Our people are the key to the future
Transport is changing – and Scania is changing too. As our business model evolves, we’re ensuring that our people have the skills and entrepreneurial mindset we need to succeed in the future.
Business shift requires a competence shift
The transport industry is being disrupted by a wave of new technologies, from electrification and automation to digitalisation. This in turn is transforming Scania’s business model, turning it from a manufacturer of heavy vehicles to a provider of transport solutions. As our business evolves, we need to ensure we have the skills and competencies to match.
The answer lies in developing the people we already have, allied to a recruitment process that targets the skills we will need in the years ahead. To support this, we also need to develop the right culture at Scania, encouraging flexibility and curiosity, and fostering an agile, entrepreneurial mindset. We also need to ensure our people are aligned with our strategy, with sustainability at the heart of everything they do. And because innovation depends on fresh perspectives, we also need to cultivate a diverse workforce and an inclusive working culture, in which individuality is recognised and valued.
Developing our people
To ensure we have the skills we need as a business, our first step is to understand what different perspectives we need. To support this, we have what we call the Skill Capture model, where we encourage teams to be more inclusive, break down unconscious prejudices and help us to discover skills that have been hidden or underused. Skill Capture is part of our wider Diversity and Inclusion programme, which supports building an inclusive corporate culture.
As we identify and capture the need for new perspectives, skills and competencies in our business, we also need to develop the new ones. Through Scania Academy, we provide a range of tailor-made programmes designed to help our employees foster and develop the skills they will need in tomorrow’s transport industry, such as our Front-end Developer Talent Programme.
Attracting new talent
While we develop our own people, it’s also important to attract new talent. We work closely with the education sector to secure innovative talent, through initiatives such as the Scania Engineer Programme, the Scania Global Champion Trainee Programme and our Industrial Doctorate Programme. Through strategic partnerships with leading academic organisations, we cultivate the people and skills we will need for the future.
"Developing entrepeneurial skills is a great opportunity for our employees, but we also firmly believe that it makes the company better equipped for the future."
Anton Wieselblad
Innovation coach at scania
Scania entrepeneurs team up with start-up community
For Scania, being equipped for the future depends on having the entrepreneurial skills to turn bright ideas into business opportunities. For that reason, we created Scania Innovation Factory: an in-house accelerator programme that channels our employees’ ideas and gives them hands-on experience of releasing new products and services to the market that could benefit Scania and contribute to driving the shift.
During 2019, the programme moved into Stockholm-based start-up incubator SUP46. Founded in 2013, SUP46 is a hub for Sweden’s start-up community, giving members access to a world-class ecosystem of investors, advisors and partners. As part of the Scania Innovation Factory programme, four Scania teams joined SUP46 to develop their ideas for six months full time. The teams each had a seed investment of 500,000 SEK from Scania, and were supported by programme coaches.
The four ideas being developed through the partnership include Indular, which provides charging solutions for electric vehicle operators and charge point providers, and Scania Shepherd, a digital platform that extends and guarantees the functionality of autonomous vehicles in daily operations.
Digital skills to take on the future
As digital connectivity and IT becomes ever more critical to our business, Scania is committed to helping our employees acquire the software skills they need now and in the future. One example is our new Front-end Developer Talent Programme, a programme that gives employees with no prior experience of software development the chance to gain valuable coding skills and begin a new career in IT, while working on real solutions. Through the three-month programme, 15 employees with an interest in technology will have the opportunity to switch careers while retaining their skills within the company.
