From Left: Monika Vikander-Hegarty, Bob Chapman, Heather Dunn
Gold
Monika Vikander-Hegarty
Vice President of International Human Resources and Global Talent Development, Teleflex Inc.
Teleflex, a specialty medical devices company, examined itself in 2013 and realized it faced problems in recruiting, onboarding and employee development. Candidate satisfaction was at 90 percent — high but not high enough, it took an average of 120 days to fill vacancies, and the recruiting process itself lacked standardization.
The new process, called The Teleflex Advantage, started by changing the candidate’s first impression. Rather than ask “Are you good enough to work here?” Teleflex changed the question to “Is there a chance you can become spectacular?”
The company also set up workshops and gathered feedback to identify its core values such as innovation, sincerity and reliability. Then Teleflex devised interview questions to incorporate them into the recruiting process. The resulting “Teleflex Candidate Marketing Book” helped recruiting managers become more efficient.
Teleflex also increased its social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to become more attractive to digital natives in Generations X and Y. As a result of these initiatives, candidate satisfaction rose to 98 percent, according to the company. Time to fill vacancies decreased to 57 days. And satisfaction with the recruitment process increased to 93 percent from 61 percent. There also has been a large amount of positive testimony from employees on how people are treated fairly at Teleflex and how management trusts its employees.
Silver
Bob Chapman
CEO, Barry-Wehmiller Cos.
Barry-Wehmiller Cos., a global supplier of manufacturing technology, decided it needed to give organizational leaders tools to excel in leadership, and after some work, the Barry-Wehmiller University, or BWU, was born. BWU’s objective is to make sure the company’s culture, and strong leadership values are universal and sustainable for future generations of leaders.
BWU’s curriculum is designed around a conviction for responsible leadership. Participants are taught to carefully consider the impact of their actions on the company and on their team members. Employees can enroll in classes and earn the title of professor. In these classes they learn how to be an effective leader who can appreciate the ideas and diversity of their team while getting the job done.
The BWU initiative resulted in a large pool of altruistic, strong leaders, more effective teamwork and a broader international reach. CEO Bob Chapman, who originally intended the development program for only his company, subsequently helped to form a nonprofit foundation to share BWU communications classes around the world.
Bronze
Heather Dunn
Director of Training, Ted’s Montana Grill
Ted’s Montana Grill, a restaurant chain available in 46 U.S. locations, was having trouble retaining its staff, hiring high-potential employees and communicating its core values. Heather Dunn, director of training, helped the company improve its training to solve these problems, creating online leadership content and formal leadership training to decrease turnover. The greater investment in training led to increased sales, a decrease in manager turnover and a rise in store management engagement surveys.
