booking, managing, and getting reimbursed for flights, hotels, and more.
Thanks to VP of Engineering Ivan Peralta’s engineering team, TravelPerk is a game-changer when it comes to these everyday travel tasks. What makes them so special? According to Ivan, it’s his hiring philosophy.
Create a customized and scalable onboarding experience for engineers
TravelPerk’s tech stack is “very particular,” according to Ivan. Very few companies use the exact combination of Jungle, Python, and React. “Because our tech stack is so unique, we don’t consider it a constraint when hiring new engineers,” he says. “Instead, we look for people who are open to developing as full-stack or generalist engineers.”
While Ivan’s hiring philosophy offers them a lot of flexibility during the hiring process, it also means new hires need to learn the ropes quickly. “Our success is very dependent on a robust onboarding process,” he says. New hires spend their first few weeks learning new technology before becoming fully contributing members of the team.
But as the team was about to double in size, Ivan worried that his hiring and onboarding philosophy wouldn’t scale. So he began looking for a partner to support his rapidly growing team’s training.
VP of Engineering
Design a custom technical onboarding syllabus
“Quality content is key to a great onboarding experience and, in turn, the flexibility we need in our hiring process,” Ivan says. “So that was top of mind when we looked for a partner.”
Ivan found an ideal partner in Udemy Business thanks to its technical content. And when he presented the proposal to leadership, Udemy’s library of courses played a critical role in their approval. “We’re an engineering company,” he says, “So it was critical for them that the content was also high-quality and updated regularly — which Udemy is known for.”
Optimize onboarding
Ivan’s top priority was designing a comprehensive onboarding program for new hires. He knew they had the growth mindset and other qualities that would help them succeed on his team — they just needed to build their technical foundations.
Ivan used Learning Paths to create a custom syllabus for new hires so they could learn all the coding languages used in TravelPerk’s tech stack. He found relevant Udemy courses for each coding language – Python, Jungle, and React. During their first two weeks at the company, new engineers took these Udemy courses to build their knowledge. Engineers would learn all the specifics of how the languages are used at TravelPerk later, once they joined their squads.
And talk about a successful launch! Ivan estimates about 10% of the engineers had a background in Python and Jungle. But at the end of onboarding, every single engineer was able to contribute 100% when they joined their squad.
Ivan was also anxious to see what the new engineers thought of the process. Did they enjoy it? Would they recommend it to others? He created a simple NPS survey to ask about the experience, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.
Support continued growth for existing team
Although Udemy was meant to help Ivan’s team ramp up new hires, the new partnership also made an impact on tenured employees. The existing team members were blown away by what they saw. Ivan says, “People who joined the company before Udemy asked us for access to the platform, even if they already passed the previous onboarding process.”
Ivan appreciates that Udemy isn’t just for new hires. He encourages everyone on his team to take any courses that interest them.
The current team members are using Udemy to adopt new skill sets. For example, some front-end engineers are choosing to develop their backend knowledge.
Expand professional development for engineers
So far, Ivan’s team members have tended to focus on skills they can apply right away. This approach helps engineers build confidence, increase productivity and proficiency in their current roles. But Ivan hopes that engineers will use Udemy to explore and discover new technologies in the future. He believes this can help give his team a competitive edge.
VP of Engineering
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