Which professional development platforms deliver the best results? Which platforms provide the most support for staff in their careers? How is staff knowledge kept up to date? These were the questions discussed by participants at the latest TaxTech roundtable.

LinkedIn Learning is a platform offering courses ranging from 10 minutes in length to several hours.

Philip Hellmig’s staff (kanzlei.land) and Paul Liese (hsp) are delighted that LinkedIn Learning has been made available to them. At kanzlei.land and at hsp, staff use LinkedIn Learning for 2.5 hours a week (30 minutes a day).

„The response was very positive,“ says Philip. „Even the fact that you have to do it was taken in a positive light.“ Some developers at kanzlei.land However, they feel that the courses offered on LinkedIn Learning „only scratch the surface“ and do not go into sufficient depth.

Another way to provide further training for staff would be to set aside a portion of the turnover for this purpose on a regular basis. This budget could, for example, be used for things such as conferences, trade fairs and other events. For some more expensive events, companies support their staff by, for example, covering 50 % of the cost, as this is a matter of personal commitment.

Another platform that some of us have had the chance to try out is Udemy. Unfortunately, the prevailing view was that the topics covered there are also very superficial. Philip says that there are hardly any courses in German on Udemy and that the German courses on LinkedIn Learning are not as comprehensive as those in English.

Nevertheless, hsp staff believe that LinkedIn Learning is the best platform for professional development.

How can staff undertake further training apart from e-learning?

Hendrik Siemers (d.velop AG) believes that there are two groups of developers within his company. Some watch AWS livestreams. They feel that these are already very comprehensive and that they therefore do not need any other courses. The other group is allocated an annual budget, which is used, for example, to hire coaches. Hendrik Siemers has tried this approach himself, and in his opinion it is highly recommended.

Hendrik then went on to talk about other tools he found interesting:

https://www.joinpavilion.com www.salesimpact.io

Benjamin Panke tends to invite coaches to his office instead. He and his staff don’t tend to attend conferences very often. Most of them teach themselves.

A Product Manager at d.velop AG does https://www.thepowermba.com/de/ and considers it highly recommended.

Philipp Hellmig raises another point: how do employees support one another through their previous experiences? He has, in fact, hired eight developers who used to work at the same company. The advantage of this was that they brought completely different perspectives to the table, were able to contribute a great deal, and already had a well-established working dynamic amongst themselves. However, it is also important not to overlook the different perspectives on a given issue offered by staff with varied career backgrounds.

Which social media channels and the right content format

The group discusses the view that LinkedIn is the most suitable tool for B2B communication. „User feedback is best there,“ says Paul Liese.

Content that really pays off consists of short videos offering added value. Or short blog posts. The most important thing is consistency. Post every day. Don’t be put off if the quality isn’t that great at first. You’ll get better with time. „The rule for everything is regularity. If I want to be good at something, I need regularity.“ What consistency achieves is that you stay in people’s minds.

The next topic on the agenda is recruitment. The next TaxTech session will take place on 15 September 2021. Make a note of the upcoming events in your diary so you don’t miss a thing, and be sure to join us next time. TaxTech.de