Human Resources

ELC DEPARTMENTAL UPDATES

HUMAN RESOURCES

DEPARTMENT LEAD Gail Coles Johnson

Chief Human Resources Officer

Building a Dynamic Team for an Evolving Future

The ELC’s Human Resources (HR) department manages payroll and employee benefits, and supports employees understanding and acclimation to the company’s culture. In 2022, HR successfully moved orientation from an hour-long introduction to a weeklong immersion into The ELC culture. Along with learning about the culture, vision, mission and values, new hires are invited to meet with departments across The ELC to understand how to work strategically across the organization.

In an effort to build internal capacity and bring critical processes in-house, the HR department concluded its relationship with vendor HR Nonprofit, and also assumed day to day management of payroll administration.

The ELC HR department successfully designed and executed a succession planning exercise using the Nine-Box grid rating – an industry standard exercise that seeks to identify burgeoning organizational leaders, future staffing needs, and document the skills needed to perform leadership roles in the future.

This Nine-Box exercise also informed The ELC’s performance review process by alleviating some of the ambiguity of the new performance management model. The new model measures “what” (functional) and “how” (leadership) goals, empowering ELC staff to own their impact within the organization. This model also provides opportunity for candid conversations, active listening, and real professional growth. As a result of this new approach to performance review, 100% of ELC staff have documented development plans.

Navigating COVID-19

As the nation continues to traverse the everchanging landscape of a global pandemic, HR worked diligently with ELC leadership to establish a COVID-19 vaccination and testing policy for staff and vendors. While traditional work styles may be evolving, the establishment of these policies allowed for the reopening of the office for the purposes of convening and creating a sense of community.

Creating a Culture of Care

A healthy culture of transparency and psychological safety is key to the recruitment and retention of staff at any organization. To help establish and maintain that culture, The ELC’s HR department-initiated skip-level meetings as an exposure opportunity for more than 50% of the staff. In conjunction with the skip-level meetings, HR planned and executed three successful director-level and above retreats to promote professional development and coaching. The department also supported two Directors who led Tiger Teams on psychological safety and work–life balance in action planning based on the results of an employee survey. Recommendations from the Tiger Teams were reviewed and ratified by ELC’s senior leadership team and rollout of the highest priority recommendations began over the summer.

Lastly, HR mitigated risk to the business by ensuring compliance with DC employment laws and ensured 100% of employees attended a compliance and code of ethics training.

What are HR’s goals and priorities for 2023?

Next year, The ELC’s HR department will invest in talent through more efficient HR systems and greater offerings for curated development. The department will also prioritize creating a new, hybrid office environment while implementing Phase II of The ELC’s return-to-office plan.