The opportunity
The successful applicant for the Senior Manager role will work closely with the Head of L&D, the Global Learning Team, Head of HR for London and the London Management Team (LMT) to deliver: a targeted London Seminar Series, the Global Curriculum Business Service offer, design leadership programmes / workshop content and delivery of strategic L&D projects.
We are looking for someone who possesses a consulting mindset – loving the challenge of working across client groups, being creative, designing and crucially delivering learning content.
This role will report to the Head of L&D and will be an integral part of the team comprising of the other L&D Manager, the Client L&D Senior Officer, and two Assistants.
Whilst this is a London based role, serving the London office there is a need to work / think globally to deliver the Business Services curriculum and functional support.
The team
In London, the team comprises of HR professionals across all areas from graduate and lateral recruitment, learning & development to teams specialising in generalist HR, our HR system, partner HR, corporate social responsibility and diversity: all working alongside our international colleagues in supporting our 30 offices. Collaborative and committed to creating a valuable service to the firm, we are focused on providing the best service to all Bird & Bird employees and partner.
What you'll do
The L&D Senior Manager will have overall responsibility for:
Design & delivery
- Support the Head of L&D in creating a suite of global professional skills courses, leadership and career management programmes.
- Actively develop relationships across our internal client groups to identify and respond to learning needs.
- Deliver training sessions internally on a global
- basis ensuring webinars are as interactive, pragmatic and engaging.
London L&D programme
- Liaise with the Head of HR for London and the London Management Team (LMT) to identify priority learning needs for each level within the office, creating a tailored programme for each cohort.
- Act as a conduit for learning updates and talent initiatives across the London office for LMT – identifying themes, opportunities for improving the offer, sharing insights in relation to our firm and talent strategies.
- Responsible for developing a London L&D programme to support the London office strategy (including the London Seminar Series).
- Assess the effectiveness of all training provided and update content / providers accordingly.
- Develop L&D initiatives as appropriate to address learning needs from across the London practice groups and Business Services teams.
Business Services global curriculum
- Define required content for the Business Services (all) and leadership streams.
- Source or design and deliver required content.
- Work with the L&D Assistant to administer the Business Services Global Curriculum.
- Ensure the content provided meets identified global needs for Business Services professionals.
- Manage the relationships with our internal and external panel of content providers.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the content provision, making updates as appropriate to maintain high levels of content quality and participant experience.
Business Services career and talent programmes
- Manage the Manager transition programme: coordinating the global list of manager promotes, sourcing a global panel, facilitating the transition panel discussion and organising group coaching.
- Co-deliver the pre–Manager High Performance Programme with the Head of L&D, updating content as appropriate.
- Co-deliver the Senior Associate London programme and coordinate content / co-deliver the global online programme.
- Supervision of the continued competence process for England & Wales qualified associates
- Work with the L&D Assistant to manage the continued competence process for all England & Wales qualified associates within the London office and across the network using Cornerstone.
- Collaborate with Risk to ensure all appropriate fee earners are included in the bulk submission to the SRA.
- Manage all communications, reminders to ensure associates understand what is expected and any required follow up / chaser emails / calls
Coaching programme
- Evaluate the current coaching provision to develop a prioritised plan for improvement.
- Extend and manage the external coaching faculty.
- Manage the matching process, budget and invoicing for coaching relationships.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the coaching relationships: personal & business benefits.
Ad hoc L&D project work
- Support the Head of L&D and HR leadership team with ad-hoc projects to meet the strategic needs of the firm as required.
About you
- Preferably have experience of operating at Manager or Senior Manager level in a L&D function within an international law firm or professional services firm.
- Experience of working in a consultancy capacity either in house or for a consultancy would be valuable.
- Ability to manage the development of strategic L&D / business initiatives from inception to delivery and evaluation.
- A passion for design and love for delivering professional skills programmes with depth and breadth of experience.
- Ability to manage multiple senior stakeholders.
- Experience of managing junior colleagues.
- Track record of pro-actively identifying areas where L&D can contribute to excellence in client service and/or drive efficiencies across the business.
- Ability to influence and motivate busy professionals at all levels to participate in and contribute to learning and development activities.
- Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to develop and sustain professional relationships across the business.
- The ability to be pragmatic and be able to manage conflicting priorities.
- Have outstanding client service skills and an ability to meet business needs whilst setting appropriate expectations.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to deal with people at all levels; and able to deal with external contacts and suppliers.
- Ability to manage a budget.
- IT literate with a good understanding of the role of technology in developing knowledge and learning across an international organisation.
- Experience of using Cornerstone or other comparable learning management systems.
- Can produce persuasive, accurate, concise and clear written work.
- Excellent time management/prioritisation skills and respect for deadlines.
- A self-starter with a proactive attitude to work.
- Willing to work as part of a team sharing knowledge, best practice and previous experience; and flexible attitude.
The main responsibilities of this role are outlined above; however, this description is not exhaustive, and the job holder may be required to undertake additional duties from time to time to ensure the smooth running of the department. The role may require some working outside our normal working hours of 9:30am- 5:30pm.
