OBJECTIVE:

Strengthen the Bench

Situation
A fast growing leader in entertainment technology was expanding into new product offerings, adding staff, implementing new technologies and moving into new state of the art facilities. At the same time, they were experiencing increasing turnover, deteriorating morale, and difficulty identifying and attracting the talent needed to drive the business forward.

The majority of the leadership team had been with the organization from its founding and had taken on expanded management responsibilities over time. The culture was highly collaborative and technical expertise was valued over management skills.

Strategy
HResults was engaged to work with the leadership team to assist them in meeting three key objectives:

• “Upskill” the current leadership team in the skills necessary to provide strategic, operational and talent management direction to the organization;
• Identify leadership skill gaps; develop competency based profiles for key positions and initiate a plan for talent acquisition and assimilation;
• Create a succession plan for leadership that included development of internal high potentials and programs to increase front line supervisor accountability.

Development activities implemented:

• A monthly leadership forum designed to provide an interactive and experiential process using real time organization issues and situations;
• Frontline manager and supervisor development sessions with a focus on baseline talent management skills and employee engagement techniques;
• Targeted coaching and mentoring support during the gap between structured activities.

Outcome
The organization has continued to thrive despite the economic downturn that has impacted many of its competitors. They attribute at least part of this success to outcomes of the leadership development process. Included in this are:

• More nimble decision – making processes
• Improved support and collaboration among team members
• Reduced staff turnover
• Fewer employees issues requiring escalation to higher management levels
• Better defined career paths