Author: Evgeny Seledkov is a Certified Master Anaplanner and Sr. Consultant at Keyrus.
Hello, I’m Evgeny, and I’ve been part of the Anaplan community for nearly ten years. Over the years, I’ve taken quite a journey — seeing this world from both sides: as part of a customer Center of Excellence, where I helped stakeholders with their day-to-day tasks and designed smart Anaplan solutions for making better informed business decisions; and from the consultancy side, where I’ve focused on showcasing the power of Anaplan to clients and ensuring we, as a team, deliver top-tier services.
One thing I’ve come to firmly believe is this: no matter your goals or which side of the table you sit on, the key to long-term success is investing in your team. That investment pays off quickly. People are a company’s most valuable asset. Having a knowledgeable, reliable team that shares common values and principles is essential for sustained success.
But what happens when we need to grow our team rapidly? A shift in strategy, new roles opening, or sudden project opportunities — many scenarios can trigger the need for expansion. Broadly, there are two approaches: short-term and long-term. While the short-term route often involves hiring experienced professionals from the community, an option that depends on availability and negotiation, in this article I’ll focus on the more strategic, long-term approach.
How can we ensure sustainable team growth that aligns with company strategy and nurtures the next generation of professionals? That brings us to the core topic of this article: how to make onboarding junior specialists a mutually beneficial process for both the individuals and the company.
To better understand the importance of onboarding, let’s look at the goals of both sides, starting with those of a junior specialist. Imagine someone who is just beginning their professional career or entering the Anaplan ecosystem for the first time, with the ambition to work closely with the platform.
Their goals might look like this:
- Gain real-world experience and technical expertise.
It’s a chance to build both technical skills, like model building, data integration, and applying best practices, with the access to the most advanced IT solutions and technologies on the market, and business acumen by working with real-world processes. - Develop a clear and sustainable career path.
The experiences and knowledge gained become the foundation for long-term professional development. With the right support, junior specialists can map their ambitions to concrete career paths and identify the steps needed to achieve their goals. - Test the waters before committing long-term.
Onboarding offers a trial period to see if a career in business planning, analysis, or Anaplan consulting aligns with their interests before committing long-term.
From the employer's perspective, the goals are a bit different:
- Invest in talent.
Companies are eager to bring in motivated individuals with potential, knowing that early investment can result in long-term value and loyalty. - Balance the team.
Blending junior and senior team members helps manage costs while maintaining quality, creating a healthy team dynamic. - Support strategic goals.
Hiring new talent helps meet internal HR targets and adapt to market demands, especially during growth phases. - Ensure strong fit.
Cultural and professional alignment ensures smoother collaboration, stronger engagement, and higher retention over time.
To sum up: on one side, we have companies that want to minimize risks and invest their resources in individuals who align with their profile, goals, and values. On the other side, we have candidates eager to explore project work, IT implementation, business planning, and analysis - keen to discover whether this is the right long-term career path for them.
This is where a well-structured onboarding process becomes essential.
We also shouldn’t overlook the crucial role of the HR team. They are responsible for building a strong pipeline of candidates through high-quality screening and for mapping each candidate’s initial skill set to the company’s requirements. Once the pipeline is established and we, as a business, have selected trainees who show potential to fit into the team, onboarding can begin.
Together with the team, we developed a nine-week onboarding program designed to immerse trainees into the world of Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). The program aims to reveal the full scope and depth of this field - from technical skills to real project experiences. While it’s primarily tailored for consultancy firms, internal Centers of Excellence may also find it beneficial.
Nine week onboarding program outline
Weeks 1–3: Anaplan basics
Anaplan Academy provides a clear path for starting the certification journey, beginning with Level 1, Level 2, and The Anaplan Way. These form the essential foundation for anyone working with the platform.
While completing these trainings, trainees also tackle simplified, real-life planning tasks in Excel. These open-ended exercises, based on use cases like FP&A, S&OP, and Workforce Planning, let them showcase their analytical thinking and gain hands-on exposure to planning concepts.
This phase concludes with an evaluation. Each trainee has a one-to-one session with a Senior Model Builder or Solution Architect to confirm their grasp of Anaplan basics, including concepts from PLANUAL and The Anaplan Way. They also present their Excel assignment to a panel of senior team members, demonstrating both technical understanding and communication skills.
This approach gives us a clear baseline view of each trainee’s starting point and helps guide their development through the rest of the onboarding program.
Weeks 4–6: Ad-hoc technical and business acumen skills
The second stage focuses on developing business acumen, recognizing that trainees have varying backgrounds. Our goal is to level-set their knowledge and expose them to real project challenges.
This is achieved through:
- Interactive sessions with senior consultants
- Hands-on workshops
- Mandatory internal trainings
We also emphasize that successful Anaplan models depend on more than just correct formulas — they must be performant, usable, and well-designed. That’s why we include a dedicated session on User Experience (UX), covering interface principles, color psychology, user journeys, and the role of UX in effective design.
Trainees are also introduced to our development standards: naming conventions, best practices, and team-wide agreements that ensure consistency and maintainability.
Another major focus is data. Since clean, reliable data is critical to any model’s success, we teach data analytics fundamentals using the Excel assignment from Phase 1. Trainees are expected to create a Data Flow Diagram (DFD) that maps out dependencies.
We also cover scheme notation and visual standardization, helping trainees break down complex processes. Their final output is a process map that includes roles, data flows, and levels of granularity.
The phase ends with a second knowledge check where trainees present their outputs and demonstrate understanding of both business and technical concepts.
Weeks 7–9: Anaplan excellence and sales readiness
In the final phase, trainees build their first full Anaplan model and app. We simulate a real-world scenario: a client using Excel asks for a more robust EPM solution. Conveniently, trainees use the Excel model they created in Phase 1 as the starting point.
Alongside model building, we introduce the Business Development process, a vital component of consultancy work. Our sales team runs workshops on pre-sales activities: understanding client needs, defining scope, positioning Anaplan, and creating value-driven messaging.
This all leads to a key simulation: a mock client meeting. Trainees present their models, acting as consultants addressing a client’s planning challenge. The senior team plays the role of a demanding client, asking tough questions and testing how trainees handle real-world scenarios.
At the end, trainees are assessed against clear criteria, and we provide a go/no-go decision. At this stage, we can already identify the trainees' strengths and areas for improvement, giving us insight into their potential career paths within the company — whether technical, business-focused, or a balanced mix of both. It’s also a moment for self-reflection, helping them decide if consulting is the right path.
Each trainee also has a buddy — a peer mentor who supports progress informally and provides guidance. This relationship is vital for building confidence and a sense of team belonging.
Conclusion
This onboarding approach has earned strong recognition within our company, as it enables well-informed, balanced decisions — both in support of our business goals and in helping young professionals launch their careers in consultancy. While it may seem time and resource intensive (and indeed, it requires significant effort to run and sustain), the long-term value is undeniable. In the end, it pays off quickly by bringing highly motivated, well-prepared individuals into the team.
