About Michael Page International Recruitment Limited

Michael Page’s Talent Development Directors provide phone support and face-to-face coaching to those who need additional help with applying the techniques and approaches. This, alongside the follow-up and support they receive from their directors, is the best way of providing support and embedding the learning. The management development programme extends across 9 months and the managers are encouraged to utilise peer support and share successes. Action points, from each day of training, are recorded in workbooks that the managers also use as reference guides. The company online performance management tool enables managers to record their key actions and development points at any stage in the year and these are reviewed twice yearly as below. Twice a year there is a midyear review in June/July and an annual appraisal in Dec/Jan. This includes reviewing performance against both goals and KPIs as well as behavioural ratings linked to the company’s behavioural framework. They provide guidance documents and support on how to develop specific behaviours via a personal development plan.

Michael Page employ a blended learning approach in line with the 70/20/10 principle. They utilise new technologies such as online business simulations, videos and Phone Coach. At-desk coaching, mentoring and shadowing are ingrained in the way they on-board and develop people to maximise the efficacy of their classroom training. Michael Page’s online performance management system incorporates behavioural review and development, in line with their behavioural framework, as well as the normal goal and KPI metrics. They utilise the Myers Briggs Type Indicator for personal development purposes and increasing self-awareness. The manager and leadership training reflects current trends such as the importance of trust, authentic leadership, unconscious bias and engagement. They have also developed an in-house diagnostic tool which enables the Talent Development team to help managers and directors identify training needs and motivational challenges. This process then results in advice and guidance on providing additional training or support or an at-desk coaching session with a member of the TD team. Michael Page have always utilised e-learning as part of their training and development offering and this year they have scoped, researched and invested in a new digital learning platform which gives employees the opportunity to learn in a way that suits them. The platform is agile and dynamic with social learning, gamification, video and mobile device capability. They are currently designing and creating learning pathways and digital content for their launch in early 2017.

In 2016 Michael Page launched a brand new internal communications strategy, moving from a reactive to a proactive approach. An audit looked at the number of messages being distributed, the channels used and the percentage of messages that pertained to the EVP. As a result, they devised a strategy and implemented new communications channels, including SMS and a brand new Leadership Pack, which is sent monthly to managers of people. These managers are then responsible with sharing the information with their teams. They also increased the use of their creative studio and implemented a quarterly update from the UK MD, which is distributed via the Leadership Pack. Earlier in the year, they provided all employees with branded headphones, giving them the tools they need in order to listen to video and audio communications. They are also launching an internal communications radio show in November 2016, which will showcase real people and real stories from across the business. This will replace wordy communications, which were not previously engaging. They are also planning a campaign to re-introduce PageConnect (Yammer) to the business in 2017, where they will host and signpost to key content. The objective is to increase engagement around important business messages and encourage the use of the platform as a key communication platform.