Job Information Pack s2

Job Information Pack Employer Services Leader £27,666 - £34,238 plus excellent benefits

This pack contains the following documents:  How to apply  Our benefits – what we can offer you  What does the job involve  What you need to be an Employer Services Leader (Person Specification)  Background information about the role, the team and what you’d be doing  How to claim interview expenses

You can find out more information about what we do, our history, our culture and our products and services on our website www.ncfe.org.uk. If there’s anything particular that you can’t find on our website, please call us and we’ll be happy to help answer your questions.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 How do I apply? First of all, thank you for showing an interest in coming to work for us. You’ll need to send us the following so we can consider your application:

You’ll need to send us the following so we can consider your application:

Covering Letter – you should use this to tell us:

 How you fit with NCFE’s values  Why you’re the best candidate for the role  Why you want to work at NCFE

CV – this should tell us about your relevant skills and experience for the role for which you’re applying.

You can type or handwrite your application - we don’t mind as long as it’s easy to read!

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 What can we offer you?

At NCFE we genuinely believe that we reward and treat our colleagues well and that NCFE is a great place to work. As a result, everyone provides a great level of service to our customers and colleagues. This enables us to grow and earn the money that we can then re-invest in the company and the people for the benefit of our customers.

These are the benefits whilst working at NCFE:

Office Environment In December 2013 we relocated from our Newcastle City Centre Office to a brand new spacious office located in Q6 at Quorum Business Park in Longbenton.

The office has some great new facilities for our increasing number of colleagues working for us such as onsite car parking, our own café, a large self-service kitchen area, a games room, a dining area, a wellbeing room, picnic benches, a wide range of meeting rooms, hot desks within quiet areas, tea points, and even soundproof seating areas.

We’re really excited about our new home and giving our people an even better working environment, which will ensure that working for NCFE is now an even greater experience.

Competitive Rates of Pay We think we pay a good basic salary – we regularly check our salary scales against comparable roles in the North East. From time-to-time we benchmark the salary scales applied to every job, most recently using the Croner R£ward system.

Performance-Related Salary Increments You can earn more money if you perform at an exceptional level and exceed expectations in the delivery of your objectives, job performance measures and competencies. Pay awards are either a one-off ‘bonus’ or as an increment built into your basic salary.

Relocation Expenses We want the best people to join us so if you need to relocate to be here at NCFE then we may be able to support you with your Relocation Expenses if you currently live more than 50 miles from our head office.

Holidays We offer a generous holiday entitlement:

 for most posts, the basic entitlement is 25 days’ annual leave, rising to 27 days after 2 years’ service  for Manager posts and above and Business Development Officers, we offer 27 days’ annual leave, rising to 30 days after 2 years’ service.

This doesn’t include Bank Holidays (you get those as well!) and, in addition, we’d usually close the office between Christmas and New Year, which doesn’t come out of your holiday entitlement.

Flexible Working We know that keeping a sensible work-life balance is getting harder all the time so we try to allow staff to work flexibly if they need to. We obviously need to put the needs of our customers first, but if anyone needs to start early or finish early we will try to accommodate this. For posts below Manager level we also offer a flexible flexi-time scheme, as well as being able to be considered for the various other flexible ways of working for all staff.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 Pension We operate a flexible pension scheme which all staff can join and pay money into once they have completed 12 weeks’ service. We’ll pay the equivalent of 9% of salary into your pension fund as long as you contribute a minimum of 3% yourself. If this doesn’t fit your needs you can choose to make a 1% contribution which we will pay 3%, or alternatively you can make a 2% contribution and we will pay 6%.

Maternity Pay We look after you if you’re expecting! If you meet the eligibility criteria, we offer enhanced maternity pay of 8 weeks’ full pay (including SMP) and the remaining 18 weeks at half of normal salary followed by any additional statutory entitlements. You can also get paid time off for ante-natal, health visitor and midwife appointments. We’re a member of the Tommy’s Baby Charity Pregnancy Accreditation Programme and we’ll even give you one of our now-legendary NCFE babygrows!

Paternity Pay New dads who meet the eligibility criteria are entitled to 2 weeks’ paternity leave, paid at full salary (inclusive of Statutory Paternity Pay) and may also be eligible to request Additional Paternity Leave where you may be able to take up to 26 weeks leave.

