Douglas Audirsch

My Work at Encore

Encore started out by hiring, almost exclusively, former coworkers from a previous company.  This 100% virtual company grew from 3 to 300 geographically dispersed employees in it's first 3 years and became in danger of losing it's culture and values due to the exponential growth.  By the company's 3rd anniversary, they had begun struggling with their 'Best Places to Work' ranking in part due to an employee-identified lack of training opportunities.  I was hired to address these needs. 

• In the first few months, I built the foundation of a Training Team by hiring a team of Instructional Designers, purchasing a Learning Management System (LMS) and assorted instructional design tools, and authoring, among other things, our learning values, style guide, and development pipeline process. 

• As the introduction to the company's new training effort, I lead the training effort for a 3-day education-focused retreat for the entire company.  This was the first educational experience Encore had provided to it's employees and it was tremendously well received.  The survey scores were higher than previous retreats and the anecdotal feedback was equally enthusiastic.

• In order to lower the 30/60/90 turnover rate, I organized and facilitated a 2-day in-person orientation for all new hires.  This communicated our company's core values, introduced the new employees to the leadership and structure of the company, outlined expectations of employees, and explained internal systems and processes.  This contributed to reducing the turnover metric by 50%.

• As a way of improving the employee experience, I designed a Training/Mentoring program that supported our consultant's efforts in gaining certifications within their fields.  We surveyed the company and identified highly desirable certifications that would benefit the employees as well as the company.  We partnered each participant up with a mentor who had already passed the certification exam and offered live, online training on the exam prep material.  Project Management International called our program "perfect" and "above and beyond" what most organizations offer.  We successfully increased the number of certified consultants at Encore. 

The actions above led to an increase in the overall 'Best Places to Work' ranking as well as a recognizable uplift in the sense of corporate identity.  This company, with a completely virtual workforce, began to rediscover its corporate identity again.