An ideal client-supplier relationship helped a construction and infrastructure development firm establish the necessary foundation for successful growth.
In 2006, Dave Brennan, vice president of human resources at Aecon Group, secured Eagle's Flight, a global experiential learning company, to provide leadership training. At the outset, neither party imagined the long-term benefits that such a partnership would bring. However, the relationship has developed over time, with the firm establishing itself as a trusted advisor whose contribution to Aecon encompasses much more than purely training.
This partnership led to building a foundation that has allowed Aecon to grow significantly during the past seven years. That growth is spearheaded by highly skilled leaders who have more ownership and accountability over people development and HR practices, and a professional HR team that has created a robust curriculum of training programs for the organization.
Brennan and his advisory team chose Eagle's Flight for three reasons: the people, the content, and the delivery methodology.
The firm's account team spent substantial time identifying Aecon's needs and helping to define the type of leadership development that would assist Aecon to meet its goals. Having been exposed to plenty of leadership curriculum over the years, Aecon appreciated the practical models and principles and the fact that the Eagle's Flight Living Leadership program would be fully customized to Aecon's requirements. Finally, the Aecon team was drawn to the firm's experiential learning methodology, which made the program interactive, engaging, and memorable for participants.
Customization
Prior to launching the first Living Leadership module within the Aecon Civil and Utilities Group, the firm conducted an in-depth discovery process that focused on gaining a clear picture of the audience, the company, and the existing barriers and enablers to training. This information was used to customize the leadership program, to speak to the specific challenges faced by Aecon, and to engage the audience by ensuring relevance.
What began as the customized Living Leadership initiative for senior leaders then expanded to include Foundations, a personal leadership course for individual contributors, and Management Matters, a five-day course for new and midlevel managers.
The strategic decision to align all three levels of leadership training to the principles of the Living Leadership program was crucial. The integrated approach established the consistency and common language across all levels of the organization that ultimately contributed to the success of Aecon's leadership development initiative.
Common language and alignment
For many senior leaders in the company, the common language is the element that continues to have a lasting impact on the culture of the organization. The leadership programs each come with its own "living language" that provides consistency across all business units and leadership levels in Aecon.
Kim McCoy, HR manager with the Innovative Steam Technologies division, observes that "the leadership training has created a common bond and a common language between divisions."
In combination with the common language, the Foundations, Management Matters, and Living Leadership programs have built performance consistency and alignment across the many divisions that make up Aecon. The chemistry between departments and divisions has grown and helped mesh Aecon's new leaders with those who are more seasoned.
"The leadership initiative has become part of Aecon's life blood," observes Brian Swartz, executive vice president of legal and commercial services and a member of Aecon's executive team. Swartz was one of the first to experience Living Leadership when the program was introduced to the Corporate Group.
His initial experience with Eagle's Flight then broadened to include consulting on strategic planning, delivering conference programs, implementing 360 degree feedback assessments, and coaching and mentoring for himself and his direct reports. Swartz says he has adapted his management style to incorporate many of the techniques taught in Living Leadership. He believes he has become a more effective leader and has been infusing the same principles and values into his team to cultivate their own growth.
Organization-wide, Swartz witnesses increased alignment between the Aecon divisions where the president and vice presidents take personal ownership for demonstrating and cascading the principles and methodologies from the training program.
Engagement
A key objective for Aecon was to make the list of the 50 Best Employers in Canada, which focuses on employee engagement and is driven by leadership, rewards, workplace culture and values, productivity, and support of performance and development.
The leadership training, combined with the involvement of Eagle's Flight in Aecon's companywide conferences and town hall meetings, have been supporting factors in improving corporate communication and employee engagement scores. In conjunction with ongoing initiatives, these efforts helped Aecon establish itself on the Top 50 list for the past five years running.
While the impact of this level of investment in people and leadership development is not necessarily quantifiable in dollars and cents, Greg Rooney, senior vice president of HR, notes that in challenging economic times Aecon is retaining its talent and has a strong leadership group. He attributes this to the training initiatives and Aecon's continued focus on developing people.
Furthermore, they have committed to 40 hours of training per employee each year, a significant investment and a testament to the value Aecon places on training as a driver of engagement, performance, and workplace culture.
HR bench strength
In step with these achievements has been the growth and development of Aecon's HR team with the support of Eagle's Flight senior executives, including the CEO. Functioning as an extension of the department, the firm helped the team hone its HR skills, taking Aecon from a company with limited HR and training and development capacity to a professional and focused HR group.
Concurrent with Aecon's significant overall growth, during the past seven years the team has expanded from four people and one training program to more than 50 HR professionals and 106 training programs, now including a number of technical courses as well.
Aecon's HR team now is preparing to launch its own Aecon University.
Evolving partnership
From the onset, Aecon's relationship with Eagle's Flight was more than that of client and supplier. Now that Aecon has a strong base in both the leadership and the HR areas, the nature of the relationship will naturally evolve. Wright sees it as an opportunity to move the established partnership in a new direction.
"Because of the foundation that has been formed over the past seven years, and the solid partnership between our companies that has been established, we're excited to discover what comes next in the journey for both of us," Wright says.