Digital Academy

The "Digital Academy" employee training program started in mid-2017 and will enter a new phase this year. In this article we summarise the academy’s main tasks and objectives. The following column chart shows the four main objectives and the activities involved in achieving them. The individual tasks are described in more detail below. 

As digitization progresses, great changes will come about in the way we do our jobs. As a first step, we wanted to use a range of communication measures to make our employees aware of this process, to allay their fears and motivate them to become actively involved in shaping the change process. In September 2017, 250 managers and influencers were invited to a 1.5-day workshop. They were informed about digitization issues and a common understanding of the challenges and opportunities of digitization was developed.

To ensure that we remain state-of-the-art as a company, each business unit has appointed an employee to be trained as a "digital expert". A total of 12 employees were named and they were released from their duties in their divisions from mid-September 2017 for a three-month training period. The holistic training concept included methodological knowledge, digitization knowledge and personality training. In January 2018, the Digital Experts returned to their divisions and have since been acting as internal consultants for digitization projects. Using what they learned they have gradually been analyzing other processes, products / services or even business models for their digitization potential and initiating the appropriate transformation process.

During the event in September (see "Motivating and Sensitizing" block), management and influencers put together a list of project ideas. This list was then evaluated by the Digital Experts to see which ideas could be implemented within the next three months. A total of eight of these ideas became pilot projects and a concept was developed for them during the training period. As you may already have read in the TÜV NORD GROUP international newsletter, these concepts were presented to the KGL in a "Lion’s Den" style event at the beginning of January. Each project gained the support of at least one member of the KGL and therefore all projects will be continued this year. Of particular interest for the employees of the OBS system certification are the following two pilot projects:

The "TRACKING SYSTEM" is about creating transparency for customers on the current status of their certification process. From the initial request from the customer to the delivery of the finished certificate, the process involves 20 steps. To make the process more transparent for the customer and to strengthen customer relations, customers should be able to view the current status of their certification at any time in the online tracking system.

Another forward-looking project is "ONLINE TEST FOR PERSONAL CERTIFICATION": This project is about offering, among other things, e-learning, webinars, blended learning and live online training for the entire Industry Services division. Our biggest competitors are already offering this, so we need to take action to remain competitive / state of the art.

The last of the four pillars of the Digital Academy is the development of the training and knowledge platform, which will provide digitization knowledge to all interested employees. A relaunch of the existing Digital Academy website is planned for Q2 / 2018. There, training modules (including sub-modules of Digital Experts training), an overview of all digitization projects, online training, a self-test, information on current technologies, appointment announcements and further information on the state of the Digital Academy will be available to all employees. If you have not seen the website yet you can find it under the following link: www.tn-digital-academy.de (Login data: digitalacademy@tuev-nord.de; da@tng)

If you have questions about the Digital Academy, please contact Stefan Kistler: skistler@tuev-nord.de or Ellen Rettig: erettig@tuev-nord.de.