SCANNER FREEMONT / Data Analyst
Freemont is responsible for the digital conversion of survey responses while adhering to strict quality standards set forth by its managers. Freemont began its career at TruScore in 1996 as a Data Analyst and quickly became pivotal to TruScore's success. As the years passed, Freemont has slowly matured into part-time Data Analyst while also holding many positions in the work environment including On The Floor, On The Empty Desk, and Hold The Door (AKA Hodor).
RON SACCHI / Master Coach
A former Operations Manager in the High Tech Industry, Ron Sacchi brings decades of leadership and management experience to the organizational development and the executive coaching arena. An energetic thought-leader with a track record of success in all areas of Human Capital development, he has consulted and coached managers in start-ups, joint-ventures, high tech, pharmaceuticals, and media. Because of his business acumen and creative approaches to behavioral change, he is respected in the HR community specifically for the ability to direct, motivate, influence and inspire leaders to improve performance.
Holding an MBA from Saint Mary’s College, Mr. Sacchi is also licensed in various management, leadership and psychological profiling tools.
CARLANN FERGUSSON / Master Coach
Carlann inspires leaders to reconnect to their individual purpose and lead with contagious energy. She ensures leaders gain deep self-awareness and eliminate self-sabotaging behaviors. Her guidance is based on coaching, training and selecting hundreds of executives across diverse companies as well as her own journey into the executive ranks.
Carlann is the author of the highly acclaimed book The Insightful Leader: Find Your Superpowers, Crush Limiting Beliefs and Abolish Self-Sabotaging Behaviors (Praeger, June 2018). She holds a master’s degree in Industrial-Organizational Psychology. Her thirty years of experience include leadership roles in Fortune 500s, the private sector, and the U.S. Government. Carlann has been a featured guest on ABC News Radio, Wharton Business Radio and has been cited in CBS MoneyWatch, International Business Times, Newsday and Workday.
DR CHUCH MELTZER / Master Coach
Dr. Chuck Meltzer is a Master Coach and President of the SynTECGroup, an organizational development consulting firm. As an executive coach, he draws on his training at a doctoral level in psychology, direct senior management experience and management consulting with a wide cross section of industries. He has developed an extensive series of strategies to assist leaders in creating organizational wide and personal change. Dr. Meltzer has a decade of direct senior management experience and 20 years’ experience functioning within his consulting and coaching practice. His coaching approach is solution focused and time framed. Based on determined goals, a personally customized approach to the process has enabled his clients to realize sustainable change in a manner that allows them to enhance their effectiveness and success as leaders within their organization.
Dr. Meltzer is certified and a master trainer in several coaching assessment tools that he employs within his practice.
ERIN HIRSCHLAND / Master Coach
Erin is an organization development expert with nearly two decades experience serving organizations of all sizes across industries on a broad range of issues. Working with leadership teams, she helps articulate an actionable vision and corresponding values, connecting these to organizational strategy, execution and results. Her tools of choice include senior team retreats, one-on-one executive coaching and proven survey and related instruments.
Erin’s additional expertise includes designing employee selection systems, developing performance management tools that increase performance across the organization over time and employee and customer experience metrics. An effective facilitator and coach, Erin works with leaders and their teams to build trust, commitment and results.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master of Arts degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
SONYA D HAMILTON / Senior Assessment Consultant
Sonya is a Senior Assessment Consultant at TruScore with over 24 years of experience designing and delivering 360 feedback solutions and providing 360-based coaching, training and interpretation.
Sonya has extensive experience working with Managers and Leaders, guiding them through the feedback and development journey and providing insights and direction to help maximize their impact within the organization. Sonya’s areas of expertise include 360-based coaching, 360 data analysis and interpretation, Train-the-Trainer certifications, facilitation, survey & questionnaire design, and the design and delivery of assessment programs.
Sonya has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology and a Master’s of Science degree in Industrial & Organization Psychology from Springfield College with a specialty in Counseling and Psychological Services. She is a Master Trainer for TruScore and the Clark Wilson Task Cycle surveys receiving a Certificate of Achievement in “How to Train a Trainer”. In addition, Sonya is certified to administer a variety of other psychometric instruments including employee engagement and organizational instruments as well as the line of Hogan Personality Assessments.
KAYLEY MOTZ / Assessment Advisor
Kayley draws on her extensive customer service background to provide clients with prompt, quality support. In her role as Assessment Advisor, Kayley works to ensure clients’ needs are being met. She assists in project set up and management, as well as processing and quality checking feedback reports. Kayley also aids in the execution of the day-to-day responsibilities of the production team, such as coaching session scheduling and tech support.