Adoptive Leave If you happen to have an adopted child or adopt while you’re with us, we’ll treat you exactly the same as if you were the biological parent. We offer comparable adoptive leave and pay as well as paid time off for any appointments related to your adoption.

In addition these are the benefits currently available to you which we regularly review and update:

Healthcare plan We operate a healthcare plan which enables you to claim towards the cost of your everyday health costs such as dental and optical care and therapy treatments, you also get access to a 24 hour counselling line and GP advice line for those moments when you need some extra help and support.

Discounted Annual Travel Pass We do have parking spaces available at NCFE but also encourage use of public transport, so to help you with your travel to and from work we offer an interest-free loan to buy a discounted annual travel pass. This could save you more than £100 on your annual travel costs!

Tax free bikes We’re signed up to the Government’s Green Transport Cycle to Work Initiative which enables you to make big savings on the purchase of a new bike and pay for it in instalments via tax free salary sacrifice once you have completed your probationary period. We have secure bike parking and shower facilities in our office so you can commute by bike to work. For more information on this scheme go to www.cyclescheme.co.uk

Computer Loans We’re signed up with the Computing Scheme which allows you to pay for computer equipment from your salary and making savings in the process. This is available to you on completion of your probation.

Learning and Development As you might expect from an organisation dealing with education, we place great emphasis on training and developing our staff. This starts on day one with the start of an in depth induction programme and

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 continues throughout your career with NCFE. You’ll take responsibility for your own learning and development and will actively seek opportunities to improve, you’ll do this with support from your line manager and our Learning and Development Team who’ll help you to identify, plan and address your needs.

 Induction – we give all staff a thorough induction into the organisation, this includes developing you to carry out the duties and responsibilities of your role, helping you learn about the different teams in the organisation so you know who your colleagues are, what they do and how you can work together as one team. There’s a cultural induction which includes an introduction to service excellence and values of the company which will help you to understand the behaviours which will help you to have a successful career with NCFE.

 Ongoing learning and development – We invest in your skills and development throughout your career with NCFE to enable you to deliver the best service to our customers and to develop your expertise in your specialist area. We use a variety of learning methods and tailor our learning to meet business priorities and individual needs.

 Love Learning Library – We’ve an extensive learning resource in our Library with over 180 different items for you to use. There’s something to suit everyone’s style from books to DVD’s, CD-Rom’s to podcasts. The library covers a wide range of topics from personal development to management, fun topics, language CD’s and some brilliant self-help books.

 Support for Other Training – If you need some training for your job, we’ll fund it in full. If you want to do something a little more to do with your personal development, this could be a short course or qualification, we’ll still make a contribution towards it if we can. The support includes a contribution towards payment of fees, paid time off to attend events, paid time off for exams, contribution towards purchase of core course books.

 Personal Development Allowance – We give an allowance of £200 a year to each member of staff once they have completed their probation. They can use this allowance on absolutely any type of training activity of their choice, which needn’t be anything to do with work. This year, staff have spent their allowance on skiing lessons, driving lessons, card making course, website design course, pottery, dancing lessons, Spanish lessons, European Computer Driving Licence qualification, woodworking and many more.

 Free NCFE Qualifications – On completion of your probation you can do NCFE qualifications where we will contribute up to £400 towards the cost of the course – with our qualifications ranging from Creative Craft and Art and Design to Personal Money Management and Food Safety Management there’s something for everyone.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 The fun stuff… We’re not afraid to have fun at work – it makes for a happier working environment and we actually think it makes you work better as well!

Celebration Lunches - We like to celebrate things at NCFE - recently we’ve celebrated good months for income, our highest-ever customer and staff satisfaction results and winning an important contract.

Free Drinks – It’s important to keep you hydrated so you can perform at your best so we offer a variety of drinks at our tea points including Fair-trade tea and coffee, a variety of herbal teas and fruit squashes – all free of charge.

All Staff Events - Every few months we close the office for the afternoon to hold an all staff event. There’s (usually) a point to the event but we like to get those points across in a fun way. So recent events have included a Abba themed extravaganza (actually the launch of our business plan), a Rocky Horror Picture Show event, a Sports Day and a Spanish summer extravaganza complete with tapas, flamenco dancing and a fair amount of sangria!

