Consulting
Organizational Performance Management
We partner with organizations to help them focus on their services and products instead of human capital issues. If management answers yes to any of these questions, we can be of service:
- Are you concerned with attracting, hiring and retaining top talent?
- Are you experiencing low levels of employee engagement?
- How does your organization manage change?
- How is change impacting your organization?
- Do employees understand the vision, mission and operational strategies of the organization?
- Are teams and departments experiencing performance and productivity challenges?
Our team of performance consultants is able to help an organization identify, develop and implement performance management initiatives and programs that are tailored specifically for your organizational needs. We offer a variety of products and services to meet the needs of our clients, from assessing the organization/employees to change management initiatives.
Assessing with 360º Feedback
We work with clients in assessing employees, teams and managers to determine strengths and areas for improvement. Our consultants provide employees with information on what to expect from a 360º Feedback Assessment and how it may serve as a developmental tool for their organization/career. We give decision makers a report to share with employees, as they deem appropriate. This service is an excellent tool to use for personal and organizational development.
Assessments: Organizational Needs
To ensure that the right programs and services are offered at the right time, it is imperative that organizations conduct periodic Needs Assessments. This allows the management team to offer programs and services that directly benefit the organization. Our services help decision-makers identify where potential fires may start and develop plans to prevent possible disasters. We offer:
- Advisory Committees
- Attitude and Climate Surveys
- Critical Incident Surveys
- Employee Interviews
- Exit Interviews
- Focus Groups
Change Management Program
For organizations experiencing a leadership transition or an introduction of new policies, procedures or programs, we support an organization by facilitating a change in management process. We help the organization officially transition all employees into one vision, culture and goal based on the direction in which the organization is moving.
Our Change Management Program includes training employees in just-in-time skills for performance and productivity to develop employees so that they use those new skills effectively. This project is designed to develop peak performers while driving out fear, finger-pointing, uncommitted employees, ambiguity and uncertainty associated with change. We recommend a three-phase process to ensure a smooth transition that increases performance and productivity.
Cultural Audit
To evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s Human Resources program, we focus on organizational culture and climate. Our analysis and evaluation assists organizations in determining current and future development needs. We conduct cultural audits by independently assessing organizations and their work environment.
Employee Handbooks and Policy Manuals
We write, design and develop user-friendly procedures manuals, orientation guidebooks and policy handbooks. Our publications are clear, concise, comprehensive and professional. We incorporate graphics, pictures and eye-appealing text, making the finished product instrumental in conveying organizational expectations, pertinent information and consistency. Our handbooks and manuals serve as an easy-to-read and comprehensive rights and responsibilities document that serves as an all-inclusive guide that deters potential litigation.
Executive Coaching
We prescribe to and provide services that create authentic and values-driven leaders. Our executive coaching focuses on altering specific behaviors as well as helping leaders transition or expand leadership approaches and techniques. Executive coaching is the balance between an experiential and individualized leader development process that builds a leader’s capability to achieve short and long-term agency goals. More recent research shows that executives who are rated high on Interpersonal Effectiveness (Emotional Intelligence) outperform low rated executives by 15-20%. Our unique process provides a platform in which managers/leaders will:
- Understand one’s purpose
- Identify personal and professional values to act on those values
- Establish trusting relationships with others
- Demonstrate self -knowledge, -understanding, -awareness and –acceptance
- Leverage diversity and reveal a passion about the organization’s mission
- Find their “True North” by leading with their individual moral compass
Meeting Facilitation Services
Our consultants facilitate meetings for clients who need an outside impartial professional to manage the process and flow of information. This service may range from our conducting a critical annual meeting to providing mediation services. Our facilitators will assist attendees in identifying goals and objectives, and in developing a plan to execute. We facilitate the process to ensure results and an immediate return on your investment of time, energy, and resources.
Mentoring Program Development
We support organizations in developing Mentoring Programs that meet an organization’s succession planning, multi-skilled training, and diversity initiatives. The Program assists employees at all levels, from acclimation into the organization’s culture to the improvement of performance and productivity. This Program contributes to employees cross training, adapting to change, valuing differences, and being motivated for measurable results. Also, this Program can serve as an excellent tool to bridge generational gaps for a transfer of knowledge.
With a new psychological contract agreement between the employer and employees, it is imperative that employees continue to learn and develop new skills and abilities. This will allow the organization to continue to compete in the global market. To remain competitive, organizations must provide employees with a vehicle to reach new levels of success.
Note Taker and Reports
Whether conducting a small meeting, focus group or a major conference, our note-taking services are detailed, accurate and error-free. This service is performed manually or electronically, with the information recorded in an organized and effective format using a logical order. Whether the end product consists of proceedings, verbatim minutes, summary statements or planning outcomes, our business writing skills will produce the desired result(s) for your readers.
Organizational Culture and Expectations Consulting
By exposing and examining hidden and obvious concerns, an organization or department identifies areas for improvement. Substantial time is spent on developing strategic goals, and decision-makers acquire information to make economically wise decisions on the organization’s direction. Everyone may not agree 100% with everything, but a consensus is reached on the established goals based on everyone’s effort, so that implemented processes, procedures, and/or training are not sabotaged.
