Job Benchmarking and Assessments Increase Employee Engagement Result in $2.8 Million Turnaround
The situation
A Denver-based technology services company was experiencing two years of underperformance with $3.8 million in losses. The CEO and the leadership team needed a course-correct strategy within 18 months, or the company could face bankruptcy. Under these highly volatile circumstances, they partnered with ThriveVance to help uncover the root cause of underperformance and develop a keen strategy and action plan to bring about significant change.
The Solution
During the discovery phase, we recommended a multifaceted approach, examining the jobs, employees, their fit, processes, leadership, and operations.
Jobs were benchmarked to identify the behaviors, motivators, values, and competencies required to succeed in each, making the job match nonbiased and non-emotional. The recommendation included TriMetrix HD or TriMetrix DNA for supervisory and non-supervisory employees.
Additionally, we examined the processes to identify the required process improvements. In the second phase, we examined the operations.
The organization’s leadership accepted our recommendations. After all data was gathered, HR, in partnership with ThriveVance, identified the gaps and job misfits and planned for correction. We also conducted an organizational 360, which uncovered 47% employee disengagement.
We presented the data to the leadership and recommended a complete revamp of the company’s hiring, development, and performance review. We focused on the leadership team with fast-moving leadership development for the leaders and developing an articulate strategy, followed by a specific plan to turn the company around in 18 months. Development plans were customized for each employee, including tools for each person to address the skill gaps the assessments identified. These resources expanded the employees’ understanding of their own capacity beyond their current performance.
Weekly professional development seminars were used to establish a common language of performance. For other teams, single event workshops were delivered to quick-charge skills for an immediate return.
During the second phase, the leadership team could identify the operational gaps and develop plans to remove them using ThriveVance’s tools.
The Results
By the time the client reached the deadline, the company had experienced a $2.8 million turnaround and posted a profit of $1.7 million for the following year. The organizational 360 follow-up indicated employee engagement had improved by 31%. The company culture had changed to value contributions and personal accountability towards responsibilities.