CURRENT ISSUE
| Cover Story |
| Columns |
| Invest in Your Most Important Asset: People |
| Print - Column | |
| By Carolyn J. D’Anna | |
| Friday, 01 June 2007 | |
 It sounds trite, but it’s so true – the happier you are at your job, the more productive and valuable you are to the company. Encourage employees to find their passion and pursue it. People have diverse interests and talents. Help employees find those areas where they feel most comfortable and where they can be most effective. Open Lines of Communication Provide a collegial and progressive work environment, complete with ongoing support and motivation from colleagues. At our firm, partners and managers all have an open-door policy. We have found that regular communication between employees and senior management is vital. Employees have an opportunity to share insights, obtain guidance and learn from constructive feedback. The results? Greater self-esteem and empowerment. A Real Commitment In training efforts, offer a variety of subjects that give employees a strong foundation in various areas of the company’s business. Programs should be designed to ensure that all employees have the technical training necessary to fulfill their job requirements and career objectives. Two years ago, we designed and implemented a state-of-the-art learning and development department aimed at both fostering employee career advancement and supporting the firm’s business strategy. Through a curriculum of 67 programs, employees are trained to: • Prepare for new roles • Continually improve their professional expertise • Fully develop their “enabling” skills, such as verbal and written communication, time management and the development of management and leadership capabilities Learning programs typically are developed through direction from top management. However, to ensure clarity and employee buy-in, we took a more comprehensive “roll up, roll down” approach by conducting face-to-face interviews and focus groups with more than a third of the firm’s employees. The input was reviewed in follow-up sessions for further refinement and agreement. This method yielded several benefits, including shared understanding and consensus, programs targeted to unique needs and increased ownership by professionals of their learning. Since the program was implemented, staff morale has improved markedly and our employee turnover rate has decreased to below the industry average. Also, don’t forget to pay attention to senior staff. For our experienced professionals, we run a Partner Candidate Development Academy, an intense training program for senior managers who have the potential of making partner. More to Life Than Work All employees want good benefits, such as a good medical plan, dental, paid maternity and paternity leave, and tuition reimbursement. Other benefits can include adoption assistance, domestic partner benefits, employee discounts and perks such as concierge services and monthly birthday parties. However, we have found that employees most value those benefits that promote work/life balance. One way we respond to the needs of our employees is through flexible work arrangements, which have become a part of our culture. Our CEO, Tom Marino, is often fond of saying, “Our flexible program is so flexible, it is not written down, but tailored to each individual’s requirements.” Employees who avail themselves of flexible work arrangements – such as part-time work, working from home or a reduced schedule – are grateful for the extra time it gives them to spend with family or to address personal matters. And it’s not just for women, although they make up the majority of the work force that uses it. Interviews with employees have yielded the following comments: • “The flex-time arrangement has allowed me to spend quality time with my two-year-old daughter without sacrificing the flow or quality of my work for the firm. Flex-time has made me feel more like a valued employee and I continue to give back 110 percent.” • “My flex-time situation is on an as-needed basis. My wife travels a bit for her career and I need to be home on those occasions. I approach my manager when something comes up and, as a team, we work with the situation.” We have one employee who has just begun working 100 percent of the time from home. Not every job will lend itself to this particular arrangement, of course, but if you take the time to work with your employees to meet their needs on an individual basis – while taking the firm’s requirements into careful consideration – it can be a win/win for both parties. The ‘Jane Drain’ According to a recent survey, 37 percent of highly qualified women leave the U.S. work force at some point in their careers. This trend is also evident in the accounting industry where more than 50 percent of college graduates in accounting are female, yet only 19 percent of public accounting positions are held by women. Can your company afford such a loss of talent, what some are referring to as the “Jane Drain?” To address this issue, we launched a professional women’s initiative in 2005, a multi-faceted program that addresses women’s unique personal and career objectives with diverse training and development opportunities. In developing the program, we instituted a research-based approach that took into account the current, real-life issues that women at the firm identified. Open to professional women at all levels, the program offers: • Networking opportunities – Regular contact with other professional women inside and outside of the business at planned events • Executive leadership program – A peer-based leadership program open to women at the manager through partner levels that meets over an eight-month period. The program is an intensive series of workshops targeting areas of leadership, communication, accountability, work/life balance and goal-setting. • One-on-one mentoring – Gaining from the professional experience and insights of senior colleagues • Online resources for sharing information and experiences – Concerning the ways colleagues juggle family responsibilities, find elder-care solutions, select schools and colleges for their children and make other work/life effectiveness decisions • Seminars designed to build non-technical skills – Sales techniques, stress and time management, assertiveness training and more from a roster of outside-expert speakers • Special publications – Newsletters tackling everyday issues and regular updates and briefings on firm and program developments • Informational meetings that address work/life policies and issues – Meetings with colleagues to gain insight into how to move ahead without sacrificing family or personal goals Enthusiasm and morale among women at our firm is high as a result of the program. They have gained a sense of belonging and a chance to become leaders within the firm. Continuous Feedback Lastly, never stop learning from your employees. We use periodic employee surveys, as well as more targeted questionnaires, to ensure we are on the right track. This way, programs can be enhanced or altered to meet employees’ needs. You don’t have to be a large national company to institute these practices, policies and procedures. We are a regional firm and our investment in people has reaped dividends – happier employees, greater productivity and loyalty, and superior client service – that are cornerstones of success for any firm in any industry. USBR Carolyn J. D'Anna, partner, is the managing director of human resources at J.H. Cohn LLP. She can be reached at 973-403-7988 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
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