Role: Director of Northern Ireland
Company: People 1st
Track Record: ‘The WorldHost customer service programme’s success has been phenomenal and was clearly demonstrated by the fantastic welcome staff and volunteers offered during last summer’s World Police and Fire Games and the more recent Giro D’Italia,’ says Roisin
What does your job entail?
As our name suggests, people and empowering them with the very best skills and training opportunities is at the crux of my role with People 1st. We work with employers, government, training providers and key partners to improve skills and identify any gaps. We also develop world class training and qualifications to bridge those gaps, ultimately helping businesses strengthen and improve their overall offer and, of course, their bottom line. A key focus at the moment is the roll-out of our World-Hostcustomer service training programme for retailers, in the wake of the highly successful WorldHost tourism initiative. WorldHost is a great example of People 1st working strategi-cally and in partnership with both the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Depart-ment for Employment and Learning (DEL). Thanks to funding from DEL, retail businesses with fewer than 250 staff can currently take up the training programme for £20 per person rather than the full cost of £190. Full details can be found on www.worldhostni.com. Currently, over 13,000 people working in tourism and retail in Northern Ireland have been trained to WorldHost customer service standards and over 400 NI businesses have achieved the WorldHostRecognised Business standard.
Is it 9-5?
Like many people these days I’m definitely not a 9am to 5pm worker. But that very variety makes my job so interesting. No two days are the same. I work closely with key stakeholders, government de-partments and with businesses and am often working early mornings or in the evening to fit in with their timetables For example, at the moment we’re hosting a number of `business breakfast’ customer service taster sessions across Northern Ireland. These give retailers the chance to sample the benefits of the WorldHost training but still be back in their business ready for the customer shopping day. Mostly my work is based in Northern Ireland, but some-times I travel to London for meetings, debriefs and future strategy sessions at People 1st HQ.
How did you get into this line of work?
My background is firmly in training and I’m passionate about the difference training and customer service can make to both people and ultimately a business’s bottom line. My journey into training has been through the hospitality route and my experience has given me an excellent ground-ing in customer service and its vital importance in business, whether it’s retail or tourism.
Outline your career path to date
After graduating, I joined the Forte Group’s trainee management programme and progressed into operations management and training roles working in Southampton, the Midlands and Bristol. My passion for training led me to Zimbabwe, where I lectured in a hotel school before returning to Ireland where I undertook various training roles in the tourism sector be-fore joining People 1st in 2005. One element of my work at People 1st has included partnering with NITB to deliver the WorldHost customer service programme in the tourism industry. Its success has been phenomenal and was clearly demonstrated by the fantastic welcome staff and volunteers offered at last summer’s World Police and Fire Games and the more recent Giro D’Italia. I’m now delighted to be in-volved in a similar but tailored programme aimed at helping the retail sector to upskill in terms of customer service.
Tell us about your qualifications and training?
After A-levels I completed a three-year degree course in hotel and tourism management before joining Forte Group, where I undertook a range of their training and development programmes. I also took part in an executive management development programme in hospitality at Cornell University and completed a leadership programme at Harvard.
What qualities are required for your job – personal and professional?
First and foremost being a people person! People make processes work effectively and help determine the bottom line. It’s also crucial to be a good team player, especially within the services sector. I work with a large number of different partner organisations, ranging from employers, training providers, policy makers and key influencers, all with a collective focus on business growth through improved skills. A strong partnership approach is definitely the key to influencing and creating change. It’s also important to be warm, friendly, efficient yet approachable – after all that’s part of what we’re advocating in our WorldHost customer service programme. Communication skills are of course vital. We need to understand and speak the language of the employers to ensure we’re driving home the key messages and the long term benefits of upskilling staff.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I really enjoy travelling and exploring new places and cultures. Recently I was in India and I was hugely impressed by their passion and enthusiasm for customer service, both in retail and within the hospitality industry. It really brought it home to me that skills, training and employability are global issues and that managers and staff face similar challenges throughout the world. Whether at home or abroad I also sampling new food experiences and of course lots of retail therapy. Naturally as a champion of WorldHost I notice and appreciate excellent customer service both in retail and hospitality outlets.
What are the biggest challenges and rewards of your work?
One of our biggest challenges is to ensure that skills and training is top of the agenda for government departments and the industry sectors we aim to support and to encourage them to invest in training solutions. At times this requires patience and resilience in terms of getting the message out and securing support. However, it’s incredibly re-warding to secure programme funding support and see at first hand the results training has delivered. We’ve already witnessed this through the WorldHost tourism programme and we’re very proud that Derry-Londonderry is leading the way by becoming the UK’s first WorldHost Recognised Destination. We’re looking forward to see-ing the impact down the line of WorldHost on those businesses who have recently signed up to the retail programme.
Who has inspired you most in your life?
First and foremost my parents. Also, when I was in Boston I got a fabulous insight into the Ritz Carlton customer service training approach which I found hugely inspiring. It’s summed up best in a quote from Gandhi: “A customer is not an interruption in our work; he is the purpose of it.”