Our Work.

One of the U.S. government’s largest agencies tackles the most daunting problems our world has to offer. Yet they weren’t prepared for changes within their own organization. Their aging workforce meant high attrition and skills that would no longer meet the needs of the agency.

They had also adopted a pay-for-performance model. What they needed was a clear set of workforce skills and behaviors that matched their goals.

Emerson teamed with the agency to determine their critical competencies. The competencies formed the foundation for all their human capital processes, leaving the agency strong, agile, and ready to meet the challenges of the future.

A group of former Tour de France cyclists knows how to run a race, but when the elite road biking company wanted to reinforce their strategic planning, they sought a different kind of expertise.

Emerson led a workshop with the organization’s leadership to create a cohesive direction.

The result was a shared understanding of the organization’s values, purpose, and strategic anchors.

Ensuring that all of its 100,000 employees live the corporate values and culture was vital to a major food producer. When they decided it needed a large-scale analysis of employees in the field, they turned to Emerson.

We visited 19 plants to conduct interviews, run focus groups, meet with leadership teams and tour the facilities. We identified gaps between self-image – who the company said they were on paper – and what employees were experiencing, day-to-day.

After the research phase, we put together comprehensive recommendations to make the corporate vision a reality. We presented our findings to the board, including summaries from each plant, and suggested communication infrastructure improvements to make their values a reality.

You don’t become a petroleum giant and one of the most respected companies in the world by sitting still.

Leadership turned to Emerson to help with internal communication as they absorbed another major brand. We constructed a plan that supported integration with their company-owned stores, their franchisees and internal operations.

We developed a communication plan, analyzed sponsorship, stakeholders and impacts. We then worked with them on a detailed work plan for initial rollout and ongoing communications to support the dual brand strategy. We also developed training for franchise holders.

We were honored to be part of our client’s smooth assimilation of one of America’s most recognizable brands.

When a business technology corporation acquired another company, ​they understood that the stakes were high. This change touched a vast landscape of processes, systems and stakeholders. Our client wanted to preserve the best of both company cultures, so they turned to Emerson for help.

​First, we created a Change Leadership Council to align executives on priorities, messaging, and engagement with front-line employees. We developed a comprehensive change plan that addressed workstreams, skills and behaviors; we created a stakeholder analysis that informed the communication strategy and plan; and we designed communication tools and templates to ensure the quality of ongoing communications. We worked with stakeholders on a behavior and skills impact analysis and a learning strategy.

​The solutions ranged from the strategic (creating message and momentum) to the tactical (changing over email addresses and signage). Throughout, we provided change management coaching to their change leaders – helping our client maintain the momentum needed to achieve a new, unified company.

A west coast environmental agency helps keep one of our biggest cities clean, and Emerson was proud to help. They needed to improve efficiency and free up engineers and inspectors to deliver a higher level of service to the community.

To support their new systems and processes, we implemented a program that included a team of super-users trained to deliver just-in-time, realistic training.

Executives at a major bank wanted to win at an increasingly competitive game in an uncertain financial environment. So when the bank earned poor marks for teamwork during an annual survey, leaders asked Emerson to examine the issue.

We focused on creating an “end state” culture, defining and prioritizing the behaviors that drive the culture, and creating simple ways to practice those behaviors and build momentum. For example, we had them begin each meeting by asking who should be there, but wasn’t.

They concluded each meeting by asking who might be impacted by the meeting and should be brought up to speed. We had the CEO follow up with weekly stories about how the new practice worked. This simple intervention began to focus attention on teaming.

We also used an upcoming Leadership forum to launch discussion between their CEO and the CEO of a partner company, highlighting market and customer perception.

Leaders at one of the world’s prominent hospitality brands were frustrated as they worked to effectively and consistently implement new initiatives across their organization. Emerson worked with them to refine a new change management methodology, then developed a course to turn HR professionals into high-functioning change managers.

The course fully intertwined the new model and participants’ real-life change initiatives, so they learned as they worked.

The program also included on-the-job coaching, peer support and a SharePoint site which provided articles, tools, and a place to post questions and discuss real-time problems.

When the a major professional performing arts organization needed their members to move from paper to electronic voting, they had the technology in place, but not the hearts and minds of the members.

In three short months, we developed strategies and tools that drove unprecedented registration and helped each member to successfully voice their choice for the best in the industry.

You don’t become one of the Big 4 without cultivating a strong workforce. Our client, a major professional services firm, believes in the power of professional development, and wanted new business technology analysts to better understand the company they joined.

They asked Emerson to create a blended learning program for new hires. We built nine, 90-minute programs to teach analysts core consulting skills and deepen their knowledge of the consulting technology group’s service lines.

Eventually, we converted these courses into eLearning modules so they could be delivered without an instructor.

A specialty food company wanted to make a bigger impact on the market. They had a new management team, who needed to jell and make an impact, quickly. Historically, they were overly dependent on one distributor; they wanted to expand distribution and increase profitability, fast.

Emerson constructed and ran strategic working sessions with their leadership team over four years. Executives created new working agreements, defined their target culture, made plans to scale the business, and built a 180-day action plan.

Their CEO says, “In four years we doubled sales and increased Ebitda 25 times. Emerson was integral to that performance.”

A Big 5 professional services firm asked Emerson to help develop the HC Business Advisory Program for Senior Consultants, a milestone-based learning program. It was designed to accelerate the transition of newly hired and promoted Human Capital Senior Consultants into their advisory role: diagnosing, articulating, and solving for client problems.

The inaugural program was built around realistic, on-the-job simulations and included participation of company leaders.

Since then, we have worked with the HC learning team to refresh the program based on feedback and develop it into a larger “end-to-end” experience for Senior Consultants; this goes beyond classroom-based learning to applied learning, support networks, etc. for the expected competencies at the SC level.

A major oil and gas company had completed a study of pricing and supply chain issues for a fuel additive. Emerson facilitated the subsequent analysis.

We helped their team identify issues, clarify the problem, and develop alternatives, resulting in alignment around a market position for the product.

An international investment bank wanted to better serve their customers, employees and shareholders by increasing the performance of their sales organization. They asked Emerson to evaluate their current learning and performance support assets.

We conducted a needs assessment, stakeholder interviews, and an employee-wide survey; they revealed the need for a more robust learning strategy, clear success metrics and virtual learning best practices.

Our solution included a Learning Playbook and a custom version of our Virtual Learning Best Practices material. These materials ensured the bank had the knowledge, skills and abilities to be successful in the future.

A well-known visual storytelling consultancy wanted to implement a new organization that would allow them to grow as they scaled upward.

They asked Emerson to help them transition to a centralized organization that would consistently support the company’s mission.

The Emerson team led leadership through working sessions that produced their toolkit: a message, a change plan, critical behaviors, process designs, and 30, 60, and 90-day plans to implement their strategy.

For one of the country’s biggest clothing retailers, dry and traditional has never been the answer. They wanted a way to bring new field employees up to speed quickly and efficiently. Emerson worked with them to create “My Foundation,” a program that builds the right skills so that field leaders, store leaders and sales associates have immediate impact on the job.

The program includes a menu of learning opportunities, covering everything from operations to leadership. New employees get the support from an on-boarding team: a manager, a peer advisor and experts to develop custom learning plans. Learning is self-paced and happens online through self-directed activities, reading and reviewing resources, or on-the-job.

The result is an efficient, targeted learning experience that’s as nimble and fresh as the company itself.

The CIO of one of the world’s biggest hotel and hospitality companies knew he needed change. His IT organization had to modernize its operating model to lower costs and improve delivery of technology services to internal customers and guests.

Streamlining functionality meant outsourcing some applications while retaining high-value strategic skills, in-house.

The result was an IT transformation project to save the company tens of millions of dollars, improve partnership with business functions, improve speed-to-market, and operate more efficiently. Hundreds would be affected by shifting roles and a reduced workforce.

We helped align senior executives and create the communication strategy and guide the transformation. Since then, IT has achieved dramatically higher efficiency, effectiveness and value.

A major international hotel and hospitality company wanted to revolutionize one of their brands. They hold a leadership position in the competitive business travel segment they pioneered 25 years ago, but they needed an overhaul. They added technology, food and beverage choices and a whole new concept to their lobbies. But leadership realized that the change was more than new offerings in the lobby; they wanted the change to be both efficient and inspiring for their team.

With our help, they anticipated which new processes would trip people up and how to communicate the business transformation in ways that made sense. We equipped brand leaders with tools to sell franchise owners on the change and gave general managers a leadership toolkit. We also enabled associates with a variety of communication vehicles so they could understand, prepare for and embrace the concept.

In the end, this revolution was less about the new lobby and more about motivating managers to lead and helping employees accept a whole new way of doing business.

Emerson worked with the human resource organization of a large U.S. government agency to develop an enterprise-wide human capital strategic vision. The team convened a strategy group to create the long-term mission, objectives and plan for the organization. Emerson designed and facilitated working sessions to align multiple HR strategies throughout the organization. Participants included 30 Unit and Section chiefs from across the department and training groups responsible for HR functions.

The result was a coordinated HR strategy across five entities within the agency. The strategy was successfully presented to the Director.

Our client thanked us for our “incredible work and insight in moving this work forward,” and reported to the Director that the group’s realization that they needed to forecast was “a major breakthrough.”

A charitable organization is making a difference in developing countries.

They bring bicycles to citizens of the developing world to give them better access to education, healthcare, and business opportunities. But they wanted to expand their international reach.

Emerson led their executive team in a working session to align them toward their goal. We helped them evaluate their mission, vision, and values. Once they agreed on those, they set global strategic plans for the next three years.