Learning Optimisation Lead

Job content

At YBS, we’re here to do what’s right. Not just for our members who use our savings and mortgage products. But for our communities, our society, and our world. And it all begins with our people. We’ve created the kind of workplace where you can make a difference. It’s somewhere you can put purpose ahead of profit. Where you can balance commerciality with conscience. Where you can focus on growing, developing, learning, and progressing. Where you can be your best. And where you can do the right thing - for you, your career, and your future.

We also encourage flexible working, so please get in touch if you’d like to discuss flexible or reduced working hours. Our Learning team are currently working from home, so you’ll start your journey at YBS working from home with occasional travel to our Leeds office. It’s likely, on a longer term basis, that you may have an office base of Leeds, Bradford or Peterborough with a working week that involves a combination of days working from home and any of the 3 YBS main office sites.

We are in the throes of transforming our learning operating model and moving from a decentralised model to a more centrally influenced learning network. We have a clear business strategy which recognises the changing needs of our members and potential customers. We have an ambitious roadmap that we are driving and delivering, and we need our colleagues to have the right set of capabilities to succeed. The business strategy has informed our learning priorities and reshaped the roles we need to implement a reimagined world of learning, one which seeks to make sure YBS always has the capabilities it needs and our colleagues have opportunity to continually learn and stay relevant.

We therefore have several roles we are seeking to fill.

About the role

We are introducing a new role, Learning Optimisation Lead, to our learning structure which will lead an agenda that transforms and optimises the learning service across YBS. The role will be instrumental in ensuring the new learning network model is introduced and embedded as quickly as possible. It will manage the delivery of a learning transformation plan, engaging with those responsible for the delivery of activities and with key stakeholders.

The role will initially design and introduce, and then manage, processes to support good governance of learning. This will include principles and practices related to design of learning, learning focus prioritisation, learning spend and learning evaluation.

The Learning Optimisation Lead role will work very closely with other Leads in the Leadership and Development Team, being the one who ensures there is appropriate levels of connectivity and understanding related to the learning agenda and activities. The role will line manage 2 teams of Learning Solution Designers. One team focuses on designing blended learning solutions for our Customer Services business and the other team focuses on designing solutions for the rest of the business. The teams also work with 3rd party learning suppliers often co-designing solutions with them where they have expertise or capacity we don’t have. The Learning Optimisation Lead role will have full oversight of our 3rd party learning network and will manage the majority of these relationships.

You will also develop and manage other resources in the learning network. This includes our learning champions and our learning heroes. You will identify and make provision for upskilling and coaching these colleagues for the accountabilities they have related to learning and you will lead an appropriate monthly engagement and learning sharing forum for these audiences.

You will build evidence and create the storyboard that promotes learning as a key component of our Employee Value Proposition, working with others to incorporate in relevant communications and social media.

Your role will be varied each day; you could be engaged in strategic conversations about capability gaps in our business; you could be consulting with colleagues to understand the timing of changes in a business area which will have implications on learning plans; you could be building quarterly reports showing progress on the learning transformation; you could be coaching your direct reports; you could be analysing budgets and drawing insights to inform decisions. For sure, you will be continually reaching for better, being clued up with what is going on in the world of learning related to customer service delivery and helping YBS make use of these outsights.

What we’re looking for

You will be super organised. You thrive on bringing order to chaos yet you can also work with a good degree of change and agility. You have exceptional project planning, management and delivery skills and give confidence to others that you have things in hand. You have proven depth and breadth of experience in learning and change management.

You will have experience of developing capabilities in others through the design and delivery of impactful learning solutions. Your experience will extend beyond the traditional classroom solutions to much more modern, digital and social learning solutions available to us today.

You will have a strong consultative approach and are able to build strong relationships. You will have proven success at diagnosing root causes to problems, using a variety of data points to identify and design solutions to address. You will have strong communication and storytelling capability, being able to apply this to written and verbal contexts.

You will have excellent team leadership skills, making it a mission to enable the highest of performance from your team members. And your ability to manage 3rd party relationships and bring true partnering value is a strength.

You will love using your initiative, data and also collaborating with others in pursuit of learning success. You will thrive on finding the best way to deliver desired outcomes at pace.

You can direct the work of others and you are resourceful in how you make things happen.

At heart, you will be a self-directed learner who just loves applying your learning. You get a kick from inspiring others to be the same.

What’s in it for you

In return, we’ll reward you with a competitive salary and an annual bonus scheme, not to mention a wide range of flexible benefits that you can take advantage of in and out of work. Then there’s our commitment to you and your career. We’re an exciting business, which means we offer lots of exciting career paths too.

And finally, you’ll be able to make the most of an incredibly diverse and inclusive culture. And it’s one we’re really proud of. In fact we’re passionate about making sure everyone is welcome - and we don’t think it will take long for you to feel like you belong here too.

So….

If you’ve got a solid background in a learning environment and experience of leading others and leading projects and you want to continue to develop your career in an empowering, respectful and supporting business then why not join us?

Our people are our heart and soul; we’re commercial and caring, big enough to offer you a challenge and small enough for you to make a real impact. We’re devoted to putting people first and doing the right thing by providing real help with real life.

We’d love to hear from you so why not apply today.

Any questions please contact Tazafia Mahmood via email at recruitment@ybs.co.uk