Companies achieving more: Telmie client case studies

The Telmie team is honoured to assist our clients be the best they can be. Here are two case studies that show how our real-time professional services have helped clients overcome unexpected problems and deliver excellent results.

Gilead Sciences – Creating Possible

Gilead is a research-based biopharmaceutical company who is striving to create a healthier world for all people. It is achieving this vision through discovering, developing, and delivering innovative therapeutics for people with life-threatening diseases. Some of Gilead’s life-changing medicines include antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV, Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and Influenza.  Their bold and transformative approach to science has led them to achieve a place on the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index and the S&P 500. 

Gilead’s courageous approach to their work is reflected in the company values, comprising inclusion, teamwork, and excellence. However, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the traditional team-building and personal development activities that supported employees to foster and enact these values were no longer possible. Employees were now working remotely, feeling isolated, and had no opportunity to foster camaraderie in person, especially with new team members.  

On top of the radical shift to working arrangements, there was a whole new set of financial challenges for the company to be managed. While the Finance leadership team were already users of the Strengthsfinder Analysis, the remote working arrangements made it difficult for the team to source coaches in numerous different locations and made implementing the strengths strategies cumbersome.  The team, though, needed these tools more than ever, and so the HR Director sought out an online source of assistance to continue this important work.

Gilead started using Telmie from Spring 2020 as it enabled continued development for all of the finance leaders wherever they were working. Some leadership teams were located in Spain, others in Italy, but with Telmie, there was no need to source coaches in each individual location. The employees could access coaches anytime and anywhere just using the one simple Telmie app. 

The program began with 15 Finance Directors who received remote-individual coaching. The directors could call on their coaches when and where they needed them and readily took control of their own learning and development. The personalised program was such a success it was expanded  to also provide individual StrengthsFinder coaching for middle management.

Telmie’s real-time professional services have transformed Gilead’s approach to professional development.  In the past they used to offer leadership coaching on a case-by-case basis, and have it provided through a mix of internal coaches and global contracts with a coaching network.  Now, all of the administrative burden of providing leadership coaching has all but disappeared. The flexible and responsive services provided by Telmie have allowed Gilead to offer coaching to a much wider cadre of organisational leaders, and they are reaping the results.

The organisation’s leaders benefitted from the ability to discuss their problems with an expert and have an objective third-party provide unique perspectives on their challenges. Many participants saw this program as an excellent use of their time. The insights gained by participants improved their sense of confidence, and their performance during a very difficult time.

“Having the time to discuss with an expert the topics on my mind related to professional and personal development was very valuable.” 

— Dorothy H.

“Experience sharing with a professional but also an objective third party has been amazing. It is always good to have access to someone who is professional and listening to you and asking questions that then facilitates more, and better thinking.” 

— Can K.

“For me, it was very timely to have this session in a moment of time where I had just moved to a new role that was getting me out of my comfort zone, and at the same time, I was quite clear on the development areas that I wanted to work on. This is the first time I am engaged in a coaching program, so I cannot compare but I feel that the insights provided by Ian, the fluidity of the conversations, the evidence of research or the cases he was sharing were very interesting and useful.” 

— Luis M.

Gilead’s HR Director recognises the great value provided by the Telmie real-time professional services for all those involved in the program.  However, it is also understood that the benefit gained by their leaders flows directly back to Gilead, continuing to drive a culture of excellence throughout the organisation.

“Having completely personalised coaching in the moment, so to speak, when our leaders are working from home, or in transit, or at the office, is hugely beneficial to them, and consequently also to us as an organisation.”

— Dagmar S. HR Director

With real-time professional services, Gilead was able to continue their transformational work with Strengthsfinder, and even expand it across the organisation. Where other companies stalled or stagnated, Gilead used Telmie’s services to continue coaching its leadership teams to achieve excellence. Gilead’s investment in on-demand services enabled their resilience and success through challenging times and has delivered valuable returns for both the organisation and its employees.

Wargaming PLC – The Best Experience Possible

Wargaming is an award-winning online game developer and publisher.  For over twenty years, Wargaming has been creating legendary games such as World of Tanks, World of Warships, World of Tanks Console, and World of Warships Legends. The quality of their games has seen Wargaming grow to become a leader in the free-to-play MMO gaming industry, with around 200 million players who enjoy playing Wargaming games.  Through a program of extensive acquisition and expansion, Wargaming has become a truly global operation. Over 5,500 passionate employees work on delivering excellent gaming experiences from 19 offices around the world including in the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany, the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Singapore, and the USA. 

One of the greatest challenges Wargaming experiences is fostering communication across multiple languages. The company prides itself on being agile and on delivering results, and to do this, they source the best and brightest in the industry, no matter where they are located. This means that their teams are often made up of employees that are dispersed around the globe and may not even speak the same language. Normally, collaboration under these conditions would be almost impossible.  However, with Telmie real-time professional services, Wargaming has been able to overcome language barriers and achieve seamless teamwork.

When Wargaming first began the foray across country borders and language boundaries, the Learning and Development Team recognised the need for its world-wide experts to share a common language, determined to be English.  They were faced with a vast group of employees who were at all different levels of English proficiency and in all varieties of locations and time zones.

The only way to ensure a consistent level of communication skill was through personalised training, but this training needed to be flexible to meet the staff where and when they needed it, and scalable to meet the continued company growth.  The on-demand English training services provided by Telmie met all these needs.

Of course, onboarding any new training provider can be extremely challenging.

As noted by the Wargaming Education Manager, Yulia Burak, 

“It involves a lot of paperwork, going through a number of approvals from top management, arranging a trial period, customisation of reporting, and adjusting to special requests like billing, for example. The Telmie team understood these challenges and were ready to accommodate us and satisfy all of our requirements.”

Through Telmie, Wargaming was easily able to source their choice of qualified native English speakers who could work across different time zones. The English training program started with a three-month trial for a small group of employees. This pilot group learned how to integrate the Telmie app into their daily lives and effectively improved their English-speaking skills from their home locations.  The trial was such a great success that it has been expanded to include many more employees, and to include training for additional languages such as Czech.

Wargaming has realised the immense benefits of real-time professional services. It gets to hire the best experts, regardless of where they are located, and through personalised language training ensures they can communicate and collaborate to deliver great results. With Telmie, staff have been enabled to deliver their best work with confidence, and Wargaming has overcome barriers that could have held them back from achieving their goals.  It is not surprising then that Yulia is pleased to profess that â€œWorking with Telmie was a really great choice.”