Background:The organization wanted a comprehensive plan for their staff growth to ensure that the values, culture and focus that hallmarked their success to this point were scaled and maintained in the new, much larger, organization.

Our planning work addressed the following questions:

• What organizational structure best supports the expanded mission?
• What should be the sequence and timing of hiring the key leadership positions over the next 24 months?
• What are the role definitions/responsibilities for the key leaders?
• What skills/experience are required for each of the key roles?
• What are the skills/experience of the current leadership and staff?
• How will the recruiting/hiring/acclimation experiences create a staff culture that provides the public with the desired ‘experience’ when visiting the new facility?
• How will the organization locate, attract and retain the talent needed to achieve their significantly expanded mission?
• What HR requirements, considerations and competencies will be needed to support the build-up phase and on an ongoing basis?
• What leadership/communications/management skills will be needed to ensure a successful, much larger organization?

Approach

• Held comprehensive discussions with the founding leaders of the organization to understand how they built the organization, achieved their success thus far and to clearly define the expanded mission driving their next phase of growth.
• Defined a revised organizational structure and key skills/experience needed in each role to achieve the expanded mission
• Worked extensively to define the ‘soft’ or cultural skills required in leadership and staff to ensure the appropriate public experience with the organization.
• Created a timeline for hiring and acclimating key positions over the next two years to support the planned growth.
• Provided recruiting support for filling the initial key leader positions on the hiring timeline.
• Provided ad hoc HR support during the initial growth phase
• Provided on-boarding services to new key leaders to facilitate acclimation and encourage early contribution/success.