Digital Transformation using the Digital Skills Compass

Back in 2019, Hermann-Josef Weber from the Uniper Asset IT department had the idea of creating a learning concept for digitalization that could support our employees as our company transitions to using modern technologies or working methods. Together with the experts from Detecon, an international technology management consultancy, Uniper took this idea and developed the Digital Skills Compass: A comprehensive further training program that equips colleagues across all departments with the necessary skills to adapt to the modern, digital workplaces in the energy sector. For the project, Detecon was awarded third place in the "Special Award for Digitalization" category at the 2021 WirschaftsWoche Best of Consulting Awards.

"To make a what began two years ago as a small idea into reality took a great deal of entrepreneurship and commitment — it was tested in a proof of concept trial, finalized into a product and successfully rolled out across the company in an outstanding example of cross-department cooperation. Digital Skills Compass is the nucleus and integral feature of our Uniper-wide learning platform YouLearn," explains Michael Schiffarth, Senior Vice President Asset IT at Uniper.

Uniper is deeply committed to the development of its employees. "With the future-oriented Digital Skills Compass, we have found a way to ease the fear of change caused by digitalization a little. We're showing them which skills are relevant in this new world. They can then decide flexibly whether, when and which training courses they want to take — everything is available on demand," explains Stephan van Aaken, Senior Vice President Digital Trading Development and Operations at Uniper and one of the sponsors of the project. "Digitalization is a major ongoing focus for us. A culture of learning is therefore crucial — one in which employees want to develop of their own volition and be responsible for shaping their further training. The Digital Skills Compass is an excellent solution to take full advantage of this commitment and cater for a variety of different learning styles."

With the help of multi-level learning journeys, employees can classify their skills into one of four skill levels, develop their skills accordingly and acknowledge their achievements in specific areas. Level one refers to the essential basics, while level four requires expert knowledge. Whether you're a power plant engineer or an energy trader — the program has something for everyone. There is a wide range of content and learning formats available to facilitate this diversity of requirements. The learning skills range from different working methods, such as agile project management and knowledge of machine learning and algorithms in trading, coding and software development, to understanding the analysis and interpretation of data or risk assessments. All this is delivered in various formats: bite-sized chunks to engage your brain, videos, podcasts, specialist articles, documents, workshops, external courses, BarCamp sessions with lectures and discussion rounds, or Lean Coffee sessions in the form of self-organized meetings — and all of these formats are available whenever the employee wants to get further training.

"In line with the motto 'from our experts to our people,' the content of the program is developed and made available by our in-house specialists," said Stephan van Aaken. "They know exactly where there is a need and what it takes to cover it. In this way, we can make sure that the vast majority of employees are on the way to digital transformation, at whatever speed they personally feel comfortable," states Hermann-Josef Weber.