Executive Spotlight: Shaara Roman of CGI Federal
July 23rd, 2010 by John Adams
Shaara Roman
Shaara Roman leads CGI Federal’s Human Resources department and sat down with ExecutiveBiz to talk about a host of areas including social media, executive recruiters and how CGI Federal finds the top talent.
ExecutiveBiz: Could you tell me a little bit about your background and how you came to your current position?
Shaara Roman: My early HR career was pretty diverse. I worked my way through college as an HR generalist for an association, doing everything from benefits and comp to recruiting and employer relations. After graduation, I worked for a small waste energy plant and also spent a couple of years in the employer-relations space for a hospital. But, really, the majority of my career has been in the professional services space, primarily financial services and IT. I was in a regional HR leadership role at Visa and I spent some time at Fannie Mae as both an HR business partner leader for the IT group and then in a corporate function as a director of people strategy.
I came to CGI over two years ago and was attracted to the opportunity because it was a chance to define the people strategy for a fast growing organization and to shift HR into a strategic, proactive business partnering function.
As I reflect on my career, I do think the choices I made up to now have helped give me the foundation and breadth of experience I needed to lead HR for CGI’s federal organization. And, I have always been attracted to roles where I’ve had to do something new so I come away with new skills and experience.
ExecutiveBiz: How does CGI recruit and retain the top talent available in the competitive federal market?
Shaara Roman: We are in the people business and one of the things that attracted me to CGI is that our leadership team is really focused on ensuring that we create an environment that attracts and rewards the people who will help us win and grow. We have a very strong culture, including viewing employees as ‘members’ because they are employee-owners and they are our best advocates and ambassadors. About a third of our talent is hired through employee referrals. We have a very robust college recruiting program that accounts for another one-third of our hires; we also have passionate alumni who help us recruit on campus.
We have also implemented a structured methodology to interview and select people. We find that this not only helps us ensure that we select the right people but it also helps potential hires opt into our company. Because we then hire people who have opted in, they tend to stay with us longer.
Regarding retention, we have single-digit turnover, which is below industry average. In addition to people opting in at the beginning, we’ve also had double-digit business growth over the last couple of years and that has helped with retention because our members have enjoyed the challenging work assignments and the resulting career growth and development.
In addition to the growth, I think one of our differentiators is that we create multiple opportunities for people to have a voice in how our company runs. For example, we do an annual employee satisfaction survey which helps drive our people strategy and informs our HR programs and initiatives. Also, when we do our strategic planning at the global level, we also survey members for feedback and ideas on our strategic plan. I think these are both great examples of how we treat people as members and I believe they contribute to our high retention rates.
ExecutiveBiz: What is your take on the rise of social media and how have you seen it impact your firm?
Shaara Roman: There has been a shift within the HR profession over the last decade to become more strategic. I think that social media has just continued to fuel that fire and there’s going to be an increased need to continue this as we think about how to compete and differentiate ourselves.
We’ve already seen how blogs and social networks have revolutionized recruiting. At CGI, we will continue to leverage Web2.0 technologies by using appropriate social media approaches that could range from Twitter and Facebook pages to YouTube channels – and we’re going to continue to use aggregator sites like Indeed.com and interactive marketing companies like Jobs2Web. In addition, we find sites like LinkedIn and Facebook can act as extensions of our employee referral program because they give members and top talent the tools to network. Prospective employees can use them to stay connected through their personal network to learn about CGI and assess their fit before they formally engage in the interview process. Especially in the IT consulting space, we find that top talent are the most savvy in terms of new, interesting ways to maximize the power of social media and are the most connected in terms of their networks. One of the aspects of my role leading our HR team is to really challenge our recruiting organization to keep up with the technology trends and to find ways to differentiate us from competitors. We think that one of the best ways for us to do that externally is through the use of social media.
ExecutiveBiz: What do you look for in an executive recruiter?
Shaara Roman: I would summarize it by saying we look for people who want to take the time to know us, understand us and the opportunities and constraints of our business. We also look for people who are highly networked to introduce us to the right top talent and have a track record of placing executives who stay and succeed in their role. I know this sounds simplistic, but delivering against this value proposition is the key.
ExecutiveBiz: Do you have any favorite hobbies or activities that you enjoy in your free time?
Shaara Roman: Free time is a challenging thing. As a busy working mom and wife, I really relish the time with my family. We make time to enjoy D.C. and Arlington – we love to go to the zoo, parks, museums and monuments plus we ride our bikes, hang out at the pool and enjoy our neighborhood. I’m also an avid New York Giants fan, so there’s a good chance I am catching the game on Sundays!
