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Panelists prepare to go on stage at SkillPath’s event: “Strengthening Organizational Culture Through Talent Development.”

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Culture is based on values. Start by figuring out what your organization stands for.Values provide the anchor of who Wad-dell & Reed is, said Kosmacek. “We always start with our values — any and every process that we create, whether it’s around people or around business, stems from those values.”

The talent development and man-agement space is really about putting the levers out there, Kosmacek said, so that they can be pulled when neces-

sary. “It’s not just about having a great system here and a great system there,” she said. “It’s about having all of these things working seamlessly together.”

The beginning point is determin-ing who you are and what you value, said Elgas of JE Dunn. Then, you have to figure out what you believe — the assumptions that you make about yourself or your organization because of what you value. The third component of what makes a culture is the behavior-al norms — how do you behave?

“To identify them, we have to have a common language,” Elgas said. “Mak-ing it clear helps us to discriminate and align all of our talent-prominent pro-grams around that.”

When Patterson first started work-ing at Populous as the talent and learn-ing manager, he went into “detective mode,” asking people all types of ques-tions to find out more about the people and the culture. From there, he tried to attach the culture to the brand.

Having authentic, organic conversa-

Most business leaders would agree that a company’s culture is important. Brand image, talent acquisition and

retention, customer service — nearly every facet of a company can rise or sink as a result of a company’s cul-

ture. More elusive may be the huge effect talent development can have on culture, according to Dave Fogle-

man, chief learning officer of SkillPath. “If we’re not thinking clearly, we may be unwittingly doing something negative to

the culture. When aligned with culture and the company’s strategic goals, talent development functions add jet fuel to

the company’s whole effort to achieve its goals.” How to harness the potential of talent development was among

several topics Kansas City business leaders covered recently at a panel discussion sponsored by SkillPath. The panelists

included Jaime Elgas, vice president of talent management of JE Dunn; Sue Maden, education and training manager of

Burns & McDonnell; Heidi Matthews, training manager of Terracon; Michelle Kosmacek, organizational development

consultant of Waddell & Reed; and Steven Patterson, talent and learning manager of Populous. Fogleman moderated the

discussion. Here are a few takeaways from their remarks:

MODERATOR

PANELISTS

THE EXPERTS

STRENGTHENING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE THROUGH TALENT DEVELOPMENT

Dave FoglemanChief Learning Officer, SkillPath

Jaime ElgasVice President of Talent Management, JE Dunn

Sue MadenEducation and Training Manager, Burns & McDonnell

Heidi MatthewsTraining Manager, Terracon

Michelle KosmacekOrganizational Development Consultant, Waddell & Reed

Steven PattersonTalent and Learning Manager, Populous

MAY 5, 2019 2PAID ADVERTISING

From the left: Moderator Dave Fogleman with panelists Sue Maden, Heidi Matthews, Steven Patterson, Michelle Kosmacek and Jaime Elgas.

An audience member asks a question of one of the panelists.

Some of SkillPath’s team members and sponsors network at the discussion.

said. “So whether you’re a mailroom clerk, the VP of something or anything in between, you’re still evaluated on the value or principle that client ser-vice drives our success.”

JE Dunn uses its guiding principles to define behavioral norms, Elgas said. Those norms are the same throughout the organization, but how they show up differs depending on the employee’s role. She used a soccer team as an anal-ogy: “When my kids’ team goes out to the field, they’re doing the same things a professional team does — they’re passing and kicking the ball. But their responsibility and where their skill lev-el needs to be are very different from what we would expect from a player at the professional level.”

A great culture is never static. Find new ways to foster learning.

Create a growth-minded workforce. “I’m deeply anchored in the belief that the growth mindset is a legitimate space to start,” said Kosmacek. Regard-less of their level within the organiza-tion, you want employees who strive to keep learning. “If you find people who are done, who’ve mastered it, who are as good as they are going to get, it’s time for them to move on,” she said.

Make employees aware of all of the training opportunities available, both structured and unstructured, Maden said. Burns & McDonnell offers sev-eral classes on an array of topics. But employees are presented with growth opportunities every day through their conversations with co-workers and on-the-job experiences.

In addition, Fogleman said mak-ing the connection between the tal-ent development system and customer experience is key. “Talent development has the potential to have a huge impact on your company culture and client relationships,” he said. “With a great talent development system, you’re not only making the business oper-ations work better and transforming the employee experience, but your cus-tomers also benefit from working with a more engaged, knowledgeable team.”

tions is essential to defining and build-ing a culture, Patterson said.

Embed your culture in everything you do, and consistently reinforce it.

Terracon recently hit the refresh button, Matthews said, teeing up a new strategic plan and taking another look at their values. They, too, are try-ing to weave their values throughout the organization, from the employees on the recruiting side to the HR busi-ness partners working with supervisors.

Consistency is crucial, Matthews said. The same values need to be applied to everyone, from the frontline employee to upper management. “That shows we are all on the same team — that we don’t just have those values on a banner. They really mean something to our company.”

One way Burns & McDonnell does this is by including values in their per-formance appraisal process, Maden

Chris Raider of Burns & McDonnell asks a question of one of the panelists.

Some of SkillPath’s team members and sponsors network at the discussion. From the left: Katie Parrish, Cameron Bishop, Michele Markey, Kara Cowie, Erica Morris, Dave Fogleman and Kortney Clark.

tions is essential to defining and building a culture, Patterson said.

Embed your culture in everything you do, and consistently reinforce it.

Terracon recently hit the refresh but-ton, Matthews said, teeing up anew stra-tegic plan and taking another look at their values. They, too, are trying to weave their values throughout the organization, from the employees on the recruiting side to the HR business partners working with super-visors.

Consistency is crucial, Matthews said. The same values need to be applied to everyone, from the frontline employee to upper management. “That shows we are all on the same team — that we don’t just have those values on a banner. They really mean something to our company.”

One way Burns & McDonnell does this is by including values in their performance appraisal process, Maden said. “So whether you’re a mailroom clerk, the VP of some-thing or anything in between, you’re still evaluated on the value or principle that cli-ent service drives our success.”

JE Dunn uses its guiding principles to define behavioral norms, Elgas said. Those norms are the same throughout the orga-nization, but how they show up differs de-pending on the employee’s role. She used a soccer team as an analogy: “When my kids’ team goes out to the field, they’re doing the same things a professional team does — they’re passing and kicking the ball. But their responsibility and where their skill level needs to be are very different from what we would expect from a player at the professional level.”

A great culture is never static. Find new ways to foster learning.

Create a growth-minded workforce. “I’m deeply anchored in the belief that the growth mindset is a legitimate space to start,” said Kosmacek. Regardless of their level within the organization, you want employees who strive to keep learning. “If you find people who are done, who’ve mastered it, who are as good as they are go-ing to get, it’s time for them to move on,” she said.

Make employees aware of all of the training opportunities available, both structured and unstructured, Maden said. Burns & McDonnell offers several classes on an array of topics. But employees are presented with growth opportunities ev-ery day through their conversations with co-workers and on-the-job experiences.

In addition, Fogleman said making the connection between the talent develop-ment system and customer experience is key. “Talent development has the potential to have a huge impact on your company culture and client relationships,” he said. “With a great talent development system, you’re not only making the business op-erations work better and transforming the employee experience, but your customers also benefit from working with a more en-gaged, knowledgeable team.”