Learning & Development Manager
Permanent
Based in Burton Upon Trent / Hybrid (3 days in the office in Burton / 2 days at home)
We are looking for a Learning & Development Manager to join our friendly and collaborative team here at Waterstones in Burton Upon Trent. You will be fully responsible for the development of impactful L&D initiatives to drive learning for our Warehouse employees and Head Office Teams based in Burton Upon Trent and Piccadilly, London.
As a Learning & Development Manager for the Warehouse and Head Office, you will be a key strategic partner in fostering a culture of continuous learning, excellence and belonging. You will design and implement learning experiences that align with our organisational goals for the Warehouse and support teams, support delivery of strong performance, developing management and leadership capability and maximising use of tools and resources to deliver cost effective solutions to meet a variety of learning needs.
What you will be doing
* Understand The Warehouse and Head Office business priorities and challenges to deliver effective development initiatives that are operationally relevant for a variety of stakeholder requirements
* Work with the Warehouse leadership team to create and deliver an effective onboarding development programme to ensure new employees are trained well.
* Create and deliver effective career development programmes for The Warehouse and Head Office teams to ensure retention and succession of our employees
* Create and deliver management and leadership programmes.
* Manage apprenticeship providers, explore and implement programmes that maximise our usage of the apprenticeship levy whilst delivering value to the business.
* Effective use of variety of development techniques, tools and opportunities to meet requirements, such as networking events, use of our e-learning platform, creative development events, building video content etc to self-directed learning, fostering continuous growth and development.
* Regularly review, maintain and update learning libraries.
* Oversee the approval of training materials, ensuring consistency and accuracy for The Warehouse & Head Office.
* Provide guidance on designing training for key business processes and systems.
* Stay up to date with trends in learning, growth and development to ensure our programs evolve in line with business needs.
* Where appropriate sharing resources and collaborating on corporate initiatives and content with the Retail L&D Team to maximise our development offering.
What we need from you
* Knowledge of effective learning and development methods.
* Experience of delivering development activities, ideally within a Warehouse environment.
* Design and delivery of effective development solutions to meet business needs
* Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
* Project management expertise.
* Strong influencing skills.
* Skills Gap analysis experience.
* Experience engaging with a variety of different stakeholders.
* Utilising apprenticeship levy and managing providers.
* Knowledge of delivering solutions to non-native English employees would be advantageous
Person Profile
* You will be confident at building trusting relationships and have a coaching style/approach.
* Confidence in handling and analysing data to make recommendations or decisions.
* You will have excellent organisational skills.
* Confident in delivering training face to face.
* Have a flexible working style and able to adapt to different audiences.
* Be a starter / finisher.
Why work for Waterstones
At Waterstones, everything we do is about our customers, and we work hard to provide them with the best possible shopping experience, one that will make them want to visit time and time again. We strive to consistently deliver fantastic customer service, whether recommending a book or a gift, keeping our shops beautifully stocked, helping out in our lovely Café W’s, or keeping the wheels turning efficiently behind the scenes. Working with us, you will get to use your expertise and enthusiasm to bring to our customers the irreplaceable pleasures of a good bookshop (including a virtual one).
In return, you will be working in a role that can make a real difference to Waterstones, work in a friendly and dynamic team and get to benefit from our excellent discount in shops and waterstones.com.
If you have the relevant essential experience and you are interested, we would love to hear from you.