CRYSTAL HUGHES / Assessment Advisor
Crystal leverages her extensive background in Industrial-Organizational (I-O) psychology as she manages the day-to-day operational and tactical aspects of multiple and large scale projects for TruScore.
Crystal assists clients with setting up and managing feedback projects, and serves as the point of contact throughout the entire process. She quality checks feedback reports, and provides tech support when needed.
ELLIE SOLOMON / Assessment Advisor
Ellie manages project implementation for the entire 360 assessment feedback process and ensures that each client’s unique needs are met on time and in an efficient manner. Ellie consults with clients who use TruScore’s off-the-shelf Task Cycle® instruments as well as providing hosting solutions for clients using their own survey content, including custom processes and reports. She helps clients navigate through the TruScore® survey hosting software, having literally written the handbook that several clients are using.
She coordinates and implements all translation efforts, including soliciting bids, managing timelines, providing files to the translation companies, implementing translations for the web pages, and testing.
ULLA WESTERMANN / Software Engineer
Ulla uses her years of experience as a software engineer to maintain and add new features to TruScore's applications. She also helps with customizing feedback reports based on client needs.
HANK CURTIS / Business Development Manager
Hank manages and assists in the analyzing, planning, research, and development of TruScore’s objectives and strategic plans in order to achieve business opportunities, growth, and financial profitability.
Hank drives the expansion of TruScore’s direct sales, establishes relationships with TruScore’s clients, identifies clients, and keeps up-to-date on industry trends and client developments.
TAYLOR BRANTON / Bookkeeper
Taylor is responsible for managing payroll and employee fringe benefits programs, in addition to organizing company gatherings and outings. Taylor oversees day to day accounting needs as it relates to client invoicing, accounts payable, and general compliance requirements. She also has a hand in month, quarter, and year end reports and works closely with the CEO and CTO to furnish details necessary to make accurate business projections and decisions.
KURT BLAZEK / Design Director
Kurt uses a unique blend of strategic thinking with dynamic executions to create TruScore’s visual and interactive design. He is responsible for creating, evolving, and sustaining the company’s brand to internal and external stakeholders through multiple mediums. He oversees all of TruScore’s digital strategies, along with the implementation of social media tools and techniques.
Kurt leverages TruScore’s marketing and messaging information to identify, evaluate, and apply methods to maximize the effectiveness of the search campaigns across all of the major search engines. He tracks and measures the ROI of search engine rankings, direct print, and marketing websites.
JOSH SHEETS / Chief Operations Officer
Josh is responsible for all day-to-day aspects of managing the operations and various functional areas including business development, sales and marketing, client delivery, vendor relations, human resources, and IT.
Josh helps to ensure outstanding customer service, and the administration of long-term and day-to-day business processes that complement the delivery of high quality, innovative customer-focused survey tools, assessments and hosted survey offerings.
TOM KUHNE / Managing Partner and CTO
Tom joined TruScore in 1995 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, IS Manager, and VP & CIO. In his current role as Managing Partner and CTO, Tom is the driving force behind TruScore's technology vision for the present and the future. He manages all aspects of TruScore’s information systems, ensuring all systems meet the highest functionality and security standards.
Tom enjoys working hand in hand with clients and partners to make sure TruScore® delivers the technology and advancement that has become expected of it as a leader in the online assessment marketplace.
DEREK MURPHY / Chief Executive Officer
Derek joined TruScore in 1996 and has served in a number of roles, including Data Analyst, Operations Manager, and President & COO. In his current role as CEO, he is responsible for planning and implementing the strategic direction of the company. In addition, Derek is involved in product development and overseeing the day-to-day business operations for TruScore.
TruScore founder Dr. Daniel Booth, a pioneer in the field of assessment of leadership and management skills, served as a mentor to Derek for more than a decade. During this time, Derek became certified on TruScore’s full line of management and leadership assessments. He currently uses these skills to lead content debriefings with customers and partners on a regular basis.
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Ahhh, I recall with sincere fondness the memory of playing certain childhood games. Sorry, Monopoly, LIFE, and one of my personal favorites – Chutes and Ladders. Now, each of these has messaging, or themes, that could be related in some fashion or another to Corporate America – risk/reward; entrepreneurial spirit; getting ahead with good deeds and jobs well done; dropping down a few rungs on the ladder for our mistakes, etc., etc. However, I’ll spare you my trite connections (Connect Four!) on these beloved games, and instead turn my attention towards the focus of this article – the world of the hungry, hungry High-Potentials.
