Explore Gentera’s journey with SAP
Gentera’s mission is to give a boost to people who have been excluded from the financial system, so they can make their dreams come true. This starts by allowing its employees to fulfill their own professional goals. With SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Gentera offers employees continuous learning opportunities that empower them to transform clients’ lives.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Banking | Mexico City, Mexico | 20,000 employees |
increase in the training hours employees invest in themselves.
of 20,000 employees on the learning system, and growing.
training courses available in the learning library.
CHRO, Gentera SAB de CV
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Banking | Mexico City, Mexico | 20,000 employees |
increase in the training hours employees invest in themselves.
of 20,000 employees on the learning system, and growing.
training courses available in the learning library.
CHRO, Gentera SAB de CV
Empowering employees to take charge of their learning journey
Gentera SAB de CV is a leader in the fight against financial exclusion in Mexico, where many people do not have a bank account. Through businesses such as Compartamos Bank, it helps entrepreneurs, including female owners and those in less-developed regions, fulfill their goals through loans, insurance, and savings.
Gentera has always been a people-centered organization that encourages employees’ professional development. As chief HR officer (CHRO) Adela Giral Lopez says, “Because of the way we engage with our clients, we need our team to be always learning.” But with more than 80% of these employees in the field, providing learning opportunities was difficult. The organization wanted to move to a microlearning format, spreading small doses of training over time to achieve sustained learning and using virtual tools to enable continuous learning.
At the same time, as Giral Lopez explains, “Our communication was one way, pushing information and training to employees. And we sent them a feedback survey only once a year.” The organization wanted to change its learning and development culture, evolving from a compliance-driven approach to one of self-learning based on an employee’s interests and needs.
CHRO, Gentera SAB de CV
Providing a flexible, varied, and integrated learning experience
Gentera implemented the SAP SuccessFactors Learning solution to help achieve this transformation. The organization created a library of internally developed training courses featuring content tailored to its methodology and the products it sells. To supplement these internal offerings, it integrated off-the-shelf external training courses for on-demand use with SAP SuccessFactors Learning, supporting the company’s self-learning approach. And it deployed SAP SuccessFactors Learning and SAP SuccessFactors Talent solutions to align strategy and goals, improve employee performance through ongoing coaching and feedback, and recognize top talent.
The organization also introduced the SAP SuccessFactors Mobile app for mandatory and manager-assigned training courses. Deskless workers use the mobile app on the go, but they can also complete training on a different device when they need to focus more. As Giral Lopez explains, “Some employees would rather use only the mobile phone to access SAP SuccessFactors Learning, and others prefer a computer with a big screen. The advantage of this flexibility is that you can start training on a laptop and then continue on your mobile phone. The experience goes with you from one device to another.”
A typical client-facing employee scenario may now involve a deskless employee completing training in the morning at home or in the office. Then, with their mobile devices, they can visit clients and finish their day. Giral Lopez calls this “radical flexibility,” explaining, “We want to have the best of both worlds, depending on the situation and employee.”
On the sustainability side, the organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion data now comes from SAP SuccessFactors solutions, where it tracks improvements in certain areas. It also uses SAP SuccessFactors solutions to monitor information such as employees’ COVID-19 vaccine status. And employees from all backgrounds use the solutions to consult job postings and learn what they need to move to the next stage of their professional career.
CHRO, Gentera SAB de CV
Engaging employees with accessible offerings and two-way communication
Enabling employees to take charge of their professional careers with better learning opportunities has had wide positive effects across the company. For example, the company recently received a top rating in the Great Place to Work rankings for Mexico and Peru, and many of the comments received were about the great access to learning.
While the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the organization’s transition from fully in-person to fully virtual learning, the company now has the flexibility to vary its approach depending on training content, an individual’s experience, and the need for team-building support. Giral Lopez explains, “We are very thankful for our ability to move faster due to technology. We made things that seemed impossible possible during the pandemic. Now, we are taking the best of both worlds as we move into a hybrid working mode. We have matured in the area of learning, with mandatory training, manager-recommended training, and training the individual can choose.”
Rather than simply pushing out information and training, the company now has an open dialogue with employees, increasing engagement. It is developing a solution that gathers regular employee feedback and helps it respond and tailor training accordingly.
On the talent management side, Gentera is evolving its continuous performance management to link more tightly with business objectives. Giral Lopez says, “SAP SuccessFactors solutions fuel conversations where development needs are discussed, identifying where the individual is doing well and where there is room for improvement. We are now able to tie both performance and development plans together better. We are building new behaviors and a new culture of having not two but at least four transformational conversations between employee and manager each year.”
Allowing employees to work virtually from home aids work-life balance, but the company also uses SAP SuccessFactors solutions to enable a holistic experience for employees, such as reminding them to schedule vacation time or personal days for medical checkups. It also sends weekly reminders with resources across its key pillars of family, health, social, spiritual, and professional, encouraging individuals to make a self-assessment of how well they are doing in each area.
Evolving the continuous learning experience for employees – and clients
Gentera continues to expand uptake of its learning offerings. Giral Lopez comments, “We have just under 20,000 employees, and all but 3,000 are on the learning system. We plan to have everyone on the system by the end of this year. That is how relevant training has become to our company.”
To fine-tune its offerings, the organization is exploring different modes of training, from infographics to videos and podcasts, to learn what works best. For instance, it realized many employees in the field with unreliable network connections prefer audio over video when working. Giral Lopez says, “We are excited that we can continue developing new ways for learning and driving behaviors.”
The organization is also examining employee initiatives that translate well to clients. Its marketing team is introducing a popular internal development program to clients to help improve their lives through better financial planning. In this way, the learning program supports the organization’s mission to create not only economic but also human and social value for clients.
As Giral Lopez explains, “SAP SuccessFactors solutions have changed the behavior of our employees to a workforce that wants to learn and grow. Now we know we can inspire the same with our clients.”