Project: Leadership and Management Development Programme

Certsure LLP sought to enhance leadership and management capabilities across the organisation, ensuring teams were equipped to lead change effectively and align with the new strategic direction.

• The Goal: Empower senior and junior managers to transition from legacy ways of working, enhancing both business-as-usual and change-related project delivery.
• Scope: Bespoke 18-month leadership and management programme with ILM accreditation, psychometric profiling, and tailored workshops for over 350 employees.
• Impact: Increased stakeholder confidence, improved self-awareness and communication, and enhanced operational performance, driving successful delivery of strategic initiatives.

Background

Certsure LLP is an industry-leading organisation providing assessment, certification, and training solutions through the NIC EIC brand. With 350 people employed and a membership base of 40,000 in the electrotechnical sector, they drive the highest standards of competence and safety for the UK.

In 2023, Certsure engaged  consultants to support the development of a strategic plan. This process identified a need for leadership, management, and talent development interventions to prepare teams to lead change effectively and fulfil their roles aligned with the new strategic direction.

The objective was to shift teams from legacy ways of working, enhancing both business-as-usual and change-related project delivery. The approach aimed to build organisational, team, and individual self-awareness, providing a development experience that would improve knowledge, skills, and behaviours to support job objectives.

Working closely with the human resources and organisational development teams, and incorporating input from external consultants, a bespoke programme was co-created. This solution complemented existing initiatives, providing added value and a tailored delivery schedule to meet Certsure’s unique needs.

The Challenge

Certsure faced the challenge of transitioning their teams to a new way of working, essential for executing their updated strategic plan. This required:

• Raising self-awareness across the organisation and fostering alignment with the new direction.
• Developing skills in both senior and junior managers to lead more effectively.
• Demonstrating the tangible impact of learning and development on business goals, thereby increasing stakeholder confidence in the programme’s value.
• Ensuring that employees not only understood their roles in the organisational strategy but also had pathways to grow in knowledge, skills, and behaviour that supported both individual and organisational goals.

Our Approach

Consultation and Discovery: Conducted an initial consultation and listening exercise, followed by presenting a discussion document to outline the development pathway.

Psychometric Profiling and Workshops:

• Psychometrically profiled all key stakeholders, with feedback workshops using Insights Discovery to foster better self-awareness and understanding within teams.
• Trained two HR team members to become internal Insights Discovery Client Practitioners and champions, enabling Certsure to sustain and scale this approach internally.

Managing Change Workshops: Delivered tailored workshops on managing change to multiple teams, addressing both personal and organisational perspectives on transformation.

Motivational Workshops: Delivered engaging motivational workshops at Certsure’s UK National Conference, helping to inspire alignment with the new strategic direction.

Development of Learning Pathways: Considered Certsure’s requirements to create clear learning pathways that would enhance the employee value proposition and support ongoing individual development.

Bespoke Leadership and Management Programme: Designed an 18-month bespoke leadership and management programme for senior and junior managers across business functions. Certsure requested ILM accreditation at Levels 3 and 5 to add formal qualifications to the development.

The Results

The bespoke programme yielded significant positive impacts:

• Strategic Alignment: Increased stakeholder confidence in learning and development investments by ensuring alignment with the organisational strategic plan.
• Improved Self-Awareness and Communication: Enhanced understanding of personality and character traits among team members improved communication, management effectiveness, and decision-making.
• Operational and Strategic Performance: The delivery of new knowledge, skills, and behavioural development resulted in improved operational performance and more effective delivery of strategic projects, driven by a collaborative and progressive approach to ways of working.

This development journey has enabled Certsure’s teams to effectively support the organisation’s strategic initiatives while fostering a culture of continuous growth and improvement.

The Legacy

Ask Elliot Symonds, our Head of Learning and Development, about working with Certsure, and if his smile doesn’t give it away, he’s more than happy to tell you, it’s a unique joy to have such a collaborative and genuine partnership with a company as equally invested in growth as we are.

Two years on, the relationship has only grown, with over 50 training sessions, 2 Insights Discovery Client Practitioners, and 1:1 Coaching to facilitate a Certsure Standard of high performing future leaders.

And when it comes down to it, the results speak for themselves. Recent Certsure ILM Delegate, David Durcan, achieved the highest recorded score for his ILM Level 3 Leadership and Management award.

“This success was not mine alone. I am deeply grateful for the support and encouragement of my team, whose guidance, patience, and willingness to share their expertise enabled me to apply the course learnings to real-world scenarios. Their input was invaluable in helping me to deepen my understanding and approach each unit with confidence.

The ILM Leadership Award has provided me with invaluable tools and strategies in areas such as establishing effective teams, motivating colleagues, managing performance, and delegating effectively. These skills directly align with Certsure’s values – Be Curious, Be Courageous, and Be Committed, and I am excited to apply them within the Certification Administration Team at NICEIC Certification.

I am incredibly grateful to Jarrold Training for their excellent delivery and to Elliot Symonds for his guidance, encouragement, and insight throughout this journey. Most importantly, I am eager to build on this success to further strengthen our people, processes, and customer experience, ensuring that Certsure continues to deliver the excellence we promise.”

-David, Team Leader

We are incredibly proud of the work we’ve done with Certsure and look forward to what comes ahead.