“We believe in the limitless potential of organizations worldwide through the strategic engagement, development and retention of its people.”: Career Systems International (CSI)

“We offer deceptively simple and deliberately flexible solutions that spark intentional and personalized action by leaders and employees resulting in increased productivity, reduced turnover and an inspired workforce.”

Career Systems International (CSI) founded in 1979, offers resilient talent management processes that link directly to business strategies and increase productivity and profitability to deliver the best returns on your investment. The organization’s powerful suite of talent solutions help reduce costs associated with talent loss and/or underperformance, while fostering a culture of support for individuals, managers, and leaders. They help transform organizational cultures where employees are energized and managers are supportive and where growth and learning are ongoing. Their extensive experience gives them the perspective to recognize opportunities and challenges that are hard to see and solve internally. They have a proven process that impacts all areas of your business. It is ultimately designed to save you money by reducing turnover, increasing productivity and inspiring your workforce.

Over 30 years ago, Dr. Beverly Kaye founded the company as a leading provider of career development and engagement and retention products and services. The company’s foundational premise: Improve the workplace for every employee – from senior leaders to the front line.

We had the opportunity to connect with Richard Aldersea, CEO of Career Systems International.

Why was the company set up? How did you select the vertical and decide to be a part of the global platform?

The company started shortly after our Founder Beverly Kaye published a book based on her doctoral dissertation at UCLA. In the book, she introduced a systems approach to career development, something that was new to the world of work. The book introduced the partnership necessary for successful career development - the employee leading and owning development, the role of the manager as career coach and the organization providing the systems and support.

Our vertical market is HR leaders and Fortune 1000 companies, and was based on this original demand. These organizations realized the importance of growing theiremployee base and retaining their talent.

What kind of companies do you work with?

Today we work with 65% of the Fortune 1000 companies, primarily in Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Manufacturing, Financial Services and Technology industry sectors. Our clients represent the diverse global marketplace, in more than 189 countries. We also work with smaller companies that recognize the impact career development and employee engagement solutions can have on their businesses.

What is your expertise in the Talent Development space?

Talent has, and always will be an organization’s most valuable resource. Our thought leadership and the needs we see within global organizations have affirmed our decision to be laser focused in career development and employee engagement and retention.

One of our biggest differentiators is that our solutions are intentionally designed to meet the learning needs of today’s workers and they get to the heart of what matters most at work.

What content do you offer?

Career Systems International’s learning solutions are all supported by extensive research, 30+ years of best-practice with clients worldwide, and grounded in concepts in best-selling books by our Founder.

We are uniquely focused on career development, employee engagement, coaching, and consulting solutions. Core to all of our solutions is a simple, yet powerful learning element – conversations. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this concept; it’s those very critical conversations that ignite vital connections between employees, managers and the organization as a whole. Powerful results are reported when clients create a strong voice for their people in a very noisy surround-sound world. While the act of ‘talking’ seems simple, the ‘art’ takes you from knowing to doing. 

We’ve created resources to reinforce and sustain the focus on development, engagement and retention, for the long term. Whether it’s building a strategy, impactful communications, training, forming coaching relationships, or leveraging our library of tools, we have a variety of ways to keep the conversations flowing.

Dr. Beverly Kaye’s newest book (to be launched in September, 2017) Up is Not the Only Way suggests that careers are no longer found on paths, nor do they take a linear approach. Flexibility, mobility, resilience, and meeting the ever growing needs of changing organizations for the right people in the right place at the right time, beckons to taking a newer approach to career mobility. 

It’s no longer telescopic careers today’s workers need (single and future focused) but rather kaleidoscopic – in other words, employees need to be able to respond immediately as their markets and organizations change, they need to create new learning and growth experiences based on the patterns presented. 

What do clients say about your work?

“Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em® is a fully integrated part of our “Unleash Talent” cultural belief. Every new manager who joins our organization goes through the program during orientation and our engagement scores continue to average at least six points higher than our market peer group. I credit Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em® for helping us to sustain this high record even during the recent economic downturn when money was tight and raises were hard to come by.” - Tim Pierce, CEO, Morrison Healthcare

“When employees are initiating conversations about career development with their managers, engagement will follow. The Talent Development team and business leaders are optimistic about these results and the affect they will have on creating a culture where career conversations are the norm.” - Jennifer Cantwell, Senior Talent Consultant, Covidien

What factors have been the biggest asset to your organization and why?

Our brand recognition is based on Dr. Kaye’s continued reputation as a respected thought leader in the area of career development and employee engagement and retention.

Our track record and measurable results satisfying our customers’ talent management needs in our core competency areas of career development and retention and engagement. We have several case studies that highlight results some of our clients have seen. For instance, at Ingersoll Rand, employee engagement scores went up 8%, going from a below average score of 63% to an above average score of 71% in 2013. In 2014 scores went up 4% from 71% to 75% which puts Ingersoll Rand in the top quartile for engagement.

Our delivery teams represent the best-in-class – globally dispersed facilitation with years of experience inside, leading corporations in all industries. In fact, many of them have joined CSI after experiencing our solutions in their own organization and realizing the passion they had on the topics and the impact they experienced in their own organization.

Our ability to sync with current trends as they continue to evolve. CSI has remained in the forefront of solution design and delivery, moving our solutions from standard instructor-led experiences to on-line, virtual, micro, blended, fully-electronic, etc. One of our key principles is flexibility – our solutions enable us to tailor or customize to better fit our clients’ culture and embed the messages in all related areas of their business.

The elegant simplicity of our solutions - We have a history of taking complex issues, applying a practical approach – one which allows both leaders and employees to say “I can do that” – and consistently deliver powerful outcomes. We take you from “knowing” to “doing”.

For more information, visit their website at: www.CareerSystemsIntl.com

A little more about Richard

Richard Aldersea, having previously served as an advisor to CSI before accepting his new role as its CEO, has been the CEO of two successful Human Capital consulting firms. He led his last firm from $3M to $16M in only four years, before managing its sale to a Fortune 500 company.

“We provide engaging development experiences that are practical, user-friendly, and laser-focused on critical business objectives.”