Talent & Development Manager - eCommerce

Talent & Development Manager - eCommerce West London

Creative and fast growing international eCommerce business have an exciting opportunity for a Talent and Development Manager to develop a function in line with the business and its unique culture. This is a truly entrepreneurial and forward thinking environment and an amazing chance for someone to really put their own stamp on a role and inspire the business!

Initial focus will be scoping out training needs requirements throughout the business - from entry level roles right up to the senior management team and across all business areas from Creative, Customer services through to Technical.

You'll develop a strategy and propose the best solutions for delivery against these needs, driving the leadership and management development program forward and designing a program of effective and engaging training activities to cover everything from core business skills, soft skills and everything in between.

The ideal candidate will have:-

Extensive experience working in Learning & Development and strong experience of designing, managing and delivering a variety of development programmes.
Extensive experience of working in Learning & Development including recent experience in an L&D business partnering/management role
A strong network and proven relationships with relevant L&D providers and suppliers
Proven experience in a fast paced, growing organisation where you have had to design and deliver new training programs
Industry-relevant accreditation's in psychometric tools such as MBTI, Firo-b and able to offer profiling and coaching sessions with individuals and teams to support their continual development
Excellent presentation and facilitation skills demonstrating the ability to communicate, engage and inspire
Proven strategic ability, and pride yourself on effectively partnering with your business areas in line with their training need to support delivery of their goals.
A creative approach, and are always looking to identify new ideas but you are also super organised, structured and comfortable with change and facilitating transformation.

If this sounds like something which would excite and inspire you, and you fit the above then please apply.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the high volume of applications we receive we are unable to respond to everyone. If you have not heard from us within 5 working days of sending your CV then unfortunately you have not been shortlisted for the position you have applied for.

LocationWest LondonSalary10% bonus, fantastic benefitsReferenceBBBH42849Contact NameEmma Richardson

Creative and fast growing international eCommerce business have an exciting opportunity for a Talent and Development Manager to develop a function in line with the business and its unique culture. This is a truly entrepreneurial and forward thinking environment and an amazing chance for someone to really put their own stamp on a role and inspire the business!

Initial focus will be scoping out training needs requirements throughout the business - from entry level roles right up to the senior management team and across all business areas from Creative, Customer services through to Technical.

You'll develop a strategy and propose the best solutions for delivery against these needs, driving the leadership and management development program forward and designing a program of effective and engaging training activities to cover everything from core business skills, soft skills and everything in between.

The ideal candidate will have:-

Extensive experience working in Learning & Development and strong experience of designing, managing and delivering a variety of development programmes.
Extensive experience of working in Learning & Development including recent experience in an L&D business partnering/management role
A strong network and proven relationships with relevant L&D providers and suppliers
Proven experience in a fast paced, growing organisation where you have had to design and deliver new training programs
Industry-relevant accreditation's in psychometric tools such as MBTI, Firo-b and able to offer profiling and coaching sessions with individuals and teams to support their continual development
Excellent presentation and facilitation skills demonstrating the ability to communicate, engage and inspire
Proven strategic ability, and pride yourself on effectively partnering with your business areas in line with their training need to support delivery of their goals.
A creative approach, and are always looking to identify new ideas but you are also super organised, structured and comfortable with change and facilitating transformation.

If this sounds like something which would excite and inspire you, and you fit the above then please apply.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the high volume of applications we receive we are unable to respond to everyone. If you have not heard from us within 5 working days of sending your CV then unfortunately you have not been shortlisted for the position you have applied for.

Apply now

View the original article here

Podcast #12: Attention! Attention! Attention!

Craig missed Dr Chris Atherton‘s session at LT11, however the video recording of her session has provided him with inspiration and ideas ever since. This podcast scratches the surface of Chris’ specialism and hopefully provides you ‘Dear Listener’ with a few ideas (and maybe even a challenge) ahead of your next presentation.

Craig even starts to try and determine the origin of the word ‘logo’ and then gives up to the wisdom of Wikipedia!!!

Download podcast in mp3 format: Attention! Attention! Attention!

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

Shownotes

Music Source.

View the original article here

DrupalCampBrighton does the business!

I attended DrupalCampBrighton today for their Business Day, the first day of a three day Drupal extravaganza! LEO were sponsoring the business day which I was really pleased about, we do a fair amount of Drupal work and it’s great to both give something back to the open source community and to get involved in supporting local events. The event was attended by about 60 people at Brighton Media Centre, with the rest of the weekend focussed on more developer-oriented stuff. Today was all about case studies and keynotes though, a bit more at my level! It was a really great event and I came away enthused and energised for all things open source. A great way to end the week!

