As CHG Healthcare Services continues to grow, its goal of establishing a 5:1 employee-to-leader ratio has been a top priority. The biggest obstacle to achieving this goal has been leader turnover, often stemming from unprepared new leaders or leaders who had misperceived expectations. CHG’s solution was to rebuild its leadership development program from the ground up, with a primary focus on potential leader candidates (pre-leaders). The resulting pre-leader training program is called LEAP (Leader Evaluation & Assessment Program).
Program Details
Leadership Development Specialists partner with the employee and his or her leader to discuss his or her current role and relationships within the team. The employee is guided through a TIP (Talent Inventory Profile), which is a 360-degree assessment that highlights the employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and potential in key areas of leadership. Feedback is gathered from the employee’s leaders, peers, and other stakeholders who can provide informed perspective.
Once the TIP feedback is gathered, a Leadership Development Specialist partners with the employee and his or her leader to provide one-on-one coaching and assists in creating a development plan. This coaching element offers a highly individualized approach and is a key piece in CHG’s leadership development process. It helps translate the feedback employees receive into next steps in their development as a leader, supporting the organization’s Continuous Development Culture.
At the most effective time, as defined by his or her development plan, the leadership candidate participates in a four-month curriculum that takes him or her through six modules, a final project, and completion of several topic-relevant reading and discussion sessions, which provides an opportunity to:
- Gain a better understanding of the skills and behaviors necessary to be a successful leader at CHG
- Develop necessary people leadership skills
One of the highlights of the program is a module taught by the company chairman titled “Servant Leadership.” During the session, participants learn about and discuss the characteristics of a successful servant leader, which include:
- Serving First
- Stewardship
- Humility
- Sustainability
- Continuous Development
- Listening
- Empathy
- Healing
- Awareness
- Persuasion
- Conceptualization
- Foresight
- Commitment to the Growth of Others
- Building Community
Having these leadership qualities taught and enforced by the head of the company has a tremendous impact on the view of what leadership looks like at CHG. It sets the tone early on in the candidate’s leadership development.
This strategy of combining assessments, individualized coaching, topical courses, and participant experiences helps CHG qualify and improve the readiness of leadership candidates before they are promoted.
Results
- Since 2013, CHG has increased internal leader promotions from 55 percent to 68 percent, while simultaneously decreasing leader turnover from 12.95 percent to 8.63 percent.
- Currently, 55 percent of all LEAP participants are being promoted to leadership positions within three months of completing the program.
- The strengthening of CHG’s leadership bench through the LEAP program has allowed the company to achieve and surpass its goal of a 5:1 employee-to-leader ratio, currently at 4.64. LEAP provides potential leaders with the tools and skills to start acting like a leader before they get the title. This makes the transition for them and their team a much smoother process.
