Las Trampas School, Inc.
Headquartered in Lafayette, California
CASE STUDIES / LAS TRAMPAS
CASE STUDY · NONPROFIT · DISABILITY SERVICES
In A Sector Built On Turnover, More Of Their People Plan To Stay.
We built Las Trampas a workforce measurement program they could run every year, a long range people strategy to act on it, and coached their new HR Director through her first year in the seat. Across every measure of whether employees intend to stay, the direction was up.
SECTOR
Nonprofit · Intellectual & developmental disability services
PROFILE
Multi-program provider operating around the clock
ENGAGEMENT
Multi-year, multi-phase partnership
SERVICES
Workforce assessment · Executive coaching · Training · People strategy
IN BRIEF
What Changed.
Las Trampas supports adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities across several programs that run around the clock. Their people are the service, and their sector loses a punishing share of them every year.
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Over a multi-year partnership we built the measurement system, the strategy to act on what it surfaced, and the internal HR leader to own both.
Employees became measurably more likely to see a long-term future at the organization.
Trust in leadership and willingness to speak candidly both rose year over year.
Participation in the annual assessment reached its highest level in the program’s history.
THE CHALLENGE
Everything They Promise Is Delivered By People Who Rarely Share A Shift.
Las Trampas empowers people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to discover their capabilities and lead full lives at home, at work, and in the community. Delivering that depends entirely on staff — in a sector where annual turnover routinely approaches half the workforce and vacancies are chronic.
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Several distinct programs run around the clock. Staff rarely share a building, let alone a shift. Leadership had no reliable way to hear what employees actually thought, no baseline to measure against, and no mechanism to turn what they heard into decisions.
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They did not need an engagement survey. They needed a system they could run every year, a strategy to act on it, and someone inside the building to own both.
THE APPROACH
Measure It. Report It In The Room. Build Someone To Own It.
We ran this as a multi-year partnership rather than a single project. The sequence mattered more than any individual deliverable.
We establish a baseline, then protect it.
We built a customized workforce assessment and administered it anonymously through an independent third party, so employees would answer honestly. Then we held the instrument constant, so every year after compared cleanly against the first. That is the difference between a snapshot and a trend line.
01
We build the HR function, then coach the person in it.
We partnered with the Executive Director to define and build the HR Director role, and brought structure to how candidates were assessed. We then coached the successful hire through her first year, scoping the role, developing her as a member of the leadership team, and advising on complex labor law and employee relations matters as they arose.
02
We convert findings into a plan someone owns.
We translated what the assessment surfaced into a multi-year people strategy spanning how the organization recruits, hires, develops, communicates, and measures, with named deliverables, accountable owners, and a regular review cadence. The point is survivability: work that outlasts the meeting it was agreed in.
03
We train the whole organization, around the clock.
We delivered a sequence of company-wide sessions on communication, decision-making, and how colleagues treat one another day to day, scheduled around a 24-hour operation so every employee could actually attend, not just the ones on a convenient shift.
04
We report back in the room, not by email.
We presented findings live to the Executive Director and the full leadership team in an extended working session, then reported out to the organization. Telling employees what the assessment said is what makes the next one worth answering.
05
WHAT MOVED
Same Questions,
Three Years Running.
Because the assessment was held constant year over year, movement in either direction is real rather than an artifact of asking differently. Specific scores remain confidential to the client.
Where the work landed.
Sustained improvement across three consecutive years.
Whether employees see a long-term future at the organization.
Optimism about that future.
Day-to-day sense of stability at work.
Confidence in senior leadership.
Feeling that colleagues seek out and value one’s input.
Feeling respected across the organization.
Willingness to voice a contrary opinion without fear.
Overall willingness to recommend the organization as a place to work.
Participation in the assessment itself.
What we flagged.
Surfaced for action, not buried.
Whether the pace of work lets people do their best work.
Feeling recognized for individual performance.
Ease of access to one’s direct manager.
The gains concentrated exactly where they matter most in this sector: whether people intend to stay, whether they trust the people above them, and whether they feel safe saying something unpopular. We flagged the three measures that softened and they became the following year’s priorities. A measurement program that only ever reports good news is not a measurement program.
“Her approach created a respectful and engaging learning environment and provided practical takeaways staff could apply immediately… She advised me on complex labor law and employee relations matters, offering thoughtful, sound guidance that supported effective decision-making.”
Natalie Roberts
Director of Human Resources, Las Trampas
THE OUTCOME
They Can Now Tell You What Changed, And Prove It.
Las Trampas has something most organizations their size never build: a workforce that tells leadership the truth once a year, a leadership team that hears it together, and a documented record of what moved as a result.
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That record is the asset. It is what lets a board ask whether a people investment worked and get an answer, and it is what makes the next year’s decisions arguments about evidence rather than instinct.
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In a sector where turnover is treated as an unavoidable cost of doing business, that discipline is what turns retention into a choice rather than an accident. If you are carrying that cost as a given, we would start by finding out whether you have to.
MORE PROOF
What Changed After We Left.
Retention
ENTERTAINMENT · GLOBAL
One town hall became a three-year program, then the parent company called.
Cascade
REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT
Head office thought the message had landed. The field said otherwise.
Culture
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT