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Making Onboarding Work:
Driving Organizational Effectiveness through
Improved Retention, Quicker Time-to-Productivity,
Greater Level of Productivity, Accelerated Career
Advancement & Enhanced Recruitment Results.
Kaiser Associates, Inc. Organization Development Practice
North America Practice Headquarters www.KaiserAssociates.com
1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Ninth Floor
Washington, DC 20006 © 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
Thank you for
requesting this
special report.
We hope you will
find it to be both
interesting and
helpful.
We begin with an overview of where
Onboarding came from and its current
imperative. We then cover common
shortfalls of Onboarding programs. We
then provide our perspective on what an
effective system needs to include in order
to be competitive, drive down turnover,
and increase productivity. We then
conclude with how to get started and a
description of the areas that we can
address.
Let’s begin.
2
KAISER ASSOCIATES, INC. www.KaiserAssociates.com
How This Report is Organized:
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
In today‟s employment marketplace,
organizations are realizing the value of
developing strategic Onboarding processes
that reduce new hire time-to-productivity,
enhance level of productivity, increase
satisfaction levels of internal customers
(i.e., hiring managers), and improve overall
retention rates. Further, as the „baby
boomer‟ generation retires, organizations
are finding that Onboarding is a critical
mechanism for transferring knowledge from
legacy employees to the next generation of
hires. Kaiser Associates‟ research also
indicates that effective Onboarding
programs have a powerful and positive
impact on how an organization is viewed as
an employer-of-choice by the most
desirable employee candidates.
It is clear that in order for an
Onboarding management program to
achieve significant success, it must be
structured to address a variety of issues.
When we observe the most successful
Onboarding programs, we notice that they
incorporate early-career development,
cultural, social, and administrative
components into their design.
This report will examine the specific
steps leading organizations are taking for
developing, implementing, measuring and
driving the effectiveness of their
Onboarding programs. The information
contained in this article draws heavily from
the experiences of our clients, and Kaiser‟s
role as a researcher and thought leader on
this topic.
We hope you find the ideas in this
report helpful.
3
www.KaiserAssociates.com PART ONE
PART ONE: Introduction
“Kaiser Associates has been a tremendous partner to Target Corporation. The value-added recommendations that Kaiser brought to the table were both achievable and sustainable for our company. We would highly recommend their services and look forward to working with them again in the future for additional Target needs.”
Tricia Dirks,
Vice President Corporate Human Resources
Target Corporation
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
For decades, leading organizations have
wrestled with how to reduce time-to-
productivity for new hires and increase
overall retention rates. This issue has
increased in importance as organizations
face the reality of a declining population
of employees in their prime working
years, coupled with demographic shifts
as the baby-boom generation retires in
increasingly larger numbers.
Although recent articles in the
business and HR press have popularized
the term, “Onboarding”, the issues
underlying the process are hardly new.
Employee orientation programs and
mentoring initiatives are well established
in most organizations that take a serious
interest in recruiting and developing
their human capital.
So why the seemingly sudden
interest in Onboarding amongst HR and
other senior leaders?
Certainly, the historical scarcity of
top talent is an important factor.
Although it can be correctly argued that
there has always been a scarcity of A-
level talent, the competition for high-
potential recruits has also dramatically
increased. Most Global 500 companies
have highly tuned, albeit expensive,
recruitment engines. In the corporate
sector, companies that historically
recruited regionally, now routinely
conduct national searches with increased
degrees of sophistication, support and
investment. Meanwhile, in today‟s tepid
economic climate, governmental and
non-profit organizations are rethinking
their recruitment and retention strategies
given increased availability of top talent
from the private sector. While these
organizations have increased access to
A-level recruits, the focus must reside in
retaining these new hires for the long
term, rather than risking high attrition
once the market inevitably rebounds.
Student attitudes towards
prospective employers have also shifted
over the past decade. Lifetime
employment at a single employer is a
stale concept for many new hires. It is
well recognized that top recruits evaluate
potential employers against a variety of
criteria. What we increasingly
understand is the weight that recruits
now give to the quality of the
prospective employer‟s plan for them
during their first year on the job.
Virtually every organization has an
orientation program, but top recruits are
looking for more. They are looking
beyond the first 90 days; they are
looking at what organizations are doing
to address their early career-
development, cultural, social, and
administrative needs. This issue is
becoming increasingly important,
especially among the top recruits who
have a variety of employment options to
choose among.
