Situation
A state university committed to both pure and applied research received a 5-year $20-million National Science Foundation grant to undertake new, interdisciplinary, and stakeholder-driven research on freshwater security.

Approach
To help launch the effort, achieve a common purpose, and prevent splintering or conflict, stakeholders were interviewed to understand their uses for new empirical knowledge.

Results
A collateral effort brought more than 20 researchers from different disciplines together to develop dispute prevention protocols that would avoid future conflicts over grants, authorship, and publications.

We have anonymized some information to retain clients’ confidentiality. The results are real and we will be happy to talk to you about our past work. Email us at solutions@guild.im or call (808) 729-5850.

The post Achieving Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Research appeared first on GUILD Consulting.

Situation
The client was unable to fill open positions due to rapid sales growth and a tight labor market. They believed the staff constraints were leading to a drop in the quality of their customer service delivery (as measured by Net Promoter Score).

Approach
GUILD engaged talent acquisition experts, and through their industry connections, conducted interviews with recruitment heads of some of the fastest growing organizations in the world. Research topics included recruiting philosophy, process flow, metrics, recruiter compensation, employer branding and applicant tracking system (ATS).

Results
Client revised job descriptions, recruiting workflow and metrics. Some talent sourcing activities were outsourced to a contact made during our project, and a new ATS was implemented within the next quarter (GUILD managed that implementation project as well).

Clear steps were identified to create a stronger employer brand in Hawaii.

We have anonymized some information to retain clients’ confidentiality. The results are real and we will be happy to talk to you about our past work. Email us at solutions@guild.im or call (808) 729-5850.

The post Building a Recruitment Engine appeared first on GUILD Consulting.

Situation
The client wanted to improve the quality and consistency of the talent assessment process. The existing assessments were annual, very labor intensive for the managers and the ratings were quite inconsistent across managers. The client also wanted to have more frequent assessment cycles and add succession planning as an annual activity.

Approach
“GUILD engaged two experienced performance appraisal experts to redesign the assessments. We agreed on 3 cycles a year, including an annual succession planning process for mapping individuals on performance vs potential using the 9-box.

The 6-month assessment cycles began with an employee self-assessment. Then the manager evaluation process started with the CEO providing feedback to the executive team, who in turn provided feedback to the directors, and so on down the organizational hierarchy. The senior managers (starting with the CEO) used their feedback session as an opportunity to coach their direct reports on how to do better evaluations.

Finally, we designed a weekly check-in process for every employee with their managers aimed to provide more real-time feedback and take out any surprises from the assessment cycles.”

Results
“Executive team accepted all recommendations with minor changes.

The first assessment cycle began immediately after our project ended. It was an efficient process which led to good feedback from the managers and employees alike.

Client was shopping for an automated tool to streamline the weekly checkin process.”

We have anonymized some information to retain clients’ confidentiality. The results are real and we will be happy to talk to you about our past work. Email us at solutions@guild.im or call (808) 729-5850.

The post Revamping the Talent Assessment Process appeared first on GUILD Consulting.