Adapting to a shifting landscape
The ever-changing business environment made it clear to the company that investing in employee leadership skills was essential.
"We wanted to support our talented workforce"
The decision was driven by the HR and Learning and Development teams, who took the lead in ensuring the workforce had the right skills to navigate and thrive amid all this change.
Laura Porter, Talent and Development Manager, explained: “We have such a talented workforce, but we’ve grown as a business through lots of acquisitions where we've bolted on different businesses into a group. There’s never really been any integration or formal development for people managers, many of whom came from different backgrounds. We wanted to support this population of people”.
With this in mind, they worked strategically with Corndel to use the Apprenticeship Levy to establish a Leadership Academy. The Academy, which includes 3 different levels of leadership development programmes – for first time managers through to the senior leadership team, was designed to give employees the skills they need to thrive.
"If you can do it, you absolutely should"
Ruth Christie, Product Line Director for James Fisher's decommissioning business
And it’s certainly done that so far.
Ruth Christie, Product Line Director for James Fisher's decommissioning business, enthusiastically reflects on the impact the Executive Leadership programme has had on her professional journey. "If you can do it, you absolutely should," Ruth says, as she shares her experiences and insights into her time on the Level 7 Executive Development Programme.
The programme couldn’t have come at a better time for Ruth, who recently changed roles to lead change in a business and found the content around change management to be especially relevant.
“The quality of the content exceeded my expectations. It was just so relevant to my role. There was a moment during the programme when, just a week later, a related topic came up in conversation. Before taking the programme, I would have been completely lost in that discussion. However, having recently learned about it on the course, I found myself well-equipped to understand the concept. I couldn't help but think, "I learned about this just last week!" This experience boosted my confidence because I could imagine how lost I would have been if I hadn't taken the course.”