Ahhh, I recall with sincere fondness the memory of playing certain childhood games. Sorry, Monopoly, LIFE, and one of my personal favorites – Chutes and Ladders. Now, each of these has messaging, or themes, that could be related in some fashion or another to Corporate America – risk/reward; entrepreneurial spirit; getting ahead with good deeds and jobs well done; dropping down a few rungs on the ladder for our mistakes, etc., etc. However, I’ll spare you my trite connections (Connect Four!) on these beloved games, and instead turn my attention towards the focus of this article – the world of the hungry, hungry High-Potentials.
Defining a high-potential
Let’s first talk about in plain, simple terms what it means to be a high-potential, or HiPo. Generally speaking, high-potentials are employees who can develop into leaders, rather than those who just do the job. Research by the Harvard Business Review shows high potentials represent the top 3 to 5% of a company’s talent.
High-potential employees are generally considered highly intelligent, talented, ambitious, and extremely motivated. They represent the company’s values and continue to produce work that is above and beyond what is required.
When it comes to grooming new managers and leaders, you need to identify the right employees as high potentials because obviously not everyone is qualified to be a leader. Once these high-potentials are identified, the company must ensure it is providing these workers with the resources to grow and evolve within the company.
However, it seems most companies are failing to do so.
According to “Identifying and Developing High-Potential Talent,” a 2011 study by AMA Enterprise, a division of the American Management Association, about one in four employers is seen as ineffective in retaining high-potential workers. Slightly more than half of survey respondents reported their organizations are somewhat effective in their ability to retain high-potential employees.
Developing future leaders should be essential, but many companies don’t invest in programs that can help identify and develop their strongest employees. I’m sorry to say that if your company operates this way, you can say goodbye to your high-potentials.
The findings of an employee engagement study by The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) revealed that 25% of employer-identified, high-potential employees plan to leave their current companies within the year, as compared to only 10% in 2006.
Pretty shocking, isn’t it? This study was released in 2010, so it would be interesting to find out if those employees surveyed actually left the company or not. Or worse, they “quit” and stayed. So, what’s one of the keys in keeping your HiPos?
Talent development
Most of you reading this column would likely agree that developing top talent is critical to a company’s survival. So, why is it then that such an important component to an organization’s success is often ignored? Before we attempt to answer that question let’s review a scenario playing out daily within thousands of companies.
A friend of a friend was working for a Fortune 500 company in their marketing department. I’ll save you the full biography, but it’s safe to say she’s the definition of a high-potential. The problem was she never received any recognition or growth opportunities. Tired of the lack of career advancement opportunities in the company, she sent her resume to other companies.
She received a job offer, and was ready to put in her notice, when her current company told her before she could quit that she was being incorporated into strategic planning and being groomed for a leadership role. Her company put her through a development program, and long story, short, she’s now the director of marketing for that company.
When the company began to show interest in the promise of this individual’s leadership skills, she got more engaged within the company and turned into an even more productive employee than she already was. If nothing had changed, she surely would have accepted the other job offer.
Again, there’s nothing unique about this example. It happens every day. Yet, it’s still surprising to me how frequently we allow some of our best and brightest to escape our clutches. After all, we spent a meaningful amount of time and energy defining the roles these individuals would fill, interviewing them, training them, and providing on-the-job feedback; seemingly so that they would stay with our organization and succeed. It reminds me of all the companies out there vying for our personal business, only to finally grab our attention, sign us up, and then promptly take us for granted. You know who you are…
Getting back to the Why talent development is oftentimes not deemed a priority, or is grossly underfunded. Do you think some companies, or managers within those companies, simply regard training and development as distractions from work and barriers to productivity? Perhaps, they view employees only as resources to complete today’s assignments? Another cog in the wheel – easily replaced should one break down. Take a few seconds to think of a skilled employee at your company, and contemplate the difficulty of having to replace that employee. How long would it take to train a replacement? Does the thought scare you a bit? It should. It scares me…
This is why so much emphasis needs to be placed on talent development. If you’re not feeding these HiPos in the form of providing challenging assignments, achievable stretch goals, opportunities for advancement (salary, title, and responsibilities), and investing in their ongoing development then all you’re really doing is providing an unintentional talent pipeline for your competition. Good luck with that!
Here are some talent development tips I find helpful for high-potentials:
Look, we all know how important it is to properly identify these high-potentials and give them the tools they need to succeed. It’s not easy, it’s certainly time consuming, and let’s be honest – we have a lot of other things on our plates that need attention. I think most of you will agree with me though, that it’s well worth the energy. The sooner we realize the full potential of these overachievers, the better off our companies will be. Yahtzee!
