Talent Bank Expert

Jo Wood

Waddington Brown Ltd

Simply C Photography Commercial Branding Property, Interior and Food Photographer

Specialisms

I specialise in the following areas:

  • Change and Resilience Training
  • HR Consultancy
  • Investigations
  • Organisational Development

Jo Wood is an independent HR consultant with over 20 years’ leadership experience across the public sector. She specialises in difficult and conflicting situations, often in highly political, protected or unionised environments. Her meticulous approach, combined with her ability to build relationships and networks across organisations makes her an extremely influential senior HR and Wellbeing professional. As well as her HR and OD expertise, Jo is an accredited MHFA instructor for adults and children, a Thrive Neurodiversity in the workplace instructor, an associate tutor for the national centre for suicide prevention education and training, and a member of the British Menopause Society.

Key Strengths/Area of Expertise

• Employee relations casework, including disciplinary matters and grievances
• HR and organisational development consultancy, including culture, employee engagement and change
• Leadership development and talent management programme design and delivery
• Equality, diversity and inclusion strategy and delivery
• Health, wellbeing and mental health strategy, including workplace training design and facilitation
• Menopause awareness and support strategy for organisations, including line manager and colleague training
• Policy design and complex people matters
• Experienced facilitator and trainer, comfortable working at senior and executive level

Professional Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD)
  • Human Givens Diploma, Human Givens Institute
  • Postgraduate Diploma in Personnel Management, University of Suffolk
  • Member of the British Menopause Society
  • Mental Health First Aid England: Adult & Youth Instructor Member
  • Associate Tutor, National Centre for Suicide Prevention Education & Training
  • Instructor, Thrive Neurodiversity in the Workplace
  • Level 3 Award in Education and Training (AET) (RQF)
  • Healthcare Leadership Model 360 Feedback Facilitator, NHS Leadership Academy
  • Schwartz Round Facilitator, Point of Care Foundation
  • Talent Management Practitioners Programme, NHS Leadership Academy
  • Advanced HR Business Partner Programme, Henley Business School

Testimonials/Case Studies

“Epping Forest District Council has worked with Jo since 2020. In those four years we have had absolutely superb training, advice and support from Jo to successfully deliver our MHFA strategy. As well as training over 90 MHFAs, Jo provides CPD through masterclasses and runs our regular MHFA community networking events. She is supportive, professional and responsive, and brings a wealth of expertise to our organisation.” – Julie Dixon, Learning and Talent Business Partner, Epping Forest District Council

“It has been great working with Jo – thank you for recommending her. It has been a trickier situation that we had anticipated and has been great to have someone of Jo’s calibre, with her empathetic and kind approach, to work with the team.” – Charity Client (confidential)

Notable Achievements/Value Added

  • Delivery of multiple complex investigations, including cases of deaths in service.
  • Delivery of meaningful consultations during high-volume restructure projects for a higher education client.
  • Secured £0.5 million of recurrent investment to establish a new Wellbeing Hub at ESNEFT during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a new Staff Psychology Service.
  • Contributed to shaping a national talent management offer supporting system-wide implementation at organisational level.
  • Acted as technical assessor supporting executive director appointments across the NHS.
  • Led an International Nurse Recruitment Campaign at The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust that significantly reduced vacancies and agency spend.
  • Designed a new approach to mandatory and statutory training delivery, achieving an annual resource efficiency saving of approximately £200k.

Relevant Sector Knowledge

  • Multiple complex investigations for local government clients
  • Extensive public sector experience, principally within large NHS Trust environments (workforces of 11,000+)
  • Strategic and operational HR leadership across Workforce Information, Learning & Development, Occupational Health, Voluntary Services and Recruitment functions
  • Financial and CIP budget management, including delivery against budgets in excess of £2m
  • Design and delivery of wellbeing, mental health, neurodiversity and menopause support strategies for corporate, public sector and charitable organisations

Training/Coaching Programs/Workshop offers

  • Menopause Champions workshop
  • Men… Let’s Talk Menopause
  • Menopause: The Effective Manager
  • 2-Day MHFA (Adult & Youth)
  • Mental Health Aware (Adult & Youth)
  • MHFA for Managers
  • MHFA Champion (Adult & Youth)
  • Mental Health Skills for Managers
  • Suicide First Aid: Understanding Suicide Intervention
  • Suicide First Aid for Children and Young People
  • Suicide First Aid Lite
  • Neurodiversity in the Workplace for Managers
  • Neurodiversity in the Workplace Aware
  • Neurodiversity in the Workplace Champion

LGR Experience & Expertise:

Jo brings HR leadership, OD leadership and employment relations expertise that maps directly onto the workforce challenges of local government reorganisation, direct public sector experience within the NHS and extensive ER consultancy support within local government.