Taking Care of Your People Takes Care of Your Business
In an economy where every dollar is cautiously and carefully spent, the most important investments become apparent. Companies admit the secret to their success is their employees. Even in a down economy, investments in employee programs are on the rise.
Organizations with strong employee development initiatives achieve a critical competitive advantage. A global workforce survey conducted by Towers Perrin found that companies with the highest levels of employee engagement achieve better financial results and are more successful in retaining their most valued employees. In fact, companies with the largest percentage of engaged employees experienced an increased operating income of 19 percent. By engaging employees with development and training programs, they believe the company values their efforts and feel a part of the organization’s overall success.
For four years, Helios HR has hosted the Apollo Awards, a program dedicated to recognize employers that invest in employee development initiatives. In parallel, leading market research firm, Market Connections, collects survey data from all nominees. This data is analyzed in a best practices program overview. Through the Apollo Awards, executives and human resource (HR) professionals can learn about the actions of enlightened and innovative organizations, which exemplify strong HR programs. Certain commonalities become evident, this year a clear trend emerged: leading companies are offering their employees customized training programs in skill development (i.e. personal, time management, technical) via a diverse array of learning channels.
Offering Multiple Channels of Learning
The finalists for our awards program take very unique approaches to employee development, but one common thread is in offering customized training through different channels. Most of these top organizations offer a variety of employee development opportunities such as peer-to-peer mentoring, attendance at events, seminars, online training and instructor-led classes so that employees can select the training that will be individually most effective.
The benefits of offering different learning approaches can include increased retention, a positive effect on company culture and productivity, improved ability to effectively recruit, enhanced quality of work, and increased organizational expertise. Reduced opportunity cost also occurs when employees are assimilated into an organization more rapidly. Two of these forward-thinking organizations, Dewberry and Métier, offer customized programs, with a variety of channels to cater to individual learning styles and preferences.
Dewberry’s Blended Learning
Dewberry, a professional services firm, recognizes that people learn different ways; therefore, they utilize a blended learning approach. This approach offers employees a variety of learning channels as part of The Dewberry Learning Center including: classroom, software, mentoring, coaching, one-on-one, seminars and brown bag lunches, among other approaches.
One key to Dewberry’s blended learning success is in involving internal resources such as corporate leadership to host or participate in the programs. The active involvement of top executives impresses upon employees the seriousness of the training and demonstrates that their efforts are valued.
Métier’s Development on Day One
Métier, a project portfolio management solutions provider, doesn’t have an assembly line. Tweaking and fine-tuning the organization is all about polishing their greatest asset – the employees. Métier considers each employee’s learning abilities and needs with customized development beginning on the employee’s first day. Every new employee attends a two-week orientation known as Boot Camp, where each individual’s strengths and weakness are assessed to provide a benchmark for their career-long professional development activities. The Boot Camp also provides instructive and interactive orientation in a variety of learning ways such as instructor-led, computer-based, seminars, webinars and on-the-job-training.
Métier’s approach paid off: the company witnessed greater employee camaraderie and improved knowledge retention. In fact, when Métier shifted Boot Camp from one week to two weeks, the percentage of employees with tenure of one year increased 25 percent and tenure of two years increased by 12 percent.
One Size Does Not Fit All
Dewberry and Métier are just two companies finding value in offering their employees multiple development opportunities. It’s no surprise that both organizations are service providers that understand their success is tied to the performance of their employees. Both provide innovative employee development initiatives. We can look to these companies as models in implementing strong programs.
Companies that don’t explore developing their greatest resources – their employees – will loose a competitive advantage that can be a costly loss. Organizations are quickly finding that there is no “one size fits all” approach to learning.
Hubert Humphrey, former Vice President of the U.S. put it very simply, “There are incalculable resources in the human spirit, once it has been set free.” And it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who quoted, “The mind, once stretched, never regains its original dimension.” Innovative employee development practices offered through multiple learning channels provide an organization the opportunity to stretch beyond “its original dimensions.”
~Kathy Albarado
Best Practices Only Get You so Far
I found the article in the April 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review, “Best Practices Only Get You So Far”, an interesting read. As HR consultants and practitioners we tend to reference best practices and benchmarking stats quite frequently. However C.K. Prahalad, the Paul and Ruth McCracken Disringuished University Professor of Strategy at University of Michigan’s Ross Scholl of Business, believes companies become winners by spotting big opportunities and inventing ‘next’ practices.
Best practices, C.K. argues, may allow enterprises to catch up with competitors, but it doesn’t turn them into market leaders. C.K. believes organizations become winners by inventing ‘next practices’. Next practices are all about innovation: imagining the future, identifying the mega-opportunities–and building capabilities to capitalize on them. Check out the article in its entirety by clicking here
~Kathy Albarado
An Argument for Privatizing Health Care!
Today my 17-year-old daughter returned from Senegal, Africa with her French class. I admire the tenacity of the 11 students and 2 teachers who visited the third world country to experience a culture unlike their own. Having participated in a teacher exchange program, the students at Oakton High School visited their former exchange teacher, Mr. Jobe, who returned to his native country in June of 2009. The group was in Senegal for a period of 10 days.
What does this have to do with health care you say? I regress only temporarily to tell you that in order to prepare for a trip of this magnitude it became necessary to ensure that my daughter was up on those shots necessary to ensure her protection. Hepatitis A, Typhoid, Yellow Fever, Meningitis, even HINI and the ‘regular’ strain of flu.
Imagine my dismay when her life long doctor’s office (she has been treated there since she was an infant) could not advise me on the appropriate preventive measures we would need to take to mitigate her risk of infection and disease. They referred me to a private health care provider, HealthSmart Vaccines. www.healthsmartvaccines.com Not surprisingly, that was the same group that came onsite to the Helios offices last fall and administered the Flu vaccine for all interested parties.
