DeWITT — United Radio has started a leadership-development program, which the company says works at “developing leaders for the next century at United Radio.” “We started examining our talent-development process and decided that we weren’t being intentional enough with identifying and training people [on] what it means to be a leader at United Radio,” Mark […]
DeWITT — United Radio has started a leadership-development program, which the company says works at “developing leaders for the next century at United Radio.”
“We started examining our talent-development process and decided that we weren’t being intentional enough with identifying and training people [on] what it means to be a leader at United Radio,” Mark Fuller, CFO of United Radio, tells CNYBJ in an interview.
The two-year leadership-development program, which launched in 2022, has five pillars based on United Radio’s core values. They include recruiting, training, mentoring, career planning, and succession planning.
The key questions answered by the recruiting pillar of the initiative include: “How do we identify exceptional candidates and then how do we onboard them and welcome them into the company,” says Fuller.
The firm’s principals developed the leadership-development program’s parameters and content during 2021 and the first group of employees became involved earlier this year, he says.
The second group of employees, chosen in November, will begin in the program in January.
“We’re entering year two of the first cohort and year one of the second cohort,” Fuller says, noting a cohort has 10 employees.
United Radio has a total employee count of about 600 between its locations in DeWitt; Peachtree, Georgia; and Salt Lake City, Utah. Besides local employees, two participants each from the offices in Georgia and Utah will participate in the program, and they’ll take part both in person and in a hybrid format.
The leadership-development program includes 11 retreat days annually along with a review class once a month. United Radio doesn’t hold retreat days in December because the month is busy already. The company has held the retreats at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse and plans to do so again in 2023, Fuller notes.
Interested employees at United Radio can apply for the leadership-development program in August and company officials start reviewing applications after Labor Day. The company makes its employees aware of the development program between May and June before the opening of the application period.
About 40 employees submitted applications for the group that will start the program next year, according to Fuller.
“Everybody that was interviewed that was not admitted to the program had an individual meeting with a member of the [firm’s] advisory committee to discuss what they might do next year or over the course of the year to be successful in the next application window,” he adds.
Once employees complete the two-year leadership-development program, Fuller says they will be “positioned for growth at United Radio.”
For example, technicians who want to eventually lead a manufacturing line will be better positioned for such a role if they have been through the program.
“If you’ve been engaged and you incorporated the lessons in your leadership practice, you will be ready for the next assignment,” says Fuller.