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
The Helios HR 2010 Apollo Awards
Join us on June 3rd from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. to network with 400+ CEOs and HR professionals as we recognize the following finalists for their passion and commitment to employee development.
Emerging Companies Mid-Size Companies
Evans Incorporated Apple Federal Credit Union
Justin Bradley Capitol Concierge
Metier Ltd. Goodman & Company
Rose Financial Services, LLC High Performance Technologies, Inc.
SpeakerBox Communications SkillStorm
The North Highland Company
Small Companies Large Companies
BrightKey, Inc. Ascend One
Horizon Consulting Deltek
Snyder Cohn, P.C. Dewberry
The QED Group LLC Greenspring Retirement Community
VISTAtsi Ogilvy PR Washington
The Helios HR Apollo Awards™ recognize Washington area organizations that promote employee development. Come hear the latest trends that provide a competitive advantage. Register today at 2010 Apollo Awards Registration.
ABOUT HELIOS HR
Helios HR provides human resources outsourcing, consulting and recruiting services that optimize your workforce and HR operations. With Helios, you gain a strategic business partner with a keen eye on your organization’s culture, growth, business strategy and budget.
Worker Misclassification: Risky Busines
Christine Poulias, Helios HR
Under the Obama Administration the Department of Labor is teaming up with the Department of the Treasury to crack down on employers who misclassify their workforce. In addition, the Internal Revenue Service has launched a program that will randomly examine 6,000 companies over the next three years for employee misclassifications. The federal government estimates it will raise $7 billion over the next ten years through tighter enforcement.
As an employer, you are at risk for misclassification if your independent contractors have job duties similar to those of your employees. Misclassifying a worker as a contractor costs the government substantial tax revenue, while the worker misses out on benefits afforded to actual employees. For employers that properly classify workers, the improper classification by other employers means higher unemployment taxes and increased workers’ compensation premiums.
Whether a misclassification is intentional or a matter of misinterpretation of legal guidelines, the repercussions are firm and no industry is exempt. Major corporations, including prominent shipping, beverage, cable/broadband and software development companies have all fallen under scrutiny and paid the price…to the tune of millions of dollars. And it’s not just the big fish being challenged. Smaller businesses have not only paid fines, but have been banned from the public procurement process as well.
So what’s an employer to do? If you are concerned that you may be at risk, consider the following*:
- Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
- Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (How worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
- Are benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.) offered? Will the relationship continue? Is the person performing work that is considered a key aspect of the business?
If it is still unclear if the worker is a contractor or an employee, visit www.IRS.gov to file a form SS-8 so the IRS can make an official determination on the worker’s status.
* Source: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=99921,00.html
From Sweatshop to Career Destination: The Evolution of a Culture
In 1998, Edelman PR had about 1,300 employees, voluntary turnover was roughly 40 percent and its ’sweat shop’ reputation plagued them. Exit interviews indicated that the single biggest cause of turnover was lack of mentoring, coaching and training.
The leadership team took notice! A seasoned HR professional, Laura Smith, Managing Director of U.S. Human Resources, was hired to help address employee retention and evolve Edelman’s culture. In turn, the company launched Edelman University and created talent development programs that became the envy of every firm in the industry.
In a three year period the firm more than doubled in size, both in revenues and in employees. Rob Rehg, President of Edelman’s DC office, believes that increasing their focus on three key areas — Career Development, Mentoring, and Management Development — through their Managers’ Bootcamp (MBC), has contributed significantly to lowering their turnover rate from a high of 40 percent to less than 13 percent in 2009 — all while industry averages continue to hover around 20 percent.
Mandatory participation in MBC focuses on rewards and recognition, providing effective feedback, empowering employees, understanding generational differences and enhancing coaching and mentoring skills. As a direct result of MBC, they have seen measurable improvement in employee conflict resolution skills, performance management, feedback delivery and enhanced employee engagement.
While the work, prestige and brand bring employees to Edelman, it is their strong culture that is cited as one of the top reasons that keeps them at Edelman.
Edelman PR is a 2009 Apollo Awards winner. Register for the Apollo Awards breakfast on June 3rd and learn how other organizations like Edelman are building great cultures that enhance employee engagement, client satisfaction and retention. 2010 Apollo Awards™ Registration.
Listen to 2009 Apollo Award Winner Jere Brown, CEO of Dimension Data
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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