Guild: how do we share our knowledge

Knowledge sharing and development are integral parts of our culture. From this culture grew the idea of guilds. Guilds, in our organization, mean exchanging knowledge and experiences. They bring together people with similar interests in technological and business areas.

What are guilds?

Guilds are part of the Learning & Development program. In addition to the development budget, mentoring initiative Upskill, and business and leadership trainings. The L&D program ties together all development projects at our company.

At PGS Software, guilds are groups of people who want to share their experiences and learn together. They focus on a particular technology or business area. We don't impose neither the form nor the method for guild activities. The guild members come up with the initiative. Under the guidance of the coordinator, they apply their ideas. Each guild has a quarterly budget allocated for them. The guild operating model emphasizes development and community building. We have an ever-increasing number of remote workers. That's why we strive to make team building an additional benefit. Each employee has three hours per quarter to attend meetings organized by the guilds.

People exchange their experiences within guilds. Sometimes it is in the form of meetings, in some other cases they organize internal conferences. Also, they can hold hackathons and build proof-of-concept projects to identify innovative technologies. In general, they have a lot of freedom. Freedom of action aimed at developing and improving their craft - explains Krzysztof Rolak, COO of PGS Software.

The first guild meetings took place around 2015, with an initial focus on particular technologies, such as Frontend, .NET, Java. One of the first guilds was also the QA Guild. After some time, we started to look beyond the technological framework and include the various business areas.

What guilds do we have? 

At the moment we have 20 active guilds and new ones are still in the making. Employees have the opportunity to join 5 backend guilds and those related to Data, Cloud, DevOps, Frontend, Security and Mobile. Next to them we have guilds dedicated to Quality Assurance, Agile, Product Design (three guilds), Human Resources (two guilds). We have recently launched Speakers Guild for practicing public speaking.

Business guilds

We put a lot of emphasis on developing non-technology guilds - business guilds. This is what sets our approach apart. HR and Agile guilds are becoming very popular among employees. The Employer Branding Guild is already thriving. It focuses mostly on the topic of employer branding, but also touches on related areas.

One idea for Employer Branding Guild activities is to invite external experts. We tackle topics related to employer branding, personal branding or various marketing tools and strategies - says Sylwester Zimon, Employer Branding Guild Coordinator.

How does joining a guild benefit you?

Guilds add value to employee development. First of all, the opportunity to learn from a wide range of specialists with many years of experience. Furthermore, an invitation to participate in various initiatives, such as the Technology Radar or work on Proof of Concept. Also, they provide possibilities for development on various levels. Guild members can check themselves as speakers at guild meetings or suggest and implement their own projects related to the guild's subject matter - explains Natalia Krawczyk-Grzegorzewicz, QA Manager responsible for guilds at PGS Software.

What have we done so far? 

As part of the guild, we organize a variety of events. We prepare workshops with external experts, hackathons or internal trainings. The Java Guild published the ebook "Java in 2022 - Upgrading to JDK 17". The Frontend Guild organized webinar series React Days and Angular Week. And the Accessibility Guild restocked the shelves of the company's library with thematic books. They also came up with a cinema evening and discussion panels. Other technology guilds send out regular educational newsletters. All these activities are grassroots initiatives by employees.

See how their coordinators talk about the guilds' activities.