Jamie Byford-Palmer (CertRP)

This project team aims to review and improve Cancer Research UK's interview and assessment process to:
- Be more efficient with our approach to assessing candidates
- Innovate and find ways to assess candidates fairly and robustly that lead to us hiring high-quality candidates that make a difference to the organisation
- Ensure hiring managers follow best recruitment practice and legislation​

This project team consists of the TA Manager, a TA Business Partner, TA Specialists… Show more

This project team aims to review and improve Cancer Research UK's interview and assessment process to:
- Be more efficient with our approach to assessing candidates
- Innovate and find ways to assess candidates fairly and robustly that lead to us hiring high-quality candidates that make a difference to the organisation
- Ensure hiring managers follow best recruitment practice and legislation​

This project team consists of the TA Manager, a TA Business Partner, TA Specialists, and a TA Coordinator. As a Senior Specialist, I am involved in supporting, mentoring, coordinating, and leading a TA Coordinator in delivering their project deliverables; while also taking the lead on finding a streamlined, standardised, and sustainable solution with the technical knowledge to create a highly technical / coding assessments for Technology. Show less

Upon joining Cancer Research UK, the Technology team was struggling to attract qualified candidates with a vacancy backlog. It became clear that the directorate's ambitious operating model & strategy, modern tack-stack, scale of innovation, and employee experience were unknown to the wider Technology market creating a struggle to compete in a competitive job market.

I took the initiative to increase awareness internally on how the team could boost their presence, celebrate their… Show more

Upon joining Cancer Research UK, the Technology team was struggling to attract qualified candidates with a vacancy backlog. It became clear that the directorate's ambitious operating model & strategy, modern tack-stack, scale of innovation, and employee experience were unknown to the wider Technology market creating a struggle to compete in a competitive job market.

I took the initiative to increase awareness internally on how the team could boost their presence, celebrate their successes, and utilise external platforms to attract talent (e.g. LinkedIn). When our Talent Attraction Lead joined Cancer Research UK to implement an org-wide Employer Branding Strategy, I collaborated with them to lead Technology in understanding the strategy and owning their own specialist/ technical content. This involved partnering with Technology’s senior leadership team (SLT), hiring managers, the Communications Manager, and employees to generate external content and internal awareness, while also managing the team's LinkedIn page.

Key results so far:
- Organised LinkedIn training for 100+ Technology employees
- Applications increased from 359 in Q1 to 704 in Q4 2022/23. In Q1, 33% of applications were sourced from LinkedIn, in Q4 this increased to 40%
- The Cancer Research UK Technology Team LinkedIn page gained 500+ followers and the engagement rate steadily increased monthly from 6% in May 2022 to 51% in May 2023
- Technology employees are autonomously sharing and creating regular content both independently and with external partners (e.g. podcasts, articles, Computing Awards), with several volunteering to be Employee Brand Champions in 2023/24
- My LinkedIn Social Selling Index was in the top 2% of both industry and network rankings for the majority of 2022/23

https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/cancer-research-uk-technology-team/ Show less

I was part of the planning team organising the first COO Away Day post-covid for 300+ employees from Cancer Research UK's corporate teams (COO) at the Kia Oval.

This was the first time bringing these teams of professionals together since forming a one direcorate before the pandemic so this was an opportunity to celebrate our achievements as well as looking ahead to the future. The theme for the day was ‘Connected’ and the agenda focused on getting to know each other better, understanding… Show more

I was part of the planning team organising the first COO Away Day post-covid for 300+ employees from Cancer Research UK's corporate teams (COO) at the Kia Oval.

This was the first time bringing these teams of professionals together since forming a one direcorate before the pandemic so this was an opportunity to celebrate our achievements as well as looking ahead to the future. The theme for the day was ‘Connected’ and the agenda focused on getting to know each other better, understanding our role as COO and how we contribute to Cancer Research UK’s strategy, as well as reflecting on the impact we have on the wider world. Show less

Project Team Member responsible for all User Acceptance Testing and providing feedback to project management. All testing completed, ensuring the success of the live system update.

One week community project during World Challenge Expedition in Uganda. Responsibilities included:

• Organising and managing budget, food and transport.
• Buying building resources and teaching utensils.
• Hiring builders to assist with the project.
• Manual labour duties to assist with the building of a new classroom (e.g. mixing cement and brick
laying etc).
• Teaching English, Maths and PE classes.

Dealt with 10,000+ UK employees' opt-out requests, contribution changes, queries, and provided regular project status updates to the reward team.