‘Developing all our People’ is the Education Authority’s first Organisational Development & Learning Strategy, which was designed to support the organisation’s overarching delivery of EA’s Vision, Mission, Values and Strategic Priorities, primarily through the development of our people.
The strategy will focus specifically on the delivery of the strategic objectives of Developing All Our People and Nurturing Leadership and will assist in the delivery of the following associated outcomes:
- A work force that is highly capable, engaged and empowered
- An organisation where people want to work
- Developing people to work across boundaries, in partnership and as part of multidisciplinary teams
- Highly capable leaders and managers who develop engaged and performing teams
- Appropriate governance, accountability and reporting systems
Our ambition is to develop as a learning organisation and to be skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying how we work to reflect new knowledge and insights. Learning organisations are skilled to systematically problem solve, experiment with new approaches, learn from their own experience and past history, learn from the experiences and best practices of others, and transferring knowledge quickly and efficiently throughout the organisation.
A key priority lies in creating this high performance mind-set and supporting this with systems and processes that enable these activities and integrating them into the fabric of the organisation.
Through this strategy, we will focus on the key themes of Developing our Culture, our Talent & developing a Great Place to Work, using employee insights, leadership and management capacity as enablers for change and high performance.
Through the OD&L Strategy we will create a high performance mind-set by establishing a new model for workforce and organisational development, which encourages innovation and a digital first approach to developing our Culture, our Talent and a Great Place to Work, enabling employees to access:
- Self-directed learning - to commit to provide investment for and access to learn, refresh and develop key skills on an ongoing basis
- Leaders lead/social learning – with managerial support to develop appropriate blended learning interventions embedding a culture of continuous learning
- Organisational learning - programmes and to commit to provide investment for and access to high-quality development opportunities within a Learning and Development environment which is strategic, accessible and relevant.
The OD&L strategy focuses on developing the following three priority workstreams in support of developing all our people:
Developing our Culture
The EA Game Changing People Model articulates the DNA of successful people in EA. The model is focused on identifying performance outputs expected from employees across EA, which are objective and can be evidence-based. The model is designed to harness an individual’s key strengths and will help all employees in the organisation to deliver and lead at all levels, with a focus on evaluating performance results.
The complex nature of EA as an organisation requires an agile model that supports the range of leadership roles across EA, from schools support roles and from teams of 5 to 5000.
All our people will be supported through a range of development opportunities emerging from an EA Game Changing People Model, thereby supporting the development of a rich, positive and shared culture across EA, which will cultivate an innovative, creative and engaged workforce.
We have already expressed the culture of the Education Authority through our values of Openness, Respect, Responsibility, Equality, Excellence and Reflection and we will continue to develop associated behaviours and actions though our people.
Our ambition to develop as a learning organisation will enable us to create, acquire, transfer and embed new knowledge.
- Game Changing People Model
- Leadership Roadmap
- Values in Action
- Learning & Development Framework
- Recognition
Developing our Talent
The development of leadership capacity and learning remains a key priority in helping successfully navigate today’s challenging and competitive environment and key to shaping a future High Performing Culture for EA, supporting transformation and building sustainability.
In order to support the development of a more agile, customer-focused EA, the Leadership Roadmap will ensure the development of new career pathways, succession planning, ensuring great line management, building a coaching culture and an agile performance framework.
Through developing capacity along an employee’s journey it will build more interconnected and flexible teams. Agile methods of performance management will support this approach by focusing on consistent support, coaching and development. Agile Performance Management is forward looking and less concerned with appraising performance as it is building capability and skills for future development. As a result, development goals play an important part of the planning picture.
The development of a coaching culture will deliver coaching of individuals, teams, a positive organisational culture and a collaborative approach to leadership and line management capabilities – through empowering, engaging, fostering individual responsibility for learning, supporting, constructively challenging and seeking to understand others’ perspectives.
- Leadership Development at all Levels
- Succession Planning & Career Pathways
- Great People Management
- Coaching for Success
- Agile Performance Framework
- Early Careers
- Mentoring
Developing a Great Place to Work
People are at the centre of what we do and who we are.
We want to co-create a workplace environment where our people feel valued, developed and respected, with the aspiration of further developing EA as an organisation where people want to work.
Our aspiration is to enable a workforce that is highly engaged and empowered, with great communication channels, working across boundaries of multidisciplinary teams and providing an environment that works for all.
An insights survey will measure the levels of employee engagement against a set of validated and evidenced drivers enabling us as an organisation to baseline where we are, evaluate where it is we want to be and plan for how we get there. This measure will communicate to our employees that their voice matters and enable data that will support areas for action.
Providing a professional and welcoming induction for those employees who join EA will assist cultural inclusion and increased engagement in new employees. Replacing employees carries a high cost, both in direct recruitment and loss of productivity.
However, a good induction can significantly improve a new employee’s welcome to the organisation and increase the likelihood of becoming a loyal employee. Whether a new hire is a direct replacement for an employee leaving the organisation, or a new role is created, it takes time to get new employees up to speed.
A Corporate Induction Programme and accompanying leader-led induction will aid time-to-productivity (time taken to contribute to the organisation) for new team members.
- Employee Engagement
- Corporate Induction
- Directorate Support
- Leadership Events
OD&L Strategy and Learning Plan
EA Game Changing People Model
The EA Game Changing People Model articulates the DNA of successful people in EA. The model is focused on identifying performance outputs expected from employees across EA, which are objective and can be evidence-based. The model is designed to harness an individual’s key strengths and will help all employees in the organisation to deliver and lead at all levels, with a focus on evaluating performance results.
The EA Game Changing People Model has been designed to support the achievement of our organisational priorities and inform our OD&L plans, with a particular focus on our strategic priorities for:
- Developing All our People to carry out their jobs successfully
- Nurturing Leadership across the EA to give clear direction in a dynamic and complex environment
Lunch & Learn
An informal series of weekly sessions comprising of a talk, presentation or discussion that will take place during lunchtime. These are entirely voluntary and can be about anything form work related topics to hobbies, stories, or personal achievements. All we ask is that the topics are accessible to the widest possible range of staff. The sessions will be weekly and will be delivered using our online meeting tools (MS Teams, Zoom).
Booking a Session
So if you want to learn something new then book a session and come along.
Can I get involved?
We need a variety of speakers and topics to fill out the schedule so if you can think of anything that might make a good topic then please let us know.
The most important way to contribute is to get involved in delivering a session. We want staff from across the organisation delivering talks and presentations.
Lunch and Learn Channel on Microsoft Stream
A selection of previous Lunch and Learn sessions are available on Microsoft Stream.
To go to the Lunch and Learn Channel - click here
Contact the Lunch and Learn Team via email at LunchAndLearn@eani.org.uk
Organisational Development and Learning Team Contact Details
For more Information contact the Organisational Development and Learning Team on:
Email: Organisationaldevelopment@eani.org.uk
Telephone: 028 2566 1188 Ext: 661188