A mid-size financial services firm in Irvine, CA reached out to Xllead to explore Talent Development options. Recently the firm had heard that a few of their staff members were looking outside for work. They weren’t sure if they even had a problem as no-one spoke up of issues at staff meetings, and everyone seemed to be enjoying their work.

They looked over their compensation packages and determined it was equitable. They then instituted a fun game day once a month where team members could compete with one another for prizes. They wondered if they had done the right thing, and if there was even a way to uncover any potential issues.

Prior to conducting an assessment at the firm, we communicated two aspects of employee morale: Employees rarely ever start looking for external work because of pay; and that positive morale does not always result from more fun and games. We explained the pillars of our philosophy on morale: value, trust, and growth.

The firm agreed to an assessment run by Xllead Consulting. The findings were astonishing:
– Employees did not feel comfortable voicing opinions at staff meetings
– Employees did not feel like their contributions mattered
– Many did not feel they were being challenged or growing professionally

The firm, recognizing that disengaged employees was contrary to their vision and financial objectives, and worse that turn-over for a company of their size would cripple them, decided to move forward with Xllead’s Talent Development Framework. Xllead conduted the following exercises, with senior management support, and all branded as the firm’s internal processes:
– Leadership coaching for people managers
– Goal setting workshops for all employees
– Performance review coaching for people managers
– Individual development plan workshops for all employees
– Executive coaching for all ‘C’ level executives

Once ongoing processes were established to collect goals and conduct performance reviews, the firm operationalized these procedures with internal HR staff.

One year after the framework was installed, a follow up survey by Xllead revealed that morale had been boosted by 80%.

LESSON LEARNED: Most organizations are not even aware that there might be a talent development issue unless it’s too late.