Head of Learning & Development

About Ogilvy:

At Ogilvy, our vision is to inspire brands and individuals to make a positive impact on the world by generating innovative ideas that benefit the planet, society, and our clients' bottom line. We believe this approach is the key to sustainable growth.

As one of the largest advertising agencies globally, we are known for our strategic thinking, creative excellence, and thought leadership. Our nine operating companies collaborate across five core capabilities; Advertising, Experience (Digital), PR & Influence, Health, and Consulting, to deliver bold, market-shaping ideas. This synergy is achieved through seamless integration across 132 offices in 83 countries, championing a connected culture, where talent and creativity thrive. We call this approach "Borderless Creativity," which combines platform, culture, and technology to drive multifaceted solutions and tangible impact for our clients.

Job Purpose Summary:

Lead, curate, and operationalise the Learning and Development and People Innovation strategy across all operating companies within the Ogilvy South Africa group. Additionally, offer expert guidance in Learning and Development to the Ogilvy South Africa Exco and the Talent Management team.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop the Learning and Development (L&D) strategy aligned with the overall Ogilvy South Africa business objectives. In addition, plan meaningful engagement and collaboration with the Group Exco, relevant subject matter experts, the global learning community and the Talent team.
• Through effective collaboration, communication, and engagement, develop and execute a fit-for-purpose learning & development plan based on the L&D strategy, ensuring relevant learning methodologies to optimise impact.
• Ensure that OSA offers a best-in-class learning and development programme for Top Talent Management, Senior Management, and Leadership Training; Inductions; Youth & Graduate Training Programs; Commercial Training; Self-Management Development; and Agency Technical Skills.
• Stay at the forefront of learning and development trends, leveraging them to enhance and advance Ogilvy South Africa's learning offerings.
• Manage and oversee the Ogilvy SA pipeline and Youth Development Initiatives, including but not limited to the OG Graduate Programme, OG Creative Technology Academy, Mo Thulo Bursary fund, internships and student work experience.
• Establish strong partnerships with internal stakeholders, global learning and development external experts, leaders, and employees to drive the learning strategy and foster a culture of curiosity and self-driven learning.
• Develop and implement meaningful feedback and evaluation tools to assess learning needs and the effectiveness of implemented learning interventions.

• Collaborate with the relevant Finance lead at OSA to manage the learning and development budget effectively and responsibly, ensuring compliance with all learning and development spending.
• Lead, drive and manage all learning fund and grant applications, which includes the annual submission of a Letter of Intent for SETA funding. Upon receiving acceptance of grant, work with the learning team to ensure all due diligence and paperwork are completed in accordance with compliance and governance requirements.
• Ensure submission of legal requirements related to skills development, including the annually WSP & ATR.

• Take proactive responsibility for ensuring that learning and development aligns with the strategic BBBEE requirements of the group, ensuring that annual submissions and outcomes meet and exceed requirements and expectations.
• Assume a leadership role within the Talent team in relation to L&D and Change Management and act as a collaborative, supportive, and enabling team player within the OSA Talent Team.
• Lead, manage, coach, and grow the Learning & Development Coordinator, ensuring that the L&D team meets and exceeds their mandate to the group.

Professional, technical skills and previous experience required.

• Bachelors Degree, a post grad would be advantageous.
• Commercially and business minded.
• A track record of senior stakeholder partnership and management that delivers effective L&D impact.
• Confident, calm, with experience of successfully navigating a complex matrix with a number of key, senior stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills that had a proven track record of driving business change and creating influence.
• Ability to diagnose business problems, translate these into learning solutions and design and implement L&D activities in line with business requirements.
• A track record of identifying high-performance, relevant providers and partnering/managing them to enable and propel learning needs within a business (including coaches, training provides, etc) or the potential to efficiently develop this competence.
• An ability to develop a learning strategy, build learning experience using a variety of learning methodologies, and apply strong project management in the learning and development context.
• Strong conceptual environment and an affinity for understanding complexities related to people's development.
• People Management experience.
• Strong business partnering experience, preferably in a creative or agency environment.
• Experience in working in fast-paced, changing organizations needs to be combined with an ability to build strong relationships with key stakeholders.
• A track record in role modelling the Ogilvy values, both to the people team and the wider business.
• Ability to apply independent strategic thinking to provide concise and compelling storytelling using data and actionable insights to shape business decisions and learning strategies.
• Comfortable with ambiguity and operating in an unstructured environment while also being able to create structure for self and others through good judgement and well-informed decision-making.