A Day in The Life of...Louisa Rodriguez, our Head of Learning and Development

Have you ever wondered about what it is like to work at Park Leisure? Have you maybe wondered what we all get up to? We've sat down with Louisa Rodriguez, Park Leisure's Head or Learning and Development to find out about what she gets up to on a daily basis and why she loves working at Park Leisure.

When did you join Park Leisure?

June 2017

Why did you choose Park Leisure?

I was excited about taking on a new role for the business, there wasn’t a Head of Learning and Development before me, and to be able to join a business to support and develop its people was something I felt passionate about. I was also lucky enough to get to visit two of our parks before joining and was blown away by how stunning they are. I loved the idea of working for a company that was all about creating amazing experiences and memories for our guests and owners on park.

What are your favourite things about working at Park Leisure?

My favourite things are:

1. The people, I love our teams, we have amazing people and its a joy working with them all supporting each team member to grow and develop in their role.
2. The company is one that is growing and with that comes change, it’s great to be part of the exciting journey Park Leisure is on. I love that our Directors have an open-door policy, and are approachable and willing to listen to ideas that anyone in the company may have to make things better.
3. I love that I get to work in some of the most beautiful locations at our beautiful parks, across the UK. Each one of our parks is unique but all of them have the 5-Star edge!

Please describe your job: 

What do you do?

I oversee and develop the learning and development of all our team members and the business. This means working across the business with our Directors, Senior Managers and different departments, to assess the training needs that exist in our business so I can find effective training solutions to best suit the business needs and develop our teams. My role is about driving and developing a learning culture within the business encouraging the mindset of learning and growth as integral to the team experience.  I work with the Communications Director, to oversee the talent development of our people, to ensure we are developing our shining stars in the business who are driven to progress. A big part of my role also focuses on internal communication and employee engagement, this means looking at how we communicate with our teams, how happy and motivated our teams are at Park Leisure, and constantly looking at how we can keep on improving to drive the team member experience. I am also an internal trainer and coach to the business, working with different managers using coaching as a development tool and designing and delivering training as the business requires.

What kind of skills do you need to be effective in your role?

Number one has to be people skills and communication skills. My role is all about people, and being an effective communicator, being able to work with people from all backgrounds, understanding the different motivational drivers of our different team members, different communication and learning styles that exist in the business in order to provide effective training and development that works for our people. Being creative and solution focused is also important, in order to come up with training solutions for teams, creativity is important in thinking outside of the box to look at things from a different perspective, being able to step into the shoes of the different roles in the company is key to understanding the needs of each team member. I also have coaching experience and training, facilitation experience all of which have been key to my role.

Tell us about a typical working day… 

What I love is every day can be different in my role. One day I might be travelling to park to deliver a one to one coaching session with one of our Heads of Department, the next day I could be delivering a training session on GDPR or facilitating a leadership workshop for our ILM programme or having a one to one tutorial with a team member around their development. Then I might be running inductions for a new General Manager, to working with a Director to discuss a new training programme, to designing a training course for a park team. Then it might be coordinating our employee newsletter, filming our interview with a director video to researching and consulting with our senior managers about what training needs our teams have and how we can fill those gaps. Every day is different but always about our people which I love as it keeps me on my toes.

What do you love about your job?

For me it is always the people, I remember at this year’s Employee Conference saying how I had fallen in love with everyone, cheesy as it sounds it is true. It is the teams I work with from the Maintenance and Grounds team members, Housekeeping, Customer Care Advisors, to the Heads of Departments all the way up to the Directors, I love working with everyone at every level. Watching individuals develop and grow in their roles and progress is also amazing! Park Leisure is the company it is because of its people and it is amazing to be a part of the team that leads on developing our people culture.

What kind of goals do you have?

I would love to see Park Leisure be recognised as an award-winning employer of choice. For all team members to love coming to work and have the ability to reach their career potential with us.

Do you have any advice for people who want to work in the industry?

The key thing to this industry is people and communication, being passionate about people and delivering amazing experiences. With that in mind If you want to work in this industry it is all about getting people experience, guest experience and having the right mindset of wanting to go the extra mile to deliver excellence. I can say at Park Leisure, we work hard but we have fun while we do. Joining Park Leisure has been an exciting adventure so far and I look forward to the future with them.