The Envelope Please...Meet the 2007 Best Practice Awards Winners

What have you done for your company lately? Small business success comes when you’re constantly striving to make things better at your business. As an owner, you need to grow your sales, make your marketing hit its target every time, more thoroughly train and nurture your employees, use technology in smarter ways and excel at leading your company and your employees.

Last year, The New York Enterprise Report established the “Small Business Best Practice Awards,” to uncover and shine a spotlight on the innovative practices that New York–area small businesses have instituted in the areas of Human Resources, Leadership, Marketing, Sales and Technology. As we did last year, we solicited nominations for the 2007 awards that provided documentation on a company’s particular innovation or process as well as proof of how that strategy has led to improvements in the company’s operations and performance.

We are delighted to report that, once again, we received an impressive array of nominations. Our expert judges chose five inventive programs from those nomination packages. In the pages that follow, we share with you these best practices from our 2007 Small Business Best Practice Awards.

Congratulations to our winners. And to everyone else: Read carefully. You might just find a great idea that will click for your company.

 Best Practice in Human Resources
 Andiamo Partners

THE BACKSTORY

Andiamo Partners LLC is a New York City–based information technology recruiting firm that was founded in late 2003 and specializes in consulting and direct and contract-to-hire placements to clients in the financial services industry. The company currently has 17 employees. Andiamo has developed a sophisticated training program for its employees that teaches them about how financial services firms use information technology; this helps them more effectively recruit workers for Andiamo’s clients. The firm has established its own job board to serve as an internal recruiting tool, and it produces a quarterly publication for managers and job candidates.

THE BEST PRACTICE

Immediately after starting the firm, partners Patrick and Daniel McAdams were determined to create a work environment where employees would learn, grow and be dedicated to working with the company long-term. With the help of many of their employees, the McAdamses were able to create the Andiamo Partners Training Program, a “best practice” program that produces effective and successful employees

The program is continuously modified to keep up with changing technology environments. It incorporates mentored study, hands-on work, reading and even testing. An employee’s progress through this training program prepares him or her to communicate intelligently with highly specialized candidates and to be able to look at job descriptions and résumés analytically so as to piece together the puzzle of requirements and create connections.

While the training program spans approximately six months, the employee is working the entire time and is eligible for a promotion upon completion of the program.

Another significant component of the training program is a handbook given to employees on their first day. It contains an IT and finance glossary, client and market information and recruiting techniques. Employees also receive a unique “Employee Development Milestones” timeline, an individualized training road map based on their progress and mutually agreed-upon expectations.

 The training program is administered almost entirely on a one-on-one basis. New employees are integrated with their team through the training process, which is carried out by everyone from associates to the company president. Nearly 75% of the 80 hours of one-on-one training for each employee is performed by Patrick McAdams.

The training program also involves some individual bookwork. Each employee has access to the Andiamo Library, which includes 10 copies of over 20 different books that have been broken down into three categories: Professional Development and Leadership, Industry Comprehension and Organizational Theory. Each employee chooses one text from each of the three categories and discusses it with his immediate supervisor prior to promotion. Employees are encouraged to think critically and challenge the potential application of the theories in the company’s environment.

In addition to recruitment, employees are trained to understand the other two divisions of the company — account management and business services — providing everyone with a well-rounded view of the inner workings of the firm. Members of the account management team have created their own training documents on market research and interview preparation techniques, some of which have been published in the company’s quarterly e-newsletter.