Aligning training with business

Training is not simply a human resources function. It's a responsibility shared by everyone in the company, and must be closely linked to business strategy. For this training strategy to be effective, particularly at Deezer, two fundamental principles must be respected:

• Involving managers: Training cannot be designed in a vacuum. It is essential to actively involve managers in the process. This means co-defining the pedagogical guidelines for business-specific training courses through workshops. Instead of adopting a traditional approach of gathering needs through a simple briefing, we favor collaborative sessions where employees are at the heart of the process. What's more, we encourage managers to play an active role in employee training by involving them as facilitators. For example, from February-March onwards, employee training sessions will be co-hosted by an HRBP and a manager, particularly on topics such as feedback.
• Rooted in everyday life: For training courses to resonate with participants, they need to be in tune with the day-to-day challenges they face. We therefore make it a point of honor to start from real business and operational issues, enabling participants to immediately perceive the concrete benefits they can derive from them. We encourage the exchange of models and case studies to illustrate our points and make our training courses more tangible and relevant.

By aligning training with the business in a collaborative way and making it relevant to participants' daily lives, we ensure that every training session at Deezer actively contributes to the achievement of our strategic objectives and the development of our teams' skills.

Meeting a business need

At Deezer, meeting business needs means more than just offering standard training courses. Take, for example, the field of artificial intelligence (AI), at the heart of our product. We don't need to remind our employees to take an interest; they're already at the cutting edge of the subject, often more expert than the training courses available. At Deezer, self-feedback between colleagues is commonplace: sharing articles, conferences, exchanging best practices. This culture of constant monitoring enables our teams to stay ahead of the market and contribute to the ongoing development of our product.

In the technology sector, the need for constant training to master new technologies and languages is inherent to the business. At Deezer, this practice is all the more essential as our product is developed in-house in France. So we actively encourage our teams to stay at the cutting edge of their field, providing them with the resources they need to stay current and competitive in the global streaming music market.

Adapting the learning experience

We believe in providing a common base of knowledge, while offering the flexibility to tailor the learning experience to individual needs.

In our system, this translates into mandatory 2-hour training workshops, focusing on key topics such as feedback. These sessions provide all employees with a solid foundation of essential skills and knowledge.

However, we understand that development needs can vary from one individual to another. That's why we also offer à la carte recommendations for further learning. For example, to tackle difficult conversations, we offer specific sessions such as "NUMA difficult conversations". Similarly, for those wishing to deepen their personal and professional development skills, we offer coaching workshops tailored to their specific needs. Finally, to encourage continuous and flexible learning, we offer micro-learning formats, enabling employees to quickly access relevant information and apply it directly in their day-to-day work.

Capitalize on in-house expertise

At Deezer, we value in-house expertise through a "buddy system", particularly in our technology businesses, with experts on our teams to train employees in specific technical skills. This approach has several advantages:

• In terms of budget management, it proves to be very interesting, as it maximizes the efficient use of internal resources rather than resorting to costly external training.
• It maximizes the commitment of trained employees, as they benefit from practical, hands-on learning from experienced peers. It also strengthens cohesion within the company, encouraging the exchange of knowledge and creating a sense of belonging.

The construction of this companionship system rests on several pillars:

• An in-house knowledge library providing easy access to the knowledge and resources needed for professional development.
• The need to go beyond this by calling on experts to run "train sessions", regular training courses on technical subjects tailored to employees' individual needs. In addition, one-to-one "shadowing" between the expert and the employee is encouraged to promote the direct transmission of knowledge between peers.

This desire to capitalize on mentoring and the transmission of knowledge extends beyond Deezer's borders. Schools even call on our expertise to train their students. This HR practice has a significant impact in terms of employer brand and talent attractiveness, particularly in technological profiles, reinforcing our positioning as an employer of choice in the market.

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