Leanne Barlow

As Learning Development Lead my role is incredibly varied. It is a hybrid role working between the People Team and Clinical Development Team. I arrange and coordinate a whole host of training sessions, from compliance, such as ILS (immediate Life Support), first aid and fire marshal, to things such as Mental Health First Aid and helping people navigate our new systems. I am fairly new to the role, so my current big project is to review our Learning Management System and to make sure we are using it to its full potential. I am also a bit of a whizz with our new systems so can often be found doing some background tinkering if something isn’t working quite right.

I love problem solving, so creating something within our People HR system that will make a previously lengthy process into a quick and easy task makes me super happy. I also love being part of the wider Smile Together team, and my role can involve interacting with so many different people across the company.

My biggest challenge is keeping the team motivated and enthusiastic about learning. I want people to want to learn more – not just the compliance and mandatory training. There’s so much out there, and continually learning new things keeps things fresh and exciting.

Before Smile Together I worked 25+ years in hospitality management, most recently working for the Rick Stein group, so I am also a massive foodie; there was also a bit of portrait photography, some marketing, some car magazine admin, and a very brief stint working for Ofsted thrown into the mix.

After all those years in hospitality management, I realised I cared far more about the people I worked with than the customers I served. Lockdown 2020 provided me with the opportunity to have time to study, and I self-funded my CIPD Level 3 HR course. I recently (finally!) completed my level 5 and, combined with years of coaching and developing my hospitality teams, I decided to specialise in Learning & Development. I love it as it never stops changing and there’s always new technology, new ways of learning and new concepts to explore.

The fact that Smile Together is a certified B Corporation and is also employee owned really appealed to me. Creating a positive impact on our communities, the environment and our teams really makes you feel like you are part of something amazing, using our people and business to do good things. Being employee-owned means that you have a genuine voice in the business and so we are all invested from the start.

To someone considering working for Smile Together I would say: Do it! It is like no other workplace and we have a ruddy lovely bunch of people 😊

Outside of work I love the beach, I love the sea, I love the mountains (I’m a keen snowboarder!), but I also have the most wonderful bunch of mates and we’re always up to mischief. I also do occasional work for a local festival company, which is always incredible, and this year I finally realised my dream of going to Glastonbury.