Twilio Increases Employee Engagement with BetterUpMichelle Kemling is Head of Talent Development for Twilio. Twilio’s mission is to fuel the future of communications. Developers and businesses use Twilio to make communications relevant and contextual by embedding messaging, voice, and video capabilities directly into their software applications. Founded in 2008, Twilio has over 1,000 employees worldwide, with global headquarters in San Francisco.

“ Twilio’s Talent Development team is dedicated to creating a learning culture that empowers Twilions to innovate, scale, and grow.” Michelle Kemling

Head of Talent Development

Twilio

Michelle has been with Twilio for nearly four years, supporting “Twilions” — as employees are affectionately known inside the company — through tremendous growth in both revenue and headcount. “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.”

Michelle believes 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. And, 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.”

Leadership Inspiration for Twilions 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. Michelle is striving to ensure that all global Twilions have access to the same opportunities and employee experiences that those in headquarters do.

When Michelle decided to complement LIFT with personalized expert coaching, she had a good sense of her evaluation criteria: “Clearly, budget was important to us. We looked at what would be most impactful with the budget available. We were looking to develop our leaders and enable them to surface the best of themselves and their people. We determined that BetterUp would be an amazing resource to supplement other programs we were doing and to provide a holistic leadership program.”

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“ The whole person is critical. It’s a mistake to not consider the whole

person and everything that is going on in their world. It all comes

together to impact how people show up everyday and BetterUp’s

approach aligned with this.” Michelle Kemling

Head of Talent Development, Twilio

On-demand, Global Partner Michelle wanted a learning program that was on-demand. This not only helped make access easy for Twilions around the world, but Michelle knows it helps increase engagement. “The whole world is on-demand. It’s how people engage.”

Michelle did her research. She considered in-house alternatives, as well as other leadership development solutions. But Michelle says that once she discovered BetterUp, she knew it was the perfect fit for Twilio. “BetterUp is the total package. The quality of the coaches is really, really important. It’s great from a scalability perspective. BetterUp’s global reach made it all the more effective given we want to offer development opportunities to all leaders.”

A Holistic Approach BetterUp’s whole person approach was a key part of Michelle’s 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 she gets with BetterUp, Michelle points to the 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.”

Measurable ResultsTwilio’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.”

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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.”

1 Source: Bersin by Deloitte HILO 2017

Development that Twilions LoveTwilions attributed positive work outcomes to coaching and would recommend BetterUp to others. 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

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

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Resilience Growth Mindset Sense of Control Risk Tolerance

BU Average Pre Post

“ The insights and analytics are super important to us. Being able to look at them and understand impact is critical.” Michelle Kemling

Head of Talent Development

Twilio

Completely TurnkeyWhen asked if there is a particular aspect of BetterUp that Michelle would recommend most, she says: “All of it. That’s what makes it so special. What I appreciate most is that it’s effective and offers an opportunity for leaders at all levels to have a coach.

About BetterUp

BetterUp is the first leadership development platform to connect coaching

to lasting behavior change.

Learn more at betterup.co

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. I love hearing we are doing something that people value SO much and is supporting their growth and development. It’s also completely turnkey. I don’t have to worry about it. It’s all been very easy.”

“ 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

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