You are a Learning and Development Consultant at Churchyard L&D Ltd. You responded to an Invitation to Tender (ITT) by Crunchy Banking Ltd and have been invited to make a 5-minute verbal pitch of your proposal to provide a Management Development programme

You are a Learning and Development Consultant at Churchyard L&D Ltd. You responded to an Invitation to Tender (ITT) by Crunchy Banking Ltd and have been invited to make a 5-minute verbal pitch of your proposal to provide a Management Development programme during a round table meeting.

The aim of the management development programme is to address possible bias in hiring, improve selection processes and increase motivation and teamworking. The programme can be split into units tailored for specific groups. The CEO believes that the board itself may be prone to age bias which screen out candidates for senior roles: this is not made explicit in the ITT because this is the CEO’s private thought.

Your proposal must be accompanied by slides and graphic delivery plan which both address Crunchy’s ITT (below). Members of the executive might ask clarifying questions during your presentation.

You will be marked individually.

INVITATION TO TENDER – LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

BACKGROUND: Crunchy Banking Ltd (Crunchy) was founded in 2015 by two creative developers and a Cryptocurrency enthusiast. Our digital banking app includes a Sterling current account and the ability to make payments in Bitcoin from a linked digital wallet.

We expanded rapidly and now our 500 international staff are headquartered in London. We hire c.20 roles a month, mostly in customer services and Development Operations (coding) but occasionally to senior roles. We attract diverse applicants, but this diversity is not reflected within our workforce, which might affect the quality of our product. Our structure is flat, and we have inclusive culture which needs protecting as we expand further.

Employee engagement in customer services needs to improve. Also banking compliance, which has a backlog of mandatory Anti-Money Laundering (AML) training is too slow. Currently, only 50% of new hires complete the training in the required first week and 15% of new staff were suspended in 2021 for not completing it on time.

The board feels that Crunchy’s performance on four measures must improve:

1. Quality of coding by Full Stack Developers by ensuring that hiring methods are appropriate and biases are removed

2. 100% compliance with AML training by developing prioritisation

3. Rapid and notable satisfaction with our customer services (currently at 65%

‘good or above’).

4. Raise management competencies to motivate staff in their teamwork during further expansion and change.

2

We regularly survey our customers and have found that unreasonable, ‘challenging’ customers are more likely to complain about service levels and close their account. We also give feedback to failed candidates and notice a marginally disproportionate (sample not large enough to draw conclusions) rejection of women.

OBJECTIVE: The Partners believe that management development will increase the quality of staff hiring, management competencies and staff engagement which will feed into profits. We therefore invite L&D specialists to tender to deliver a development programme between December 2022 and April 2023 which focusses on:

– Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for managers

– Dealing with Difficult People

– Staff Motivation and Teamwork

– Selection methods for app developers.

The proposed attendees are:

– 4 Executive Directors

– 8 Senior Managers

– 30 Line Managers (all with hiring responsibilities)

Training units should be tailored to the varied level of experience and expertise within our workforce, who work in:

1. Executive (C-Suite)

2. Legal

3. Finance

4. Banking Operations and Customer Services

5. Banking Compliance

6. Trading (24-hour operation)

7. Development (Full Stack)

8. People and Culture

9. Marketing and Growth

10. Facilities Management and IT infrastructure

11. Product Development Departments

12. Product Controlling and Testing.

Bidders are invited to make a 5-minute presentation to members of the Executive to include:

– An overview of your proposed training programme and underpinning evidence which justifies the business case for our expenditure

– Scheme of work and timeline. A graphic outline (max. 2 pages A4) of the training programme, handed to the panel at the start

– A summary of the costings for your training programme

– An explanation of how your programme is evaluated.

3

We envisage an expenditure of not more than £55,000 for this training programme.

The Human Resources Director will be available to answer questions from bidders, date and time to be published, in advance of the presentation date.

We look forward to your bid to deliver leadership development.

Crunchy Banking Ltd.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

– Understand and evaluate the role that learning and development plays in an organisation’s HR strategy.
– Integrate L&D into the operational and policy development of a business.

– Demonstrate how a variety of approaches and methods can be integrated to provide a bespoke solution to a specific business problem.

– Demonstrate clear understanding of the principles of L&D by using the form of presentation outlined in the client brief and showing:
o essential information required to make a judgment

o originality of your own thinking, approach, and delivery methods o consideration for project planning given the timeframe

o consideration for the range of existing knowledge of the staff and culture

o data and evidence (from literature where it exists) supporting your proposal

o understanding of the theory of L&D underpinning your proposal o awareness of potential business constraints/possibilities.

(90 Marks)

– Commercial preparedness

o Promptness – please arrive 10 minutes before your allocated session.
o High standard of flowing presentation

o Professional body language, eye contact and professional dress o Confidence and credibility in delivery.

NB. Reading from a script will incur a 25% penalty in marks. You may read from prompt cards.

(10 Marks)

4

READING REQUIREMENT

This is a minimum reading requirement to inform your presentation. Researching further sources which align to your proposal is advised.

Beevers, K., Rea, A., et al (2019). Learning and Development Practice in the Workplace. London: CIPD. (KORTEXT)

Barends, E., Villanueva, J., Rousseau, D.M., Briner, R.B., Jepsen, D.M., et al., (2017).

Managerial attitudes and perceived barriers regarding evidence-based practice:

An international survey. New York: Public Library of Science (PLOS).

Dochy, F., Gijbels, D., Segers, M., & Van den Bossche, P. (2011). Theories of Learning for the Workplace: Building blocks for training and professional development programs (1st ed.). London: Routledge. [This is a collection of papers.]

Gold, J., Holden, R., Stewart, J., Iles, P., and Beardwell, J. eds., (2013). Human Resource Development: Theory & Practice (2nd Ed). Palgrave: London.

Handy, C.B. (1993) Understanding organizations (4th Ed), London: Penguin.

Mankin D., (2009). Human Resource Development. Oxford; Oxford University Press.

McGuire, D. (2014) Human Resource Development (2nd Ed). London: Sage

Rees, G., and Smith P.E., (2017) Strategic Human Resource Management: An

International Perspective (2nd Ed). London: Sage.

Schein, EH (2010). Organisational Culture and Leadership (4th Ed). San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass.