Prioritizing Career Development with Pro Day.
By: Joe S., Sr Specialist, Talent Acquisition
At Schwab, we evolve to meet the needs of our clients and support the success of our people. This adaptability is central to our DNA, and our own Schwabbies play a big part in inspiring some of our most innovative changes.
After hearing that our teams wanted more time to learn, grow, and develop their skills and careers, we went to work on creating a new program that is designed to help them accomplish just that – and in the process, empower them to make an impact in their lives, the lives of clients, and throughout our company.
The program is called ‘Grow with Schwab’. Its objective is to inspire and enable participants to set personal and professional goals while actively working towards them. Each initiative in the program encourages a shift in mindset and behavior, helping you to prepare for your next goals – whatever you choose them to be.
Part one of this new program is called ‘Pro Day’. To give you a glimpse of its positive effect on Schwabbies, we’ll walk you through what Pro Day is, what people chose to focus on learning, and how it made them feel to have dedicated time set aside to improve their career.
What is Pro Day?
Pro Day is our new Professional Development Time Program that provides employees up to eight hours per quarter to focus exclusively on learning and developing their career skillsets. You are encouraged to connect in development activities, including optional firm-wide learning sessions. Additionally, there are available business sessions designed to teach and discuss organizational topics such as generative AI, agile transformation, foundational business knowledge, and individual development plans.
On our first Pro Day, 18 different organizations participated and over 20 business-specific sessions were held, along with 4 firmwide sessions. In total, we had over 22,000 Schwabbies participate and take steps toward accomplishing their unique goals!
Applied learning and giving thanks
When asking for feedback on how the first Pro Day went, we were excited to hear how many people had such a great experience and were able to start using what they learned in their roles immediately. One manager shared how a representative was able to take their Pro Day knowledge and use it to create efficiencies in reporting:
“One of our employees used Pro Day to learn about automation. With this dedicated development time, he was able to automate a process in CS&S that was previously very laborious for him and our frontline managers. This was a huge help to him and our team, and allows us to focus even more attention on client’s needs.”
This is one of many examples of how dedicated learning inspires us to grow, improve, and provide even better service for our clients.
We also received resounding gratitude from other Schwabbies about their own Pro Day experiences, where they expressed their trust and belief in the idea that when we put our minds to something, there is no limit to what we can accomplish. Here’s a few things our people had to say about their day:
“The level excitement I felt when logging in today knowing it was Pro Day was off the charts! Christmas in March :) I'm so grateful for this opportunity and to me, it reflects the trust and belief Schwab has in all of us to learn and grow.”
"Empowered by the great stories shared by top leaders and how they overcome challenges and learned valuable lessons by embracing change. Take ownership of your future to grow and shape your own success!! Growth starts with you. Very motivational, lot of things learned and felt like a very good, resourceful and productive day.”
"I am just thankful and grateful to have dedicated time to focus on me and my development. I am also thankful for the time our EC (Executive Council) takes to either conduct virtual sessions or pre-record sessions for all of us to take part in!”
Going forward
Pro Day at Schwab is just one of the ways we are committed to fostering our people’s growth and development. Giving folks time to focus on their professional goals is another way we seek to improve our skills and succeed together. By investing in the individuals who make up our impactful teams, we’re setting the stage for even more innovation and success down the road. Stay tuned for more learnings and developments of Schwab's Pro Day!
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