Situation
Due to significant turnover and a dramatic increase in newly budgeted positions, this 350-employee trade association in Alexandria, VA was facing a critical talent shortage. The HR function also had lost several key players in compensation, benefits and employee relations, and was struggling to provide the high level of support it demanded of itself to its internal and external clients.

Solution
KnowledgeBank conducted a detailed recruitment process assessment and provided ongoing outsourced recruitment and staffing support. Interviews with key stakeholders of the recruitment process were conducted, and a process map was developed to determine the recruitment process flow, and identify bottlenecks and other areas of inefficiency within the recruitment function. The report included a summary and analysis of the following areas:

• The organization’s recruitment philosophy and strategy, experience and skill requirements;
• Interviewing methodologies, interviewer training and communication effectiveness;
• Candidate sourcing strategies, résumé and application screening;
• Screening interviews, in-person interviews and employment offer management;
• On-boarding and reporting and recruitment metrics.

In addition to recruitment process assessment and staffing support, KnowledgeBank provided ongoing compensation and benefits management support and special projects on behalf of the Chief Human Resource Officer.

Results

• Dramatically improved key recruitment metrics that included time-to-fill, cost-per-hire, number of positions filled and quality of hire.
• Resolved employee complaints due to problems with benefits enrollments and lack of responsiveness from previous benefits manager; audited all employee benefits enrollments, updated and monitored plans, programs, systems and methods to identified cost savings for organization.
• Managed the administration of wage/salary, performance appraisal and variable pay programs; conducted job analysis interviews with various department leaders to create accurate job descriptions; provided consulting on job evaluations, salary planning, and market and equity analysis.

Situation
As a result of a reorganization, concern about delivery of services by the Human Resource department and lack of clarity about how HR should treat and process the large number of contractors, this client engaged KnowledgeBank, Inc. to perform an assessment/audit of the Human Resource function to ensure that its human resource-related processes, policies, guidelines, and staff were appropriate and compliant. The organization’s revenue mix includes membership dues, training and education programs, transaction fees, and federal funding.

Solution
Over a three-month period, KnowledgeBank gathered information to assess the organization’s HR activities to identify what challenges the HR department faced, the quality of customer service, the type of HR leadership provided, planning strategies employed, effectiveness of communication, and how HR service delivery supported the achievement of the organization’s goals and objectives and the effective and compliant management of its human resources. In order to perform this assessment, KnowledgeBank reviewed the mission, vision, goals, objectives, and priorities of the organization and its management and compared them to those of the HR department. We performed the following:

• Interviewed 11 members of management to get their perspective of HR service delivery.
• Interviewed HR to obtain their perspective on service delivery.
• Summarized and analyzed interview results; identified key messages, formulated conclusions and recommendations.
• Audited personnel files and employee records.
• Assessed compliance with key employment regulations.
• Analyzed forms, documents, policies, and processes; and discussed with HR.
• Reviewed and discussed a comprehensive assessment questionnaire completed by HR.
• Evaluated compensation and benefits.

Results
KnowledgeBank prepared a 33-page HR Assessment Report, which included 76 specific recommendations related to recruiting and selection, compensation and benefits, policies and procedures, conflict resolution, staffing of the HR department, regulatory compliance, records maintenance, and service delivery.

• Identified a significant gap between what management values, what they get, and what is delivered which impacted efficiencies and effectiveness in management and operations.
• Characterized all areas assessed as either working well, which could use improvement, and which posed serious risk and required immediate attention.
• Made recommendations to address all areas of risk to the organization, critical areas of HR operations which hindered the organization-wide effectiveness, and the staffing of the HR function.
• Briefed the executive team on the Assessment findings and recommendations and strategized on how to develop confidence in and effectiveness to the HR function.

Ultimately, the organization implemented nearly all recommendations contained in the Assessment, and a concrete plan was developed to help facilitate implementation. Within six months of the conclusion of the assessment the HR department was restructured and significant changes were made which had organization-wide impact, including fully integrating the new HR leader into the executive leadership team.