As an interesting aside, we hear
from both those in the executive
recruiting field, and from university
career services‟ directors, about the role
that a well defined and executed
Onboarding program contributes to the
organization‟s brand as an employer. It
is clear that the most successful and
sophisticated Onboarding programs have
become strategic tools by which
organizations are able to differentiate
themselves from their recruiting
competition.
To examine what organizations are
specifically doing, let us now shift our
attention to the current state of
Onboarding initiatives.
4
PART TWO www.KaiserAssociates.com
PART TWO: A Brief Historical Perspective
32% of employees who have been in their current job less than six months are already job searching. Source: Development Dimensions International and Monster Intelligence 2006 global study of more than 3,700 job seekers and 1,250 hiring man-agers.
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
PART THREE: Common Shortfalls
5
www.KaiserAssociates.com PART THREE
Not surprisingly, Onboarding programs vary enormously in terms of sophistication, comprehensiveness and effectiveness. Since
we believe that one can learn almost as much from what is less effective as we can from best practices, let us first take a look at
some of the more common shortfalls we have found with Onboarding programs.
1
2
Lack of a
System-wide
Approach to
Onboarding
We observe that many Onboarding
programs take a piecemeal ap-
proach. By this, we mean that the
emphasis is often placed on only a
few components of the overall expe-
rience, rather than a more compre-
hensive (and ultimately more effec-
tive) approach.
As we will discuss in more
detail shortly, the most effective
Onboarding programs look at new
hire needs from a variety of perspec-
tives. These programs focus on pro-
viding material early career support
systems, offering assistance in inter-
preting and adapting to the unique
culture of the organization, ensuring
that a new hire’s social needs are
met, and providing the traditional
administrative components. On-
boarding programs that incorporate
all of these factors are the ones that
have the greatest impact on both
time-to-productivity and longer-term
retention – both key to overall com-
petitive and financial performance.
As an example of the typical
narrow approach, some
organizations focus their efforts
primarily on the administrative
components of the Onboarding
process. While there is no doubt that
quickly and efficiently enrolling
new employees in benefit plans,
obtaining security access, providing
a properly configured personal
computer and other Onboarding
administrative details are important,
they are but the very surface of the
most sophisticated Onboarding
programs. The most, that we have
witnessed, any organization
achieves by attending to the
administrative is to minimize
annoyances. Expectations today are
significantly higher.
Not Customizing
Programs for
Specific
Segments of the
Employee
Population
Short-
Term Focus
3
Our research shows that
the majority of On-
boarding programs have
a very short-term focus
– in some cases limited
to only the first two
weeks of the new em-
ployees’ experience. We
think this is a costly
mistake.
New hires tell us
that orientation pro-
grams condensed in the
first weeks of hire are
typically either too
“light weight” or are
like “drinking out of a
fire hose”. The majority
of information fails to be
absorbed since the new
hire does not yet have
the operating context to
benefit from much of the
knowledge transfer.
Moreover, when
you look at employment
turnover statistics, you
discover that the greatest
risk of losing a new
employee is during the
first 18 months. Thus,
the most effective pro-
grams have an estab-
lished roadmap for pro-
viding Onboarding ser-
vices throughout this
entire period of time.
Unfortunately, most
organizations invest in
an initial orientation and
then only again invest at
later career stages.
Offering program elements to one group of
employees and not another is a sensitive subject.
Certainly, in an ideal world, everyone would
receive the full gamut of premier services.
But this is not often feasible. In every or-
ganization there are certain groups of employees
who are more difficult to recruit, who are in
positions that are “feeder-roles” to senior man-
agement, or who otherwise stand out as top per-
formers.
We believe that these employees deserve
specific consideration in the Onboarding pro-
gram. Unfortunately, many organizations design
their programs to the lowest common require-
ments. Put simply, this diminishes the organiza-
tion’s ability to attract and retain the most valua-
ble talent.
For example, in the government sector, the
competition to recruit IT professionals with
security clearance is highly competitive. Top
candidates with robust experience and security
credentials routinely entertain multiple offers
and enjoy a high degree of career mobility.
Increasingly, we are finding that differentiated
Onboarding support for these hard-to-source and
retain employee populations can make a
substantial difference in their long-term
commitment to the organization.
Similarly, in the consumer packaged goods
industry, the competition to recruit for the brand
management function is the most competitive.
Top marketing candidates from Northwestern,
Wharton, Harvard and Stanford receive multiple
offers. Onboarding support for these hard-to-
source/attract and retain employee populations
can make a substantial difference in their long-
term commitment to the organization.
