Area Director, Learning & Development - Americas - Four Seasons Corporate Office Miami

About Four Seasons:

Four Seasons is powered by our people. We are a collective of individuals who crave to become better, to push ourselves to new heights and to treat each other as we wish to be treated in return. Our team members around the world create amazing experiences for our guests, residents, and partners through a commitment to luxury with genuine heart. We know that the best way to enable our people to deliver these exceptional guest experiences is through a world-class employee experience and company culture.         

At Four Seasons, we believe in recognizing a familiar face, welcoming a new one and treating everyone we meet the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Whether you work with us, stay with us, live with us or discover with us, we believe our purpose is to create impressions that will stay with you for a lifetime. It comes from our belief that life is richer when we truly connect to the people and the world around us.

About the location:

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts is a global, luxury hotel management company. We manage over 120 hotels and resorts and 50 private residences in 47 countries around the world and growing. Central to Four Seasons employee experience and social impact programming is the company’s commitment to supporting cancer research, and the advancement of diversity, inclusion, equality and belonging at Four Seasons corporate offices and properties worldwide. At Four Seasons, we are powered by people and our culture enables everything we do.

Area Director, Learning & Development, Americas (5-Month Contract, Remote)

The Area Director of L&D drives and implements learning and development initiatives that are strategically aligned with our business goals. They work with P&C and Learning Leads to elevate the Four Seasons employee experience to ensure we offer exceptional guest experiences.  This role is focused on elevating and driving L&D success in all hotels/resorts in the Americas region.

This role will work with hotels to improve the learning quality / experience on-property in Americas, driving learning professionalism with DP&Cs, LDMs and P&C overall.  They will ensure consistent processes and systems through assessment, continued support, and coaching, partnering with the VPP&C to drive P&C goals for the region, and Corporate L&D to develop and deploy learning strategy for the organization.  This role will drive the global corporate L&D strategy and support the operational areas in translating this into Area tactics and execution.

What You’ll Be Doing:

On-Property Learning Excellence

• Assesses overall health of Area L&D, identifying strategies to elevate on-property learning excellence across the Americas, and actively works with hotel GMs, HMs, and DP&Cs to ensure appropriate L&D strategies are in place in hotels across the region.
• Acts as an extension of global L&D team, driving global L&D strategies and ensuring consistency of Four Seasons employee experience regarding L&D and service training. 
• In partnership with hotel leaders, ensures each hotel has appropriate structures and resources in place to conduct hotel core programs and functional/service training
• Coaches and develops Regional LDMs who in turn support a cluster of Learning Leads, helping them to run an effective learning department that supports the business needs of the entire hotel
• Onboards newly promoted or newly hired Regional LDMs 
• Reviews annual Learning Needs Analysis, Learning Success Levels, Learning budget and learning records with DP&Cs and Learning Leads and consults on areas of focus
• Measures L&D success and correlates learning initiatives with People, Product, and Profit results.
• Develops Learning Leads in the core areas of L&D (Core Programming, Operational Learning, Employee Development, and Learning Professional Skills) to ensure consistently successful learning programming across the Area portfolio
• Hosts regular calls and connection points between Regional LDMs to share best practices and create a support network.
• Manages Learning taskforce needs in the region, leveraging the CTL as first choice.

Leadership Learning & Strategic Talent Development

• With VPP&C, drives leadership effectiveness strategies and tactics across the Americas.
• Partners with Area functional leads to consult on workshops for strategic Area leadership meetings or conferences.
• Partners with VPP&C to create and drive Individual Development Plans to accelerate growth of strategic talent in the Area.

• Provides support for key talent management processes for Area strategic talent at the PC and GM levels. 
• Acts as a licensed facilitator of leadership programs designed to develop Planning Committee and Assistant Division Head employees where necessary.
• DP&C Onboarding and ongoing support for DP&Cs and Hotel Managers

Pre-opening Hotel support 

• In partnership with hotel leaders, ensures the opening hotel has appropriate structures and resources in place to conduct hotel core programs and functional/service training.
• Supports the co-ordination of pre-opening learning strategies with hotel leadership team, Learning Lead, and global L&D
• Assists Learning Lead with pre-opening learning critical path development, learning budget and Capex.
• Delivers learning programs and informal coaching for on-property leaders as required.
• Supports with the preparation of STMs and other core service delivery tools.
• Helps plan and coordinate L&D taskforce requirements to ensure successful openings.
• Certifies learning team, managers, and departmental trainers with Train the Trainer Skills 

Support for VPP&C 

• Supports all People & Culture initiatives being driven by the VPP&C
• Supports organizational development strategy in partnership with business and P&C leaders
• Addresses engagement & performance needs with creative L&D solutions
• Participates as an active thought partner and team member to the global Learning & Development team, the P&C leadership team, including attending regular team meetings and meeting strategic partners regularly to coordinate and agree on strategy and operational direction.

Program Design

• Leads Area-specific updates to core program material (i.e. language updates, etc.)
• Leads the development of Area-specific programming, in consultation with Global L&D

What You Bring:

• A senior HR professional with expertise in learning & development, change leadership, talent management, operational training, strategy alignment, culture, and high-performance team development.
• Minimum a post-secondary degree or equivalent work experience from a renowned university. 
• A minimum of 7 years of learning and development leadership experience preferable in global operations environment preferably from hotel or F&B sectors. Luxury experience a plus.
• Knowledge or best practices for adult learning and related tools.
• Embraces and exemplifies the Four Seasons Leadership behaviors.
• Exceptional technical skills, including superior Microsoft Office  
• Team player and ability to forge reliable working relationships.
• Strong administrative and project management skills. Able to work independently, be self-motivated and proactive in taking on new tasks.
• Capable of working on multiple projects on deadline
• Solution-oriented: Ability to assess situations and exercise good judgment.
• Keen attention to detail

Key Skills:

• Strong project management skills
• Performance Improvement
• Instructional Design
• Learning Delivery
• Learning Technologies
• Evaluating Learning Impact
• Managing Learning Programs
• Integrated Talent Management
• Coaching 
• Knowledge Management
• Change Management

Four Seasons is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Minorities, women, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. To access the 'EEOC is The Law' Information poster please visit this website - https://eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/migrated_files/employers/poster_screen_reader_optimized.pdf