Talent Management Task Force
Hiring and Retaining a Talented and Dedicated Bixal Team
Task Force Lead: Mary Kay
Task Force Members: Ginette, Michael R., Mari, Cameron, Deanna, Felipe
Others who have offered input: Carla, Chanin, Rick, Joshlyn, Meg, Jimmy
Related Business Goals
 Bixal aims to double its number of employees in 2016 to support future
contracts, and then have continued (but slower) growth through 2020.
What is the purpose for the Talent Management Task Force?
Bixal leadership would like to engage current employees on identifying concrete
business solutions for recruiting and retaining talent to Bixal. The task force is
responsible for conducting research, drafting objectives, and defining action items
and metrics, as well as presenting findings to staff.
What is our timeline?
The first draft of our report is due to Bixal leadership by November 20, 2015 for
review. We’ll meet weekly, or as needed, through December 3 for reporting and
status updates. We will also prepare a presentation for our staff retreat on
December 4.
What are current and anticipated career types at Bixal?
Front-end developer
Back-end developer
U/X specialist
Web content specialist
Graphic designer/artist
Proposal specialist/writer
Project manager
eLearning specialist
eLearning developer
Editor/QA specialist
Business development specialist
Accounting/finance specialist
Operations specialist
What are current hiring and retention strategies?
Carla to provide this information.
Questions TF Seeks to Answer
Brainstorm – How to Find People (ideas and best practices)
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Social Media (specifically Twitter and LinkedIn). Use the following
hashtags to reach more people: #careers, #jobs, #hiring
For LinkedIn, (and Twitter to a certain extent) ask some of the top
influencers in your field. This can be done by contributing to (&
monitoring) conversations in groups related to your industry. For us,
that’s digital marketing, eLearning, and web/mobile development
Share job postings with relatable professional development organizations
in the area. A few include DC Web Women, Drupal NoVA meetup, Web
Content Mavens Meetup etc. More than likely, they have list-servs and
newsletters that are sent out regularly
Involve current employees in the recruiting process (which we already
do)
Add a section to the website about what it’s like to work at Bixal. Ensure
the content has a mix of “marketing terms – i.e. selling your brand” and
real experience (excerpts from current staff about their experience).
Maybe humanize it a little more by providing email addresses of those
who offer their experience – in case a potential applicant wants to reach
out to them on a personal level (with questions)
Run a “We are Bixal” people campaign on social media that features each
of our team members on a personal level (professionally driven of
course). *I’m working on this for January 2016 – since that’s a heavy
recruiting time. It will require interviewing each staff member about their
job & experience at Bixal
Brainstorm – How to Keep People (ideas and best practices)
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Provide a healthy balance of work/life balance
Highlight employees for a job well done (everyone wants to feel
appreciated)
Incorporate fun and team building into the annual calendar
Ensure that ideas (from employees) are heard. Maybe provide funds or an
incentive for a top idea that was executed. This was a popular event at
Booz Allen (my past employer). More details can be found here
Help employees continue to grow in their field by providing professional
development opportunities. Also, if they have a new area of interest,
encourage them to find a way to tie into our overall business strategy. If it
checks out, give them the okay to explore
Keep compensation, benefits and opportunities competitive
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Involve employees in the decision-making process (and keep them aware
when company changes are happening and/or underway)
Create awards to encourage hard work (such as employee of the month
etc.)
Objectives and Strategies
Objective
Action/Strategy Expected
Outcome
Sample:
Use new and
Learning
Increase
interesting
new
internal
technologies for technologies
project
internal projects will help
participation
employees
increase
skill set.
Metrics
Track
average
employee
utilization
above 40
hrs per
week over
time.
Priority
Evaluation
3 Metrics
show
higher
utilization
per
employee.
Assignments
Task
Ask Bixal staff for
great ideas/best
practices they know
of to retain
employees
Who
?
By When
?
Notes
Maybe include in
a survey with
other questions?