5
knowledge exchange via internal social media
platforms
• Navigating career pathways, talent management for
succession planning and identifying mentors for
those seeking development
• Driving consistent global technical standards
While the concept of technical communities of prac-
tice is not new, the level of maturity, vibrancy and organ-
isational impact achieved has been significant. The more
mature communities have become self-sustaining and are
maintained by groups of ‘volunteer’ employees passion-
ate about the benefits of thriving technical communities.
Participation in these communities has become a source of
pride and employee engagement and is a unique part of the
Rio Tinto employee value proposition.
Although communities of practice are mostly low cost
to maintain, they require a persistent investment of time,
effort and leader sponsorship. One of the challenges in pre-
serving leader support is being able to articulate the busi-
ness value, which is mostly intangible.
2. The Agile Technical Network
Across the large population of engineers and scientists
employed by Rio Tinto there is an enormous depth of expe-
rience, and very likely the expertise to solve almost any tech-
nical challenge. However, the ability to find that expertise
when it is needed and release it to solve the challenge, has
historically been limited to an employee’s personal network
and organisational reach. Confronted with the difficulty of
finding the right expertise, many employees would seek an
external solution with accompanying additional costs.
Adult education design principles emphasise the
most powerful form of learning is experience based, giv-
ing employees the opportunity to be stretched and solving
new challenges. However, the lack of visibility about these
development projects, and the difficulty in connecting
with willing learners at the right moment, has meant these
opportunities were hard to find.
In response, Rio Tinto has established the agile
Technical Network (aTN), an internal platform that
allows employees to share their skills profile (current and
for development) and allows employees to post short-term
ad-hoc projects that call for expertise applying a consistent
skills taxonomy. The aTN is effectively an internal version
of the ‘gig’ economy that applies matching algorithms to
connect the supply of expertise with demand. This enables
Rio Tinto to improve the level of collaboration, solve more
challenges with the existing workforce, and provide greater
visibility around internal personal development opportuni-
ties (Figure 7).
Employees have embraced the concept and are attracted
by the visibility around development opportunities and
interesting work outside their substantive role responsibili-
ties. Since launching in 2021 there have been more than
1400 employee skill profiles posted and 132 short term
projects submitted with 327 employees offering to support.
Notwithstanding the obvious benefits, substantial change
management and communication effort has been required
Figure 7. Concept of the agile Technical Network (aTN)
knowledge exchange via internal social media
platforms
• Navigating career pathways, talent management for
succession planning and identifying mentors for
those seeking development
• Driving consistent global technical standards
While the concept of technical communities of prac-
tice is not new, the level of maturity, vibrancy and organ-
isational impact achieved has been significant. The more
mature communities have become self-sustaining and are
maintained by groups of ‘volunteer’ employees passion-
ate about the benefits of thriving technical communities.
Participation in these communities has become a source of
pride and employee engagement and is a unique part of the
Rio Tinto employee value proposition.
Although communities of practice are mostly low cost
to maintain, they require a persistent investment of time,
effort and leader sponsorship. One of the challenges in pre-
serving leader support is being able to articulate the busi-
ness value, which is mostly intangible.
2. The Agile Technical Network
Across the large population of engineers and scientists
employed by Rio Tinto there is an enormous depth of expe-
rience, and very likely the expertise to solve almost any tech-
nical challenge. However, the ability to find that expertise
when it is needed and release it to solve the challenge, has
historically been limited to an employee’s personal network
and organisational reach. Confronted with the difficulty of
finding the right expertise, many employees would seek an
external solution with accompanying additional costs.
Adult education design principles emphasise the
most powerful form of learning is experience based, giv-
ing employees the opportunity to be stretched and solving
new challenges. However, the lack of visibility about these
development projects, and the difficulty in connecting
with willing learners at the right moment, has meant these
opportunities were hard to find.
In response, Rio Tinto has established the agile
Technical Network (aTN), an internal platform that
allows employees to share their skills profile (current and
for development) and allows employees to post short-term
ad-hoc projects that call for expertise applying a consistent
skills taxonomy. The aTN is effectively an internal version
of the ‘gig’ economy that applies matching algorithms to
connect the supply of expertise with demand. This enables
Rio Tinto to improve the level of collaboration, solve more
challenges with the existing workforce, and provide greater
visibility around internal personal development opportuni-
ties (Figure 7).
Employees have embraced the concept and are attracted
by the visibility around development opportunities and
interesting work outside their substantive role responsibili-
ties. Since launching in 2021 there have been more than
1400 employee skill profiles posted and 132 short term
projects submitted with 327 employees offering to support.
Notwithstanding the obvious benefits, substantial change
management and communication effort has been required
Figure 7. Concept of the agile Technical Network (aTN)