Before continuing, thanks to all the organisers for putting this on. It’s no small feat putting together an event like this. On Saturday and Sunday there are three speaker streams plus all-day developer sprints. It’s a hugely impressive setup, supported by a team of 8 staff volunteering their time and 15 local sponsors. Well done to one and all for a superb event!

The day started with Jeffrey “Jam” McGuire from Acquia (@HornCologne), a man with the rather natty job title of Open Source Evangelist and a pretty awesome handlebar moustache to boot. Jam gave a half hour keynote that was the best intro to open source I’ve seen in years, although he was certainly preaching to the converted with this crowd. More interesting was his focus on how open source is a driver for business and government transformation. He recalled a conversation with the UK Cabinet Office in which they noted that before mandating open source in government procurements, the map of UK government software spend was centred on the area between Reading and London where Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc have their UK presence. Since open source that map has blossomed out across the entire country with spending going to SMEs nationwide who can deliver mature and robust open source solutions to government at a fraction of the price. Crucially, that doesn’t only support SMEs but keeps money in the UK instead of going off to some Redmond bank account.

@dc_brighton @HornCologne open source is free as in speech, but “free as in puppy” too. Love that line. Nurture. Maintain. #drupalbizday

— Mark Aberdour (@maberdour) January 16, 2015

I often have to explain to clients that open source is zero license but not free. No software is free, it always has a cost of ownership in setup, support, updates and maintenance, whatever the license type. Jam used the analogy “free as in puppy”, it’s the first time I heard the line but it sums it up perfectly, you need to nurture, grow and look after your open source implementation. I’ll be borrowing that line myself from now on!

Lizzie Hodgson (@lizziehodgson01), who was also compere for the day, then took the stage to talk about the Drupal community. I only really dabble in the fringes of this community so it was interesting to hear about the scale and characteristics of the Drupal community.

Just polishing my cheeky little @dc_brighton “power of #drupal community” #drupalbizday talk – Jan 16 #Brighton pic.twitter.com/O3YxZDc09i — Lizzie Hodgson (@lizziehodgson01) January 11, 2015

Lizzie’s presentation was very insightful and it struck me just how similar the Drupal and Moodle communities are. Both over 1 million community members from 200+ countries, translating the software into 100+ languages, dorm-room founders approximately 14 years ago, annual national conferences the world over, local user groups, the list goes on. These two open source ecosystems have travelled very similar paths over the past decade. Both products were once the young disruptors but are now the juggernauts in their respective spaces, with young upstarts snapping at their own heels. This maturity and strength in the community and ecosystem is a huge advantage, of course. Lizzie also played a great video clip from Cancer Research UK about how they view Drupalcamp as a vital learning and development event for their in-house development team.

Richard Jones from iKOS was up next talking about the e-commerce website they built for retailer Lush. It was a great case study and had good technical detail, but the takeaway for me was how Lush formed a central team called Lush Digital to take digital transformation through every aspect of their business, almost like a microcosm of Government Digital Services who were up shortly. There’s a theme here, and in any large and complex organisation whether a retail chain or central government, a centralised digital team will break down organisational silos and barriers, push through agile development methods, facilitate adoption of open source solutions and drive innovation. I think we’ll see more and more of this approach in large organisations.

The other big presentation of the day was from Jake Barlow at Government Digital Services (@gdsteam). If Jam’s first keynote talked about the potential of open source for transformation, Jake had the perfect case study for how it’s being delivered in the real world. GDS is a UK government success story, pushing a ‘digital by default’ approach through central government. Among other things, Jake talked about the GDS Service Standard. We’ve been using this at LEO with our work for Civil Service Learning, a combined Drupal and Moodle site that delivers online learning and course booking to half a million civil servants. Jake alluded to a conflict at the heart of the Service Standards: GDS are pushing agile approaches yet the Service Standard has elements of waterfall model in there. It was a real talking point with the audience during Q&A, because as one attendee pointed out, government procurement teams will demand GANTT charts and highly defined deliverables, and you can’t win a government contract based on minimum viable products and daily standups! It feels very much like a ‘watch this space’ area. Jake suggested that SMEs and developers like those in the room today get stuck into the service standard, “use it and abuse it” and feed back on it. It will be really interesting to see where this all goes.

“Gantt charts slam the brakes on a project” nice quote from @gdsteam. Are such controls compatible with agile development? #drupalbizday

— Mark Aberdour (@maberdour) January 16, 2015

GDS have an admirable focus on user needs, this is evident throughout their approach and standards, with user needs informing the prioritisation of tasks. It’s exactly as it should be. I love this approach and it’s great that UK government and GDS are leading the way here, setting a standard that other countries are following. Long may it continue.

