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Hi I am Meg Pringle, Head of Talent Development for O2 Retail.

 I have been working for O2 for just over a year and am responsible for all the Learning and Development in O2 Retail, from the Retail Leadership Team through to the Retail Stores, Franchise and our Retail Central Team. With so many different people to support with the help of my team I get exposure to many facets of development which keeps life busy and interesting.

 As part of the Retail Leadership Team I enjoy working on the Retail Strategy with my colleagues and helping to drive the operational business forward. I also need to keep an eye on costs in my area with over 4,000 people’s development in my budget this represents a significant spend and investment in our people.

 Although I am based in the Slough office my team and our Retail stores are spread all over the country so living near Oxford means that I am well placed to travel to our different venues.
 I also enjoy working closely with other areas of our business such as Customer Services, Business Sales and Technology, which gives us insight and exposure to different approaches. There is no doubt that we could not deliver the best experience for our people unless we worked especially closely with the HR and Resourcing Teams, so we work together on a day to day basis and get together twice a year as a full team to share strategy and have a bit of fun!

What is really great is that I have also had time to take care of my own development, one of the best workshops I have been on was Leading for Total Engagement which is managed by our O2 Central L & D team.

So, its Annual Performance Review time again and 2009 was such and eventful year for me.. I spent quite a lot of last year on maternity leave but even so I’m still surprised at the amount of things there are to say about the 3 months I was actually in work that year. One of the main things that I enjoyed was being a Question & Answer  floorwalker for some new starters, it’s so nice to feel that my 9 yrs of working here helped others and I felt that they really appreciated having me around.
A year or so ago I did a project that was all about helping the local community at a drop in centre for the local teenagers in Beeston, Leeds.  I was helping with painting the walls and a bit of gardening.  It was so nice to feel that through O2, I could do something to help others
Lets hope that 2010 is just as eventful

 Jo in  Leeds

In March 2010, I’ll have been at O2 for six years. If I think back to when I joined, I wasn’t convinced that my calling in life was to be a ‘mobile phone salesperson’. The fact that I am still here, and thoroughly enjoy my career, is testament to the variety that O2 has offered me, and the professional development that I have achieved.
When I started, I was employed as a Corporate Acquisitions Manager, tasked with winning new corporate accounts across South Wales. Now, I am a Sales Manager, responsible for six sales professionals challenged to win new public sector accounts across the whole of the UK.
Thinking back through the last six years, I’ve worked hard, but at O2 if you are willing to push yourself, the opportunities presented to you are incredible. Some of the highlights have included winning the National Sales Awards B2B team of the year in 2009, achieving Gold Accreditation in our award winning ‘Sales Academy’ development programme in 2008, and also winning a £2000 contribution to a family holiday as a result of high performance in 2008.
Along the way I’ve visited Cannes, Madrid and Seville for our annual sales conferences; spent a few days shadowing my clients staff to gain a better understanding of the challenges their front line staff face; been involved in developing new propositions to take to market; and most recently, I spent an hour interviewing our CFO, Ramon Ros, as part of a development programme designed to increase my professional legitimacy when dealing with senior executives.
At O2 we have a ‘challenger mentality’. The organisation has continuously evolved over the last 6 years, challenging our competition and meaning that we stay ahead of the chasing pack. Now, I am anything but a ‘mobile phone salesperson’, as our portfolio includes more than purely selling cheap calls, and I don’t see myself leaving O2 anytime soon. For anyone with the ambition to get on in life, to develop personally and professionally, then O2 is the place for you.

Neil