The Abbey Group recognises the importance of learning and development for all staff throughout their careers and for the organisation as a whole.

Learning and development at the Abbey Group aims to improve group and individual performance by increasing and developing skills and knowledge to ensure a sustainable successful company.

 

Personal Learning & Development

Through personal development every employee can expect support to help keep up to date and acquire new skills as relevant to their role and purpose.

 

What will it achieve?

Personal development planning supports job performance, career development and provides evidence of commitment to lifelong learning. It enhances the quality of the service we give to our various stakeholders.

 

How can you do this?

Employees of the Abbey Group can request and take ownership of their development plans through discussing their requirements with their immediate manager at their 121s and appraisal meetings.

 

Our scheduled 121 meetings between employees and their manager provides an opportunity for each employee to meet on a one to one basis with their manager, share ideas and talk openly about their role, agreeing work objectives and training and development needs whilst raising any concerns or issues.

 

Objective

A key objective of Abbeys Learning & Development strategy is to link L&D activities systematically with business needs and to encourage & support employees wishing to undertake personal development activities in consideration of Abbeys business priorities and resources.

 

It is our belief that all employees have a responsibility for their own development and should take an active part in their personal and professional development planning and review.

 

Components of Abbey Group Learning and Development

 

The 5 components of Abbey’s L&D programme are:

1. Mentoring – Internal 

2. Management Training

3. Technical Training

4. Cross Training

5. Self-Managed Learning

 

 

1 / Mentoring- Internal - One to One or Group Sessions for Abbey Group Management & Staff

Our mentoring list aims to cover the topics of maximum interest to our employees under the following headings:

• Communication in a Corporate Environment

• Positive Leadership

• Being Commercial

• Effective Meeting Techniques

• Time Management & Delegation

 

A more detailed Mentoring menu for Managers is available on this link.

Staff mentoring menu is available on this link.

 

It is intended that through our mentoring programme, employees will take away some skills & approaches to help build their levels of confidence & performance for the future within our industry and also to develop their own general business skills. 

 

2 / Management Training

A. Internal, ‘The Abbey Way’ covers our own brand of
    doing things & External

B. External

 

A. Internal: 

• Your immediate Director/HR dept will support you with any internal training or mentoring requirements you have as an existing Manager or following promotion to the role as a Manager.

• Internal management training can be tailored and nuanced to the Individual manager, their needs and the type of management role assigned.

• It is our objective to share common & best practice across the Abbey Group, to assist managers to make sense of their role & what the company approach is.

 

B. External:

• We support & organise a 5 day FETAC level 6 approved Supervisory Management Skills or other suitably recognized management course. Organised by The HR dept Dublin or Jennie Admin dept UK for existing or newly promoted managers of the Abbey Group.

 

3 / Technical Training

Some example of the training courses we book with them are:

Microsoft office: Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, SQL

Time Management & Personal Effectiveness

Presentation skills

 

The Abbey Group partner with various Skillnet in Ireland – the national agency dedicated to the promotion and facilitation of workforce learning in Ireland to maximize any government support of SMEs.

 

4 / Cross Training

The purpose of cross training is to broaden an Individuals skillset, to alleviate workload bottlenecks and increase staff agility across the Company.

If you are interested in training within another dept, please speak to your manager about the feasibility of cross training. If it is feasible, your Manager will liaise with the manager of the other dept to put a plan in place.

 

5 / Self Managed learning

Online/E-learning – if you find a course online which is relevant to your role and supports your continued professional development, please speak with your manager who will liaise with the HR dept to see if the company can support your participation in the online learning environment.

 

How to avail of any of the above learning opportunities:

1. Discuss your training requirements with your manager.

2. Anita Lennon in the HR dept. is in charge of the administrative side of the L&D function for the Abbey Group

3. Once your manager is aware of your requirements, they will contact Anita to discuss next steps

4. All training supported by the Abbey Group is subject to budget approval / availability.