What does it take to effectively lead a Multi-Academy Trust?

One of the Department For Education's Trust Quality Description Pillars sets out expectations for trusts to create a culture of continuous improvement. Cleary defined in this pillar is the need for an effective strategy to maintain the performance of existing schools and improve the performance of new ones that join the trust.Key to delivering improvement is being able to implement a centralised performance management process, benchmarking school performance across student, workforce and financial metrics, as a mechanism for sharing best practice.​Iona Jackson, Head of Insights for Edurio, and Nicholas Clark, Senior Product Manager for IRIS Software Group, discuss how trusts are combining and monitoring workforce, student and finance data to discover the real drivers of positive pupil outcomes.​

Working environments have always been places of mixed culture, age and opinion. But as older generations return to work and Gen Z enters the workforce, how does an organisation ensure unity? A tendency exists to treat workers based on generational stereotypes rather than facts, taking a blanket approach, but workplace demographic shifts more polarised than ever before, In this podcast, Jessica Zwaan, Chief Operating Officer for Talentful, and Lizzy Barry, HR Director for IRIS Software Group, explore how leaders can make decisions based on resounding truths rather than sweeping generalisations, using workforce data to ensure a more effective approach to people management.

What is driving the boom in the accountancy space? The bookkeeper! The role of the bookkeeper has expanded to being almost identical to the accountant, taking a much more entrepreneurial approach to their service. Gone are the days of only keeping the books. Thanks to advancements in technology, unqualified employees can also process bookkeeping data making it more attractive to set up a bookkeeping business and bring in support staff. In this podcast, Ami Copeland, CEO of the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers and Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Accountancy Sales Director at IRIS Software Group explore this changing role and detail the implications on the industry.

Workers are less emotionally invested and they put up with very little. In a candidates’ market, there's no room for poor management or uninspiring workplaces. This is a huge challenge in the accountancy sector. If you find a suitable candidate, you might not be able to keep them. With this in mind, innovative firms are rethinking the resources they need and are looking elsewhere for talent. In this podcast, Jonathan Mackie, Director at NRB Chartered Accountants and Emma Crawford-Falekaono, Accountancy Sales Director at IRIS Software Group explore how this movement has come about and how firms can set themselves up for success.

There's no question that the hype around AI has re-invigorated the conversation around technology in accountancy and the value that connected data and analytics can bring in.There are a host of potential benefits from implementing AI, many of which revolve around automating costly, lengthy and mundane tasks.This podcast explores the areas where AI has the potential to empower accountants to change how they do business and its practical application today within forward-thinking firms.Tune in now with Alistair Brisbourne, Head of Technology Research at ACCA and Steven Cox, Director of Business Intelligence at IRIS Software Group.

Within Multi-Academy Trusts, the executive leadership team is accountable for effectively implementing the trust strategy and operating plan - deciding where to dedicate resources and how best to drive impact. It’s about creating a culture of ethical leadership and ensuring the team is made up of those with the necessary expertise. But what qualities are needed for a successful leadership team and what can trusts do to identify and attract the leaders of tomorrow? Find out from Lord Jim Knight, Former UK Minister for Schools, Digital & Employment and Simon Freeman, MD of Education at IRIS Software Group. 

Open, honest and collaborative communication has become the norm with topics such as social justice issues and mental health spoken about far more.   As a result, managers need to adopt a more intimate and personalised approach to keep employees united as a single community, using data to understand what is and isn’t working.In this podcast Joey Price, CEO of Jumpstart: HR and Stephanie Coward, MD of HCM at IRIS Software Group, explore how a manager can become more of a ‘coach’ who tunes into the emotional side of management while juggling the needs of the business and their team.

The talent crisis seems to be going nowhere and pressure is still on HR to bring people in and add resources to overworked teams. However, the recruitment process is incredibly time-consuming – from job descriptions to candidate matching – limiting how much can actually be achieved.So, how can HR teams (and business owners) improve their recruitment efforts, and fill their desperately needed roles? In this podcast Lee McQueen, Founder and CEO of Phoenix51 and Natalie Tedstone, VP of Talent and Organisational Development at IRIS Software Group, explore technology automation and AI tools, suggesting where your teams could make time-savings to help empower every hour.

Britain is less productive than most ‘Group of Seven’ economies.Figures show the UK generates £46.92 of output per hour, compared to £58.88 in the US, £55.83 in Germany and £55.50 in France.Conversely, the UK is now the second-largest data producer in the world and academics have described data as the fuel of the economies of the future.​In this podcast, Steve Cox, Director of Business Intelligence at IRIS Software Group and Pete Wilkinson, Founder and CEO at Reclaro, explore whether the data revolution could reverse the trend of middling performance and years of lacklustre growth, looking practically at how companies today can unlock the ‘data’ opportunity.

Generative AI has taken the world of work by storm, perhaps being the biggest technological change we’ve ever seen.But how does such a robotic tool fit into the world of people management?Well, we’re seeing mass innovation in the recruitment space, with many tech and HR experts predicting AI will revolutionise the way we use employee data, opening up far more opportunities for enhanced employee wellbeing, engagement and L&D.In this podcast, Julian Musson, Senior Product Director here at IRIS Software Group and Kinsey Li, Associate Director of HR Analytics at EY, talk about all things AI in HR. Kinsey.