New world record: Telenor employees write e-learning history

(Fornebu, 11 November 2021) Telenor employees across the Nordics and Asia prove they intend to remain at the forefront of upskilling to meet the rapidly changing demands of global customers by setting a new e-learning world record.

Telenor Group has set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS™ title for most users to take an online personal development lesson in 24 hours.

The record attempt started 27 October at 07:00 CET, and by the same time the following day, a total of 4,504 Telenor employees had conducted the online course Growth Mindset. The successful world record attempt was carried out by Telenor to signal its continued strong focus on internal up- and reskilling.

“We believe that the digitalisation of society will enable new solutions capable of solving global challenges of today and tomorrow. However, businesses’ ability to utilise the full potential of the digital future depends on how well we facilitate adoption of new and critical skills. Therefore, we have intensified our learning efforts to ensure that we continue to stay at the forefront of up- and reskilling of our employees,” says Cecilie Heuch, EVP and Chief People & Sustainability Officer of Telenor Group.

Seeking knowledge: “Through dialogue with our current partners and towards other industries, experimentation, and the review of employee feedback, we are learning how to best achieve continuous up- and reskilling of our employees, for the benefit of our customers and society-at-large” say Cecilie Heuch, EVP and Chief People & Sustainability Officer of Telenor Group.

Growth mindset

The Growth Mindset course that was chosen for the Guinness World Records attempt promotes the benefits of applying a growth mindset in both the employees’ business and personal lives. Research indicates that when leaders promote a growth mindset and provide an environment where employees feel safe to fail and make mistakes, there is an increase in creativity, learning, and innovation.

“Having a growth mindset means that you believe your knowledge and abilities can be developed over time. This helps individuals embrace challenges as an opportunity to learn and to try new things. By accepting setbacks as part of the learning process, we focus on how we can improve and be better next time,” says Selina Lomholdt, SVP and Head of Global Learning & Development.

Among the Telenor learners who completed the badge was Jo Fan Pang in Digi, Telenor's Malaysian subsidiary, who says the personal development course has helped broaden his horizons.

“Going through the Growth Mindset Badge was a great refresher on how we should be looking at all challenges as new opportunities for breakthrough and that there is always more than one way to solve any particular problem. I’m also excited to have had the experience of being a part of a global world record setting event even while working from home.”

Avid learner: Jo Fan Pang, Head of Special Projects in Digi Telecommunication’s research arm Digi-X, completed the Growth Mindset Badge during the world record attempt. Thus, he contributed to Telenor becoming a GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS titleholder along with more than 4,500 Telenor employees in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, and Malaysia.

Personalising employees’ learning journeys

Back in 2018, Sigve Brekke, President and CEO of Telenor Group, challenged all employees to complete at least 40 hours of impactful learning and education each year. The initiative has proved to be a success, and in 2020, a record number of 53.5 hours of upskilling was conducted by Telenor employees on average. The company also hosts its own learning portal called Telenor Academy.

“We want to be the leading company in skills development in our markets, to ensure that we as a company stay future ready and obtain the skills needed to not only exploit the digitalisation, but also shape it,” says Brekke.

This year, based on its many years of experience with internal learning processes, Telenor rolled out the ‘Telenor U’ platform. The online platform is a self-developed learning ecosystem that structures each employees’ personal learning journey.

“The introduction of Telenor U is a key to our process of strengthening internal competence and knowledge across all business units and will enable us to more rapidly adopt new competencies. To sum up, continuous learning and upskilling enhance our ability to connect customers to what matters most and empower societies,” concludes Lomholdt.

Exploring together: Selina Lomholdt, SVP and Head of Global Learning & Development, and her team organised a “Growth Mindset Day” for employees at Telenor’s HQ at Fornebu, outside of Oslo, Norway, during the company’s world record attempt 27 October 2021.

Media contact: 
Stian Kristoffer Sande, Communications Manager, Telenor Group
[email protected] | +47 975 39 221