The national railway company CFL organises continuous upskilling for its employees. The staff that work with trains directly “have to follow the technological evolution,” explains Dominique Pierret. “There’s a strong training effort made so that their competences meet the expectations and evolution of the sector.”
It’s an employer’s responsibility to make sure their staff is trained to successfully use any digital tool.
But as the parameters of CFL’s success evolve proportionally to activity, technology and customer expectations, the group has had to adapt its internal competences. Before a module, CFL evaluates the level of the employee and identify their needs. Offering transversal upskilling--in IT, management, communication or languages--it relies on surveys after the course to make sure the content is useful. “It’s a large company in which the staff is central to the strategy. We can’t meet our company targets without our associates.” An open career path is thus the other component. It is, according to CFL, not unusual to see employees evolve from one department to another.
CFL in numbers
No. of employees: 4,844
Average staff age: 40.6 years old
Average seniority: 11.95 years
Total training hours: 200,000+ (in 2021)
Staff participations: 20,000+ hours