Newland Associates

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO and president of Career Source Central Florida. We’re a nonprofit organization as well as the designated workforce development board for Central Florida.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Newland Associates?

We engaged with Newland Associates in a number of different aspects to address different challenges. This past year, they handled a professional-level outplacement package for individuals, particularly from management spots in the hospitality industry who lost their job. We were trying to provide them with some rapid access to professional HR coaching and counseling in an effort to assist them in getting a job.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We purchased a package that includes an assessment and coaching with professional career coaches within the Newland Associates company specifically. Our organization identified individuals who had been laid off and needed professional outplacement coaching. We referred those individuals to the online program or the program plus the direct coaching.

What is the team composition?

I work directly with Robert (CEO). My operations leadership works with 2–3 of his staff.

How did you come to work with Newland Associates?

I have a longstanding professional business relationship with Newland Associates in their search firm capacity. They found me for this position in 2012. They’re the professional search firm that handles the presidential search for this organization so I’m very aware of their skill and ability in executive search as well as in executive coaching and outplacement services.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve invested $67,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in October 2020.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We measured our engagement rate with the number of how many customers we referred who actually followed through and connected with Newland Associates. At this point, we’ve referred just over 100 individuals. We’re also seeing that more people have engaged and taken up the online program and one-on-one coaching and are being referred to the online outplacement program.

Since we’re in the midst of this project, we’re looking and adjusting our outcomes as we go. We want to be able to provide our customers with access and the ability to regain employment. We won’t look at that metric until we get to the June or July timeframe.

How did Newland Associates perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team is very efficient. They brief us regularly and have met deadlines.

What did you find most impressive about them?

On top of their professionalism, it’s also their attention to understanding our organization and its goals and outcomes. Newland Associates always starts a project with understanding what problem we’re trying to solve or what initiative we’re trying to launch.

Robert has gone above and beyond the work he does as a part of his business, especially during the pandemic. He opened up a lot of job search tool platforms at no cost for individuals who are being impacted by the COVD-19 pandemic. Newland Associates does whatever they can to ensure the solution. What they’re providing is customized to the needs of that organization.

Are there any areas they could improve?

For the outplacement online platform, they can continue to develop work tools to go along with the platform. They could benefit from creating those tools or a help document around the many resources that exist inside of that platform.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be sure you do some research on the various platforms and services Newland Associates provides. Be prepared to ask questions about not just the effectiveness of the platform or the service, but about the steps around how to implement that.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

International resort vacations. Director Talent Development & Corporate University.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire Newland Associates?

We needed help with the identification and development of our our high-potentials, who are scattered across multiple sites and countries. This population is very heterogenous in language, culture and function. And although the project was important, our budget was limited.

What were your goals for this engagement?

To find the right instrument for profiling and understanding our high-potentials, for matching them to the right career paths, for designing the right programs to help them, and for engaging them & their managers on the process.

SOLUTION

How did you select Newland Associates?

We looked at different providers and psychometric systems. Newland was the only provider that proposed a simple tool that fit our culture and that we could manage ourselves, and stay under budget.

Describe the engagement in detail.

I was the sole decision maker in the process. Newland listened, worked hard to understand our challenges, and steered me to the right solution, including hands on support for internal training on the tools and for the initial deployment.

What was the team composition?

two points of contact: Robert, the head of Newland, and Jill, the Predictive Index expert.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any outcomes from the engagement that demonstrate progress or success?

1. improved retention and output (promotions) from every level of out hippo programs
2. our business unit's general mgr hipot group improved from 20% (company worst) to 80% (company best)
3. our methodology became a company wide best practice.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

smooth and easy.

What did you find most impressive about this vendor?

Their generosity with their time and knowledge. They have a genuine interest in helping us solve our program, rather than in selling us a service/product.

Are there any areas for improvement?

not at all.