Nigel Ashworth

Main duties:

• Monitoring the Director's / Deputy Director's mailboxes, alerting them to any urgent emails.
• Providing briefings on meeting requests from Government commercial officers, Private Offices or Ministers.
• Managing the Director’s diaries.
• Organising regular meetings for the Director and his deputy directors, including monthly development meetings,Team Town Hall for 60 colleagues , Away Days, Arranged for guest Speakers up to 6 months in advance.
• Liaising with the Private Offices of Senior Civil Servants/Ministers in other Departments.
• Maintained Business continuity onboarding of new team members , organisational chart redesign and updates.
• Monitored and responded providing a quality service to the team mailbox, general meeting requests, Financial PO queries

Key achievements:

• Increased information accessibility by updating reference guides bi-annually for the business support team.
• Enhanced communication efficiency by drafting 26 newsletters annually for team updates.
• Appointed as the Information Management lead taking responsibility for data privacy.
• Collecting and collating data from across various teams members ensuring it was stored compliantly
• I sourced new software and designed a new format, enhancing communication efficiency, enabling us to publish 26 newsletters annually for team updates promoting and supporting a stronger team culture.
• Adopted a continuous improvement approach, implementing more efficient and effective processes which benefitted all team members, the Director and Deputy Directors.
• Increased efficiency and reduced scheduling conflicts by aligning 30 appointments monthly between the Small Business Crown Representative and external stakeholders in addition to my agreed objectives.

Main Duties

• Analysed, reported, developed, and monitored government websites for regulatory compliance and consistency, supporting Small Business. I also update relevant spreadsheets.
• Supported the engagement strategy of the SME
• Supported senior policy advisors in engaging with stakeholders which includes company directors, business owners, and trade organisations.
• Monitored the Department mailbox replying and assigning queries to team members.
• Supported and updated the information drives for the team.
• Set up and communicated meetings with stakeholders both external and across government.
• Supported with meeting logistics and facilitation.
• Maintained stakeholder ( internal / external ) contact records, Board biographies.

Key Achievements

• Over the past year I contributed to the research and redesign of new action plan templates, which were implemented in April this year and will be distributed to small business department champions.
• I developed and maintained the high level Dashboard, overseeing seven work streams, aligning with Business Unit priorities and timelines, updating the program to the team monthly. I also met with individual leads to review progress and reschedule as needed.
• I designed an updated Stakeholder newsletter for the Deputy Director, presenting a business case for publishing a regular quarterly newsletter for external and internal stakeholder working groups to inform and provide continuous communication between quarterly Board meetings.
• I conducted research and scoping for a stakeholder engagement review project. The project aims to shift from traditional panel member appointments to an Agile stakeholder network. This involves introducing flexible capabilities to explore opportunities, understand and share best practices with Local Authorities and the ALB/Public sector regarding SME procurement initiatives, successes, and challenges.

Main Duties

• Responsible for the first point of contact with the public by email, web. chat, telephone, or walking into the office Initiating conversation to understand the reason for the call and directing through to the most appropriate department .
• Handled difficult situations calmly, maintaining professionalism at all times.
• Managed high call volumes with exceptional time management and multitasking skills.
• Improved customer satisfaction by promptly addressing inquiries and resolving issues.
• Mastered various CRM software systems for effective tracking of client communications.
• Reduced customer complaints by providing timely solutions to issues.
• Assigned to specialist departments: planning application/objections, governance / electoral, parking and appeals.
• Dealt with all enquiries for walk-in services, establishing pathways to departments such as benefits, child protection, case meetings.

Main Duties

• Worked across a number of Brands in the Arcadia Group, i.e.Topshop & Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Warehouse and Outfit.
• Managed the day to day operations in 5k - 15k Sq ft selling space stores,with annual turnovers ranging from 2 to 5 million.
• Developed a customer first culture throughout the store population.
• I drove strategy and delivery on cost control, productivity, stock loss, sickness, and retention, maximising margin and store profit contributions.
• Drove customer loyalty through account cards, orders in-store,collection from store and marketing collation.
• Led and inspired the recruitment, retention, training and development of teams between 5-60 people.

Achievements

• Enhanced customer satisfaction by {15%} by instilling a customer-first culture across store operations.
• Increased store profit contributions by {20%} by optimising KPIs in cost control (wages/ headcount restructure ) , productivity, and retention.
• Boosted customer loyalty by {25%} by enhancing account card use, in-store orders, and marketing collations.
• Enhanced brand performance by analysing strategy, visual excellence and operational needs for {6} brands.
• Achieved compliance excellence by ensuring health and safety standards across {10} stores.
• Strengthened community presence by building stakeholder relationships with local retailers and park landlords. Able to influence and advise on retail park Marketing strategy and budgets.

Regional HR Support

ARCADIA GROUP

Main Duties

• Supported the Regional Manager as people sponsor , delivering the company HR strategies and expectations to the sales region of 20 stores with approximately 600 staff and management.
• Responsible for monitoring regional KPI’s on staff absences and turnover, highlighted good performances, sharing best practice,developing action plans with management teams to reach targets.
• Supported stores with poor performance management, investigations and disciplinary proceedings.
• Supported Regional Manager with talent and succession planning for the region.
• I also held training/development sessions for management populations.
• Supported fast track managers on a year long training course, guiding them through modules and presenting a company project to the directors.
• Represented the region in regular company HR meetings, feeding into retention, recruitment and development initiatives . Involved with break out projects.