Press Release · 4-minute read
Partners from around the globe join Saville Assessment for 2024 International Conference
Celebrating 20 years of elevating performance
23rd May 2024
We were delighted to be joined in London by our international partner network, representing more than 15 countries spanning Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Across three days of interactive sessions, the latest assessment trends and insights from across the globe were shared, as well as the exciting developments underway for Saville Assessment.
The focal point of the three-day event took place at Twickenham Stadium, the home of England Rugby, where we were joined by talent professionals from a range of organizations including Sky, Citi Group, British Airways, Fujitsu, and many more who came together for a day of networking and learning from a stellar line up of keynote speakers.
The theme for this year’s conference was skills and speaker sessions included:
Skills: Everyone’s talking about them, but are they having the right conversations? - Rab MacIver
Our R&D Director Rab MacIver shared our latest thinking on this area, why skills matter, and discussed the shift towards skills-based organizations which are becoming increasingly prevalent.
Key messages included:
- Skills resonate with people at all levels.
- ‘Skills potential’ refers to the attributes that predispose an individual to develop and utilize skills in a professional context.
- Moving from ‘experience’ to ‘skills’ promotes greater diversity.
- To develop the skill, you have to learn. The optimal way of learning depends on the skill and an individual’s learning style.
- “Talent you have naturally; skill is only developed by hours and hours of work.” – Usain Bolt.
Winning Together: An Olympic-Winning Approach to Building Better Teams - Helen Richardson-Walsh OBE
We were delighted to have Great Britain Hockey Olympic gold medallist Helen Richardson-Walsh OBE join us to talk about what creates a winning culture, sharing fascinating insight into the squad dynamics that made them so successful.
She also revealed what she learned from her own personal journey from Bronze at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, to Gold at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Helen shared advice for organizations to make culture and values less abstract by turning them into actionable tasks/standards, and how they as a team were empowered by the coach to create and drive their own culture framework from within
Be the Difference – We Are Winners
Create History – We Are One Team
Inspire the Future – Be Alive
One particular point that resonated with our delegates was that “culture is defined by the worst behavior tolerated”, with Helen encouraging the audience to understand what you are tolerating in yourself and others that’s not helping you go in the direction you want to go.
How to Create a Winning Mindset - Maggie Alphonsi OBE
We were also joined by former England Women’s Rugby International Maggie Alphonsi OBE for a session on how to create a winning mindset.
In an energetic, interactive session, Maggie drew on her experiences as a successful female in a male-dominated sector to share unique insights on leadership, transferring skills, challenging perceptions, and the psychology of winning, both on and off the pitch.
Maggie’s mantra is ‘be comfortable with being uncomfortable’ and she asked the audience to question what really drives them and to reflect on a time that they’ve made a difference to others, as well as sharing her belief that ‘leadership is not about you, it’s about those around you’.
She encouraged everyone to continue to push themselves forward in whatever they do in life; “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”
“After nearly five and a half years, due to Covid and other factors, it was great to welcome so many of our international partners to meet again in person, discuss strategy, challenges and opporunites in their regions.”
James Hollingsworth, Sales & Marketing Director – Saville Assessment
“What an insightful and inspiring day spent at the iconic Twickenham Stadium. The discussion centered around Skills and if they are truly the future of talent attraction and management. The afternoon was then spent being completely mesmerised by Helen Richardson-Walsh, learning about the behaviors and values that helped her team win the Olympic gold medal.
If that was not all, we had the absolute privilege of being in a session led by Maggie Alphonsi MBE! What a powerhouse of energy, inspiration, reflection and motivation. She had the room gripped and the laughter, self-reflection, inspiration and sheer brilliance we all felt was very real,” said Puja Kumar of Sky Life on LinkedIn.
Interested in becoming a partner?
We are always on the lookout for businesses with a proven track record of providing assessment services for the selection and development.
By becoming a partner, you would be joining a community of like-minded businesses, working with clients in over 80 countries, providing our assessments in over 35 languages.