We offer our people fulfilling careers and encourage career progression. Nurturing personal and professional development is a cornerstone of our success and is important in ensuring Sirius is not only a great employer but evolves into an exceptional employer of choice.
Sirius Academy
We continued to invest in training and development programmes, bringing all our efforts under the one umbrella of the Sirius Academy, based in our Berlin office. A versatile mix of in-person and online sessions, workshops, and interactive forums offer our people a dynamic learning experience.
Last year, we also appointed a new Learning & Development Specialist responsible for overseeing and developing our training programmes and strategy.
The Academy was founded on the principles of autonomy, mastery, and purpose. This supports our belief that learning empowers employees to master the skills they need to match their goals and progress in their careers at Sirius and beyond.
Employees at various levels benefit from a wide range of learning and development opportunities designed to enhance technical skills and build managerial and leadership competencies. The Academy has a holistic approach and balances the provision of mandatory compliance training with further topics such as onboarding and induction programmes, manager training, and change management programmes for the Group.
Group training and development
We invested €290,000+ to deliver 1,716 learning days as at March 2024. The days were delivered through face-to-face learning and online digital courses, supported by additional coaching. With all of our basic training now completed, we are focusing on specialist and tailored programmes and have set ourselves a target to achieve a total of 1,300 training days in the next financial year, with 300 of those focused on managers.
Training and development |
FY 2022/23 |
FY 2023/24 |
Investment in employee training (€) | 181,260 | 292,074 |
Total delegate days training | 1,309 | 1,716 |
Mentoring
Mentoring is another important part of our employee development. We launched a mentorship programme for women in both the UK and Germany to hone their skills and develop their careers in the organisation. Designed as a standalone initiative, the programme's success encouraged us to develop it further, creating a highly personalised scheme that carefully selects and connects mentors to mentees to ensure the most positive outcomes.
Training and mentoring sessions took place over six months and focused on topics including communication, personal growth, and further development.
In Germany, 12 women took part in the mentorship programme, and in the UK, where BizSpace operates a programme called Ment4U, which launched at the end of 2023,5 women are currently progressing through the programme.
Exchange programme
In Germany, this year, we also launched a new cross-company Exchange Programme that allows employees to visit and shadow colleagues in counterpart offices in Germany and the UK. Three such exchanges were completed, helping to strengthen inter-company relationships and build commercial understanding.
Talent review
We also conducted an organisational talent review to ensure that we have the right skills in the workforce and to ensure that these align with our overall commercial strategy. The exercise has enabled us to recognise areas for improvement and identify high-potential talent. It will shape our approach to enhancing our learning and development initiatives to ensure the right support in the right areas.