My experience with the staff at HealthSmart exceeded my expectations! They were not only knowledgeable regarding the specific vaccines we would need, but educated us both on the climate, culture and helped us understand what to expect in general. I can’t express the comfort I received from Kathy Miller, the RN that vaccinated Amanda. Kathy agreed to see us on my schedule and there was never a wait! I tell you, it was a phenomenal experience in customer service. Kathy provided us an incredible amount of comfort and genuine caring. Although a number of the vaccines were not covered by insurance (nor was the malerone–antimalaria pills), the experience to me was absolutely worth the out of pocket expenditure. Dick Miles, President of HealthSmart, also took the time to welcome us and meet Amanda on one of our visits. (We had to go back when Amanda’s doctor’s office was out of seasonal flu shots.) How do you put a price on comfort and reassurance? Especially when your child visits a third world country with the threat of new disease and limited health care options should she need them abroad.
HealthSmart also makes house calls… hmmmm…. sounds like a fabulous new way to consider health care to me!
~Kathy Albarado
Is it Time to Make a Change?
What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There, written by executive coaching guru Marshall Goldsmith, helps us discover the 20 workplace habits you need to break if you have an interest in becoming even more successful.
Think about it. Often times, our greatest strength is also our greatest weakness. As leaders we must learn to apply our strengths selectively and learn in which situations they can do more harm than good. At Helios I pride myself in believing that we have a ‘feedback rich culture’. High potential employees and star performers are very good at receiving feeddback. They don’t become defensive as they desire to improve their performance. They take accountability for their actions.
In Goldsmith’s book he trys to help us discover what is holding us back from the next level of success. The very attributes that may have lead to our success: drive/self reliance/determination/impatience–could now be the things holding us back.
A colleague recently shared with me her theory that to really change a behavior that is impeding your growth either a major life altering event must occur (that “aha” moment) or you may “suffer a thousand cuts” before you are motivated to make the change. It’s like the saying ”when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
In chapter 13 of Goldsmith’s book he stresses how most people believe that they will work on behavior change when things slow down long enough that they can focus on making the change. When we get over this next hurdle, when the next big project has been completed, when we have time!
Goldsmith encourages us to recognize that the time to change is ‘now’. He asks us to ask ourselves, “What am I willing to change now?” Just ask that one question. It will be enough, for now.
~Kathy Albarado
Employee/Leadership Development is Key in 2010
Thanks to Lee Self , President of Renaissance EXECUTIVE FORUMS - Northern Virginia, for the great article in her recent newsletter. Lee can be reached at www.EXECUTIVEFORUMS.com/LSelf
As we’ve turned the calendar page to the New Year and decade, business leaders are beginning to take stock of their talent management goals for 2010. While 2009 was all about cutting costs and in some cases, people, 2010 has a decidedly new look and feel. In talking with leaders across industries, a new theme is emerging: many are concerned about what they can do to further engage and hold onto their top performers. The “word on the street” is that the “hi-pots” (or high potential employees) are dusting off their resumes, and waiting for the market to turn. Even if the turn-around takes longer than we all hope, the concern is a valid one. From the angle of the employee who is delivering strong results, this is a critical time for the employer to invest in that individual’s growth and development for the future. For once, the employee’s desire for new challenges and career opportunities may be very well-aligned with the business’ needs for new talent to lead within the next two to five years. So, the natural question is this—What should my organization be doing now to address our top employees’ development needs, as well as our organization’s needs for leadership talent in the future?
Developing Leaders On a Shoestring
If leadership development is key in 2010, how can a company in a “recovering” economic environment make that happen? Here are a few simple, practical steps to consider that will not break the bank:
- Identify the people who are among the 20% of your employees who are delivering 80% of your financial (revenue and/or profit) goals. After you take a look at this list, work with your management team to select the ones who have the potential to lead others in your organization within the next 2 to 3 years.
- Meanwhile, create a simple plan for making the development of these people a priority over the next 12 -24 months. Identify a champion, whether internal or external, to keep the project on track.
- Make the first priority an individual meeting with each selected high potential individual. First, thank the employee for what they are doing, especially in these tough times, to deliver value in your organization. Then, let the individual know that they are being singled out as a potential leader for the future. Make sure that he or she understands that development is a personal responsibility, but the company is investing resources in providing personal assistance throughout the process. The message is this: we see you as a part of our future, and are willing to invest time and energy in helping you to develop to your highest potential.
- Create a sample Individual Development Plan*, and provide a basic workshop in how to go about creating your own plan. Make someone available, whether inside or outside the company, to serve as coach or mentor to each selected employee in reviewing his or her plan, and help in fine-tuning it. Insure that your internal champion is tasked with checking up on the progress of each individual toward the accomplishment of the plan.
- If economically feasible, enable your high potential employee to attend a leadership class or workshop, or put together a short session using an existing internal leader. If you can’t afford the time or money for formal training, make a good reading list available. Once a month, invite the future leaders to a lunch meeting, and discuss lessons learned from one of the current titles.
- Follow-through is the most critical element of the plan. Don’t promise to help your folks develop if you can’t stick with it. While the employee is working their Individual Development Plan, consider having some sort of group activity at least every other month for all of the selected individuals. They will be encouraged and energized by the other high performers who are also anxious to learn and grow.
Conclusion
With a minimal investment of time and money, you will be surprised what can be accomplished. By leveraging the talents of existing leaders, while providing high performers with a framework and some modest support, many organizations achieve significant results. So, take our advice and stop complaining about the leadership drought and worrying about the retention of your top talent… simply make leadership development a 2010 priority.
by Terry L. Comp and Larry B. Comp
~Kathy Albarado