Onboarding programs which do not offer
differentiated services run the risk of watering-
down their programs and making them less ap-
pealing to those who are the most difficult to
recruit and retain. The risk of losing these most
prized assets makes for a good argument that
there should be various levels of Onboarding
services.
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
4
Insufficient
Metrics and
Accountability
5
Lack of
Functional
Management
Buy-in and
Participation
6
Lack of
Awareness of
Best Practices
As with any management initiative,
it is crucial to measure the effective-
ness of the Onboarding program.
Our research indicates that less
effective programs have limited or
weak measurement systems in place.
Metrics for Onboarding are still in
their infancy. For example, measur-
ing turnover, while an obvious me-
tric, does not give a true indication
about the overall effectiveness of the
Onboarding initiative. In order to
accurately gauge and drive increased
levels of success, the organization
must measure a more mature set of
variables.
One important metric is a new
hire’s “time-to-productivity”. This is
a key outcome of an effective On-
boarding program, and should be
measured despite any perceived
complexity. A growing number of
organizations use online survey
tools to ascertain how their new
hires are adapting culturally and
socially to the new organization.
We find that there are three
common metric questions: What should we measure?
How do we measure?
Once we have the answers, how
do we determine the right
performance drivers?
Our research shows that organiza-
tions that establish metrics and
benchmarks are able to quantitative-
ly demonstrate the positive impact
that Onboarding has on turnover and
job effectiveness. Alternatively, and
not surprisingly, organizations that
do not develop metrics and bench-
marks often fail to gain organiza-
tion-wide support for Onboarding.
In addition to developing me-
trics that focus on retention, time-to-
productivity, engagement, cultural
fit, learning (and there are others),
we find that the most sophisticated
organizations are examining ways in
which they can measure how their
Onboarding efforts impact the over-
all recruiting brand. As metrics
measured must necessarily be cus-
tomized to the unique needs and
circumstances of the organization,
we would be happy to discuss your
situation in greater detail.
Onboarding works best when there
is an integrated system across
divisions and functions. We find
that the less effective initiatives
only involve HR and the
individuals’ immediate
supervisors.
The organizations that
experience the highest returns from
their Onboarding investments are
the ones that engage a broad cross-
section of functional leadership.
This requires that senior
management endorse the program.
Without senior backing, programs
often fail to achieve their
objectives.
Our work indicates that the
success of the Onboarding program
is largely dependent upon the abili-
ty of HR to make a compelling
case to senior management about
the importance of the initiative. We
further observe that when that case
includes metrics, awareness of best
practices and a systematic process,
the interest of senior leaders in-
creases significantly. However, as
we will discuss next, these inputs
are not always easy to come by,
and often prove to be a stumbling
block for many programs.
Comprehensive Onboarding initia-
tives, as opposed to traditional
“employee orientation” programs,
are a relatively new concept. The
ability of an organization to develop
a world-class Onboarding program
is in part dependent upon know-
ledge about what the best-in-class
are doing. At Kaiser Associates, we
synthesize cross-industry best-
practice insights that draw from our
primary research, data analysis and
benchmarking experience. Moreo-
ver, we believe we are the only firm
that is approaching the analysis of
Onboarding from a true system-
wide perspective.
In the next section we would
like to share with you our point of
view on four key areas that we be-
lieve need to be addressed in a fully
integrated, organization-wide On-
boarding initiative. We hope you
will find our perspective helpful as
you develop plans to increase your
new employees’ time-to-
productivity, improve retention
rates and differentiate yourself as an
“employer-of-choice”.
We welcome the opportunity
to discuss with you our perspective
on any of these issues at any time.
6
PART THREE www.KaiserAssociates.com
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
PART FOUR: The Kaiser Perspective
7
www.KaiserAssociates.com PART FOUR
We have spoken about Onboarding
and a number of the challenges
that organizations face when
attempting to implement a
program. Suffice it to say that a
successful Onboarding initiative
requires an organization to shift its
perspective from “employee
orientation programs” to a broader
vision.
What we find particularly
interesting is that the most effec-
tive programs focus on four key
components that impact retention
and time-to-productivity. These
four program elements are:
1. Early Career Support
2. Cultural
3. Social
4. Administrative
Let us examine each of these in
greater detail and discuss why we
believe they are crucial to the suc-
cess of an Onboarding initiative.
