Met Office recognised for commitment to empowering people to be the best they can be

The CIPD is pleased to name the Met Office  as its latest People Development Partner (PDP).

The Met Office is regarded as one of the most trusted weather forecasters in the world and a leader in climate science. It employs a team of over 2,200 people working to deliver extraordinary impact through exceptional scientific, technological and operational expertise. Fifty-five of these people work within the People Directorate.

The company’s strategic anchor ‘Excellent People and Culture’ set out the ambition to be recognised as a great place to work: attracting and retaining talented people from all walks of life to enable the organisation to succeed. Achieving PDP status helps the Met Office deliver against this ambition. 

To receive PDP status, the Met Office demonstrated a remarkable level of commitment to develop and continuously invest in its people, by:

• Holding a series of development workshops for employees on the benefits of using the Profession Map in people development. This has enabled individuals to use CIPD tools to create more impact in their role.
• Aligning its people practices to the Profession Map including using knowledge and behaviour definitions to outline the competencies and expected levels of outputs for job roles within the organisation.
• Using the Profession Map standards to create an in-house diagnostic tool to measure capability. The tool also identifies learning opportunities for individuals and signposts to CIPD resources.  This has enabled the Met Office to understand the increased level of impact and how they can support other teams’ learning.
• Using the CIPD People Impact Tool to measure capability, identify perception gaps and inform future business decisions.
• Actively promoting the CIPD Learning Hub where members can access learning and development programmes and information. This helps people to take ownership of their own learning.
• Taking part and contributing to CIPD events and learning opportunities.

As a result, more than half of the People Directorate now hold CIPD membership.

In 2023, 32 Met Office employees also received support for their CIPD membership.

Eight people have undertaken the accredited programme for people analytics and will be offered CIPD membership on completion of the programme. Three mentors are working to support the CIPD Trust.

Qualifications achieved by employees in the People Directorate include:

• Nine people at Level 3 (Certificate)
• Five people at Level 5 (Diploma)
• Three people at Level 7 (Advanced Diploma)

The Met Office is committed to continuous improvement in its people development practices. In the coming year, the organisation plans to:

• Support ten more employees to achieve qualifications.
• Encourage more employees to achieve CIPD membership through experience assessments or apprenticeships.
• Explore opportunities for employees who aren’t CIPD members to access the CIPD Learning Hub.