Christmas Party – we had an x-factor contestant performing live for last year’s Christmas Party, which gave everyone an opportunity to dance the night away. In previous years we’ve had a masked ball, surf simulators, a ‘casino’ with roulette and black jack tables, and rodeo with a ‘bucking bronco’.

Other Staff Events We encourage everyone to get involved in (and dream up in the first place) the various fun things that people organise from time to time. Some recent examples have been:

 wine tasting evening  pie and pint night  Community Gardening Project  Adult Learners’ Week  5-a-side football tournament  darts, Wii & Jenga tournaments  Health & Well Being Initiatives

If you join us, we hope you’ll have your own ideas!

Don’t just take our word for it!!  we were named the Sunday Times 15th Best Public or Third Sector Company to work for 2013  we were accredited by Best Companies with 2 stars (1st Class Organisation) in 2013  in 2012 we were awarded the Gold Standard Investors in People status  we were the Overall winner of the Culture for Success awards 2011  in 2009 we won 2 UK Customer Experience Awards for Best Medium Organisation, and Culture and People.  we won the CIPD Regional Award for Innovation in Recruitment and Retention & also HR&D Excellence through Technology.

Employer Services Leader – Job Description

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 What does the team do? The main purpose of the Commercial and Employer Services Team is to build relationships with employers in order to; Gain endorsement/involvement in product design and to develop this customer base and its related product and service offer. The team is also focused on maximising the potential for income generation of accreditation services. And the team will explore new commercial opportunities for NCFE Awarding. What’s the team structure?

Commercial and Employer Services Manager

Accreditation Services Employer Services Leader Leader

Accreditation Services Accreditation Services Officer Officer

What are the main priorities of the role?

Through effective sales, networking and leadership skills you will be tasked to lead on increasing our employer network. You will be using your relationship building skills to engage with employers and identify commercial business opportunities for NCFE. You will also be tasked to build relationships with top employers across a range of sectors and to work with them, our Research and Product Development and marketing and insight teams to support qualification and product design and launch.

What does the job involve? The specialist duties and responsibilities of the Employer Engagement Leader are to:

 lead on our employer engagement to support our business objectives, which includes devising an engagement plan for the year, and working with cross functional teams in the business to support the achievement of these objectives.  identify possible business opportunities within the employer market, that support our vision and drive these opportunities through to completion by working with colleagues across the business.  create and maintain a wide network of employers to support the direction of NCFEs portfolio development and business plan objectives and coordinate any cross team activity to support this activity.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000  create and manage the employer advisory group and work with Research and Product development team to ensure that we utilize the employer voice effectively to achieve our business objectives.  generate leads and convert them into sales and income from employers directly.  build the customer base through attendance of events, networking (including social media) and direct sales activities through emails, calls and face to face meetings.  target and build relationships with employer networking groups and industry recognised organisations such as CIPD, Sector skills councils, LEPs and Trade Bodies to support our objectives.  work with Research and Product Development Team to understand their endorsement and co-creation requirements for qualification developments, and manage the processes for communication and timelines.  support with the Commercial and Employer Services Manager to create and then execute an operational plan to support the engagement requirements and report progress on a regular basis to key internal stakeholders including the R&PD team and the Commercial and Employer Services Manager.  represent NCFE at key related National Events and conferences.  support other projects in the Commercial and Employer Services team as required.

… we’d expect every single member of staff to…

 improve the performance of NCFE by seeking new business opportunities and continually reviewing and implementing improved working practices and processes  deliver exceptional customer service to all NCFE customers, both internal and external  support NCFE in maintaining its compliance with the Conditions of Recognition and additional regulatory criteria.  maintaining current knowledge of developments in the education sector, learning and development, customer activity and NCFE’s products and services

What will you need to be able to do the job? Qualifications & experience

 full driving licence  experience of working in a similar/comparable role

Skills & Knowledge

 excellent sales skills, with a consultative sales approach  strong leadership and influencing skills to support the cross team activities  excellent report writing skills  excellent presentation skills  excellent telephone manner  excellent written and oral communication skills, including good grammar and spelling  demonstrable word processing, data entry, spreadsheet and email skills