You can probably see the big takeaway theme by now: Transformation. It ran through many of today’s presentations.  I’ve increasingly been of the view that open source has reached a ‘job done’ type of moment in that it’s now seen as mature, robust and reliable in almost every market sector. The BlackDuck Future of OSS survey last year summed it up: “Open source is eating the software world”. But it doesn’t matter to me whether open source dominates the software world and ‘defeats’ the likes of Microsoft and Oracle. For me, it’s about levelling the playing field so that open source and proprietary vendors can compete on value and features. In that sense, it does almost feel like ‘job done’.

But reflecting on today’s presentations, especially the keynotes from Jam and Jake, we are not at the end of a journey, we are at the start of a larger one. This new journey is one of transformation. Digital transformation is changing the way we do business and the way we do government, and open source is oiling the wheels of this change. The US and UK governments both now have repositories on Github, which was unheard of just a few years ago. Open source solutions are being deployed rapidly in disaster response zones, where before there was just talk. Open data is ushering in an era of transparency. Where previously only big IT players got a look in, we now have SMEs delivering high quality open source solutions in government, providing value for tax payers and fueling loyal economies. It seems that now we have an increasingly level playing field, the true value of open source is only just starting to be realised. Put simply, it feels like open source is on the cusp of something big. As someone who has been working in open source for going on 10 years, it’s great to be saying that again! This time though, it’s not about acceptance within the software world, it’s about driving change much further afield. Hugely exciting stuff.

Thanks to DrupalCamp Brighton, something really clicked for me today, and I came away enthused, energised and full of ideas. That’s what I love about these types of events, and for a whole host of reasons this is something that I really needed! A big thanks to the organisers, sponsors and attendees for coming together and making a great day.

View the original article here

I got it wrong….. Or did I?

I recent attended the eLearning Network event ’10 things every learning designer should know’ and whilst the event gave me a few ideas to mull over, what really had an impact on me was a chance conversation that I had during the mid-morning break, which if I’m being honest, shocked me a little and distracted me for the rest of the day.

Allow me to explain…

During the first session of the day Bryan Hopkins from UNHCR made a general reference to the fact that “people can’t possibly be learning effectively if they are tapping away on mobile devices“(paraphrased). This led to a few giggles on my table, as at that very moment I was tapping away on my iPad.

During the mid-morning break I made reference back to that incident and drew a parallel to a meeting I was in during the early Summer where everybody was taking notes, however I was the only one taking them on an iPad, whereas everybody else was taking them with pen and paper. The meeting organiser actually stopped after 10 mins and asked what I was doing; when I told (and showed) them what I was doing, they still admitted that the fact I was on a mobile device made them feel uncomfortable.

Now I had expected the people I was regaling this tale to over a cuppa to be sympathetic to my situation however I was wrong!

Instead 3 of the 4 people indicated that it would also put them off and make them question whether or not I was truly paying attention during the meeting and whether I was genuinely taking notes. We threw this around for a couple of minutes with me even pulling the old “who’s to say I’m paying attention/taking genuine notes, just because I’m using a pen and paper” but even this didn’t sway them.

I quickly popped smoke and withdrew back to the safety of the main area and discussed this back at my groups table, where, you may be surprised (or maybe not) to discover that the majority of those people also expressed doubt/concern/worry/frustration etc over people using mobile devices to take notes during learning events, meetings etc.

Had I been in any other environment than the one I was in yesterday I probably wouldn’t have been overly surprised….

… But this was an eLearning Network event!!!!

Surely eLN members would ‘get’ the advantages of using technology to aid productivity even if it wasn’t in an overtly ‘learning’ context, wouldn’t they?

And that’s what led me to this particular blog title, because it appears I was wrong.

Or was I?

Is it reasonable to expect us and our learners to use technology to aid our/their productivity in areas and in situations that have traditionally used pen and paper?

Should we maintain traditional practices for meetings but attempt to push forward with new practices when the output has an overt ‘learning’ tag attached to it?

Do you use technology to aid your personal productivity or not?

Are you encouraging/discouraging of others to do so?

Oh and for those of you who are wondering exactly what I was tapping away on my iPad for, I was producing this mindmap of the days sessions, which I am now sharing with others.

For those of you I was annoying, why not share your handwritten notes with us all?

Image sources: Click one each image to be taken to the individuals Flickr profile page.

