Group Director, Learning and Development

WHO WE ARE

Crossmedia is the global media independent. We’re committed to doing media and business the right way, guided by the principles of TRUST, REASON, and the pursuit of HAPPINESS. Crossmedia US was founded in NY in 2000 and is one of the largest minority-owned full-service media planning & buying agencies in the nation. Together with our network partners in Germany and the UK, we are 600+ Crossmedians worldwide with big ambitions to continue to grow with soul.

We focus on what media agencies should do: create innovative connections between brands and people regardless of channel or budget. And, we do it in an honest way. We are and always have been a values-based organization. We earn our clients TRUST by ensuring media transparency in our business model and objectivity in decision-making. We apply REASON & logic to everything and have one of the leading analytics groups in the industry committed to uncovering data insights to drive solutions. The pursuit of HAPPINESS matters to us. Big time. We invest in each colleague's professional & personal well-being and growth. It’s why we have countless initiatives, clubs & cultural events dedicated to our people and why we‘ve been the top-ranked media agency on Ad Age Best Places to Work for the past four years in a row.

This role is HYBRID, with flexibility to work from home but the candidate should have proximity to our NY office.

WHO YOU ARE

Your ambition is to make Crossmedia the best f’in media agency in the world – known for our work, our people, our culture and our values. You are an expert in various people development functional areas: learning & development, employee engagement, employee listening, and organizational effectiveness. You have a deep understanding of how L&D drives overall agency culture as well as individual employee effectiveness, growth, and engagement. You are able to work cross-functionally to develop and execute programs that help our people excel. You are accomplished in developing and applying a consistent approach and unified narrative across programs and audiences, presenting learning simply, clearly and persuasively in engaging and interactive ways.

You are a self-motivated, smart thinker who has passion for developing people and ensuring that development aligns with the unique culture and purpose of Crossmedia. You are an adept and agile leader who can work within a fast paced, high-growth, scaling organization. You are willing and able to move between high level strategy and hands-on, day-to-day operational work. You are accomplished in change management, scaling organizations and programs and communicating at all levels of the organization, working in collaboration with an ability to influence others.

Beyond your deep background and expertise, you are a teacher, facilitator, mentor, coach - who cares deeply for people, their growth, the value of purpose and in having a strong and distinct culture. You aspire to develop and nurture talent and make XM synonymous with great programs and people.

YOUR ROLE

Your role is to be a senior-level evangelist for all things related to learning/effectiveness and engagement. You will partner with our senior leaders throughout the agency to design, develop and execute a cohesive learning strategy framework and tactical roadmap. Working closely with our Chief People Officer and leaders throughout the business with an interest in developing learning programs and teaching, you’ll be responsible for ensuring that there is a connective thread and cohesive strategy across all of our learning initiatives. You will help us develop an overarching curriculum that spans a variety of current and future needs, including but not limited to: the core capabilities necessary to do our jobs through to development of managers and leaders, to bespoke behavioral learning aligned to our values of Trust, Reason and the Pursuit of Happiness to DEI and mental health advocacy. As we think about how we scale and work with our clients and each other in the future, you’ll help us evolve our learning approach to support our business ambitions. In the development of a learning curriculum across the employee lifecycle – from candidate selection to onboarding through exit, our program will provide an enviable employee experience to drive attraction, engagement and ultimately, performance.

YOUR OBJECTIVES

• Develop and launch and employee listening program to help us quantify our strengths and identify any areas for further focus. Partner with agency leaders across the business (talent team + business leads) to develop action plans to address any outages, feedback and opportunities.
• With a clear understanding and appreciation of our business and capability needs, create a strategic roadmap of learning and development needs that aligns to the Crossmedia mission, strategy and culture.
• Work with agency leadership to align on the needs/framework across the agency both in developing competency and capabilities in media as well as in behaviors.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to create learning programs, leveraging our internal expertise and experience.
• Design and define key metrics of success for the programs and a way to measure the impact and ROI.
• Promote a coaching culture in the organization and mentor leaders in L&D methods.
• Identify innovative learning solutions to support our teams to learn and grow.
• Partner with DE&I to implement programs and initiatives to support our DE&I strategy including awareness and inclusion training, coaching, mentorship, etc.
• Partner with outside vendors and industry organizations to bring learning programs to Crossmedians
• Be a key contributor and colleague to the Crossmedia People Team as well as to the COO and Chief Brand Experience Officer.

The ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker, with 12+ years of experience within an agency, marketing or media company and with 8+ years of L&D expertise. Salary range 135-175k.

• A resourceful self-starter with an entrepreneurial mindset who can work within a lean organization
• Detail-oriented, logical, creative, and energetic with a passion for cultivating people and creating leaders
• A positive attitude and a willingness to step in and take on tasks from design to administration that often involve tight deadlines and working with multiple stakeholders.
• Expert listening, mentorship and coaching skills and problem-solving ability
• Experienced in managing change and driving adoption
• Proven track record of being a trusted adviser and influencer.
• Strong business and commercial acumen – able to simplify and synthesize materials for various audiences
• Extensive experience building and scaling innovative, progressive engagement and learning and development programs
• Solid experience in instructional/learning design and evaluation and functional knowledge of digital authoring tools
• Data and technology minded, with a strong desire to explore and align data and metrics to action plans that impact business and people growth.
• Composing compelling stories of people engagement work to win awards and secure press features
• Partner to Talent team and People Experience team on all employee engagement and culture initiatives and events
• Human Resources certifications such as HRCI or SHRM are a plus.

CROSSMEDIA BENEFITS

Our principles of Trust, Reason and the Pursuit of Happiness are brought to life through benefits that recognize and support the diversity and physical, emotional and professional well-being of our people.

• Work from anywhere flexibility including hybrid/remote office options to empower you to work your way
• Open PTO policy and paid sabbaticals at significant milestone anniversaries
• Fully-funded healthcare options and agency-wide physical & mental health support
• 401(k) with company match, student loan relief program and financial counseling support
• Generous paid parental leave policy
• Life milestone recognition & support
• The Pursuit of Happiness Fund devoted to helping Crossmedians find their happy (be it travel, enrichment class, fitness membership or professional development)
• Cell phone/tech reimbursement
• Student Loan payment plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• And burgers – lots and lots of burgers

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

Diversity is in our DNA. As a minority-owned company, our commitment to an inclusive environment has long been embedded into agency practices and at every level. Almost one third of senior leadership identifies as a person of color and over half of our executive leadership are women. We have active mentoring & internship programs that create opportunities for underrepresented groups. Internal agency programming is anchored by XMEquity365, a permanent, year-round initiative fostering acknowledgement and support of marginalized communities within five pillars – Excellence, Voices, Education, Giving & Representation.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.