Early and often: For Alion’s Kathy Madaleno, successful recruitment and career development starts here
Career development and challenging work. Both matter now more than ever for government contractors looking to sustain their employee numbers.
That’s how Kathy Madaleno sees it in her role as Senior Vice President and Director of Human Resources at Alion Science and Technology.
Over the past year, the continued insourcing push, coupled with a perpetually shaky economic forecast, have made government sector jobs more alluring to highly specialized workers on the industry side, especially those eying where to finish out their careers. They’re looking for stability. Even if it means taking a pay cut.
It’s this base of employees that Madaleno is keeping at the forefront of HR initiatives.
“You have to communicate the corporate culture, that we’re committed to our people,” says Madaleno, speaking about Alion’s employee base, which works predominately on behalf of Department of Defense customers. “We offer opportunities here that would be more difficult to find on the government side,” she adds.
In Alion’s case, opportunity comes down to development and training, early and often. Three years ago, the employee-owned technology solutions company started an online initiative, “Alion University.”
Partnering with SkillSoft, a SaaS provider of on-demand e-learning solutions, Alion now offers more than 6,000 courses online, in a diverse range of fields, from engineering and management, to government contracting and finance.
“It’s distance learning … you can take it any time, any place,” says Madaleno.
That approach appeals to younger generations of workers. “For many years, people went to a training company, took a five-day course, and then took a test … you aren’t going to get Generation X or Y to sit in a classroom for five days taking a course,” says Madaleno.
The appeal extends to more established workers as well. “The 24/7 access to Alion University is appealing to our long-time employees as well,” says Madaleno. “They can hone their current skills and learn new ones at their own pace, which is important for both job satisfaction and career growth … we encourage every employee to take charge of their career, with the support of their manager and Human Resources.”
Many of the tracks available through Alion University also hold timely urgency. When bidding on a contract, for example, the government has started to require PMP certification, in increasing numbers, among contractors. Alion University offers that training. In addition, adds Madaleno, “We have a whole competency area in IT. There are more applications, with more databases, that you need to know.” The online platform helps address that need.
Management training
Employees aren’t the only ones who need to keep their skills up to date. Managers must do the same with their training, especially when it comes to interpersonal skills, says Madaleno. That’s largely due to the new demands of the workplace, she adds.
“The skills set needed to be a manager today has really expanded with the different generations in the workplace,” says Madaleno. This multigenerational environment now requires a deft touch by managers — “being able to communicate, set goals and objectives, and outline career development right at the beginning,” says Madaleno.
With that in mind, anyone promoted into management takes a two-day course, in-house, at Alion. The course consists of training by Alion’s HR team, as well as training through online facilitation. Still, managers can’t fill all career development goals. Which is why another component of onboarding is assigning a mentor. “It’s that mentor who’s going to help the new employee with questions that they may not want to ask a manager,” says Madaleno.
Nurturing intellectual capital
Among the top industry challenges, especially for defense contractors, is the question of where insourcing will lead. For its part, Alion has been minimally affected. “Over the last year, we’ve only lost a small percentage of our workforce to insourcing,” says Madaleno.
The key, she adds, is to maintain that focus on people and development. “People want challenging work, they want to feel good about their work, they want to feel good about the company.”
In Alion’s case, a year-long series of contract wins speak to the “challenging” work ahead: From a study to analyze the viability of a biofuel energy crop to efforts to support the FBI with IT enhancements, along with ongoing work in “serious game” development, international ship design and logistics.
Moving forward, Madaleno says, Alion’s HR focus will be to attract, retain, and engage top talent while “relentlessly training and developing Alion’s most important asset: its intellectual capital — its employee owners.”
Posted by Lisa Singh
on Monday, July 26th, 2010. Filed under General.
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