As part of a new ‘Life@Miller’ series, read on to find out how Verity Stroud and her Learning and Development team support Miller colleagues in reaching their professional development goals.
Hi Verity, thanks for taking the time to speak with us today! To start off, please could you share more detail on Miller’s general approach to learning and development?
Verity: Of course! At Miller, our leadership team recognises the importance of learning and development (L&D) for the success of our business. This is why Miller has a comprehensive suite of support, aligned to our vision and strategy, which spans practical training workshops, digital learning resources, funding to study professional qualifications and apprenticeships, in-house development coaching, and a mentoring programme to help colleagues connect with and learn from each other. This commitment to the continuous professional development of our people is also in support of our status as a CII Corporate Chartered Broker.
It's great that you help colleagues to learn from each other. Are there any particular in-house development programmes Miller offers colleagues?
Verity: Absolutely - we work with individuals on bespoke development plans, help managers to optimise team performance with our Miller Manager programme, and run our Producer Academy to enhance the sales and business development skills of our brokers. We also offer two development programmes to support our underrepresented talent, Accelerate and Advance, which is our new programme launched in 2020 for emerging leaders, that includes 1-2-1 coaching and mentoring with our most senior leaders.
Professional development at Miller
Bespoke development plans – brilliant. What external relationships does Miller have that colleagues benefit from, from an L&D perspective?
Verity: We partner with external specialists, as well as internal subject matter experts, to provide high quality, relevant, practical and impactful development in a responsive way. For example, we recently worked with an external diversity and inclusion (D&I) specialist and developed a series of workshops in collaboration with our in-house inclusion alliances – our One team inclusive collaboration sessions, designed to help people work together in an inclusive way and challenge any non-inclusive behaviour that they might experience. This reflects the importance we place on harnessing the contributions of a diverse range of talent and ensuring that we work in a truly inclusive workplace where every individual is respected, valued, included, supported to be themselves and fulfil their potential with Miller.
It’s great to have that fusion between L&D and D&I. Finally, what is it about Miller’s approach that you think sets us apart from competitors?
Verity: Our dedicated learning and development team! We make it our mission to partner with colleagues across the business, and the size of our business means we are able to get to know people individually and help them to thrive.
It’s great that you’re able to give colleagues that personal attention – thanks for sharing Verity, and good luck for the year ahead!
Verity: Thanks!