Growing teams with Ride Your Future training
2 years ago
2 years ago
Here at Dott, we know that the people in our teams are the real wind beneath our wheels. And we take great care to care for each other. As mentioned in our Sustainability Manifesto, we strive to be a safe, inclusive, and accessible employer, and we’ve introduced a number of initiatives to make sure we practice what we preach.
We pride ourselves on being a responsible local employer. From day one, back when we were founded in 2019, we’ve made a point of not being part of the gig economy. Every single Dott employee is a fully contracted shareholder, meaning they have job stability and can directly benefit from the company’s success. We work in tandem with our teams – and we want to return the investment they’ve given us with their time and efforts.
We also know that taking care of each other extends beyond financial compensation. Because we work with in-house ground teams, we place a lot of emphasis on professional and personal growth, having offered a series of informal ad hoc trainings to employees for years. Now in 2022, we’ve formalized these trainings into Ride Your Future – our program to facilitate the development of entry-level warehouse and ground team employees.
Here’s the rundown on Ride Your Future and how we’re helping our employees speed along on their career journey.
Ride Your Future consists of one full day of training per week, spread across seven weeks. Employees take the course during working hours and continue to receive their usual pay. Participation is totally voluntary and open to our patrollers, warehouse mechanics, and ground teams – all the people who keep our vehicles safe and ready for the road.
Training sessions are hosted by an external expert when focusing on technical skills like reporting and professional communication. For the two training days about Dott’s different platform applications, our own team members step up and take the role of instructor. The program is also designed to improve employees’ soft skills, including team management, conflict resolution, and prioritization.
The first Ride Your Future cohort launched with 20 employees from our Paris team on January 18th. Different Dott employees led sessions depending on their areas of expertise. Other parts of the course were curated with the Academie de Creteil, a branch of France’s Ministry of National Education, Youth & Sports (Ministère de l’Éducation nationale, de la Jeunesse et des Sports). Dott’s public-private partnership with the institution is an honor, and has huge potential to strengthen both our workforce as a whole and each individual’s skill set.
“We see that the students following this curriculum are extremely motivated. They participate actively in the course and seize the opportunity”, says Sonia Zakine from Academie de Creteil. “In my opinion, this is because the classes are voluntary. Those who are in this room really want to be there for themselves”, she adds.
Not only does the Ride Your Future provide team members with a space to upskill and learn new skills altogether, we also believe that the initiative will contribute to maintaining our high safety and quality standards. When people are supported and motivated, they’re more engaged with one another and their roles. And more dedicated teams ensure safer, more reliable services for Dott users.
Our unique approach to team building and micromobility has already proven to be effective in our Paris warehouse, where there’s been no employee turnover since August 2020.
Ousseynou Seck, an Assistant Lead Mechanic who is taking the first Ride Your Future course, told us that “the most important thing for me is to learn how to properly use software tools at Dott.” He adds that the program means he and his colleagues feel “more prepared to carry out our work with autonomy.”
“I feel that Dott encourages us to improve our tools, but on top of that, gives us a platform where we could do it,” Seck said. “It is crucial to have a ‘growth’ mindset and always try to improve our knowledge because that will give us better opportunities in our life and professional careers.”
Meanwhile, Maria Biasutti, the Dott City Manager for Paris and Marseille, believes the opportunities we provide for individuals to learn has played a big part in the retention. “Ride Your Future fits into what we stand for at Dott and how we operate, because it reinforces that we value the people we work with and how we work as a team.”
Our unique approach to team building and micromobility has already proven to be effective in our Paris warehouse, where there’s been no employee turnover since August 2020.
Ride Your Future is just one step in our caring stride. Our Helping to Help program also sees us collaborate with on-the-ground organizations like NGOs, schools, and local government groups to make communities safer, more equitable, and more resilient.
By working together with local groups, our teams can see the impact they have on their doorstep, and can extend the value of caring for each other beyond Dott’s walls. For example, our Paris team recently dedicated a team of eight volunteers to help a non-profit set up their biggest event of the year.
With the first Ride Your Future program in motion, we’re carefully recording and applying learnings for the next ones to follow. We are actively asking participants to pinpoint what does and doesn’t work for them. These learnings help us for our next step: taking Ride Your Future to other Dott cities and countries.
We know that our teams are ready to ride their future, and we’re ready to give them their starting block, some uphill momentum, and any pit stops they need along the way.
