Head of Performance – Glasgow – Scottish Hockey

Job Description
Scottish Hockey, (SH) is the national governing body for hockey in Scotland. We provide opportunities for individuals of all ages to be involved in hockey in Scotland, whether as a player, coach, official or volunteer.
We have over 9500 members across our 113 clubs, and thousands of other players in schools and universities.
We introduced a new strategic plan for hockey in Scotland in 2015. The plan focuses on improving our sport at all levels and has a number of key performance indicators for the organisation to deliver against.
We have a long history of providing players for Great Britain, with two of our players medalling at London in 2012, and we had 5 players in the wider GB Squads leading up to Rio.
Our performance team supports the growth and development of players through our pathway programme from under 16 to our full international teams. Our women’s side is one of the top 6 sides in Europe, and is aiming for World Cup Qualification, and a top 4 finish in the Commonwealth Games in 2018. Our men have shown recent improvements and narrowly missed out on promotion to the top European Championship. Our aim for the men’s team is to rise to the top 6 in Europe and qualify for the World Cup in 2022.
We have shown sustained growth in membership over the last 2 years, with an over 40% increase in the last two years. Most of that growth is in youth members, who are taking the first steps towards potentially representing their country.
We support our clubs and districts through a variety of resources as they strengthen and grow, including four regional development managers who work with a number of our clubs across Scotland. Our clubs vary from single teams, to mixed clubs with over 10 teams. We have clubs across Scotland from the Borders all the way to Shetland and Orkney.
We have a strong relationship with sportscotland who provide significant investment and support for a range of our coaching, development and performance programmes.
Following an independent review of performance we have created a new and exciting opportunity for a Head of Performance to join our team at the National Hockey Centre at Glasgow Green. The successful candidate will be part of the senior staff team at Scottish Hockey, including the CEO and the Head of Domestic Game, and will be a key influencer in shaping the future of our game.
You will have significant experience and achievements from building and improving a performance environment/system either within sport or business. A sound understanding of performance sport is advantageous.

Key responsibilities
The Head of Performance will create, lead and deliver the Scottish Hockey performance plan as part of the “Hockey in Scotland” strategic plan

You will deliver the vision of long term player and team performance improvement. You will have the ability to achieve short term success whilst building the performance pathway and culture for generations of players to come. You will have the credibility and ruthlessness to shape and deliver the performance plan with clear benchmarking to identify success. You will be a great communicator with the ability to sell the vision of player and team development and improvement to a diverse range of stakeholders. You will create the culture to deliver world class players through our pathway ensuring players access frequent, high quality contact time with the right coaches and appropriate competition exposure. As a leader you will drive, motivate and inspire the team around you. You will build great relationships with sportscotland and Great Britain Hockey. As a key member of the senior team you will understand the need and benefits of great cross working and shared projects.

Job Role
Leadership
• Have the ruthlessness and credibility to drive, shape, develop and deliver performance outcomes and associated KPI’s in the short, medium and long term. Lead the analysis of how performance improvement can take place taking into consideration:
o World hockey strength, depth and opportunities
o Analysis of the game at World, European and Commonwealth levels
o Analysis of our own performances at key competitions
o Strength and depth in both genders across the pathway
• Take a leading role in setting the strategy for performance through our High Performance Group
• Demonstrate the drive to do things better and to identify, set and strive for challenging goals
• Create and communicate an effective world class performance pathway and performance environments capable of producing a consistent feed of high quality international calibre players and coaches
• Lead, inspire and support performance staff, and national and club coaches to ensure they are effective at developing players and teams for the international game
• Evidence and influence current and new stakeholders to engage with the performance strategy on a domestic and international level
• Ensure Selection Policy is suitable, applied and adhered to

Interpersonal
• Excellent communication skills to articulate, sell and secure buy in to the vision for performance improvement
• Develop and maintain excellent relationships with partners and stakeholders who contribute to the success and improvement of the performance system including:
o Scottish Hockey colleagues
o Valued coaches, volunteers, districts and clubs
o GB Hockey
o sportscotland / SIS
o Sponsors and potential sponsors
o EHF / FIH
o International coaches / national federations
o Quality European clubs and their coaches
• Capability to build effective partnerships, influence, negotiate and to work collaboratively internally and externally to positively influence:
o International performance
o Player development and player depth throughout the pathway
o Performance coaching
o Domestic competitions / leagues
o Club development
• Ability to take measured and appropriate risks for the benefit of the sport

Management
• Direct line management for all performance staff and national coaches
• Create high performance programmes with appropriate financial and staffing resources to run programmes of the requisite quality for both Men’s and Women’s game
• Set the direction for all national coaches in relation to pathway structure, environments, technical and competition requirements within which, individually and collectively, players perform at optimum levels
• Formally monitor and review effectiveness of coaching programmes, performance programmes and player pathway
• Create a suitable player management framework which aims to retain and support the most talented players within the system
• Identify and provide performance programmes with appropriate sport science, sports medicine, lifestyle and related support
• Ensure that all performance support services are aligned to the performance vision / priorities
• Manage & implement anti-doping programme
• Engage effectively with Head of Domestic Game and other staff as required for sponsorship, marketing and additional commercial activities.
• Budget Management

Tactical Direction
• Clear understanding of the desired attributes of GB Hockey players
• Best in class succession and retention planning for key player roles across the pathway including world class drag flicking and goalkeeping programmes
• Drive performance coach development for a range of coaches including succession planning
• Clear understanding of domestic hockey and how to grow talent through our schools, clubs and districts

Person Specification and Skills Requirements
• Driven, ambitious, innovative individual who motivates and inspires those around them
• Strategic analysis. Someone who sees the big picture but is also hands on
• Ruthless in their delivery of projects and against objectives
• Great communicator
• Builds great relationships and networks with a diverse range of stakeholders
• Able to persuade, convince, challenge and influence others including upwardly to CEO and Board Level
• Team player with an open and constructive style and optimistic approach
• Willingness and ability to work unsocial hours with some domestic and international travel
• Strong IT skills
• Full Driving license
• Passionate about performance improvement and building an effective performance system
• Applicants must have or can secure a legal right to work within the UK

To apply for the role, please submit CV and covering Letter, including current salary to HR@Scottish-hockey.org.uk

Closing date: Monday 8th August 5pm

Interview dates: To be Confirmed
How to apply
To apply for the role, please submit CV and covering Letter, including current salary to HR@Scottish-hockey.org.uk

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