Design and implementation of a talent management and employee capability framework for a national project infrastructure consulting firm
Having experienced a difficult partnership dissolution, this national project infrastructure firm had concerns about employee retention. Having coached the Directors through the dissolution, I was invited to audit their culture; to reveal what mattered to their people, and how they could create an environment they would want to remain part of in the longer term.
I conducted fieldwork in the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane offices as well as on construction worksites. I interviewed over 50 (internal and external) stakeholders nationally. I also had many casual conversations whilst interacting day-to-day with individuals on site. What I discovered was that the project managers loved their work. I also discovered that they wanted to learn more from each other but didn’t have the means nor opportunity to do so. And they didn’t want to take time away from their projects to do so or increase their hours worked.
With them, I designed what can be best described as a capability framework. Journey mapping the life cycle of a project enabled us to identify the opportunities for learning and development that were happening within that cycle. We made the tacit a little more explicit and, in doing so, enabled team members to reach out to one another nationally as subject matter experts to share their knowledge, and their lack thereof. It was all about seeing themselves as perpetual apprentices, and teachers, within the project, within a community.