Employee Success and Development Lead (Contract Role)
Note: Applicants are encouraged to apply by September 28
About Kinetic West
Kinetic West is a social impact consulting firm that works with non-profits, businesses, government, community partners, and funders to solve their toughest challenges because we believe that working as one is the only way to create just, equitable, and prosperous communities. We work across sectors to build a common purpose and get big things done in our communities
About the Employee Success and Development Lead
As a growing firm with a full-time consulting load, we are finding that essential talent management needs are competing with client work for the time and attention of our consulting team. We want every employee of Kinetic West to benefit from a proactive, comprehensive, and effective talent management program. We want to be able to regularly, proactively identify and recruit amazing talent that share our racial equity values and is excited about the world we are trying to build through our work. We’ve made a good start, but going forward we need more support to do this well.
That’s where the Employee Success and Development Lead role comes in. We are looking for a professional with previous experience in and understanding of management consulting and who is interested in supporting the learning and development, staffing, performance management, and recruitment processes of a fast-growing firm. Based on experience and interest,, your role could also include leadership coaching or referrals to coaches.
Your work would build on investments that Kinetic West has made in developing and sustaining our people throughout our six-year history. We know that clients are hiring Kinetic West for its incredible people, and we are serious about building an environment where everyone can do their best work.
Our consulting team is made up of mid-career and senior consulting professionals. We offer employees a range of talent development benefits, including pairing consulting staff with an advisor, providing formal performance reviews and feedback 2x/year, and offering an annual training stipend to cover specific training costs. As a team, we regularly review our talent and performance processes and collaboratively update our work to ensure it fits our needs and the needs of our firm.
You would help project manage regular cycles of performance management and recruiting, ensuring the team is meeting deadlines and helping us review and update processes as needed. You would maintain awareness of staff members’ learning and development goals, and work with the CEO and Director of Operations to ensure project assignments are made with those goals in mind. You would help design and/or purchase new training modules based on the team’s interests, needs, and feedback. You would act as an additional touchpoint for staff, in addition to their assigned staff advisor, who can help them navigate their career goals.
Contract Details
This is a part-time, Contract Role
Contract Size: $80,000/year, paid monthly
Contract Term: 12 months starting in January 2024
Time commitment: The successful candidate will build a calendar for expected hours with Kinetic West during the beginning of the project. Week-to-week time commitment will vary with some weeks requiring light or no support and with periods of intensity during the annual recruitment and onboarding period and twice annual staff evaluations.
The Right Candidate will Have…
Extensive experience (10+ years) in talent development, talent management, human resources, recruiting or related field
Previous experience in management consulting, or other professional service work strongly preferred
Strong project management skills
Interest in supporting the learning and development, staffing, performance management, and recruitment processes of a fast-growing firm
Ability to both create strategy and execute strategy – be a doer as well as a thinker/advisor
Strong understanding of racial equity, comfort discussing white supremacy culture, power and privilege, and your own racial equity journey
Key Responsibilities
Project manage annual recruiting cycle (estimated at 1-3 hires, 1x-a-year)
Proactive outreach to and cultivation of candidates throughout the year via Linkedin, referrals from staff, developing relationships with local business schools and policy schools
Project manage recruitment process, be the main point of contact for candidates in the pipeline, ensure consulting team meets internal and external deadlines
Review recruiting process and materials annually with consulting team, make recommendations for process improvements, project manage any process improvements needed
Support new employee onboarding (estimated at 1-3 hires, 1x-a-year)
Prepare schedule for new employees (based on existing onboarding materials and process) to help onboard their first month
Collect feedback from new employees on efficacy of onboarding process and ideas for revisions
Expand and refine internal learning and development processes (ongoing)
Gather feedback from consulting team and clients to identify key areas for learning and development improvement within the consulting team
Work with consulting team to create new trainings or identify ready-made trainings to purchase
Work with the consulting team to update existing trainings on an annual basis
Make recommendations to consulting team for how each team member could best deploy their annual company-provided training stipend
Manage the project staffing process working with consulting staff (ongoing)
Work with CEO and consulting staff to analyze team capacity, client needs, and staff interests/skills and use analysis to determine optimal staffing assignments for client projects
Work with consulting team to track interest and growth areas and help ensure future project staffing assignments reflect those needs
Review staff allocation and time management tools (Harvest, etc.) on a regular basis to ensure they are still meeting firm needs
Project manage regular performance evaluation process for staff, including 360 degree/peer to peer feedback; upward feedback to managers; and 2x/year annual feedback cycles (15 staff members, each reviewed 2x/year)
Project manage evaluation process for staff – convene meetings for supervisors to review staff, take notes on feedback, ensure supervisors complete reviews in a timely manner, provide quality control to ensure reviews are consistent, comprehensive, and effective
Manage 360 degree review cycles/peer to peer feedback – including sharing comments received from peers with the staffer being evaluated and brainstorming next steps in response
Gather staff feedback for CEO review, prepare and deliver CEO review
Support CEO in preparing Director of Operations review
As needed, revise review and evaluation process based on staff input
If needed, help team members create coaching plans to respond to professional feedback
We take the health of our employees, families, and clients very seriously, and are taking all necessary precautions to promote public health and safety. As a result, Kinetic West requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they have an approved medical / religious exemption.