Our people are our greatest asset. In this blog series, we'll feature one-on-one interviews with individuals from our global team. Get to know us and our people...
Meet Lynne Burgess, our Learning and Development manager here at SmartPA. She is a bit of an adventurer and has flown in a hot air balloon over the Namibian desert!
Lynne first joined SmartPA in October 2020 to support with the delivery of our training programme in partnership with the Malaysian Government.
It wasn’t long until Lynne joined the team full-time and began to grip and rip our training academy. Lynne’s is now leading the SmartPA Training Academy across our global team of SmartPAs.
“I believe my impact is to allow people to see their roles
at SmartPA as careers, not just jobs.”
Let’s dive into the exciting projects Lynne is working on and find out what impact her work is having on our clients.
What first attracted you to SmartPA? And what’s kept you here?
SmartPA is an amazing proposition, and I don’t believe there is a single business out there who couldn’t benefit from a SmartPA!
When I first joined SmartPA to support with the Government funded Malaysia training programme, I knew there was something special going on. I jumped straight in at the deep end, working alongside Noni the Head of Global Business Support to deliver a valuable programme to over 200 Malaysians.
What kept me here is seeing how our support transforms our client’s businesses (and lives). This also applies to our amazing, global team of SmartPAs – many of which are very experienced in their field and are looking for the next step in their career with SmartPA. We are able to support them to transform their lives by becoming a SmartPA. Our training and accreditation programme allows them to take their knowledge and experience and be able to apply that to client support.
What exciting projects are in the pipeline?
Too many to mention, but the most exciting one for me is the launch of our brand-new bespoke training platform. This will allow us to deliver our programmes via a wide variety of learning modalities catering for individual learning needs and preferences.
This will also allow our SmartPAs to create their own individual learning paths, tailored to them based on their existing skillset and what they want to learn to drive their career forward.
Is there something you are particularly proud of that you have achieved at SmartPA?
I created our new and long-anticipated mentorship programme called Achievement in Motion (AIM) to support new SmartPAs. During their first 3 months, we want to nurture them to ensure they have a successful time at SmartPA. Each cohort is a small group that meets each month to support each other, and importantly hold each other accountable for the goals they want to achieve.
It’s about living SmartPA’s value of “Owning It!”.
“An effective onboarding and training programme allows all of our SmartPAs to feel empowered and accountable for the experience they deliver to our clients.”
How does your role impact the experience of our clients?
How we train and develop our people at SmartPA is absolutely fundamental to the experience our clients have, so I’m delighted to say that my role and my department sit at the heart of our business.
Ensuring our SmartPAs provide an exceptional client experience starts on day 1 when they start their training programme. This continues with our ongoing professional development learning each month.
It’s not what we do, but how we do it!
What would you say to someone considering using SmartPA?
Absolutely, go for it!
The diverse skillset of our SmartPAs and their knowledge in many different areas never ceases to amaze me. There is a true diverse range of expertise in our talent pool. I learn something each and every day working with them.
Using SmartPA means that you can have a social media expert, a bookkeeper, a diary management wizard, and an Excel guru rolled into one package.