View the original article here

Training Team Manager

Training Team Manager Bingley

Summary

We are looking for a a talented people manager with experience of leading trainers in a fast paced contact centre or customer services environment.

Client Details

A leading financial services organisation based in Bingley.

Description

Key responsibilities will include:

Lead the training design and delivery team to deliver the creation of high quality training materials and delivery excellence in line with department objectives and targets.
Ensure TNA principles and practices are incorporated when working with the business and stakeholders across short and medium term operational training needs.
Ensure adoption of leading edge learning design principles and methods are across training team.
Responsible for robust design and delivery output
Manage all learning & development programmes including core programmes, regulatory, product and business change, to demanding business timescales and requirements.
Manage full version control and fulfil audit requirements to the correct standard.
Effectively manage the training team resources, resource planning and prioritisation.
Proactively encourage continuous improvements.
Ensure effective risk management processes are established within training in accordance with company's risk appetite and risk and control frameworks.

Profile

The ideal candidate will:

Be able to evidence a proven track record in a results driven training management role.
Be commercially aware, having worked in fast paced environments with high volume requirements.
Have the ability to use their personal impact and credibility to influence at senior levels.
Be able to demonstrate a strong track record of motivating a team to deliver excellent results.
Have in depth knowledge of current training methodologies.
Ideally we are looking for someone with CITP membership or relevant training qualification.

Job Offer

c£35,000 plus benefits

LocationBingleySalary£32000 - £36000 per annum + BenefitsReference13426323/001Contact NameMelanie Parkes

Summary

We are looking for a a talented people manager with experience of leading trainers in a fast paced contact centre or customer services environment.

Client Details

A leading financial services organisation based in Bingley.

Description

Key responsibilities will include:

Lead the training design and delivery team to deliver the creation of high quality training materials and delivery excellence in line with department objectives and targets.
Ensure TNA principles and practices are incorporated when working with the business and stakeholders across short and medium term operational training needs.
Ensure adoption of leading edge learning design principles and methods are across training team.
Responsible for robust design and delivery output
Manage all learning & development programmes including core programmes, regulatory, product and business change, to demanding business timescales and requirements.
Manage full version control and fulfil audit requirements to the correct standard.
Effectively manage the training team resources, resource planning and prioritisation.
Proactively encourage continuous improvements.
Ensure effective risk management processes are established within training in accordance with company's risk appetite and risk and control frameworks.

Profile

The ideal candidate will:

Be able to evidence a proven track record in a results driven training management role.
Be commercially aware, having worked in fast paced environments with high volume requirements.
Have the ability to use their personal impact and credibility to influence at senior levels.
Be able to demonstrate a strong track record of motivating a team to deliver excellent results.
Have in depth knowledge of current training methodologies.
Ideally we are looking for someone with CITP membership or relevant training qualification.

Job Offer

c£35,000 plus benefits

Apply now

View the original article here

My day out to My Learningworx

Today saw me attend the official launch of Learningworx which also doubled as a workshop centering on how to design online learning content.

Here’s a bit of the official blurb

Take a course. Make a course. Change the world.

As the UK’s first ‘crowd-sourced content’ learning centre, we want to help you join in and start creating your own learning content to share your knowledge and skills. But when it actually comes to making a course we understand you might not know where to start. You probably haven’t created any kind of online content before. You might even not be technologically minded. But we believe everyone has a course in them.

So here’s how we’re going to help you get started on making your course, whatever your area of interest, and earn some money out of your existing skills and knowledge. By the end of the day you’ll achieve level one of the mylearningworx expert status, meaning you are ready to rock and roll, and get cracking on creating your own learning content.

My reasons for attending were:

A colleague of mine @HayleyGordon was attending the event, who is a self confessed newbie to the world of learning technologies. Therefore I wanted to attend alongside her to provide some context between the workshop and what we are doing/plan to do within our Organisation.Despite Kate Graham’s concern (Kate is one of the founders of Learningworx)  that she didn’t want me to think I was being told how to ‘suck eggs’, I’m a firm believer that there’s always *something* to be taken away from workshops and events such as these, so I was still keen to attend and find out what that *something was*.

Readers of my blog will know that I long ago gave up trying to capture everything from every session/workshop I attend and much prefer to identify one or two ‘Monday morning, quick wins’.

Here’s a bit of background to each session along with my ‘key take aways’.

Track 1: Content Production

Gill Chester is the founder of the Little Man Project and has been involved in online learning for many years. Gill’s going to be taking us through the different tools and technologies you can use to create your learning content, many of which you’ll have already. Her tips and tricks are invaluable and will help even the least technical person get started. The session will include harnessing the power of Powerpoint, using simple PDFs for learning, screen capture tools, video and elearning authoring suites.

