The Learning & Development Award Winner, Mascaro Construction LP, is blazing new trails and modeling for the entire construction industry that great employees don’t just happen - great companies engage them. Mascaro is the first general contractor in the nation to employ a full-time in-house organization and executive development coach and over the last five years they have leveraged that expertise to raise the bar on performance in the Commercial, Heavy Highway and Power/Industrial markets. Living their value of continuous improvement, Mascaro teamed up with the Associated General Contractors of America to share their lessons learned on a national platform so that the entire construction industry would benefit from the new ideas and concepts being piloted here in Pittsburgh.
People Award Winner, Westinghouse recognized that the company needed to have the people, processes, and technology in place to support a growth plan that would double the employee population in a few years. Westinghouse employees rose to the occasion and implemented sustainable improvements to their recruiting, retention, and rewards processes and technologies. From 2008-2010, Westinghouse filled 5075 positions with talented individuals that fit well within the Westinghouse culture – a culture that centers around delivering excellence to customers while providing an environment in which employees feel challenged and valued. Throughout this challenging time and amidst the relocation of its headquarters, Westinghouse was able to maintain turnover rates of less than 3%. This can be attributed to, in part, the fact that Westinghouse employees enjoy distinctive amenities and perks. Westinghouse realizes that the “bells and whistles” mean very little if we do not provide strong leadership, challenging work, and opportunities for development. Westinghouse has managed to effectively package its social responsibility, a culture of hard work, employee orientation and customer focus, and its commitment to employees’ families into an offering that has yielded excellent hires who stay for extended periods of time.
Work Structure & Processes Winner, Wesley Spectrum merged with two small human services, non-profit organizations to create an array of education, mental health, and social services with the mission to provide transformation support to children and families as they strive to become more independent, responsible and caring members of the community. While the new organization possessed a wide range expertise in treating mental health behavioral conditions, there was little human resources infrastructure to manage the larger organization.
With the merger, thirteen small programs operated independently with little integration. Today, Wesley Spectrum’scompetitive advantage is to respond to clients’ needs by integrating our capabilities to deliver seamless and diverse levels of treatment, resulting in business and workforce growth in a very challenging business and funding environment.
This internal organizational transformation largely started with the HR department with CEO Executive Team support. A strategy for the transformation was developed with the objectives to implement best HR practices consistently across the organization, reduce and maintain low HR transactional cost, and develop HR capacity to deliver business value.
Before employees and managers were experts in their field of knowledge but had little awareness of the business and HR performance factors that would contribute to sustainability and growth. Now when our CEO says, “Wesley Spectrum will never deliver quality services without operating as a business; and Wesley Spectrum will never sustain a business without quality services,” our employees are able to embrace both perspectives as they strive to advance mission.
Congratulations to all of the 2011 finalists: Alcoa, Legend Financial Advisors, Inc., Mascaro Construction, Westinghouse, UPMC, Westinghouse, The Woodlands Foundation, IntegraCare Corporation, Sheetz, Wesley Spectrum, Westinghouse
The PHRA thanks this year’s sponsors: Nova Chemicals, Inc., Right Management, MAYA Design, DJL Associates, Gatto Associates LLC, Pittsburgh Pirates, Workplace Diversity, the City of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette/Monster, Comcast Newsmakers
