Candice Mendenhall of ICF: Employee retention through meaningful work

Don’t let the numbers fool you. Despite a stubbornly high unemployment rate, companies still face plenty of challenges in employee retention, especially around the Beltway. Attractive benefits packages aren’t enough. Increasingly, so is meaningful work.

It’s something that ICF International has got covered. From renewable energy studies to strategy insights into social programs, the Fairfax, Va.-based consulting firm prides itself on doing the kind of work that improves lives in direct, tangible ways. That mission helps explain the company’s relatively low turnover rate, across all job levels.

“Our turnover rate is lower than most of our competitors,” says Candice Mendenhall, ICF’s senior vice president of human resources. “That would tell us that we’re doing things right.”

Among the things the company is doing right is a “socially compelling” mission, as Mendenhall puts it. “We have a passionate workforce of people who love working for us because of what we do.”

“We also make sure people have opportunities to grow and advance, relatively early in their formative years, into management and, if they want, into a technical path,” she adds.

Since taking on her role in August 2008, Mendenhall has helped ICF employees do exactly that, just as the company has continued on a solid growth trajectory: quadrupling in size through acquisitions and organic growth over the past few years.

Today, ICF stands as a public company, with gross revenues of roughly $700 million, as well as 3,000 employees in 30 US offices and six international offices spanning four continents.

An engaging employee experience is the bedrock of that growth.

“Our role in HR is to make sure that we have the kind of foundation and infrastructure to support that growth and to help our leaders support it,” says Mendenhall, a 30-year industry veteran, with past experience at mid-size and Fortune 50 organizations. “It’s about helping develop the right leaders who can effectively manage in our environment.”

Total management system

With efficiency, and effectiveness, top of mind, Mendenhall’s team has implemented a series of systems — all self-service oriented applications, online — that cover crucial tasks, from applicant tracking to performance management.

Recently, the team integrated Taleo, an applicant tracking system that interfaces with PeopleSoft, the company’s human resource information system. The software enables Mendenhall’s team to more effectively manage the conversation with prospective employees.

The department is now in the process of installing a total talent management solution, also through Taleo. The automated system helps with goal setting, as well as reviews and ongoing performance management. It’s a total system to better track employees and help them manage their careers more effectively.

“We have a large number of courses that are now connected to career paths … that enables us to automatically register employees and put course attendance in employees’ profiles,” says Mendenhall.

Whole communication strategy

A consistent communications strategy also underpins ICF’s growth.

For Mendenhall, HR activities represent a “constant movement to improve communication strategies.” That’s been especially true in the midst of several acquisitions: In 2008, the company acquired Jones & Stokes, and, a year later, Macro International Inc., and Jacob & Sundstrom, Inc.

In March 2009, Mendenhall’s team created a communications strategy for each acquisition. “We created a standard model for how we approach this,” says Mendenhall.

The model addressed all stakeholders: in addition to newly-acquired employees, existing employees and clients as well.

“Acquisitions, depending on where you are, and where you sit on the management ladder, determine what information you need to hear,” says Mendenhall. “Among our stakeholders, we target our messages to our newly-acquired employees to engage their hearts and minds early in the process so they quickly integrate into ICF.”

This approach — a consistent message, custom-tailored to specific audiences within the organization — has been groundbreaking. “We never had that before,” says Mendenhall.

So far, the results have been tangible. “We’ve seen less confusion among the different employee bases,” says Mendenhall. “They quickly know what we’re doing, how we’re approaching the task at-hand, and how it impacts them … that helps alleviate anxiety that can come with being merged into a new organization.”

“Can’t rest on laurels”

As ICF continues its ascent as a multinational firm, Mendenhall remains vigilant.

“It’s our job in HR to create the kind of foundation that allows the company to grow,” says Mendenhall. “It’s a continuous thing, you can’t rest on your laurels.”

Mendenhall keeps in tune with the latest HR trends through a variety of channels: the Corporate Executive Board, among them. “It’s one of the most effective ways for us to get benchmarking data about what other people are doing,” she says. She also credits HRPS (Human Resources Planning Society), which focuses on HR strategy and leadership development issues. She’s an active member of its national program, and routinely directs employees to their webinars for training programs.

Meanwhile, Mendehall is mindful of the industry challenges ahead — among them, the continuing insourcing push that’s hitting defense markets the hardest. On the whole, though, ICF’s market approach aligns with the priorities set by President Obama, specifically around education and energy, says Mendenhall. 

“We believe that a lot of the work that we’re doing is very much front and center on the President’s initiatives,” she says. “We’re feeling good about that — and the prospects for the company.”

Posted by Lisa Singh on Monday, July 26th, 2010. Filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry