Craig Chatten
Blyth, Northumberland
Summary
Innovative Learning & Development leader with over 10 years' experience designing and delivering strategic learning, leadership and capability initiatives across commercial environments. Experienced in shaping learning strategy, building high-performing cultures and translating business priorities into practical development programmes that improve performance, engagement and organisational capability. Proven track record of coaching leaders, developing talent pipelines and delivering measurable outcomes through people-focused, scalable learning solutions.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work history
Customer Adviser
One Utility Bill
2025.08 - 2026.05
- Current employment whilst seeking new opportunities following redundancy.
Head of Learning and Development
Samuel Knight
2023.08 - 2025.07
- Overseen the construction of a newly formed, first of its kind, Learning and Development function in this Junior Organisation over its 2 year plan to grow to SME level
- Developed and implemented an end-to-end Learning and Development strategy from inception, aligning with business goals which contributed to an overall 43% increase in revenue. Including 112% in the USA region and 26% in the EMEA.
- Implemented an effective coaching model, built on tailored one to one growth plans, to achieve a 100% probation pass rate for new starters and reduce existing employee turnover from 41% to under 10% in 2024 versus 2023
- Significantly reduced the employee average return on investment period from nine months to three by Introducing structured programs across onboarding, business development, and leadership transitions. Also resulting in a reduction in first placements from an average 16 weeks to a period of 6-8 weeks on average. This allowed the business to forecast budgeting and hiring costs for 2025, driving a 26% headcount increase
- Collaborated with CEO and board to form a hierarchical structure of reporting for leaders, mirrored with a divisional organisational structure for markets and industry verticals.
- This transformation created clear progression pathways and transparent promotion frameworks, enabling 13 internal promotions in under 1 year. The restructure reduced senior external hiring costs by improving internal mobility and strengthening leadership readiness across the business.
- Collaborated with senior stakeholders and board members to roll out GDPR compliance across the company, resulting in successful audit checks
- Led the consultant capability and leadership development across a multi-regional rotating team of up to 12 consultants. Shaping performance, progression and culture through structured coaching and strategic mentorship. Developed >70% of consultants into management and senior roles, building organisational leadership capability and delivering measurable improvements in engagement and performance outcomes.
- Established and scaled a progressive learning architecture comprising onboarding, business development, consultant progression, leadership transition, and management induction programmes. These programmes created consistent performance standards across the organisation, improved consultant retention and readiness for promotion, strengthened leadership capability, and reduced dependency on external hiring through the development of robust internal talent pipelines
Senior Learning & Development Consultant
Frank Recruitment Group
2021.08 - 2023.08
- Lead Consultant in The UK.
- Led the redesign of the global onboarding programme with Talent Acquisition, Head of EMEA L&D and Senior Directors to improve regional relevance across the UK, Nordics, and Central & Eastern Europe (CEE). This modernised delivery format reduced classroom dependency and increased appeal for next generation consultants. The rebrand from 2 weeks intensive training to a 10 week learning on the job onboarding process resulted in first deals in a period of 4-6 weeks versus 10, staff retention shrink from 51% in 2022 to
- Delivered 'Train the Trainer' sessions globally and provided coaching to L&D peers to maintain delivery consistency and quality. Enhancing Stakeholder confidence in the L&D function
- Collaborated with senior team leaders to develop and facilitate two upskill programmes for senior consultants to achieve our internal promotion KPI targets and stabilise clear career pathways for the first 12-18 months. During this time I also mentored two consultants in The UK to contribute to the deliverables in aspects of the modules and, in turn, guide them on their way to writing their own material in line with the business demands and standards
- Conducted monthly meetings with senior stakeholders and front-line managers across the UK, Poland, and the Nordics to gather feedback, define L&D objectives, and ensure alignment between training content and business needs to avoid stagnation
- Supported global offices through virtual delivery and content consultation. Provided consistent L&D support across multiple locations in the UK, EMEA and USA
- Pull out smaller victories in learning the craft into how I went into SK (benefits to the business of classroom based training)- upskilling quicker and quicker ROI overall in the recruitment space (contexts and cultures)
Quality Analyst and Trainer
The AA
2018.06 - 2021.08
- Analysed consultant conversations and data reports to identify common trends in FCA compliance fails on a month by month basis. Reports were reviewed in monthly collaboration with senior stakeholders across multiple departments for management to pass on feedback and lower repeat fails
- Held quarterly huddles with consultants to review compliance results and common fails to ensure a department wide level of understanding of trends to avoid repeat potential FCA breaches. Over the course of 2019-2020, the fail rate dropped from 17% to
- Trained and coached the new starter grad-bay from 2020-2021 running daily huddles on specific and ADHOC matters as well as providing live side by side coaching and feedback to ensure quality pass scores. In this period, new starters compliance achievements increased from 56% to 85% over the course of 3 month windows and resulted in quicker ‘sign offs' for the consultant
Sales Trainer
Sky
2014.07 - 2018.06
- Overseen the successful onboarding of new starter in sales and retentions over their 4 week onboarding programme. Typically having a new group every 4 weeks
- Covered multiple sites across The UK ADHOC in face to face training
- Delivered upskilling to tenured staff during the role out of new products (Sky Q and Mobile) to ensure products were sold in line with compliance
Education
A-Level Qualifications - English Literature, English Language and Information Technology
The Blyth Academy
GCSE Qualifications - 11 GCSE's A-C including Mathematics, English and Sciences
The Blyth Academy
Skills
- Learning Strategy & Capability Development 5/5
- Leadership Coaching and Facilitation 45/5
- Talent Development and Performance Management 5/5
- Stakeholder Engagement and Business Partnering 45/5
- Programme Design, Delivery and Evaluation 5/5
- Industry Experience- Recruitment 45/5
Certification
- CIPD- Self funding Level 5 CIPD in Learning and Development- Ongoing
- AWS Certifications: Partner-Accreditation (Technical) & Partner- Cloud Economics
Accomplishments
- Level 3 Accredited Football Referee in the FA Pyramid (UK National League)
- Northumberland FA Coach and mentor
- Cramlington RA referee training officer
Affiliations
- Sport
- Cooking
- Travelling
- Spending time with family
- Mastering the 1% Club
References
On Request
Timeline
Customer Adviser
One Utility Bill
2025.08 - 2026.05
Head of Learning and Development
Samuel Knight
2023.08 - 2025.07
Senior Learning & Development Consultant
Frank Recruitment Group
2021.08 - 2023.08
Quality Analyst and Trainer
The AA
2018.06 - 2021.08
Sales Trainer
Sky
2014.07 - 2018.06
GCSE Qualifications - 11 GCSE's A-C including Mathematics, English and Sciences
The Blyth Academy
A-Level Qualifications - English Literature, English Language and Information Technology
The Blyth Academy