HR · CHANGE MANAGEMENT · ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
What Changed, And Whether It Held.
HOW TO READ THIS
We report what we can evidence. Where an engagement produced movement we can describe but not prove, the page says so rather than reaching for a number. And where a client cannot be named, we identify them by sector and say why.
Seven engagements across government, philanthropy, biotechnology, entertainment, real estate, consumer retail and disability services, and in most cases a relationship that ran for years. Each one sets out what we were asked to do, what we found, and what the client was still operating after we finished.
7
Case studies, across public, private and nonprofit sectors.
4,000
Largest workforce we have assessed.
3+
Years most of these relationships ran.
5
Federal agencies whose teams we have trained.
ONE · WHAT WE MEASURE
Find Out What Is Actually Happening.
Before we recommend anything, we establish what is true. In every one of these engagements the organization believed something about itself that the evidence did not support, and the finding was worth more than the recommendation: that in a sector built on turnover, more of their people were planning to stay; that a company-wide message leadership thought had landed had stopped before it reached the field; that a single employer was in fact three workforces having three different experiences.
NONPROFIT · DISABILITY SERVICES
EMPLOYEE LISTENING · ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
In a sector built on turnover, more of their people plan to stay.
Measured three consecutive years.
We measured the same workforce three years running, so movement could be proven rather than asserted. The result held in the measure that matters most in direct support work, and the third year drew the highest participation in the program’s history.
REAL ESTATE · MULTIFAMILY INVESTMENT
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY · CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Head office thought the message had landed. The field said otherwise.
Two years of comparable data.
Leadership believed a company-wide message had reached everyone. Reading corporate and field populations separately showed where it had actually stopped, and the following year’s plan was redirected at the managers already standing in front of the field.
CONSUMER BEAUTY · RETAIL
EMPLOYEE LISTENING · ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN
One company, three workforces. They were not having the same experience.
Named a Newsweek Most Loved Workplace during the engagement.
Corporate staff, salon colorists and remote consultants shared an employer and almost nothing else. We reported them separately, because averaging them would have hidden the only thing worth knowing: the widest variation was between individual salons, not between headquarters and the field.
Our organizational development work continued to flourish as we build on the foundation we established together… Thank you for your work on our behalf and for your ongoing support and advocacy.
Stacy Newton
Chief People Officer, Oportun
TWO · WHAT WE BUILD
Build Something That Holds After We Leave.
The test of this work is what survives the people who commissioned it. One high-stakes town hall became a three year, four topic program, and then a second engagement with the parent company. A startup too small for anonymity to be a promise built a committee and a resource group that were still running three years later. In both cases the client kept the structure. In both cases the client came back.
MUSIC · ENTERTAINMENT
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT · TALENT ACQUISITION CAPABILITY
One town hall became a three year program. Then the parent company called.
Three years, four company-wide topics, then a second engagement.
A single session at a label became a three year engagement running from the chief executive down through people managers to the full employee population, and then a separate engagement with its parent company. Scope that grows on the client’s initiative is the clearest signal a client can send, and it is the one we would ask any firm to show you.
BIOTECHNOLOGY · DIAGNOSTICS
ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY · EMPLOYEE RESOURCE GROUPS
Small enough that everyone would know who said it.
Structure the company still runs.
At this size, anonymity is a design problem rather than a promise. We built the approach around that and handed over the data, and the company carried the resulting committee and resource group forward without us.
Our 700 person Firm had the absolute pleasure of spending some meaningful and truly impactful quality time with Dr. Session… Dr. Session’s presentation inspired Firm engagement, important discussions and education. I would highly recommend Dr. Session for virtual or in-person learning on the topics in which she is an Expert.
Jane E. Leopold-Leventhal
Chief Legal Counsel, Bohler Engineering
THREE · WHAT WE RUN
Run The Function Itself.
Assessment and advice are one thing. Owning what comes after is another. In one case we rebuilt how a city’s human resources function was structured, and its published numbers were still improving two years after we finished. In the other we hold the calendar ourselves, inside the client’s systems, on an ongoing retainer.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT · PUBLIC SECTOR
HR ASSESSMENT · COMPENSATION & CLASSIFICATION
We finished in 2024. The City’s numbers were still improving in 2026.
Average days to fill a vacancy: 226 to 127
An assessment of how the City’s human resources function was built, followed by a citywide study of roughly 500 classified positions benchmarked against four neighbouring localities. Turnover moved from 12.2 to 9.4 percent and open audit findings from 35 to 6. Every outcome figure on that page comes from the City’s own published record, and any prospective client can verify it.
NONPROFIT · PHILANTHROPY
HR OUTSOURCING · FRACTIONAL HR
One compliance cycle in 2024. The HR function today.
Retainer renewed and expanded three years running.
A close-knit national organization with the employer obligations of a much larger one. We began with a single annual compliance cycle and now hold the benefits, leave, policy and compliance calendar. Every expansion came at the client’s initiative.
She engages the class throughout the session soliciting their input and questions… Employees state that their knowledge and understanding of these topics has increased as a result of her training. I highly recommend her as a teacher for your Bureau.
Keri Eliason
Director, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
WHERE WE WORK
Seven Case Studies Do Not Show Breadth. This Is What Does.
A short library is a fair thing to be skeptical about, so here is the wider picture rather than a claim about it. Our work has reached Fortune 500 companies, high growth startups, national nonprofits, philanthropic foundations, municipal government and federal agencies.
Federal
Teams at NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture and Customs and Border Protection. Registered and contract ready, with SAM UEI, CAGE code and NAICS listings in place.
State & Municipal
City government work spanning organizational assessment, job architecture, and citywide compensation and classification, delivered as a prime contractor.
Private & Nonprofit
Fortune 500 entertainment, biotechnology, real estate investment, consumer retail, disability services and philanthropy. Workforces from close-knit teams to several thousand employees.
ALL SEVEN CASE STUDIES
Nonprofit Retention · disability services
Change Management · real estate investment
Psychological Safety · consumer beauty and retail
Executive Facilitation · music and entertainment
Public Sector · city government
Fractional HR · philanthropy
Employee Engagement Survey · biotechnology
Two things you will not find on these pages.
We do not publish client survey verbatims, individual scores or anything that would identify an employee who answered a confidential question. That is the basis on which people tell us the truth, and it is not ours to trade for a stronger web page.
We also do not publish our methodology. What each page describes is what we found and what the client kept, not the instruments we used to get there.