As the 2014 year quickly approached the end, so did our WashingtonExec Strategic Human Capital Council for its penultimate event of the season. The council meeting was held at The Tower Club in Tysons Corner and the discussion gave attendees the opportunity to share, learn, and listen to two of the best in the GovCon business. Keynote speakers included Ed Swallow, recently retired Vice President of Business Development for Federal & Defense Technologies at Northrop Grumman, and Bill Milligan, CFO at Capstone Corporation, former CFO at HPTi (sold to DRC in 2011). The experienced duo spoke to the group on the topic of business acumen as it relates to Human Capital leadership.
Swallow and Milligan began the discussion by agreeing that there are two types of business development professionals: people for business development or people for business development prevention. Second, business development should not be the enemy of human resources professionals. Milligan, the CFO representative for the evening, then advised that all human capital hiring professionals should look at every contract award as if it is LPTA, even if it is not labeled as such.
Companies must now possess both the best relationships and the best price in order to win the re-compete; no longer can organizations rely on strong relationships to strictly carry the organization to a re-compete win. Also, contract incumbents have a high probability of losing the contract if they write a bid that aligns directly with individuals who are already on the contract. The individuals already on the contract might have an inherent bias for an out-of-date or unwieldy processes of the previous contract.
Milligan concluded the event by sharing his handout “3 Things HR Needs to Talk to the CFO About.” They included: (1) Healthcare expenses and changes related to the ACA; the impact on benefit plan changes and how those changes affect retention and recruiting, (2) Salary structures (increase/decrease/flat) in the LPTA environment and the impact on retention and recruiting, and (3) Building the case and proving the tangible results with performance metrics of your talent management strategy.
Milligan believes recruiters need to be included in early on in the pipeline review process as well as when senior leadership determine the strategic direction of the organization. If HR professionals are focused on growing and moving their organization and its employees forward and are a part of the leadership team, solutions will be found and potential problems will be adverted with employee on-boarding and retention rates.
Each participating WashingtonExec Strategic Human Capital Council VP of Human Capital or equivalent member nominates one critical talent individual within their organization to help develop the next generation of HR leadership through business acumen, professional development and networking programs. The Council is headed by Steve Woolwine of AECOM.
