Business Advisor – Workforce Development Specialist

Business Advisor - Workforce Development SpecialistThe Growth Company (GC) Business Support team has a vacancy open for a Workforce Development Specialist in the Local Authority of Trafford to support business owners with demonstrable experience, knowledge, and credibility within all areas of organisational development practice to support business growth and good employment practice.As a Local Authority Workforce Development Specialist in Greater Manchester (GM) Business Growth Hub you will deliver high-quality, organisational/workforce development assessments at multi-levels for a portfolio of business owners/leaders. As well as diagnosing and supporting people-focused improvements across organisations to implement tailored action plans, which align the people development and business growth strategy aims and objectives to improve productivity and enable growth.This role is place based within Trafford Local Authority and requires in-depth knowledge and understanding of the business base in that Local Authority, the types of work, skills needs, opportunities and barriers/challenges within that locality which are affecting businesses. Specialists will work from within the Local Authority area for a minimum of 3 days per week across a variety of locations.GM Business Growth Hub is a community of specialists with a passion to help businesses across GM to realise their ambitions. Since 2011, GM Business Growth Hub has supported more than 15,000 businesses including start-ups, scale-ups and established businesses, providing finance guidance, creating international links, and paving the way for innovation and people development across the region. We work with the best of public and private partners, offering expert one-to-one and peer-to-peer business support, events, specialist programmes, funding and much more.Key Responsibilities: Establish and maintain effective relations with business owners/leaders and internal and external key contacts to promote the work of the Workforce Development team and help facilitate high-quality referrals.Work with a diverse range of training providers maximising the use of the GM Skills Map portal to provide impartial brokerage training solutions to needs identified at an individual, departmental and company level.Develop and maintain a high-level network of business/professional contacts that generate personal referrals.Handling client enquiries via a range of methods such as face-to-face, virtually, by phone and email, to assess the growth potential using appropriate tools, processes and systems where required.Ensure client enquiries and partner referrals are correctly recorded on the Business Growth Hub’s CRM system.Undertake detailed diagnostics in person to identify the appropriate starting point of support, followed by a detailed organisation/training needs analysis on an individual, department or company.Undertake detailed discussions with clients around complex workforce/organisational development issues to understand their workforce challenges.Ensure that the monitoring and collection of output and impacts data is undertaken throughout the project.Deliver group learning/workshops/cohort sessions on specific topics to a mixed group of businesses either face to face or using virtual platforms . Microsoft Teams/Zoom. About you: Proven critical thinking and problem-solving skills.Ability to identify opportunities and be innovative.Superb communicator who can network effectively.Excellent planner and, organiser.Ability to work at a senior strategic level, work within tight deadlines and handle challenging situations that leaders may experience. Skills required: Account management skills are essential.Expertise in facilitating, coaching, organisational change management, performance analysis, people management, culture, values, employee engagement, recruitment, retention and induction is essential.Degree/CIPD level qualifications desirable, but not essential, or the relevant business experience to match those.Proven track record in managing a range of workforce development issues.Knowledge and understanding of HR practices, policies, and processes to support the workforce development within a business.Well-developed IT skills.Excellent presentation skills both written and oral. We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of everyone including vulnerable adults and young people, we expect all staff to share this commitment. All appointments will be subject to Safer Recruitment Procedures which include a DBS check. This will be conducted by Due Diligence Limited (DDC Ltd) on behalf of GC. Please note that the successful candidate will not be required to pay for this.If you are on the Barred List, it is against the law to apply and to be hired for a role that includes regulated activity with the concerned group.We are committed to increasing the diversity of our workforce, we provide a guaranteed interview to applicants who meet the essential requirements for a role. This commitment applies to candidates who have a disability or are from a diverse ethnic community.As part of our application process, you can ask to be considered under this scheme if you are from an ethnic community or have a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term negative effect on your ability to do normal daily activities. Providing that you meet the essential criteria for the role, you will then be invited for an interview. Your guaranteed interview application will only be shared with the Hiring Manager and our Internal Recruitment Team.We are a member of the national campaign Ban the Box; this campaign aims to open opportunities for people with convictions to compete for jobs. We’re supporting the campaign by removing conviction questions at the applications stage.GC aims to promote a culture of flexibility and agile working. Going forward we will be transitioning to a culture where full agile working will be a feature of many of our roles. We also recognise that there may be a need for more permanent flexibility in your working arrangements and in such cases, we encourage you to have these discussions at the interview stage, to enable your flexible working request to be considered as early as possible.