First Place Winner
Faced with increased turnover and difficulty filling position, instead of spending more money on recruiting, we conducted an employee survey to uncover what was important to our workforce and gain their insight. We expected the result to be focused on compensation or benefits, since the majority of our jobs are low pay. However, we were surprised to learn that what was driving the turnover had nothing to do with extrinsic rewards. The results showed us that we could help make a difference on a strategic level, not only in our own organization, but in our community. We found that the results lead to a common thread that affected all aspects of the organization and our bottom line. While we already had a comprehensive training program with career paths and numerous development options, the results from the survey showed that we were lacking key elements. Thus, we took another look at training program and pushed it to a whole new level. Since the majority of our workforce spoke English as a second language, we added ESL classes to our program, conducted on site, where employees could go to classes with each other. We took our job aids that we used for training and revised them to be visual, reducing training time and miscommunication. The results were incredible, turnover decreased by 30% and we re-assigned our recruiting budget to training. We contributed to our own success as an organization, while developing the skills of the members within our community, our employees.

Links to: 08 Develop and align the organization’s humancapital management plan with its strategic plan.

Stacey Horn-Spirito, SPHR
Director of Human Resources

Second Place Winner
In 2008 Earl Industries implemented a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) culture which included a management strategic planning session, establishment of goals, and training in the disciplines of Lean Six Sigma. Our CPI Program asks of all employees — “How Good Can We Be”? One of the goals set was to deal with the problem of a shrinking and aging workforce. We are a ship repair company with an average age of 46, and it has been a challenge to find hard working, motivated workers to train as the future managers of our company. By utilizing the tools of Lean Six Sigma we were able to clearly define what the problem was, measure our current employment levels, optimum employment levels and effectiveness of our current recruitment processes, improve our processes through an extensive analysis of our existing methods, and are now in the control phase of ensuring that we are managing our skilled workforce levels. The cost of implementing our CPI program, which included training of workers and the hours involved in project management, rapid improvement events, and status reporting to coworkers has been paid for many times over by the cost savings and improvements that have been identified by Team Earl’s efforts. Initially when I heard that Earl Industries was implementing CPI, I thought that CPI only applied to manufacturing processes. But this stuff really works for Human Resources’ processes too! And who in Human Resources doesn’t want to “work smarter, not harder”?

Links to: 06 Develop and utilize metrics to evaluate HR’s contributions to the achievement of the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Melissa J. Thomas, SPHR
Human Resources Director

Third Place Winner
My job as a Quality program manager with a large hospital system involves brokering cross- regional agreements on process design, implementing organizational initiatives and managing change. In addition, I reach outside of my own organization to keep my strategic planning skills sharp.

As a volunteer, I served my community over the last three years by planning and facilitating strategic planning retreats for non-profit organizations. This allows small non-profit organizations access to expertise they may not possesses internally, as well as providing them with a neutral and objective perspective. I have worked with local arts boards, healthcare organizations and foundations, partnering with the organizations executives to plan their business and HR strategies for up to five years, using a balanced scorecard approach, SWOT analysis and other strategic planning tools.

Sharing knowledge and expertise benefits others, and the exposure to diverse organizational cultures and approaches provides continual learning for me, which I apply to my own work within my organization. I was able to apply this experience to my recertification credits and look forward to continuing my volunteer work in the future.

Links to Strategic Management Responsibility: 05 Establish relationships/alliances with key individuals and organizations in the community to assist in achieving the organization’s strategic goals and objectives.

Links to Strategic Management Responsibility: 03 Participate as a contributing partner in the organization's strategic planning process.

Cynthia Ray, SPHR, MBA
System Quality Program Manager, PeaceHealth