WatchHouse
Learning & Development Manager
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Learning & Development Manager
Reports to: Head of People
Direct Reports: Training Team – up to 4 roles across Coffee and Hospitality Training
Location: London / House-based, with international travel
5 Roles & Responsibilities
LMA (Lead, Manage, Accountability)
Training Planning, Organisation & Delivery
Manager & Leadership Development
Learning Resources & LMS
Career Pathways & Talent Development
In Short:
The Learning & Development Manager is responsible for bringing the WatchHouse learning and development strategy to life, ensuring our managers and teams have access to brilliant, practical and engaging development that helps them become the best they can be.
Leading our Training function across Coffee and Hospitality, you will manage and develop a team of up to four trainers, bringing our learning activity together into one organised, high-performing function. This is an operational and visible role with time being spent in our Houses, alongside managers and teams, understanding what they need and ensuring our training has a tangible impact on how our teams lead, operate and deliver hospitality.
You will also play a key role in identifying and developing our future talent, working with People and Operations to build a strong pipeline of people ready to take their next step at WatchHouse. You will organise the training calendar, coordinate programmes, create learning resources, manage our Learning Management System and personally deliver group training, workshops and coaching. You will be a hospitality expert who exudes exceptional service in everything you do. You will understand what outstanding hospitality looks and feels like and have the credibility and energy to inspire our managers and teams to deliver it.
As WatchHouse grows, you will also support learning and development internationally, including delivering training in New York and our Franchise markets, ensuring our people and partners experience the same high standards of WatchHouse development wherever they are.
Above everything, you will be passionate about developing our people to be the very best they can be.
Key Responsibilities
Training Planning, Organisation & Delivery
- Manage and develop a team of up to four trainers
- Create and translate the People and L&D strategy into clear training plans and activity
- Personally facilitate engaging group training sessions, workshops and development programmes
- Spend regular time within Houses, understanding operational challenges and identifying opportunities for development
- Coordinate specialist Coffee and Hospitality training delivered by the wider Training Team
- Partner closely with Operations to schedule training in a way that balances development with the realities of running busy Houses
- Support onboarding, new House openings and significant business initiatives with appropriate training plans
- Monitor attendance, completion and feedback and ensure agreed actions are followed through
- Continuously evaluate training delivery and look for ways to make our programmes more engaging, practical and impactful
- Coordinate and deliver training across our UK Houses and, where required, New York and Franchise locations, supporting new openings and ensuring WatchHouse training standards are consistently delivered across our markets
Manager & Leadership Development
- Be a key owner of the delivery of manager development across WatchHouse
- Deliver structured group training for House Managers, Assistant Managers and future leaders
- Embed LMA – Lead, Manage and hold Accountable into how our managers lead and develop their teams
- Develop managers' capability across leadership, communication, coaching, feedback, accountability and people development
- Create and deliver practical development programmes that build confident, capable and accountable managers
- Spend time with managers in Houses, providing coaching and helping them translate learning into their day-to-day leadership
- Support newly promoted managers as they transition into leadership roles
- Coach managers to become brilliant developers of their own people
- Work closely with People and Operations to identify common management capability gaps and respond with targeted development
- Create an environment where management development is continuous and not limited to formal training sessions
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Learning Resources & LMS
- Own and maintain the WatchHouse Learning Management System (CPL), ensuring learning journeys are organised, relevant and up to date
- Create high-quality, practical and engaging training resources for managers and teams
- Develop workshops, presentations, facilitator guides, activities, toolkits and supporting learning materials
- Turn People processes, operational standards and business priorities into clear and accessible learning content
- Work closely with Coffee and Hospitality Training to ensure specialist learning content is effectively represented within CPL
- Coordinate learning journeys across Coffee, Hospitality, Management Development and onboarding to create a joined-up learner experience
- Work with subject matter experts across WatchHouse to turn their knowledge into effective digital and face-to-face learning resources
- Monitor LMS completion, engagement and learning data, following up and identifying opportunities for improvement