1
Early Career Support
Where is the future of Onboarding? What are the most progressive organizations doing? We believe it is early
and effective career support. It is becoming apparent that the quality of early career support dramatically im-
pacts both turnover and how the organization is viewed as an employer-of-choice.
A key objective for any Onboarding program is to give new employees a sense of confidence in their
new environment. When individuals believe that they have clarity and control regarding their career direction,
confidence soars. Far too often employees feel confused, powerless, and often describe their career path as
akin to a small ship at the mercy of a strong uncertain tide.
For the most forward-thinking organizations, early career support goes beyond communicating informa-
tion about career paths. Through a combination of individual mentoring, unique HR initiatives and other pro-
grams, new hires are given important tools by which to identify (and develop) the skills and abilities they will
need for future assignments.
Not surprisingly, early career support is a cutting edge initiative that is only offered by those organiza-
tions that are the most passionately committed to the retention and development of their new employees.
From a practical perspective, these programs are most often offered on a selective basis, rather than as a part
of the broader-based Onboarding initiative.
This raises challenges for organizations that wish to offer unique services to segments of their employee
population who represent the most potential, without negatively impacting the morale of those not invited to
participate. How to balance these often-conflicting issues is a topic that we have studied in depth. We would
be happy to share our observations and conclusions with you.
One particular benefit of providing early career support is the positive impact it has on the organization’s
brand. We find this particularly significant for organizations that recruit on-campus. Our conversations with
Directors of Career Services suggest that graduates stay in close contact with friends in next classes for the
first 12 months after graduation. The conversation that comes up repeatedly is, “How does working at the
organization really compare to what was communicated to me during the recruiting process?”
As one would surmise, the answer to this question has a significant impact on the organization’s reputa-
tion as an employer-of-choice in the next recruiting season.
Our evidence suggests that the organizations that incorporate early career support into their Onboarding
program realize a significant positive buzz on campus. This is no doubt partially due to the fact that the major-
ity of employers have traditionally offered little early-career support. However, as an increasing number of
organizations incorporate early career support programs, this will become a more significant issue. We be-
lieve that within five years, those organizations that do not have a reputation for providing high-quality early
career support will be at a significant competitive disadvantage on the college and university campuses.
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
2
Cultural
Every organization has a unique culture. The impact this has on an individual’s career success is
considerable. Although many forward-thinking organizations focus on identifying “cultural fit” during the
recruitment process, far fewer organizations make a concerted effort to orient new employees to the
uniqueness of the culture. Far too often new hires are left to “figure it out on their own”.
This is a mistake and accounts for a large percentage of attrition during the crucial first 12 months of
employment.
What does it mean to proactively orient new employees to the cultural uniqueness of the organization?
What are the specific issues that need to be addressed?
The answers to these questions depend on the organization first recognizing what makes it unique from
a cultural perspective. Is this an environment in which individual initiative is rewarded, or one that places
more value on consensus building? Is speed or careful deliberation more highly valued? Is the preferred
method of communication email, phone or meetings? How are decisions arrived at? When are employees
expected to act on their own? At what point are they expected to communicate their actions and to whom?
How does the culture and value system vary between the new hire’s department vs. the organization overall
in which they are working? It is also hugely important to note that from the perspective of a new hire, it is
also what makes the environment different from the one that he or she came from – which in many cases is
university – and therefore the culture that defines success is extremely different.
The breadth of issues that define the culture range from the seemingly superficial, to the understandably
significant. However, we find that most organizations leave it up to the individual to sort out the answers on
their own – a highly inefficient and costly process.
Although many organizations use mentoring as a part of their process for acclimating new hires, what
specifically the mentor is supposed to discuss with the new employee is often left to chance. We find that
having an agenda in which specific cultural acclimation issues are discussed (and supported by clear and
documented summaries) greatly assists in increasing the new hire’s time-to-productivity and overall
satisfaction with the organization.
Social
3
As an increasing number of employees relocate to accept new positions,
they leave behind their established social networks. It’s easy to forget how
unsettling this can be, and its considerable impact overall employee satisfaction.
Many supervisors make the effort to introduce their new hires to others in
the organization, and lunches are commonly arranged for the first couple of
days. After that, most organized support vanishes. This is an area that deserves
more attention through the Onboarding process as Social connections (or lack
thereof) have a material impact on new hires.
Employees relocating typically seek to establish social networks in two
groups: within the organization and in the larger, outside community. Kaiser’s
research has found that the organizations that are most effective in accelerating
this transition are those that make an effort to understand the interests and
activities of both the employee and their family. They take proactive steps to
introduce the new hires to appropriate organizations within the enterprise or the
larger community.
