As the father of two young children, I find the ability to purchase McDonald’s Happy Meal toys sans the meal a cost effective and instantly gratifying solution to my children’s pressing desire for more crap. On our most recent visit to McDonald’s, I wanted to introduce my son to a lesser known super hero who I grew up with, Plastic Man. He had no idea who Plastic Man was and it took some additional YouTube videos to convince my son Plastic Man was legit.
As we laid in bed and watched videos, I continued to be amazed how Plastic Man could continue to stretch himself into good and bad situations. As a leader of Talent, HR, and Culture for Avionos and a veteran of startups as well as Global Consultancies, it is my duty to provide an EVP that “stretches” the capabilities of our employees. An EVP that is not only unique but fully supported by the organization. It can’t be just lip service. A strong EVP needs to be defined, consistent, collaborative, and most of all, employee focused.
At Avionos, we make sure all stakeholders are involved in shaping our EVP. We balance real time skill set experience with aspirational growth. We often say, Year 2 is going to look a lot different than Year 1 in our ecosystem. It’s a very simple philosophy based on forward momentum and providing opportunity to transform into new roles and thought leadership positions. We look holistically at where we can best leverage our resources today and tomorrow with the expectations that each individual raise their hand and have a voice about what they want to accomplish. We have no governors on our employee’s growth.
I have been around long enough to see low ceilings, bait and switches, and cloak and dagger recruiting methods. My experience has always been provide opportunities to grow and the rest will take care of itself. Be transparent in your messaging. Commoditizing a billable resource into a single threaded skill set is a practice Avionos avoids. Having the ability to learn new platforms and play different roles is what allows us to attract the best talent in the marketplace.
You don’t need to be Plastic Man to stretch your own skill sets. You just need the right environment.
