• Building strategic relationships with Lead Directors, COOs, HRBPs and key business leaders across the UK business• Performing Training Needs Analysis for all UK business lines• Identification of high potential (HiPos) staff• Reviewed and re-designed several existing programmes including the Management Development Programme for HiPos and the Sales Development Framework• Identifying designing and implementing new learning experiences around New to Manager training, Project Management and Finance for the Non-Financial• Delivering internal training on subjects such as Presentation Skills, Change Management and Performance Management• Building relationships with existing and new training suppliers covering areas such as soft skills, sales, diversity and leadership• Working as part of a EMEA and Global team looking at developing firm wide initiatives around performance management and also senior talent development• Management and allocation of UK training budget, circa £500K• Acting as an internal Coach as well as providing EiP analysis to senior individuals

The role has two strands; one facing into the UK, acting as the CoE, working alongside the UK HR Leadership Team; and one facing into the Global team, bringing best practices from the UK and working as part of the Global team to develop and implement companywide initiatives. James regularly works with Senior Executives in helping to understand the rhythm of the business from a Member point of view, providing insight into senior appointments, talent management, succession planning and other key aspects of business operation. In this role, James has had a unique opportunity to be involved in a number of activities relating to the integration of Logica into CGI, from the roll-out and integration of the CGI Member Satisfaction Survey Programme into the UK through to the introduction and design of the CGI standard Organisational Model. James has undertaken several key responsibilities in the UK during this role as well as leading key global initiatives such as the development and deployment an improved Member Satisfaction process and system. Some of the matters James has undertaken to achieve the above include: -o Analysis and research into best practices both within CGI and in the external market;o Presenting concepts and plans at Board Level;o Developing and delivering training for Members at all levels;o Designing KPIs, signing these off and then developing the tools to record these;o Providing strategic insight into business planning;o Analysing input from all stakeholders, and providing thought leadership around actions to take;o Working with Members at all levels in design and implementation of initiatives; ando Acting as a Mentor for other Members of staff.During his role, James has also undertaken a Diploma in Executive Coaching qualification, which he did alongside his day job, completing training and assignments along with a final exam. James is now a qualified Coach and uses his Coaching skills for Members across CGI and externally.

Working with the Head of Global Talent Development, James was responsible for moving from a country based approach to a more unified global approach when it came to Talent Development across Logica. To aid this, James spearheaded the implementation of the Logica University, which aligned the global learning offerings across the globe into five distinct streams, assigning an owner for each of the streams and building the content of these streams. Through the Logica University, the company was able to better align their offerings globally, saving costs and also sharing best practices. James also headed up the programme to bring the ‘One Young World’ initiative to Logica, designing a programme to select five young members of staff to represent Logica at the Global One Young World event. This included designing a selection process, implementing an interactive workspace (SharePoint), hosting calls between the successful candidates, coaching them for their experience and helping them to connect with Senior Managers within Logica. Whilst in this role, James also undertook various other projects, including looking at both a global approach and also working with local teams across the globe in implementing initiatives locally such as Graduate Development and Talent Assessment. James was instrumental in streamlining the locally owned teams and designing a larger global offering, with an increase in the number of Members working across the globe rather than locally, an initiative which continues to be effective today in CGI.

Following the work James undertook on the Programme for Growth, James was asked to implement a new function within the Global CIO Office, which was being created to ensure processes and procedures were in place for all Global CIO Office projects, to ensure that everything was delivered in an efficient, cost effective and successful manner. This role included implementing new balance and check procedures for all, working with the project leads in implementing these and helping the team to understand the benefit. James successfully implemented the CIO Office, creating an effective BAU operation within a month. James then employed a team to take the CIO Office forward, ensuring that the right people were engaged.

Working in the Programme Office, James had an active role within the Programme from the Strategy review session where the programme was conceptualised into the launch of the Programme and throughout its whole life cycle. James’ responsibilities ranged from the financial reporting for the programme, co-ordinating the meetings between the different aspects of the programme as well as developing the communications aligned with the programme.James achieved recognition for his work around Programme Reporting with an external Audit team using James’ work as an example of best practice within Logica and externally. As well as working in the central programme team, James also had roles within a number of sub-workstreams to the programme. For example, on the High Growth Areas, James helped to co-ordinate the reviews and budgeting process for the end of 2008 and was key to the development of the new reporting process for the High Growth Areas. James also enjoyed a deep involvement in developing the Organisation Blueprint, looking at how best to structure the organisation going forward and was active in supporting the different countries to implement this. As the Programme for Growth drew to a close, James remained part of the key team who moved the processes into a BAU state, ensuring that the best practices attained during implementation continued within the business.

Starting off in the PMO position within the Programme, James worked with the Programme Manager and Director to implement the necessary reporting procedures required to efficiently run such a large scale programme. Hosting weekly update calls with the client, James quickly became a central figure within the Programme. As the programme progressed, so did James, where he took on the role of Project Manager for the implementation of the Business Applications aspect of the Programme. This involved creating a project plan, managing staff, budgets and also reporting on a weekly basis back to the client. Whilst in this role, James dealt with a number of staff who were located off-shore and built up knowledge of how to manage teams remotely.

James undertook various roles within this call centre organisation, including Account Management, Training and ISO accreditation. The roles covered matters such as client contact at various levels and also communicating results both up and down the internal structure.As the Quality Manager, James’ responsibility was to ensure that all of the processes implemented in the company were adhered to by all concerned through a series of interviews and audits, with a successful completion one month prior to the deadline for accreditation.In the Training Manager role his task was to identify areas within the business which required development and, with the assistance of senior Management, to create and implement a comprehensive training plan. This included developing courses both for product training, soft skills and management training.As an Account Manager, James’ role was to be the first point of contact for the client and also the Line Manager for all of the staff involved in the account. Giving weekly feedback to the client and senior Management was an important part of this role, as was the management of the day-to-day operation of the account.

James had to co-ordinate with clients, to determine their specific requirements in the form of a marketing plan and then to liaise with the design team to put these plans into action. This role was heavily client focused, with visits to at least five clients per day.James had a key role in the fluid functioning of this organisation as he was responsible for conveying to the Design team exactly what was needed by the client, and what was not, and then supervising the work. Without this role, the organisation would not have been able to function.

The role within this organisation was originally as a Business Development Manager where the responsibilities were to cold call clients and either book individual staff into courses or arrange appointments for Account Managers to visit the organisation.This role then progressed through a series of roles, eventually attaining the position of Service Support Manager with responsibility for running the sales team, the admin department and the training team.The role involved a large amount of deadlines which had to be met and also co-ordinating with a large number of staff to ensure that everything ran smoothly.Being the key contact for clients was also an integral aspect of this role along with communicating with people at all levels, from the shop floor to the boardroom.During this role, James developed an enjoyment of computing through his undertaking of developing of a new network system for the organisation and then looking after the day-to-day running of the network.

James played a key role in the Yorkshire Bank, from the first day of his career. James received awards for Employee of the Month and Employee of the Year for his hard and consistent work both when dealing with the customers in a face-to-face situation and also when delivering back office assistance for a number of large business banking clients. Though it is sometime since James was involved in the day-to-day activities of Banking, he has kept a keen eye on the market place and still has a good understanding of the Banking sector as a whole.