It is also important to recognize the importance of assisting the trailing
spouse or “significant other” who has also been uprooted from his or her
established social network. Specific outreach programs that focus on the unique
needs (both socially and professionally) have an extremely positive effect on the
adjustment, time-to-productivity and overall job satisfaction levels of new hires.
The key point is that the more these programs are structured, rather than
left to individual initiative, the greater the benefits to the overall organization.
Again these are but a few of the ideas the most effective and progressive
Onboarding initiatives are putting into practice.
8
PART FOUR www.KaiserAssociates.com
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
4
Administrative Quickly and efficiently enrolling employees in the organization’s benefits programs, obtaining security and ID
cards, setting up one’s workspace, and other administrative matters are an important component of the Onboard-
ing process. Unfortunately many organizations limit their Onboarding programs to just these administrative ac-
tivities.
There are a wide variety of IT systems available that are designed to assist the administrative aspects of
Onboarding. Our analysis, and the experiences of our clients, suggests that the systems vary enormously in so-
phistication. We would be happy to discuss our observations on the merits of various IT tools with you at any
time.
If there is one area of Onboarding in which organizations tend to be reasonably proficient, the administra-
tive component is usually it. However, the challenge is not to define the success of the overall Onboarding expe-
rience by how successfully organizations handle the purely administrative aspects.
Conclusion
Traditionally, Onboarding has focused on only the first few weeks or months of a new employee’s experience with an organiza-
tion. We find that for the majority of organizations the experience that a new employee has in becoming acclimated to the new
organization is largely dependent upon HR and the new hire’s immediate supervisor.
While the role of the manager will always be important, the most effective programs are those in which Onboarding is ad-
dressed from a system-wide perspective. In order for this to be possible, Onboarding must be endorsed and supported at the very
top of the organization. Although we believe that HR should continue to maintain ownership of the program, it cannot be viewed
as strictly an HR initiative. We further believe that Onboarding should be held to the same performance standards as any other
management program.
Clearly for those organizations that wish to create best-in-class Onboarding programs, an awareness of best practices across
industries is crucially important. We hope that as you move forward in developing your Onboarding programs you will avail your-
self of the opportunity to speak with us about our services in this area.
The next section in this report briefly reviews our system for working with organizations. We hope you will find it of interest.
9
www.KaiserAssociates.com PART FOUR
Our work indicates that the success of the Onboarding program is largely dependent upon the ability of HR to make a compelling case to senior management about the importance of the initiative. We further observe that when that case includes metrics, awareness of best practices and a systematic process, the interest of senior management increases significantly.
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
PART FIVE: The Kaiser System
We have been asked to support clients with the following Onboarding needs:
Opportunity Identification Where to focus Onboarding improvement efforts Best Practices Incorporate innovative practices into existing Onboarding structures Solution Design Both for entire programs and individual components Implementation Planning Positioning the enterprise for Onboarding changes Onboarding Integration Link with other HR programs/ systems (recruiting, development, etc.), including incorporating into the lines and functions of the organization Measuring Onboarding Success Snap-shot as well as on-going measurement programs
Over the past three decades, Kaiser Associates
has been widely recognized as a leader in pro-
viding clients with solutions to complex busi-
ness challenges. Our internationally recognized
capabilities in benchmarking and external anal-
ysis enable us to bring both cross-industry pers-
pectives and best-practice insights to the chal-
lenges of Onboarding.
Kaiser continues to build an Onboarding
knowledge base without a vested interest in a
specific solution, process or tool. Rather, we
develop customized solutions for public and
private sector clients that draw from the best
elements of the current Onboarding programs
developed by leading Global 500 companies.
Since each client project is customized,
the approach we take in supporting clients
often varies. However, many projects include
the key steps listed below.
Additionally, Kaiser has distilled its
knowledge base and program design approach
into a unique, economical, instructional guide
and toolkit, “Onboarding In-a-Box”. This
product is designed for organizations that
have the internal team to build and implement
a world class Onboarding program but not the
requisite experience or insights to do so
effectively, or the budget for our traditional,
hands-on consulting services.
2
Diagnosis and Hypothesis Development
Measurement
We assist clients in developing realistic and obtainable goals for their On-
boarding initiatives. An important component of this initial step is develop-
ing metrics by which the program will be evaluated. Based on previous
work, we inform metric identification and selection. Further, we assist you in
analyzing current performance against those metrics and the performance of
best-in-class organizations to establish a base of comparison.
