What drives us to learn? 

Evolution made us like sponges with our brains hardwired to soak up knowledge and data from the moment we entered the world. This innate drive to find out what’s going on is built into our DNA and driven by one defining hallmark of the human experience: curiosity. 

It’s how we survive and flourish. The constant search for stimuli to consume, contextualise and put into practice only comes about through our curious nature. 

In today’s battle for top talent, it pays to be a ‘people first’ organisation that accounts for curiosity.

While the landscape has certainly transformed since COVID abruptly entered our lives two years ago, the importance of investing in people and knowledge has remained steadfastly consistent.

If anything, cultivating a culture of learning and development has never been more relevant than it is right now. Digital and tech investment is booming, the appetite for skilled recruits is insatiable, and a move towards improved employee flexibility and conditions is here to stay.

A people-led learning revolution

All of these factors lead us back to one point: people. Behind every process, project, technology and outcome is a person.

We know that to move forward collectively, this can only be achieved by investing in the people behind the processes. This is why we’re so excited to have made the decision to partner up with a global leader in the online learning space — Udemy.     

Udemy is the world’s leading online learning and teaching marketplace with over 183000 courses and 40 million students. 

Someone who understands the value of feeding your employees’ curiosity is Chief People Officer at Cloudwerx, Marcus Hanmer. As CPO, Marcus is convinced of the correlation between retention and upskilling.

“An individual needs to feel their employer is genuinely invested in them personally and professionally. They need to feel there are opportunities to expand their mind, as well as their career.” 

“If you don’t commit the time, energy and resources to developing your people, then another organisation will. It’s as simple as that,” adds Marcus.

The rise of technology and upskilling 

Keeping up with the technology through upskilling isn’t just something to ‘get around to when we’ve got the time’ anymore.

The pandemic has been the catalyst for the largest leap in the digitisation of business in recent memory. In the Asia-Pacific region alone, the acceleration of digital adoption has moved forward 10+ years in the space of just two years. That’s nothing short of incredible.

But upskilling shouldn’t be about playing catch-up. From our point of view, it’s more accurate to frame it as a way to seize the initiative. 

“Learning a new skill, or enhancing an existing skill is critical as organisations continue to diversify and technology continues to advance,” says Marcus.

“We see this skill development as an imperative to driving business performance and keeping their employees engaged and fulfilled.”

Whether it be on a personal level or a whole of company level, creating an environment where learning and knowledge is king helps shape a workplace that reflects the modern world it exists within.

And this is great news for our clients too. We’re future-proofing our ability to respond to whatever problems are thrown our way so we can continue to deliver the best solutions.

A partnership that makes sense 

Udemy for Business is an online learning platform that offers literally thousands of upskilling courses across a range of key human, business, and technical areas like software development, leadership, marketing, sales, mental health and wellbeing, IT, and so much more.

We are really proud to be cultivating a culture of learning and development here at Cloudwerx through our Udemy partnership — this means genuinely supporting our employees’ in their own career development and individual journeys will be built into our operations.

As a genuinely people-first, purpose-driven organisation, Marcus believes it’s the authenticity behind these initiatives that make them truly successful at Cloudwerx.

“Everyone is seen and treated as equals, and they exist to try and make a meaningful difference to people’s lives.”

“Cloudwerx lives their values everyday and ensures any decision they make — whether that be the type of person we hire, the way we communicate with each other or our commitment to development — it’s all underpinned by these values.”

It’s an exciting time to be at Cloudwerx, and we’re equally thrilled about the positive impact this partnership will have for our people, clients and projects.

At the end of the day, good culture is more than just lip-service, to us, it’s backing up your values with real action and continuing to feed the curiosity that’s brought us all together in the first place.