CAR's (Challenge, Action, & Result)

Business Strategy/Leadership Development

Challenge: A highly competitive and rapidly growing Regional Telecommunications Firm was struggling with not having enough qualified managers. In addition, the organization had recently changed their business strategy. These changes were negatively impacting performance.

Action: Due to the organization’s needs, Brainard Strategy first identified the successful managerial competencies that were in alignment with the new business strategy. Over 300 managers participated in an assessment center based on the managerial competencies identified. A composite report of the assessment results was delivered to the organization and individual assessment feedback was given to each participant. Two important steps were taken based on the assessment feedback. First, individual development plans were created. Second, a 3-day tailored leadership training and business strategy program was designed and delivered to all managers.

Result: Based on this project, there was a 10% increase in leadership satisfaction scores that were shown to be correlated with store performance. Additionally, there was an increase in availability of competent managers to fill positions in new store openings. Since the project was aligned with the business strategy, the largest impact was the ability to incorporate the managerial competencies into the selection and performance management processes.

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Coaching

Challenge: A large Telecommunications Firm and one of their Engineers wanted the individual contributor to move into a management role. Although the Engineer had very strong technical skills, they lacked interpersonal skills.

Action: Based on the needs, Brainard Strategy matched a coach with the individual to help in their professional development. Weekly coaching sessions took place for over three months. During the coaching, a pre and post 360 Degree Feedback survey was administered.

Result: The coaching resulted in a significant improvement in the interpersonal skills based on co-worker and boss feedback when comparing the pre and post 360 surveys results. Additionally, the Engineer was considered by the organization for a management position.

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Culture and Climate Survey

Challenge: A global Telecommunications Firm wanted to launch their first online, customized Employee Culture/Opinion Survey. The company wanted to include all employees in nine different countries. Furthermore, the company wanted to complete the entire survey process from start (determining what to measure) to finish (data analysis and summary of results) within eight weeks. This was a very tight deadline, as a project of this size would typically take 12 to 16 weeks to complete.

Action: With the short amount of time, Brainard Strategy quickly pulled together their resources and executed quick turnover on all actionable items. From, facilitating focus groups and Subject Matter Expert interviews to developing items and creating the online survey each step was executed with precision and speed. Once data collection was completed, an in-depth data analysis by work group, department, division, and business unit was conducted.

Result: The response rate of the online survey was 90%. The survey included an open-ended question at the end, which allowed employees to give their feedback on the survey process. The response from the participants was extremely positive and they enjoyed the ease of the survey process. Furthermore, the executive team noted the quality of the data analysis and well-executed processes. After this survey process, they now have implemented the survey into the organization and use it annually.

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Outsourcing OD & Learning

Challenge: A mid-size financial services organization was struggling to provide the day-to-day organizational development functions they needed to create a more effective and efficient organization. Some examples of these organizational functions include leadership development, selection methodology, and performance management

Action: The Brainard Strategy team worked with the client to create and implement programs relevant to the overall needs of the organization. One example would be the implementation of the Balanced Scorecard. The Balanced Scorecard was implemented to help increase the structure and objectivity of their performance management system. The Balanced Scorecard was implemented through training across the organization. Then the new performance management system was integrated into the current performance review process by updating documents and conducting performance review training.

Result: A team of six consultants worked on many different Organizational Development functions that have been created and implemented within the organization. The diversity of thought and expertise of the consultants have resulted in programs that specifically use best practices while understanding what will address the organization’s needs. The biggest impact is the quality of the implementation and integration of a new program into the organization’s current systems. All new programs are linked and integrated into the current systems. This has resulted in dramatically reducing the learning curve while increasing the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.

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Challenge: A global manufacturing company was struggling with hiring the right people and was facing issues of turnover.

Action: After diagnosis it appeared there were no competencies distinguished for key hires. After data collection through interviews, focus groups, and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), competencies were developed for 13 key hire positions and for the overall organization. These competencies were then used to create job profiles, which included both the KSAs and the competencies needed for the job. Training on the new job profiles and how to use them were conducted and the recruiting department then implemented the job profiles.

Result: The recruiting department was better able to hire individuals who were a fit for the position and the organization. Due to the success of the job profiles, the company asked Brainard Strategy to come back and create job profiles for the rest of the positions within the company

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Challenge: A global pharmaceutical organization had acquired multiple mid-size biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The large organization was struggling with integrating the multiple companies and was facing issues of low morale, turnover, and resistance.

Action: We created a custom workshop that was conducted throughout United States and Canada. The workshop specifically addressed the issues employees were facing due to the large scale change and gave real life advice on how to deal with those issues. A communication channel was also included in the workshops, which created a medium for the organization to deliver current updates about the organization to the employees.

Result: Based on the workshop feedback, over eighty percent of the participants felt better able to deal with the large scale changes and felt better equipped to deal with the emotions they were experiencing. The large organization was very pleased with the result of these workshops and noted a significant increase in moral within the work environment.

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Leadership Development

Challenge: A mid-size organization in the entertainment and gaming industry wanted to assess the strengths of its leadership team and determine whether the organizational leaders had the necessary competencies for their positions.

Action: Brainard Strategy administered three assessments measuring management acumen to the leadership team in an effort to identify the current strengths and areas of opportunity for each leader. A talent map was also created that painted a picture of the capabilities and development areas by level, function, and overall organization.

Result: Each member of the leadership team received feedback based on his or her individual reports and created a personal development plan. The talent map was used to compare those of high management acumen to those with low management acumen in an effort to see the overall core strengths and areas for improvement within their leadership team.

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Succession Development

Challenge: A global Professional Services Firm had acquired three firms that needed to be merged together. This resulted in a need to create a career development roadmap to help attract and retain the best and brightest. Due to the amount of new employees coming from three different organizations there was a need to define and link individual performance to rewards and create a standard title structure.

Action: A profile was created to define performance and technical competencies required for success. Based on these competencies, a total rewards and performance management process was development and implemented. Lastly, the mapping of individuals to standard titles was developed

Result: The impact of this project on the business was immediate. Ninety-nine percent of the employee population formally set individual goals based on the strategic objectives of the business. Additionally, there was a significant increase in interim performance feedback. The long term outcome was the new understanding employees gained about their standing in the company and clarity on how to move up in the company. This clarity was supported by the standardized process for reward distribution that was implemented.

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