On June 5th we celebrated the winners and finalists of the 2009 Apollo Awards. The Apollo Awards were created to honor organizations in the Washington, DC metro area that exemplify the best our region has to offer in the area of employee growth and development. One of the benefits of our involvement with these enlightened leaders is a chance to share their best practices with our broader community, including the positive impact these practices have on the performance of their organizations.

This year we were fortunate to have Market Connections conduct an in-depth survey of the organizations that were nominated. This survey will be developed into a white paper in the upcoming weeks and offered to all our readers. However, we wanted to take a moment to share some of the interesting facts revealed in the survey results, presented at the Apollo Awards by Lisa Dezzutti, President & CEO of Market Connections.

If you have any doubt as to whether employee development, performance management, metrics and rewards programs have a positive impact on your bottom line then this should allay those concerns. Despite the current economic conditions, 72% of our respondents reported an increase in operating income in the previous 12 months while 19% said operating income stayed the same. Only 9% reported a decrease.

Our survey also indicated that organizations providing coaching to their managers were more likely to have increased operating income while those who did not offer mentorships were less likely to see an increase. This is a strong argument for implementing a formal training and mentoring program within your organization.

In addition to training and mentoring programs, almost all our finalists had formal career paths and succession plans in place for their employees. Why is this important? Beginning this year, 10,000 baby boomers will become eligible for retirement every day for the next 20 years.* (Federal Reserve Bank). One of our Apollo finalists has implemented a “one up” training program that allows employees to serve in their supervisor’s capacity for a day. This helps identify the best candidates for promotion while educating the employees on what it takes to succeed at a higher level.

Documented career paths also resulted in higher employee satisfaction and lower turnover. A study evaluating the effects of the Family and Medical Leave Act found that "turnover costs for a manager average 150% of salary, including tangible costs of hiring new workers and relocation, and intangible costs such as the new worker's inefficiency and lost productivity while the job is vacant."

To put this into perspective, let's assume the average salary of an employee in a given company is $50,000 per year. Taking the cost of turnover at 150% of salary, then the financial impact for replacing a manager who leaves the company is $75,500 per manager. For a company of 300 employees that has even a 5% annual rate of management turnover, the annual cost is $1,125,000! What CEO doesn’t want to add that to the bottom line?

We were also impressed with the training budget our respondents have for their employees. The national average for training budgets is $3,000 and within the Washington, DC metro area that average is $3,250. Our respondents spend an average of $3,860 per employee, well above the national average.

Many of our finalists have been part of the Apollo Awards program for two or even three years. The feedback we’ve received from our finalists is that the process of applying for an Apollo Award has helped inspire ideas and programs within the applicant organizations including a consideration of what metrics would be meaningful within their companies in order to help make strategic decisions.

In January 2010, Helios HR will host a workshop for 2010 Apollo applicants. We will review and explain how to implement these processes and metrics within your organization. Whether you end up deciding to apply for the 2010 Apollo Awards or not, we encourage all companies to attend this workshop and learn how you can incorporate best practices in employee development into your organization. It can only have a positive impact on your bottom line.

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HR Compliance Calendar Now Available

With the ever-increasing responsibilities weighing on your HR staff — from regulatory deadlines and audits to essential responsibilities and initiatives like training, policy reviews, benefits and more — it's often a wonder how everything gets done on time.

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Written by Helios HR and published by Thompson Publishing, this new HR Compliance Calendar will help you focus on the execution and planning of important activities and meeting critical deadlines. Along with important daily reminders, the HR Compliance Calendar assists you in understanding the deadline requirements and provides specific links to helpful websites, forms and checklists. Order your HR Compliance Calendar here.

We had a record turnout for our 2009 Apollo Awards program. Here are some photos and testimonials about the event.

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