This Local Authority originally engaged Ian to set up a high profile (£1 million) Leadership Academy; he achieved this in just 4 months, creating the largest Academy of its kind within Local Government. It was nominated for a National Training Award and out of the 28 senior managers on cohort 1, 8 progressed to more senior roles within 6 months. Alongside this, Ian designed and introduced a Talent Management and succession planning strategy as well as revamping the organisation’s approach to Corporate Induction. At the same time, a voluntary Management Development initiative designed by Ian achieved a 70% take up with feedback scores of 98% on ‘relevance and application in the workplace’.
It was Ian’s ability to deliver that convinced the Council to trust him with the next major challenge.
The Authority had identified that its L&D function was underperforming and could potentially damage its chances of a successful rating in a forthcoming CPA assessment. The department had been earmarked for outsourcing, and a peer assessment had highlighted serious problems with senior leadership and management capability, succession planning and talent management processes.
Ian conducted a complete restructure of the department, compartmentalising different units so they could easily be separated and outsourced if required. His efforts yielded £750k in overall cost savings, improved productivity of the L&D function by 250% and in the CPA report, Leadership & Talent Management projects were cited as areas the Council was demonstrating a positive and creative approach to.
The HR Director said, “Ian possesses outstanding leadership, managerial, and interpersonal skills which enable him to assess people and situations quickly and deliver results. His knowledge and experience in the field of Leadership and Management Development provided an invaluable background to deliver the Council's Leadership academy as well as an organisation-wide talent management process.”
