Thank you for having me. I'm really delighted to be part of this great digital and international event, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to share our experiences from Magenta Telecom when it comes to agile at work. Before diving into the topic, I want to highlight that this is our journey, our learnings, and what we've figured out over the past couple of months. Yes, we've found a few answers, but there are still many questions left. We are still in the middle of the process and learning day by day.
About Me and Magenta Telecom
Let me begin with a little bit about myself and the company so you can get some context. I’ve been with Magenta Telecom for three years, having joined from another telecom provider in Austria. I have several years of experience in the telecom industry. What drives me is being very people-focused, which we have learned is one of the key success factors for HR transformation. I'm someone who works to bring execution down to earth because even the best concepts bring no value if they're not executed properly. Dialogue across all departments is key. My experience comes from both theoretical knowledge, such as an MBA from Berlin, and practical experience in different companies and cultures.
Passion is at the heart of everything I do, whether it’s in culture, transformation, learning, employer branding, or employee experience, which also includes health management—a vital area in times like these. I work both locally in Vienna and internationally as part of Deutsche Telekom Group. Now, let me give you an overview of Magenta Telecom.
We employ approximately 2,400 people in Austria and serve over 5 million customers, providing mobile and fixed telco services. As the essential infrastructure provider in Austria, we’re driving the digital future of the country and investing heavily in digital transformation. While our HR journey is focused locally in Austria, it is closely linked to Deutsche Telekom Group, as we share some guiding principles globally to ensure successful collaboration.
Our HR Journey and the Importance of Agility
So, when we talk about HR at Magenta Telecom, it’s important to define agility in a way that fits our culture and the challenges we are facing. For us, HR means the ability to react quickly and effectively to current challenges and customer needs. It’s a holistic approach that revolves around customer focus and employee experience. We believe that customer experience can only be truly met if employees have a good experience within the company. When employees are empowered to make decisions and drive their own initiatives, they are more motivated, especially in complex situations where old methods no longer work.
Our vision at Magenta Telecom is to be the driving force behind Austria’s digital future. To achieve this, we need agile development to be fast and responsive, user-centric methods to simplify and digitize processes, and a solid foundation for end-to-end responsibilities to ensure seamless customer experiences. Our company went through a significant merger in the summer of 2018 when T-Mobile Austria acquired UPC Austria, and this process served as a starting point for our agile journey and HR transformation.
Challenges and Failures
During this journey, we wanted to increase service quality and reduce redundancies by adopting a “fail fast” approach. However, adopting this method was a major challenge for us, especially in the corporate environment. We had to learn to embrace the idea of experiments, pilots, and incremental steps, and make continuous improvement a part of our mindset. We faced numerous pitfalls, such as difficulties with governance, road map planning, financing processes, and HR procedures. Many of our well-established corporate processes clashed with the agile principles we wanted to adopt, leading to discussions and the need for new governance models. In parallel, we had to maintain both traditional and agile models within the company.
Another significant challenge was developing the necessary skills for agile. For instance, we wanted to implement HR coaches but lacked the right expertise, which required both internal training and hiring external experts. The leadership team also had to adapt to the new way of working, particularly around empowerment and coaching. It was tough because leaders had to be willing to let go of some control and accept that their roles were evolving. Cross-functional collaboration, solid communication tools, and leadership support were essential in navigating these hurdles.
Key Learnings and Continuous Progress
From our journey, we learned several key lessons. The first is the importance of starting small but starting, and having a common understanding of what agility means for our company. We had to ensure leadership buy-in, especially from the board, to steer the transformation. Enabling people to reflect, adapt, and embrace change was also critical. We recognized the need to create a trustful environment that encourages letting go of old ways. We also learned that having external partners involved in the process brought fresh perspectives and kept us from falling back into old habits.
Another key takeaway is the importance of cross-functional collaboration. HR transformation isn’t just an HR topic—it’s a business topic. It requires input and collaboration from all departments, including HR, strategy, business, and IT. Only by working together can we successfully drive the transformation. Our HR compass, which consists of six elements—people, work design, leadership, governance, work environment, and ways of working—helps guide us. However, we understand that not all departments are at the same maturity level, so we cannot tackle all these elements at once.
Approach and Pilots
To better understand our current status, we initially launched a comprehensive analysis, but it turned out to be a failure. The large-scale approach frustrated people, so we pivoted to an integrative process with agile pilots. This allowed us to learn step by step and adjust along the way. We focused on complex situations that required new solutions and customer needs that we didn’t yet fully understand.
As part of our journey, we implemented several HR initiatives at different levels. These included overall company-wide topics (gray areas), agile pilots (blue spots), and people enablement initiatives (magenta items). Through this process, we’ve learned that HR transformation isn’t a one-off project but an ongoing process that combines smaller and larger elements to drive continuous improvement.
Conclusion
Looking back, our biggest learnings have been about starting small, creating a common understanding, and fostering learning. It’s also crucial to have leadership support and external partners to help steer the transformation. Agility requires a cross-functional collaboration that includes all departments, and only through this integrated approach can we succeed. While our HR transformation is still ongoing, we are making great progress and are excited about the steps ahead. Even when the journey gets tough, we know that it’s worth it because agility is not just about customer experience but also employee experience, and these two factors drive success.
Thank you for your attention. I look forward to your questions, feedback, and input.