Situation
This government contractor experienced rapid growth over a five-year period to more than 200 employees and $25 million in annual revenue; as a result, they found themselves with no formal compensation program, philosophy or structure. Job descriptions didn’t exist, and all pay decisions were still being made by the company’s CEO. KnowledgeBank was engaged to build and formalize the company’s compensation practices, including:

• Developing a Compensation Philosophy on which to build the new compensation program.
• Reviewing, creating and standardizing job descriptions to accurately reflect major position accountabilities, tasks and roles.
• Conducting FLSA wage and hour classification to determine which positions were considered exempt/nonexempt from the overtime provisions of the Act.
• Conducting an analysis to compare the company’s positions to the market.
• Designing and implementing a compensation structure/system that was aligned with the company’s philosophy toward total pay (base, incentive and total compensation).
• Designing a salary administration program that could be utilized by Human Resources and managers.

Solution
KnowledgeBank utilized a formal, multi-phased process to:

• Interview key members of the senior leadership team to comprehend the major business strategies to help ensure development of a compensation strategy that would be aligned with and supported the business drivers.
• Develop a customized position description questionnaire that was completed by employees and approved by their managers.
• Standardize job descriptions based on the position description questionnaires and interviews with job incumbents and managers.
• Perform FLSA wage and hour classification to determine exempt/non-exempt status for all jobs. Interviewed managers as necessary to make appropriate determinations.
• Market price all jobs utilizing recognized published local and national salary survey data to determine competitiveness on an individual position and overall company basis.
• Develop a hierarchy of jobs across the organization, obtaining senior management concurrence.
• Develop and recommend a new salary structure with minimum, midpoints and maximums.
• Design the new compensation system and salary administration guidelines.

Results

• Helped senior management craft a compensation strategy that supported the business strategy.
• Provided the company with a compensation system that assisted with the recruitment, retention and motivation of high-performing employees.
• Delivered the tools needed to ensure the company’s workforce was competitively compensated versus its competitors.
• Provided HR and managers with a compensation system that was explainable and understandable to employees and candidates.
• The Director of Human Resources reported that she used the tool “every day” in her job.
• The newly created job descriptions clearly defined employees’ job scope, duties and responsibilities; also informed and enabled consistent recruiting efforts.
• The salary structures allowed managers to explain to their employees the market value of their jobs and future salary growth potential.
• The salary administration guidelines allowed for fair and equitable treatment of all salary increases, as well as providing for easy development of salary increase budgets and enabled the COO to step away from the salary administration process.

Situation
As this software development and services company grew from 15 employees to more than 40, the company’s controller, who oversaw HR as part of her overall accountabilities for the finance and accounting function, became increasingly uncomfortable managing HR and providing guidance for the organization as it grew beyond several critical compliance thresholds. The recruiting, performance management and compensation systems needed to be overhauled to keep pace with the firm’s growth, and the controller did not have the time or subject matter expertise to develop effective solutions to the growing complexity of human capital issues facing the company.

Solution
KnowledgeBank provided a senior HR Leader with broad and deep subject matter expertise across a wide-range of verticals within human capital management, who become the de-facto Chief Human Capital Officer for the company. After a thorough assessment of the state of the HR function, the KnowledgeBank HR Leader:

• Re-designed and updated the employee handbook.
• Developed and implemented a performance management and merit review process.
• Provided competitive industry compensation and market data.
• Developed internal leave polices and tracking mechanisms.
• Advised management of federal & state employment laws and regulations.
• Coached and provided counsel to managers regarding employee relations issues.
• Spearheaded a company initiative to improve tracking and reporting of employee data, including evaluating the current payroll system and making recommended changes to the existing payroll system and reporting package.
• Worked with outside counsel to process various employment visas, prepared all offer letters and contractor agreements in an effort to assure consistency among all departments, and developed a new hire orientation process.
• Managed and administered all benefits plans (medical, dental, FSA, vision, life & disability).
• Advised management of ways to improve all HR processes and to reduce costs, assure benefits and 401(k) plan documents were accurate and maintained properly, and managed various employee communications efforts (i.e. better promotion and understanding of 401(k) plan).

Results

• Provided thought leadership within the human capital function, dramatically improving employee relations and improving overall organization risk management.
• Built streamlined recruiting process, highlighting accountability with a focus on reduced time-to-hire and quality-of-hire metrics.
• Reduced overall health and welfare costs by more than $250,000 annually.
• Jettisoned the ad hoc approach to compensation and salary administration by building a formal compensation structure that is internally equitable and externally competitive, based on consistent and accurate job descriptions and reliable technology sector market salary data.