The Superintendent of a 3,000 employee public school system had just been notified of the HR leader’s resignation after a short tenure. The organization was in the early-mid stages of a pivotal and very public transformation. Rapid development of HR capacity was integral to the organizational success and had been interwoven into the Operating Plan. The HR function needed a new leader quickly…
After quickly individually interviewing each of the organizations’ leaders and facilitating a focus group with the HR staff, The HRC developed a job description and search profile, endorsed by the leaders. Within six (6) weeks, The HRC presented three (3) solid candidates who had been thoroughly substantiated… with resumes, detailed HR/OD Leader Skills MatrixSM, Candidate Summary, in-depth, verbatim reference results from immediate managers to whom they had reported as well as staff who had reported to them, and copies of recent performance evaluations they had received.

The HRC also provided recommendations for selection methodology, incorporating individual and team interviews as well as a presentation to the leadership team and a reasonable cost, highly-validated Leadership Assessment Tool. Upon completion of the interviews, presentations, and assessment, the leadership team had a dilemma on their hands. They struggled to select between two of the candidates. Once a selection was made, The HRC then guided the CEO on an offer for offer acceptance where the candidate’s response was, “This is the dream job for me for many years to come… it brings my career full cycle, where I’m integrating all my life passions and experiences. There’s no way I would say no!”

Unfortunately, due to an immediate family member’s serious illness right after the acceptance, the initially selected candidate had to withdraw from acceptance. Due to supportive, ongoing communications with the other finalist, The HRC was able to successfully re-engage with the individual for an ecstatic acceptance. A year later, their HR leader received an exceptional performance review and shared that it was the most fulfilling job imagined.