Abilities & Behaviors

 ability to behave in a way that demonstrates our Values in Action behaviours at the following levels: - Service Excellence – Level 2

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 - Agility – Level 2 - Influencing – Level 2 - Development – Level 2 - Impact – Level 2 - Operational Excellence – Level 2 - Commerciality – Level 2 - Direction – Level 2 - Working Together – Level 2  ability to develop and maintain working relationships, including networking, with a range of contacts  ability to identify and act upon business opportunities  ability to work independently when needed and motivate self to achieve and exceed targets  ability to travel extensively, including regular overnight stays

It would be even better if you also had…

 knowledge of current developments in learning and development and adult education  better still if you have worked in learning and development in the past  negotiation and influencing skills  educated to at least A-level/GCE standard or equivalent  experience working in employer engagement  experience of working in an educational environment  a good sense of humour!

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 What might a typical day be like? A day in the life of an Employer Services Leader… The good news is that there isn’t a typical day, but ‘a day in the life of’ could look like this: 8:30 – I need to be at the office early today because my manager has organised a meeting with marketing to discuss a couple of things. On the agenda is conference selection for the year, how to market the new service, and market research findings into eLearning in the L&D sector. It's a lively meeting and I am able to put forward my opinion on which conferences I think we should attend and exhibit this year based on my previous meetings with customers. I have one particular employer who really helped me understand which conferences would have the highest attendance. Must send her some chocolates to say thank you!

9:30 – Time for a quick coffee and scone from downstairs, while I have a read through the latest People Management magazine and find out what is happening in the world of HR and L&D.

9:45 – Prepare set up for the web conference call I have scheduled with a prospective customer at 10am. I met with the Head of HR at a major blue chip company last week. I had come across her on linked in and sent her a prospective email a few weeks ago. She had agreed to meet, and whilst she only gave me 30 minutes, she had said she was keen to get me to speak to her L&D team, who were based in 4 different locations across the country, so I suggested we carry out a web conference.

10:00 – Run through the PowerPoint presentation on the call and make sure I keep everyone engaged. Conference calls can be tough, but I do my best to build rapport by cracking the odd joke and asking questions. One of the people on the call in particular seems really keen in what we have to offer, and has some really interesting ideas of how we could possibly add to our service, and so we agree that I will go and meet with her in Liverpool before the end of the month, and that we will draft up a proposal of how we could work together. Result!

12:00 – Pop downstairs to the cafe for lunch with some work colleagues.

13:00 – time for some prospecting. I have a delegate list from a small regional event I attended in York last week that consists of a range of SMEs. I had done a short presentation at the event about NCFE qualifications and Accreditation services and it had been very warmly received. My plan was to email each of the 14 delegates personally to see if I can set up a meeting. If I get two meetings out if it I will be happy! So I spend some time researching each company’s website before I send them each a personalised message with some dates, and track it all in CRM so that I can be sure I will follow up.

15.00 - I meet with the development leaders for our monthly update. I report to them how I am progressing on the employer endorsements and co-creation contacts, and explain the areas where I am having some trouble. They give me some suggestions of other types of employers I can contact, which is great. It's useful to have these collaboration times, as it helps generates new approaches. The Development Team Leader also outlines the next quarters’ development plans. I take plenty of notes so that I can build it into my engagement plan and update my line manager at our next monthly meeting. There are some really interesting qualifications planned. I am looking forward to getting some employers involved.

16:00 – I make some follow up calls to some employers I have been speaking to about a particular qualification. I manage to get a hold of 2 of them, and they promise to send me the endorsement letters by close of play Friday. Result! I then spend the next hour prepping their letter templates and getting them emailed out to the employers to make it as simple as possible for them, as I know their time is precious. Finally, I update the records in CRM. Only one more employer to get for that qual. Almost there.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000 17.00 - Head to the train station. We have and exhibition stand at an HR event in London tomorrow morning and I am manning the stand with one of my Business Development Colleagues. Don't forget to grab my business cards before I run out of the door! Really looking forward to speaking to people tomorrow and seeing how we might be able to help them. 19:30 – Arrive in London and head to our hotel. Grab a quick bite to eat with my colleague, and then have an early night. We’ve got an early start tomorrow as we need to set up the stand.

Visit www.ncfe.org.uk Email [email protected] Call 0191 239 8000