Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Employee Experience

The Problem

We’re looking at creating a great employee experience at Twilio. We want to provide Twilions with the tools, resources, and experiences they need to innovate, scale, and grow. We believe that providing a great employee experience is an important competitive advantage for Twilio. The employee experience at your company and what you can offer are significant differentiators in retaining, attracting, and growing talent. The Twilio experience is a really special one. We call it the “Twilio Magic.” You can’t put a price tag on it. What Twilio is doing nobody has ever done before. So, that alone means we’re innovating and learning all the time.

We just started building out our Talent Development function over the last year as we believe offering learning experiences and the opportunity to work with really capable and motivated people on amazing projects will be a differentiator in building careers for Twilions. We started by focusing on our leaders given the impact strong leadership can have on the overall learning, engagement and happiness of all Twilions.

The Solution

We are focused on developing learning resources for all Twilions that mirror the social and consumer-type experience that we experience in our everyday life. This sentiment was the impetus for the creation of an in-house leadership development program known internally as “Leadership Inspiration for Twilions” (LIFT). Twilio offers LIFT to all its people managers worldwide. When I decided to complement LIFT with personalized expert coaching, I had a good sense of my evaluation criteria: Clearly, budget was important to us.

We wanted a learning program that was on-demand. This not only helped make access easy for Twilions around the world, but it helps increase engagement. We determined that BetterUp would be an amazing resource to supplement other programs we were doing and to provide a holistic leadership program. BetterUp is the total package, it is scaleable and has global reach with quality coaches.  

The results

BetterUp’s whole person approach was a key part of our evaluation process. Most leadership development approaches focus on teaching people what to do. But what they miss is an equal focus on how to be. In contrast, BetterUp’s approach addresses the psychological resources that allow leaders to manage themselves so they have the capacity to manage others.

This includes the ability to remain resilient, have a growth mindset, maintain a sense of control, and take risks. Evidence shows that these resources need to be in place for sustainable leadership habits to take root.

Actionable Insights

In terms of the analytics and reporting that we get with BetterUp, we also receive aggregated insights about what Twilions are working on with their coaches as particularly helpful. The wide range of employee motivations for signing up for coaching was really valuable. We could reference it in our QBRs [Quarterly Business Reviews] with the company leadership team and say ‘Our people are working on these development areas.’

In addition, the cohort-level insights and observations that were surfacing with the coaches and from the coaches were really strategic. They help us understand what we should focus on next from a People Team perspective.

Metrics

Measurable Results. Twilio’s investment in Talent Development, including their partnership with BetterUp, is already delivering measurable impact. Employee engagement is increasing because Twilions see that the company is investing in them and their careers. The proof is in Twilio’s employee survey responses: After just 6 months, employees increased their scores 10% for the survey statement “I have access to the learning and development that I need to do my job well.” 

With regard to specific areas of coaching, Twilions have been working on behaviors, skills, and mindsets that promote organizational agility. This includes increasing one’s capacity to thrive in times of constant change, namely improving resilience and risk tolerance, while maintaining a growth mindset. BetterUp’s behavioral analytics demonstrate that Twilions have achieved measurable improvement across these dimensions, enabling them to better adjust to the unexpected and continually learn even in the face of occasional setbacks. “The insights and analytics are really important to us. Being able to look at that and understand impact is critical.” 

The Technology

BetterUp is a leadership development platform that connects coaching to lasting behavior change. (betterup.co) was completely turnkey for us.  

Not only does BetterUp provide metrics, but several employees have randomly told me how great it is and inquired if they could keep going with their coach for an extended period of time. It’s also completely turnkey. I don’t have to worry about it. It’s all been very easy.”

Disruptive Factor

With regard to specific areas of coaching, Twilions have been working on behaviors, skills, and mindsets that promote organizational agility. This includes increasing one’s capacity to thrive in times of constant change, namely improving resilience and risk tolerance, while maintaining a growth mindset.

BetterUp’s behavioral analytics demonstrate that Twilions have achieved measurable improvement across these dimensions, enabling them to better adjust to the unexpected and continually learn even in the face of occasional setbacks. “The insights and analytics are really important to us. Being able to look at that and understand impact is critical.”  

Below are just two of the many verbatims that Twilions shared with our team. They reflect the positive experiences that Twilions are having with BetterUp coaching.

“I used the time to work through a specific problem and document a solution that I could walk out of the room to go execute on.” - Twilio employee

“I love my sessions with my coach. I always leave the call with an action plan and a better mental outlook.” - Twilio employee

Shining Moment

Twilions attributed positive work outcomes to coaching.  Whereas the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) by non-HR professionals for US-based corporate learning & development programs is -15, the average NPS for BetterUp at Twilio is 64.1.