GREATER CHICAGO CHAPTER "RISING STAR MENTORING PROGRAM"

As we get ready for the beginning of a New Year, participants in the 2010 WICT Mentoring Program are celebrating their halfway mark. The mentoring program opened this year with a fresh approach to mentoring, coaching and career savvy. We welcomed Billi Lee, the CEO and Founder of The Savvy Institute, who worked with us to customize the program for today's leadership needs. This year's program not only offers participants the opportunity to pair up with a mentor/mentee within the industry, but also challenges them to improve their career quotient through focusing on eight behavioral characteristics.

Upon starting the program everyone has the opportunity to complete a Savvy Profile, and to identify opportunities for growth. It allows everyone a great starting point for discussions with their mentor/ mentee and within the group. Participants regularly devote time to meeting with their mentor/mentee, and to quarterly group meetings for discussion of selected savvy behavior characteristics. Identifying, sharing and analyzing these attributes are critical for success in today's professional environment. 

Congratulations and thank you to the participants of 2010 WICT Mentoring Program. You are halfway through your journey, and you have created great discussions both in your pairs and within the group. It is a good place to be, as we move into the New Year.  We look forward to more inspiring conversations in 2011!

Best wishes for a fantastic New Year.

Tech it Out Event

In November, 32 WICT Greater Chicago members competed in a Tech it Out Case Study Competition in Appleton, WI. Participants were placed into five teams. Each team spent the entire day working on solutions to three issues troubling the cable industry. Each topic is highlighted below along with the recommendations from the five teams.

Issue One: Recruitment of quality female leaders and managers in the area of technology and market development.

• Require and create a formal leadership development training program that incorporates job rotation. This will be a year-long program that allows employees to rotate between various departments every three months (or job shadowing) to provide technical exposure. After successful completion of the program employees would be offered a position with leadership responsibilities. This program would have components for entry level positions, to help with career advancement, management/executive training and career coaching.
• Establish a regional "Women in Technology" group. This would provide a foundation for women to come together from all functional areas and participate in idea sharing as well as learn new things.
• Alter overall company strategy to include a goal to increase the percentage of female representation in technical roles and management. Then, set up a committee that is responsible for making sure this goal is achieved. This committee would be responsible for internal and external tactics to increase the number of female leaders in technical positions.
• Identify non-traditional recruiting venues like churches and day care centers to find more women.
• Form strategic alliances with schools. Attend college and high school fairs and offer brown bag lunch opportunities for people to learn about the company. Offer to sponsor/teach technical trade programs. Provide technical internships to introduce women to the technical aspects and the roles and responsibilities.
• Conduct cross functional team meetings to allow employees an opportunity to better understand decisions and actions being taken in other parts of company.
• Improve employee reviews to set quantifiable objectives. Adjust reviews to be every six months or every quarter and similar to a 360. Everyone who interacts with the employee has an opportunity to provide feedback. This change will improve coaching that provides feedback to all employees on leadership.
• Encourage employees to develop personal objectives and help them to enhance their skills yet guide them to take ownership. Advocate that it is ok to take risks. Additionally, shift the perspective of a performance review so it's based on career aspirations. Then, rename the performance review to i-Forward Career Check-In.
• Establish consistent job descriptions.
• Identify slow periods during the year and schedule trainings. Install learning kiosks with random incentives for participation.
• Provide tuition reimbursement or scholarships to introduce women to technical positions.
• Tie management awards and goals to training and development. Supervisors should be measured on the successes of their employees including employee promotion and movement within the company.
   

Issue Two: Communication with existing and potential subscribers as competition for consumer eyes and ears increases and consumer demand is changing.

