Head of Intelligence

Role

Head of Intelligence

Job Purpose

Positioned within Operations Directorate, the Head of Intelligence will contribute to strengthening Skills for Logistics’ (SfL’s) credibility and authority with employers and stakeholders by combining quantitative and qualitative research data with a tailored approach to Knowledge Management in order to best inform operational and product development decision making across SfL.

Reporting to

Director of Operations

Stakeholder relationships

• Employers and representative bodies

• Learning research organisations and observatories

• Standards bodies, trade associations, training organisations, regulatory bodies, government departments and agencies

• SfL CEO

• SfL Board

• SfL workforce

Peer relationships

• Regional and National managers

• Head of Skills

• Head of Quality Assurance 

• Head of Demand Chain Development

• PR and Events function

• Corporate Performance manager  

Job Description

The Head of Intelligence will establish a systematic approach for capturing and processing intelligence, translating it into knowledge and making the resulting assets available to the business as a critical contribution to quality. This will involve:

1. Defining and implementing a sector intelligence strategy and plan, consistent with the mission of SfL and our approach towards continuous improvement, including a review of current ICT capacity and its capability to deliver that plan.

2. Extracting best value from a newly specified and developed SfL knowledge management system:
   - delivering and tracking benefits from implemented KM system,
   - ensuring that the system and its usage is fully integrated within the SfL learning and development culture.
   - securing independent Quality Review of the system

3. Carrying out a review of current SfL capacity and capability and developing plans to supplement and improve that to the levels necessary to meet the requirements demanded of SfL.

4. Establishing a position as custodian and maintainer of the organisation’s corporate stakeholder analysis interacting with colleagues to:
   - shape the corporate influencing and communication strategies using intelligence that will make a difference to effectiveness
   - inform the Demand Chain Development function with regard to employer and stakeholder requirements of SfL

5. Developing an intelligence and knowledge management system with explicit and implicit aspects, ensuring understanding and buy-in to that approach and philosophy by the wider SfL team.

6. Conducting or commissioning well targeted market research:
   - producing authoritative labour market intelligence reports
   - generating required knowledge products of unique value to the sector
   - specifying and monitoring the collection of qualitative intelligence from employers and other stakeholders and analysing and presenting the same alongside quantitative data to provide compelling evidence to direct and support SfL activities.
   - commissioning managing and evaluating business critical research in consultation with other SfL functions who represent the internal customers of such research.

7. Commissioning independent evaluation of all SfL products and projects, establishing the evidence to answer: ‘did it work and was it worth it?’

8. Identifying and managing risks and opportunities and threats to SfL arising from any inadequacies in the knowledge and intelligence system and ensuring that SfL capability keeps pace with developments in the research and intelligence fields

9. Developing a learning and development culture for professional growth of team members and ensuring that all SfL staff are regularly appraised to the necessary extent of the work done by the Intelligence team.

10. Ensuring that equality, diversity and sustainability practices are mainstreamed throughout the team, to satisfy SfL's charitable and UKCES-inspired objects.

Person Specification - required competences, qualifications and experience

• graduate calibre with a deep knowledge of skills learning, the sector, methodologies for intelligence gathering and the tenets of knowledge management.

• an effective team player, able to recognise and exploit the way the threads of intelligence and knowledge management must run through the entire operation.

• an effective leader, manager and delegator able to manage others even those not part of the direct team.

• an integrative, big picture thinker but politically sensitive and commercially aware.

• possessing especial expertise in research, data modelling and interpretation and able to see how it can be used innovatively to best serve the sector and its employers.

• an adaptable thinker who challenges conventional wisdom

• a behavioural role model for SfL with strong interpersonal skills, self aware and self-regulating and able to mix credibly with a wide range of stakeholders

• a capable presenter, good influencing, writing and facilitation skills and an effective negotiator

• ability to influence and manage people who the Head of Intelligence does not directly manage in order to eradicate silo working from SfL.

• high level of ICT literacy and in particular a good understanding of Knowledge Management systems.

• able to behave reliably and remain agreeable under pressure and be conscientious about fulfilling the role

Performance criteria:  to be fit for purpose including value for money, the Intelligence team’s processes and outputs must be:

• strategically and internally consistent (e.g. with The Stairway blueprint)

• complete

• current
  coherent

• accurate

• reliable and valid

• affordable,

• compliant with UKCES regulatory requirements

• lawful and fit for all technical and user purposes

• mainstreaming equality, diversity and sustainability issues

• able to make demonstrable and measurable impacts on the sector
  

Closing Date: 12th December 2008.

Interviews will take place on December 17^th & 22^nd in Milton Keynes.