Client Spotlight
State University of New York Charter Schools Institute.
The SUNY Charter Schools Institute
Problem: Costly turnover and lower engagement due to unclear career pathways and uneven standards of accountability.
Goal: The organization needed to evolve its talent management strategy to attract and retain top talent, reduce friction, standardize people processes.
Context: The Charter Schools Institute is function of the State University of New York that's authorized to grant, revoke, and renew public school charters in the Empire State. The Institute staff evaluates applications from prospective schools, and it evaluates all aspects of school operations and performance once they’re open. It then makes recommendations to the Trustees.
The Institute has a staff of 27 and a ~$5M budget to serve the 200+ charter schools authorized by the State University of New York.
Due to demand for charter schools, the workload increased. The ways of working, systems, and processes that enabled the Institute to become a national model for school authorizing, were in need of modernization to handle all the growth.
Solution: High Peaks Group implemented a number of solutions to ensure their success:
Executive Team Alignment. Focus on working as a team (vs a group of individuals) to achieve functional and organization-wide strategic priorities.
Career Growth Design. Modernize the approach to career growth for this small organization with limited advancement opportunities by designing an equitable, expansive, and non-linear model.
Competency Mapping. Clarified and aligned performance expectations for every employee at every level.
Change Management. Buy-in must be earned. Our approach to adopting new ways of working is transparency and inclusion. We formed people strategy advisory group to help prioritize and implement changes.
Coaching and Advisory. We supported the leadership team to adopt and role-model new leadership behaviors to keep the organization confident in the direction and excited for the changes.
Results: Lower Turnover and Higher Engagement
The Institute saw a $250,000 annual savings in the cost of turnover as hiring became more efficient, top talent stayed, and new talent was onboarded more quickly. Additionally, the institute saw a 50% increase in employee engagement.
“The team at High Peaks Group always has our best interest at heart, they’re fun to work with, super smart, and I have come to rely on the insights from the team’s deep experience in organizational change. I would recommend High Peaks Group to any small- to mid-sized business that needs to create a great workplace that gets results.”
Kathryn Connell-Espinosa, Executive Director
State University of New York Charter Schools Institute