Harnessing the power of impactful & accessible learning @ PhonePe

PhonePe is at the cutting edge of Fintech. As we scale further, a consistent thread that has emerged in our journey is the opportunity to solve new and challenging problems, while building solutions and offerings for evolving customer needs. To solve for complexity, scale, and impact, we need accelerated learning interventions. This has led us to look at learning as a continuous journey. Our approach to learning is structured around our core values — “Learn more, it’s free” and “Learn fast, fail fast!”.

By encouraging on-the-job learning and linking it with the day-to-day tasks of fellow PhonePe-rs, we are promoting a culture of dynamic learning experiences. We believe that empowering PhonePe-rs to deepen their craft and own their learning journey, will help them solve complexity at scale and create an impact in the work that they do.

One of the learning models designed to help PhonePe-rs is PhonePe University — an umbrella program to upskill and upscale the structured learning needs of employees through hands-on experience, practical learning, and mentorship. PhonePe University operates on three levels: Functional capability building, Organization-level capability building, and Self-Directed learning.

1. Functional Capability building:

Below is a suite of programs we run to enable PhonePe-rs to master their functional skills:

Group learning workshops: This program caters to groups of participants developing expertise on a technical topic facilitated by in-house SMEs

Bootcamps: Bootcamps are programs targeted towards new hires and cover a combination of theoretical learning and application-based problem-solving facilitated by in-house subject matter experts. These include:

• Design Associates Program (DAP): A curated one-year learning journey for budding Designers (UI or UX) at PhonePe
• Associate Product Management (APM) Bootcamp: Run by product managers, it trains APMs on product management concepts through on-the-job learning via live projects.
• Tech Bootcamp: A 6-week program to help engineers understand our distinct engineering philosophy, culture, and approach as well as our platforms and frameworks.

Live Projects: Engineers are given an opportunity to work on a complex problem statement under the mentorship of senior members with periodic checkpoints and reviews by the leadership team. The focus of this track is to help individuals grow in specific areas by assessing their current capabilities and providing holistic feedback on technical/behavioral skills.

For developing future talent, we run the Tech Scholar Programs in partnership with Crio, where we encourage final-year women students in engineering to take part in solving complex problems within PhonePe projects. The program provides an opportunity to improve their foundational skills, get hands-on experience and provide practical exposure while also getting acquainted with PhonePe ways of working.

2. Organization-level capability building

Career Hub

We support employees to build meaningful careers through the PhonePe Career Hub, our internal platform to help discover career possibilities within the organization. It gives PhonePe-rs more control over their careers by expanding into newer pathways to get to their desired roles, thereby having different learning journeys to bridge the gap with their aspirational roles.

Managerial Capability Program

Managers are best placed to accelerate career journeys to help their teams to understand their strengths and deepen their capabilities. So investing in managerial capability is our biggest lever to accelerate growth and impact within PhonePe.

Managers learn to operate as a catalyst through our manager development sessions, and also get ongoing feedback as per the Manager Effectiveness Index. New managers go through the New Manager orientation to understand the PhonePe tenets for managing teams. Competency workshops are another way of helping them build a uniform and consistent understanding of organizational competencies to drive motivation and performance for their team members. We conduct manager circles within teams and functions where the focus is on learning from others.

Talent Review

Getting the best people into the most important roles does not happen by chance; it requires a deliberate approach. At PhonePe, during periodic talent reviews, leaders take a deeper look at how different talent adds value and contributes to the company’s growth. Bi-annual talent reviews at the leadership level enable a great level of rigor, and objectivity. Our talent reviews provide insights into the support and development required by the identified talent and we work around providing those as needed.

3. Self-Directed Learning

At PhonePe, we believe one of the unique ways to build a talented, productive, and forward-thinking team is by giving employees ongoing opportunities to direct their own learning and development. PhonePe-rs are provided with INR 5 lakhs annually as a budget to improve/upgrade learning through relevant certifications & assessments. This helps them to learn a skill beyond their daily work routine which will help in either transitioning to a senior role or to a different career path.

By adopting an employee-centric, self-directed model of learning, we are providing PhonePe-rs with the necessary structure and support to improve in their roles much faster. After all, we can only create a meaningful impact for a billion Indians when our fellow PhonePe-rs can evolve and push the limits through the various learning opportunities in the company.