Shared Services Leadership Development Programme

ESB Shared Services, part of the Customer Supply and Group Services directorate, has recently launched a Leadership Development Programme. This training initiative is new for Shared Services and results, in part, from feedback received from staff during the recent Shared Services Staff Survey.

The programme was launched in October by Chris McElhinney, General Manager, Shared Services and consists of three residential modules each lasting for two days. Participants on the course were nominated by their managers from across each business areas within Shared Services. When the first tranche of the training is completed in February 2008 approximately 52 staff members will have been upskilled through the programme.

The training course was facilitated by HR Business Support in Shared Services in conjunction an external consultant, TORC Consulting Group. TORC has delivered training to a number of areas in ESB, including Customer Supply, so were able to build on the experience they had gained as a result of other initiatives within the directorate. In order to get feedback from staff in advance of completing the design phase, a cross section of the participants contributed to the content of the programme through a focus group session facilitated by TORC.

While the main objective of the course is to ultimately improve the overall performance in Shared Services the central focus has been about developing enhanced leadership and personal skills as well as building stronger working relationships. In addition to attendance at the course each participant has also been involved in project teams led by project sponsors from within the Customer Supply and Group Services directorate.

The senior management team has been very committed to the programme design and delivery and has met with all groups during the various modules. Members of the Executive Director team and other senior managers in both Corporate Centre and CS&GS Directorate presented on different modules and gave each group valuable insight into the corporate functions of the wider ESB.

Course feedback has been very positive. Shared Services is committed to continuing to support staff development in order to meet the challenges of on-going change and as a result will review the experience of the groups currently training before extending the training to other groups during the second half of next year.