My key takeaways:

Look into Mozilla PopcornMakerSeriously challenge the next request for a screencast of a simple process. Let’s give our people some creditLook into the possibilities of using telephones to provide audio based performance support. (this may be difficult as many of our employees work in a call-centre and their ability to ‘dial out’ is restricted)

Track 2: Writing Great Content

One of the most important principles underpinning mylearningworx is to help our content creators write great courses. Tony Frascina of Objective Training and Chair of the annual Elearning Awards, will explore the theory of learning design, how to avoid common elearning pitfalls and how to engage your learners with your content. We’ll look at setting learning objectives and also consider how best to incorporate assessments and quizzes, or if they’re needed at all.

My key takeaways:

Tony’s session provided affirmation around the approach that I’ve taken recently and also provided some great tips for Hayley to act as a starting point for her journey into online learning design.

Track 3: Telling The World

Now once you’ve made your course, you’re going to want people to take it. But they’re not going to be able to take it if they don’t know it exists! So our communications director, Kate Graham, will be working through the different elements of how best to promote your course; from writing an attention grabbing yet appropriate course title, through to PR and promotion on social networking sites. Kate will also show you how the mylearningworx team will be working on your behalf to market your course to the world.

My key takeaways:

Think about the keywords that would be associated with your solution. More importantly get out and ask your employees what words they would use to describe the solution. Use these words to help you form your solution title, description etc

Well done to everybody involved in today’s launch and all those behind the scenes who have contributed to Learningworx, I’ll look forward to the next worxshop.

View the original article here

Management Consultants - Culture and Leadership

Management Consultants within GE Healthcare Finnamore actively develop their consultancy skills whilst building upon their own experience in OD, HR and line management within the NHS.   They take responsibility for designing and delivering complex and sensitive programmes that meet or exceed the expectations of both internal and external clients.

As part of our team, the role of Consultant will play to your strengths in:

•Working as part of (or managing) a team to deliver complex and sometimes sensitive assignments, which achieve or surpass client expectations.

•Striving to be the best you can be whilst sharing learning and training colleagues to build skills across the company.

•Driving assignment success by delivering valued content and insights.

•Actively growing your market knowledge to help develop and continuously improve our client offerings.

•Forging and maintaining outstanding client relationships and networks.

•Identifying opportunities and contributing to bids.

Desired Skills and Experience

You have gained experience and skills in a wide range of assessment and development techniques, through a career in consulting, health care, social care and public services.

You confidently exhibit and demonstrate a high level of competence in:

•Employee engagement

•Performance management

•Talent management and succession planning

•Coaching

•Working with organisations to effect culture change

•Board development

•Line management

•Team effectiveness diagnostics (e.g. MTBI)

•Project management 

Even if you consider yourself to have more to learn, you exhibit confidently the experience of someone who has worked closely with senior management in a health and social care setting.

You have personally had a strong impact on culture change, and are regarded as someone who gets matters organised and makes things happen.  

Your clients are assured by your skills in OD, HR, coaching and use of diagnostic tools and interventions, and the way in which you apply your skills and experience to any assignment.

In addition, the way in which you have contributed innovatively and creatively to the presentation and handover of work you have undertaken has ensured the effective and sustainable transfer of skills to your clients.

It is highly likely that you have gained qualifications to degree level in, for example and not limited to psychology, science or management.  You may have also gained further qualifications in OD, HR or Health.

About this company

GE Healthcare Finnamore is a leading specialist health and social care consultancy dedicated to improving people's health and wellbeing through the clients that we serve.  We formed following the acquisition of Finnamore Ltd by GE Healthcare in January 2014, bringing us together with GEHC Performance  Solutions UK (part of the global GEHC Partners business).  Our team of over seventy health and social care specialists combines the agility, independent-thinking and responsiveness of Finnamore, a consultancy of 21 years' standing, with GE's scale, world class leadership, and technology base and the health transformation track record of GEHC Performance Solutions UK.  We do the hard stuff, from strategy to implementation, getting alongside our clients to deliver lasting outcomes together.  We are committed to achieving change and transferring skills for the long term and our results speak for themselves.

Substantial contract wins during 2014 have created opportunities for suitably qualified candidates to apply to join the GE Healthcare Finnamore team.  Interested candidates should submit their CVs to The Shilston Partnership by Monday 2 June 2014. All shortlisted candidates will be invited to complete a numerical and verbal reasoning test as well as attending an assessment centre on 23 June 2014 in London.

Apply now

View the original article here