Promoting transformation in the development of talent at Caja Ingenieros

We are proud to share the interview that Factor Humano did with our team together with Caja Ingenieros to highlight the success of our joint project in e-learning training. In this interview, we explore how the Totara Learn platform has transformed the training strategy of Caja Ingenieros, promoting an innovative approach to talent development and co-responsibility in learning. With more than 44,000 hours of training completed in 2023, this project reflects our dedication to customized and scalable solutions that enhance the competencies of employees and adapt to the demands of a constantly changing environment. It motivates us to know that we contribute to creating accessible and efficient learning spaces, where every employee can reach their full potential. Don’t miss the full interview below and discover how, at Actua, we continue to promote training and continuous development.

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“Giving employees responsibility for their own development is key and involves offering options beyond training.”

Encouraging the co-responsibility of its employees in terms of training is one of the objectives that Caja Ingenieros set when it decided to commit to Totara Learn, hand in hand with Actua. In recent years, the Training and Performance areas have been integrated into it, exceeding 44,000 hours of annual training in 2023 and achieving new developments in onboarding and performance.

What is the strategy of Caja Ingenieros for the development of talent through training?

Anna Figueras: Our strategy is based on a concept focused on the employability of our employees, how we enhance it with different training, competencies and skills to meet present and future challenges. To be at the forefront, we have to be constantly training, learning about new developments and participating in projects. This enrichment will be what, in the future, will enable us to take on new challenges and complete them successfully. For this, we have different tools and development plans, both in Soft and Hard skills, with training that can be carried out in different spaces and formats. It is a global talent project. Roger Caballé: We talk about learning as a means of gathering any action with interaction, inside and outside the organization. In this way, the platform has to offer the tools and has to respond to the needs. It is not only about preparing the collective for the present, but also for the strategic needs of the future.

How did this collaboration come about?

RC: We had a Moodle system and, in 2020, we migrated to Totara to develop the e-learning module. On the one hand, we needed to cover all the requirements of a regulated environment such as ours, and on the other hand, we were looking for a platform that would allow us to have all the data related to reports and records available quickly, in order to facilitate decision-making and align current and future training itineraries with the needs of professionals. The implementation of Totara Perform (evaluation and performance) was also completed in 2023, which has allowed us to have a better connection between the learning area and the evaluation of the entity’s competencies. The objective was that all the talent area would be collected in the same application and that, obviously, it would be connected. Patricia Campos: After almost ten years of relationship, Caja Ingenieros is now part of the Actua family. We have worked with Caja Ingenieros both in the production of content and in the implementation of its training, evaluation and performance model on the platform. With Totara, they gained in reporting and customized reports. In addition, we automated processes in the people area, eliminating manual actions and facilitating enrollment in training. They required a tool that was accessible, intuitive and scalable.

How has the entity’s training offer evolved?

RC: The Moodle system was basically an information registry focused on e-learning. When we began to implement Totara, beyond registration, it was done to channel the entire virtual training area. Currently, it is a tool in which any training action, whether face-to-face or online, has its beginning and end. We have automated all the part of notices and reminders, which were actions that we used to carry out manually, generating a continuous impact with the employee. We have managed to personalize the training experience for the different groups in the organization. Eva Martí: The common denominator of Actua and Caja Ingenieros is to always put the employee at the center. To do this, it is necessary to improve the user’s learning experience so that they can easily find the training they need and have a clear idea of how they can continue to develop through this career plan. Currently, the user is notified of new calls, available training and new releases in a more integrated way.

What is the basis for the training itineraries you have developed?

AF: Although at specific moments an ad hoc plan can be established for a user, initially, training plans are designed for a group of employees, whether in Hard or Soft skills. When one of the different teams of the entity requires certain skills to develop their work more efficiently or expand their knowledge, we establish a plan to address it. On the other hand, we are in a highly regulated sector, so there are a series of training courses in which we have to be up to date. RC: The concept of ‘co-responsibility’ comes into play in the area of training, i.e. the interest of each employee in working on his or her own learning, which is conveyed through three channels. On the one hand, the Totara platform; on the other, the People, Talent and Culture department, which is responsible for providing solutions, tools, courses, training and spaces to promote this learning; and finally, the figure of the manager, who is in direct contact with the employee and will help to draw up this plan. PC: More than training, the platform can be considered a development platform. It was born under the name of e-talent, that is, with the aim of pursuing the development of internal talent, and it has grown as Caja Ingenieros has grown. Therefore, this part of giving the manager or the employee himself the responsibility for his own internal development is key and involves offering options beyond the training that can be created by the entity itself, for example, by integrating an external catalog.

What benefits does Totara offer you as an open source solution?

EM: We are talking about a Training Ecosystem, with Totara as the cornerstone. As it is an open source solution, it allows to expand this ecosystem with new tools that the organization needs, either with new internal training developments, linking it with external applications (GoodHabitz, Articulate, …) or integrating it with the organization’s own ERP platform. In this way, it allows the establishment of more personalized itineraries, aimed at specific profiles and, for reporting purposes, it offers filtered data so that HR managers can see the real needs of each of the areas of the organization.

In this way, have you noticed an increase in the consumption of training hours?

AF: We started in 2020 with around 30,000 hours of training per year, and in 2023 we exceeded 44,000 hours of training. Not only has the annual time invested per employee increased, but we have also increased the number of professionals in the organization by 25%. In the coming years, the company intends to make a substantial investment in the development of different training formats and models. We are beginning to handle more projects which, in addition, will be transversal, so that, on the one hand, we have to be clear about the skills that the professionals who will deal with them will need and, on the other hand, train professionals to deal with different functions.

What projects are you working on for the future?

AF: We have many challenges ahead of us and the ambition to overcome them and continue to have the best team to continue humanizing finance. For this, the e-talent platform is going to be crucial because, from now on, its use will be much more intensive. As with the onboarding process, Totara and Actua’s support will be key in career plans, employee development plans or in determining which group of people in the company has the ideal characteristics for a given project. RC: In terms of onboarding, we have started a new process that will allow us to standardize the interaction of those agents involved in a new incorporation, not only from a training point of view. Until now, the e-learning module allowed us to associate new hires with a mandatory and necessary training program for the performance of their duties. With the use of Totara Perform, we will be able to incorporate different interactions during those first months. The objective is that the entire journey of the employee of Caixa Enginyers, from the moment he/she joins the entity, is collected in the same platform. EM: Another of the solutions we are working on with Caixa Enginyers is to launch an evaluation with 360º feedback for all the profiles that make up the team. We would also like to highlight the launch of new training actions linked to the bank’s culture and the human values of cooperative banking that define it. In this sense, Actua went through a similar process of redefinition of its values, of its mission, so we can accompany them from a perspective that we understand.

Key Data Caixa Enginyers

• 558 employees as of July 31
• 469 hours of training in 2024 [26 .300 horas en 2020]
• Project start-up: in 2020 we will start Totara Learn (training module), and in 2023 we will incorporate Totara Perform (evaluation module).
• Active users (all employees from their first day are active users in the Learn area in Totara)