1
Post measurement, we work with our clients to highlight the improve-
ment opportunities related to their Onboarding program. We have found
that what determines ultimate success is the ability to dig deep and identi-
fy the root cause behind the performance issues. In order to do this we
will not only evaluate your current situation but also compare it against
the experiences of our other clients to ensure that we are focusing on the
key issues that will impact the overall success of your Onboarding pro-
gram. For issues where resolution options are not clear, we develop hy-
potheses on “what levers need to be pulled” in order to develop the most
effective solution for your organization.
10
PART FIVE www.KaiserAssociates.com
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
Build a fact base
3
In this step we conduct external research into selected benchmark organizations (e.g.,
peer/competitor organizations and/or best-in-class) to determine the “hows and whys”
associated with the initial client performance data. At this point we are determining the
unique but relevant benchmarks that help explain performance levels. This important
step helps determine which learnings and practices are transferable to the client organi-
zation and which are not.
4
Design a Custom Solution
At this step we craft the design of a customized solution that reflects the unique
operating structure of the client and is based upon our knowledge of best-in-
class solutions. This solution will incorporate opportunities related to each of
the four key Onboarding elements (Early Career Support, Cultural, Social and
Administrative) and will likely have implications across functions and organiza-
tional layers. By utilizing a holistic solution approach, we find that clients are
able to leapfrog current best-in-class performers and create a competitive em-
ployment advantage with their Onboarding initiative.
Build the Communication and Implementation Plan
5
The success of any organization-wide initiative will depend in large part on the communication plan. If
Onboarding is to be embraced as a strategically imperative initiative it is important that the business
case for change is built and that appropriate organizational buy-in is achieved. Based on this realiza-
tion, Kaiser has worked with clients to help brand their Onboarding initiatives in a similar fashion to
other prioritized organizational initiatives (i.e. recruiting, leadership training, etc.).
At this stage the pilot program is expanded and timelines and resources levels are developed to
support the larger role out. We find that using the RACI framework (Responsible, Accountable, Con-
sulted, Informed) to execute the final deployment plan enhances the ultimate success of the perfor-
mance improvement initiative.
11
www.KaiserAssociates.com PART FIVE
© 2007-2009 Kaiser Associates, Inc., All rights reserved.
CONTACT US
(202) 454-2000 www.KaiserAssociates.com
Kaiser Associates, Inc.
North America Practice Headquarters
1747 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Ninth Floor
Washington, DC 20006
About the Organization Development
Practice and its Leaders:
Kaiser Associates' Organization Development practice is focused on
helping clients align business strategy with processes, resources,
structure and the personal objectives and interests of their people.
The practice believes that the needs of the enterprise and those of its
people are inherently the same: to learn, advance, take calculated
risks, and reap the rewards and to uncover fertile ground for growth.
However, external and internal forces commonly cause misalign-
ment. Kaiser combines an analytically robust, systemic approach to
blueprinting and developing solutions that ensure that an organiza-
tion's architecture is optimized to support the business strategy and
deliver necessary results.
Mark Stein is Senior Vice President at Kaiser Associates and co-
leads Kaiser’s Organization Development practice. He has over 15
years of consulting experience and holds a B.S. in Business from the
George Washington University. You can reach Mark by calling
(202) 454-2060 or emailing him at mstein@kaiserassociates.com.
Lilith Christiansen is a Vice President at Kaiser Associates and co-
leads the firm’s Organization Development practice. She has 15
years of consulting experience and holds a B.S. from the University
of Virginia and an M.B.A from the Wharton School of Business at
the University of Pennsylvania. You can reach Lilith by calling
(202) 454-2063 or emailing her at
lchristiansen@kaiserassociates.com.
lchristiansen@kaiserassociates.com
12
KAISER ASSOCIATES, INC. www.KaiserAssociates.com
About Kaiser Associates:
Kaiser Associates is a global strategy-consulting bou-
tique with over 28 years of experience helping organi-
zations gain and sustain competitive advantage.
We are unique among leading consulting firms in our
ability to offer clients fact-based insights and advice
based on external learnings. Our powerful research
and analysis capabilities offer clients penetrating in-
sights into their customers/channels, their competitors,
their industry, as well as the best practices employed
by peer organizations and the “best-in-class”.
You can learn more about Kaiser Associates by visit-
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