Alta Vista

The Client

Alta Vista is a specialty engineering firm that has experienced explosive growth over the last five years providing solutions to some of the largest infrastructure projects in the world. Their skilled and experienced professionals consist of engineers, researchers, scientists, construction managers, and technical experts with specialties in steel, precast and pre-stressed concrete design, inspection, non-destructive testing, and materials engineering.

Background

As one of the fastest growing engineering firms in the United States, Alta Vista understands that their people are their greatest assets. Alta Vista understands that their ability to grow and continue to exceed clients’ expectations is a function of how well they can continue to find and nurture top talent that fits their culture. Alta Vista is committed to the personal and professional growth of every one of their team members.

The Business Challenge

The challenge of working with highly technical staff has been mentoring emerging leaders to understand that it takes different leadership styles to inspire and motivate individuals. In order to produce optimal results, Alta Vista must also assemble teams of individuals that look at the world differently. Prior to Caliper Analytics™, Alta Vista would seek out individuals that are the most “like them.”  As a result, they would have teams of individuals that think and act alike.

Engineers have a well-deserved reputation of being “numbers” people who like to bury themselves in reams of data. Caliper Analytics™ provided Alta Vista a solution to get their “numbers-centric” managers to think about how to better assess talent and assemble higher performing teams. Caliper turned the “numbers” into objective data that our technical leadership can study.

The Strategic Solution

To address the strategic business need, Caliper recommended its industry-leading Caliper Analytics™, which was also awarded Best Advancement in Candidate Assessment Technology by The Brandon Hall Group.

Using the product’s predictive data-rich framework, Alta Vista found it easier to access,interpret, and leverage Caliper assessment data in a myriad of ways. The first workforce-analytics solution to include scientifically validated and reliable personality data, Caliper Analytics™ is powered by the Caliper Profile, delivering dynamic, compelling, at-a-glance dashboards designed to answer critical questions from the hiring phase through to development and workforce planning. Caliper Analytics™ provided Alta Vista with an interactive visualization of existing Caliper Profile data, telling the story behind the data and allowing Alta Vista to discover insights that have led to the maximization of talent across the organization.

The easy-to-use dashboard enabled Alta Vista to quickly unlock Caliper results, compare high-potential candidates and individuals for special assignments side by side, predict team success, and make data-backed hiring and talent-management decisions as its needs changed. Alta Vista was able to access existing Caliper information, assess candidates for different roles on the fly, and identify potential top performers immediately, without toggling through endless screens and going through the rigors and expense of assessing candidates for different roles, one by one.

The Results

The results were immediate with Caliper Analytics™. It had a direct impact to their strategic objectives and business goals.  Some measurable results included:

  • Higher performing teams as a result of leadership matching skill sets, strengths, and weaknesses
  • Reduced turnover from 38% to 8.9%
  • Increased morale due to higher focus on personal and professional growth
  • Improved mentoring sessions with emerging leadership; allowing senior leaders a tool to dissect tendencies and actions
  • Improved mining of existing talent for future positions
  • Increased career path opportunities for employees