Performance Consulting Services
As change agents, we identify four kinds of needs that an organization may encounter: business, performance, training, and work and living environment. We address the deviation between what should be occurring operationally and what is occurring. We assist HR and decision-makers in identifying needs proactively and reactively, and then move to performance and business needs. This is accomplished by interviewing key figures in the organization, conducting focus groups with current employees, collecting data from surveys and questionnaires. In short, we work closely with our clients throughout the entire process from the client’s viewpoint to improve performance.
Reviewing and Rewriting HR Policy Handbooks
We assist management in the development of HR organizational policies and procedures by reviewing and analyzing your current policy manuals. Clients receive a finished product that is concise, comprehensive and thorough, based on the current or newly adopted policies and procedures.
Strategic Planning: Retreating to Move Forward
In moving a vision forward, sometimes it is necessary to retreat. Our performance consultants help organizations to understand their paradigm and culture. We focus on behavioral changes vs. the way “we do it.” We assist groups in establishing their mission and identifying goals. Our retreats are uniquely structured to meet an organization’s specific needs. We facilitate the process to ensure results and an immediate return on your investment of time, energy, and resources.
Our retreats are designed for outdoor or indoor facilitation. We move an organization forward by incorporating mini-training sessions on topics, such as communications, innovation, teambuilding, managing change, resolving conflict, strategic thinking, ethics, and diversity. We facilitate retreats in a way that reenergizes, refocuses and motivates employees who also need to feel appreciated and valued, while contributing to the direction in which the organization is moving.
SUCCESSION PLANNING, RETENTION & REDUCTION IN FORCE
We support organizations in managing supply and demand for employees, and how to deal with shortages and surpluses. We help managers and leadership improve existing work environments by addressing issues associated with high turnover, absenteeism, job dissatisfaction and misdirected loyalty. We provide HR services in attracting, developing and retaining employees. Regardless of the size of an organization, employers must hire and retain competent and qualified employees to remain competitive.
Coaching and Performance Appraisals for Higher Performance
Often managers are reluctant to appraise their staff with consistency at scheduled intervals due to a lack of confidence in coaching. We teach managers/supervisors how to write performance appraisals and coach staff to improve productivity. They receive practical tools to analyze, assess and coach employees to a higher level of performance. We discuss the benefits of timely performance coaching, the distinction between coaching and counseling, and how to prepare employees for performance evaluations that are positive and results-oriented.
Formal Mentoring Program
We create, develop and manage Mentoring Programs for organizations. This service helps organizations in succession planning and multi-skilled development of employees. Through years of extensive research, analyzing and developing our Mentoring Program, we created various models and processes to meet the needs of different organizations. The program is built around our philosophy that a company moves to the next level, not by what employees know, but what they are capable of learning. Our program contributes to employee cross-training, adapting to change, valuing differences and being motivated for measurable results. Our unique mentoring process has three distinct phases:
- We train an employee to be an internal coordinator to manage the program with the use of a proven policy and procedures handbook
- There is a systematic formal linkage between employees based on their level of expertise and professional interests in an effort to develop quality, synergy and continuity within the organization
- There is in-depth training for coordinator(s), Mentors and Protégés, which includes workshops and workbooks to ensure success, consistency in practices and clarity in meeting the organization’s goals and objectives based on clearly identified roles and responsibilities
Managing Telecommuters
More than just a motivational tool, telecommuting is a necessity for organizations that have limited resources, i.e. space, travel budget, etc. Managers learn the nuances of telecommuting and motivational factors to make a significant difference in the productivity of each employee. We examine the benefits of telecommuting, how to set work parameters, create realistic schedules, establish and enforce policies that are equitable, fair and reasonable. Our workshop helps managers to move from holding the reins too tightly to empowering employees. Participants will gain insight on coaching and counseling telecommuters and how to constructively remedy failing situations.
Managing with Individual Development Plans (IDP)
This course is designed to teach managers how to help employees develop IDPs. Employee development is appealing in that it enriches the available supply of talent in an organization, while demonstrating organizational support and commitment. Our consultants identify the gaps between available and necessary competencies for an organization to thrive in a global market. We prepare a guide for competency-building, geared to individual staff members. Our process teaches managers how to:
- Identify competencies needed for work requirements, and recognize an individual’s existing competencies for core strengthening
- Pinpoint the means for acquiring specific competencies
- Set performance goals, with target dates for each accomplishment, and benchmarks to determine whether goals and accomplishments have been achieved
Reduction In Force Assistance
Decision-makers are forced to make tough financial decisions that affect the human capital of an entire organization. Opting to enact a Reduction in Force (RIF) is a serious consideration; whereby, our services greatly improve an organization’s results by collaboratively:
- Planning and implementing a customized Reduction in Force with decision-makers
- Strategizing with Human Resources to assess the course of action of notifying employees who will be terminated
- Meeting with each department such as Finance and Payroll for severance packages, individual departments to communicate actions/plans to minimize disruptions and drive out fear, and consult with the management team for the employee selection process
Our participation in an organization’s RIF serves as a morale booster, creates loyalty and minimizes employment-related litigation, all of which directly impacts an organization’s ability to move forward and weather the storm.