We take the development of our people pretty seriously. Why? First of all, we know it’s a reason why great people join and stay at innocent – to further their careers, to become a better version of themselves, and to play a part in growing a successful business. Secondly, it makes sense for us to have a team of engaged, talented, high performing people at the top of their game. Pretty obvious really.

Here is a little more detail about our approach to developing people at innocent. Please read on...

Of course we all know that the best learning takes place every day. So in a business that’s growing and evolving like innocent, the opportunities to develop yourself every day are second to none. We really mean this. It isn’t hot air. We want people who come and join us to have a huge appetite for taking chances and for pushing themselves to try things they have never thought to do before. If this is what development means to you, then have a look at the current opportunities we have. We would love to hear from you.

Your first few days set the tone for things to come. That's why we put so much effort into giving people a warm welcome to their career at innocent. We make sure that during the 2 week induction people get a complete picture of how the business works, their role and how they contribute to innocent, and, most importantly, where to look for help.

In 2006 we launched the innocent Academy. It’s an in-house training school, designed to develop core skills and behaviours. To pull it all together we worked with a leading professor at London Business School (a very clever man) as well as using some pretty special people from innocent. The result is a 2-day programme which equips small groups with simple ideas and tools that should help them to be even more effective. From how to solve complex problems, to showing leadership, to improving your presenting skills – it’s all here. Everyone across the company goes on the Academy and the feedback has been nothing short of, frankly, very very good.

This is a practical, 2-day internally developed training course designed to teach you core business skills. Things like being a great project manager, making a business case, and understanding the clever financial wizardry that underpins all the stuff companies do. If you are at manager level or above you'll go on this course during your first year at innocent.

We believe that there are some things that all of us need to be good at (see above) and some things that are a little more specific to our jobs, our careers, and our own aspirations. This is where craft development comes in. Each team at innocent has a craft development plan which is all about building professional depth within that area. For some teams it might involve studying for professional exams, for others it might be about honing certain skills. For you it might be about building your external network and learning from other people in industry. Horses for courses, but all about learning more to raise your game.

We are really hot on feedback. Great feedback is such a simple and effective way for people to develop. We should all do more of it and here at innocent we do it in a number of ways.

Everyone can expect weekly one to ones with their manager to discuss progress against objectives, share feedback and get some help if it’s needed.

In January we set objectives that define what each person needs to do to be successful in their role. In May and November every person has a performance review and gets detailed feedback on their performance in their role. It's also an opportunity to discuss development areas in detail.

One last word on feedback. One of our values is to be generous and we believe that to give meaningful feedback is to be generous. So it's expected of each and every person that they take the time out to give their friends and colleagues pointers on the things they do well and the things they could do to be even better.

We think it’s important to get away from the usual day-to-day stuff on a regular basis, step back and work on the areas you can improve to be even better at what you do. That's why everyone has regular development chats. These involve you and your manager working together to agree development commitments - the things you are going to do to raise your game.

Part of becoming a truly European business is about encouraging business and personal growth by sharing learning and experiences across borders.

If there is a business need in one of our offices for particular skills, we will look to see if some of our best people can fulfill those needs through a 3 to 6 month transfer.