- Alison George
Let me introduce myself! I work as the Learning and Organisational Development Specialist at Channel 4- that’s L&OD to you and me. So…what does that mean? I work in the 4Talent team which is in Channel 4’s HR department and get to manage, design and facilitate training and development for the splendid folk who work at Channel 4. It’s all about Talent Management- how we attract, develop and retain our staff and help them to perform the best they possibly can in their jobs.
The bonus bit of my job is that as part of the 4Talent team, I also work on external talent development too; so this means working with the team on 4Talent’s work related learning programmes such as Work Experience, Diversity Production Training Schemes and Inspiration week. I get to design assessment centres; (yes, if you have ever been to one; I may have just designed it- sorry!); deliver workshops for new entrants such as researchers, and those on work experience. The kind of areas I tackle are CV writing and Career & Personal Development. I also get to work with other organisations such as FT2- (Freelance Film and TV Training), as I am a board member there.
So what does my job look like? No two days are really the same! One day I’ll be working with team within Channel 4 to help them develop their strategy or to help them work more effectively as a team. On other days; I’ll be designing or delivering development programmes such as Time Management, Influencing or Performance Management. Often I work with people on a one to one basis to help them think about how to get the most out of their roles at Channel 4- and this is called coaching. On another day, I may be at a youth media charity talking to young people about how they can get into the media industry. Recently we launched a spanking new Learning and Development website for the C4 staff to book all their training on, so that was a good project to manage and get stuck into.
The key thing about my role is about developing the people that work at Channel 4 and working with my colleagues in the 4Talent team to deliver work relating learning that benefits the widest range of people.