- Maintain strong governance over learning content, ensuring materials are reviewed and updated as our standards and processes evolve
- Continuously improve our learning resources and LMS experience using feedback from managers, trainers and learners
Talent & Career Development
- Build and actively manage a talent pool of high-potential people and future leaders across WatchHouse
- Work closely with People, Operations and House Managers to identify emerging talent and understand who is ready now, ready next and developing for the future
- Create and coordinate development plans for identified talent, ensuring people receive the right training, coaching, exposure and experience to prepare them for their next opportunity
- Maintain regular contact with individuals within the talent pool, actively supporting and challenging them throughout their development
- Help bring WatchHouse career pathways to life, ensuring our people understand the skills, experience and development required to progress
- Use People Analyser, Quarterly Conversations, training observations and operational feedback to identify potential and development needs
- Regularly review the talent pipeline with People and Operations, ensuring we are developing people ahead of new Houses, new markets and future leadership needs
- Champion internal progression and help create a culture where talented people can see and build a meaningful career at WatchHouse
Key Skills & Experience
- Significant operational experience within premium hospitality, with a deep understanding of exceptional service and guest experience
- Someone who naturally exudes hospitality and inspires others through how they communicate, lead and interact with people
- Previous Learning & Development, training or people-development experience within a fast-paced, multi-site hospitality or retail environment
- Experience leading, managing and developing a training team or similar people-development function
- An excellent facilitator who is confident delivering engaging group training to managers and teams
- Strong coaching capability and confidence developing people within a live operational environment
- Experience creating high-quality training resources and practical learning programmes
- Experience managing and developing an LMS, ideally CPL or a similar learning platform
- Strong organisational and project management skills, with experience coordinating multiple training programmes across different locations
- Able to balance planning, meetings and stakeholder management with hands-on training delivery
- Strong stakeholder management skills, able to build trusted relationships across People, Operations and senior leadership
- Commercial and operational awareness, understanding the realities of delivering training within a busy hospitality business
- Comfortable using learning data, feedback and operational observations to identify opportunities and improve training
- Passionate about developing managers, creating opportunities and helping people fulfil their potential
- Comfortable travelling regularly between WatchHouse Houses and internationally when required
- An interest in or passion for specialty coffee is highly desirable
- Strong alignment with WatchHouse's Core Values and a genuine passion for delivering the Modern Coffee experience
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About Us
WatchHouse was born from a passion to do better. Diligence and attention to detail are paramount to what we do, we focus on the detail. We strive for perfection. We really care.
We are a people-first business, curious and interested in those around us. We treat everyone with respect. We pride ourselves on creating an environment where diversity is celebrated, equality is insisted and inclusion expected.
A company where we believe in having the right person in the role; personality and individuality at the top of the list of what we are looking for in applications and throughout our hiring process.
We also know that everyone is different, and we value and respect diversity, standing up for equality and standing against any form of discrimination.
Decisions about and the treatment of people at work should be based on the individual’s abilities, skills, performance and behaviour- these should be assessed against the WatchHouse job description requirements for each individual role.
We are always patient and considerate towards others. Encouraging, approachable and communicating brilliantly. We strive to be the best we can be, by giving and receiving regular and honest feedback in a professional manner.
We plan ahead, prioritise and are mindful and respect the time of others. We complete every task to the best of our ability. Always happy to ask for help, work in cohesion with other people/departments and share successes.
We work to make WatchHouse an environment of trust and comradery, where others are inspired to play their part in working effectively together. Building strong relationships with others and demonstrating positive energy. We recognise and value the contribution of others across the business, working together to deliver the Modern Coffee experience to each and every person touched by our business.
Our four core values - passion, drive, diligence and empathy - are what makes WatchHouse who we are. Our decisions are made based on these principles. To grow and succeed at WatchHouse, it is imperative that these values also resonate strongly with you and can drive your ambition in the same way they do ours.
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