Acting HR VP / Director Roles

• Client companies have a variety of reasons to bring someone onboard in an acting role. In one case, a West Coast HR director was on a leave of absence. During that time, the company made an acquisition that was nearby.  In addition to managing all the HR functions in two local offices, work on the acquisition was done.

• For another client, the HR VP left the company, while leaders were not certain about their future needs. During the six-month period in the acting role, significant streamlining of processes, and increased trust in HR was accomplished while conducting layoffs.

• The third acting role was for a company that was conducting an active search for a new HR Vice President. While conducting the daily HR activities, managing the search and screening candidates was a priority. A candidate was identified within two months of taking over the search.

Best Practices Studies / Surveys

• A variety of surveys have been done, from employee engagement and satisfaction surveys, to surveys on stock options and incentive plans. In addition, two major best practices studies were conducted, one on mergers and acquisitions, and one on manufacturing.

• The merger and acquisition best practice study answered the question about what other companies are doing around technical integration. The outcome was a merger and acquisition handbook with step by step guides on processes to follow. In addition, participating companies contributed their integration checklists, which were consolidated to create a master checklist. The company had not previously formulated nor documented any processes in its previous acquisitions, and its key executive was leaving the company. This resulted in codifying best in class processes going forward.

• The other best practice study was in the area of operations. A senior operations executive wanted to know what best practices existed in the area of operations, and what organizational structures supported and contributed to those best practices. Fifteen companies were examined, based on input from Operations experts at four major universities. One of the findings was that the practices, processes and organizational structures in the 15 companies studied were embedded in the strategies, business models, and cultures of those companies. 

Coaching

• Coaching has been done with a non-profit CEO and a Senior HR Director. An assessment, including a 360 evaluation with interviews, was conducted resulting in a development plan. Coaching was then conducted based on the area of focus in the development plan. 

Divestitures / Mergers and Acquisitions

• In addition to the M&A best practices study on technical integration, work has been done in an HR capacity to add a 140 person company to a 200 person company. Timing of events, determining the timing and packages of departures, coordinating the communications, and advising the senior executives were part of this work. 

Five-Year Staffing Forecast

• A major medical facility needed help in projecting its staffing needs for the coming five years. They were expanding their facilities, and said that they had an aging workforce problem, especially nurses. Their turnover was lower than the national average. By taking their existing data from their HR database, and making basic assumptions about retirement, we were able to forecast the need to replace the entire workforce within that five year period. The data was sliced by manager to identify areas greatest impact. Because turnover was the only factor under their control, we looked at turnover by reason, and by tenure of the person leaving. Some turnover was not avoidable (people moving, etc.) so we focused on what they could influence. We developed specific strategies that could diminish the turnover they were experiencing. We then went on to conduct the same analysis in a sister organization.

HR Compliance

• Numerous HR audits have been conducted, and handbooks and manager’s guides have been written. Injury and Illness Prevention Plans have been written, and sexual harassment investigations have been conducted.

Management Development

• Sexual harassment training, interview skills training, and managing to company guidelines training has been conducted in numerous companies, always customized to exactly what the client needs. Interactive sessions with case studies and role plays are an integral part of the training. 

Process Re-engineering

• The client company was centralizing its benefits function into a call center from regional management. We started with defining how many processes they had (over 80), narrowed down those that were most broken (10), and conducted Process Redesign Workshops to reengineer these processes. By including regional representatives, and starting with a “straw” process, we were able to end up with processes that everyone could buy in to and implement. Participants went from feeling that their jobs were in jeopardy to embracing the changes and realizing that there was more value-added work they could do.

• This methodology was repeated in a small nonprofit foundation, and another nonprofit, resulting in strategic clarity and a detailed roadmap of what work needed to be done.