• Leverage technology team to develop a social media chat for customers. Conversations would be archived for later reference.
• Creation of a mobile or PC app or widget called iControl which would allow customers to order services without having to call into the cable company.
• Solicit customer feedback on the company website.
• Provide training webinars On Demand to explain how to use different services.
• Cable company will implement listening workshops and soft skills trainings for all levels of employees.
• Data mine to better target customers.
• Use sophisticated communication tools for inbound call routing and care support that help to assist in problem resolution.
• Quality assurance calls to ensure customers are satisfied.
• Use web conferencing tools to facilitate new product launches.
• Utilize Twitter and Facebook as communication tools.
• Create a social media policy and encourage employees to report misinformation about the company and have internal teams that will address the issue.
• Utilize Google Alerts.
• Research and identify demographic, geographic and consumer content preferences. This information will be used to develop web and social media campaigns to supplement the traditional marketing mix.
• Conduct targeted community events and encourage employees at multiple levels to participate and get involved.
   

Issue Three: How to maintain top quality performance and employees. How to make our employees have the most current information and technology available to enable them to do their jobs well.

• Senior leadership team must support ongoing training initiatives.
• Create a new hire assessment that will be completed after a probationary period.
• Provide refresher trainings for tenured employees.
• Structured job rotation program where employees learn the core business functions.
• Provide competitive coaching on industry trends, practices, challenges and products. Also, make sure to train employees on the cultural differences of customers and how that alters the customer experience.
• Create an apprentice program to fast track high potential new leaders into the company.
• Provide management/executive training.
• Offer a career counseling program.
   

Congratulations to team Pink Tech Power. They presented the best solutions to the case study problems. Each member of the team won a Kindle donated by Time Warner.

Check out the pictures from the event on WICT Greater Chicago's Facebook page.

Getting to Know Our Members...

Welcome to the Board, Katy!

Katy Weber, Junior Treasurer in 2011 and Senior Treasurer in 2012

Director of Human Resources, Comcast

Katy graduated from ETHS (Evanston Township HS) in 1982, in 1987 she graduated from UW/Madison - BS in Elementary Education and in 1993 graduated from IIT - Chicago Kent College of Law, JD.  She also has a SPHR Certificate.

Katy worked as an elementary education teacher in New Zealand and in Evanston.  She also worked as an advocate for Women in the trades in Chicago.  Katy fell into HR in 1996 as HR Manager for Vienna Beef for five years, yes she is the hot dog lady! Her husband still works there and she gets discounted wieners for her friends and family (Greg Bazan hits her up regularly).   Due to the relationship with her soon to be husband at the hot dog factory, she changed jobs and transitioned into transportation.  Katy worked two years with Emery Worldwide, Air Freight forwarder as Regional HR Manager and five years with Yellow Transportation, later YRC, Inc. as Division HR Lead.

Then she had the blessing and good fortune to have her option picked up by Comcast!

Katy has four wonderful kids Kyle twenty-one, Kaitlyn eighteen, John twelve and Magdalena four and she is still with the weenie man, Al, who vacuums and does laundry regularly.  (Eat your heart out, ladies!) They have lived in Palatine for the past 10 years. 

Katy sits on the board of Fresh Start for Our Youth which is a grass roots organization helping to provide adolescents and their families with resources for dealing with addictions and the many challenges that accompany that family disease.

She likes long walks on the beach and curling up with a good book...oh yeah that's not her, that's some singles ad.  She likes food!  Her favorite food is MORE.

Fun Facts:

1.    What is the one show you watch every week?  The Closer or since that is always in repeats I watch Forensic Files.

2.    What leadership book are you currently touting?  If You Don't Make Waves You'll Drown by Dave Anderson.      

3.     Do you have any vacation plans?  Much of my family lives out east so we are constantly making arrangements to travel to be together...we currently have a half baked plan to drive to OHIO in February and meet half way.

4.    Who is your favorite sports team?  Palatine Young Gunz, my 12 year-old son's baseball team

5.    What was your most embarrassing moment?  While acting Day Camp Director I was "pantsed" in front of the whole camp and my underwear were connected to my shorts.

6.    What is your most memorable advice from a boss?  "Katy, you may have friends but they don't work here."  I don't actually accept that advice but it is my most memorable.