Employee Goals

Amy Werner took a job at the New York City-based search firm On-Ramps just over three years ago. Amy joined at an integral time in the firm’s growth and quickly became a key asset to the small firm. Sarah Grayson, one of the firm’s founding partners, manages Amy and explains, “Amy has a lot of institutional knowledge and is a high performer.” When she first began, she was working toward a degree in social work but taking classes at nights and on the weekends. A year and a half into the job, Amy’s school schedule became more complicated. Her internship requirements made working a traditional, full-time schedule difficult. Because of her star performance, Sarah and her fellow partners were keen to keep her on board while encouraging her to complete her degree. Amy remained full time but now works two days a week in the office, completing the rest of her hours on nights and weekends. As Amy says, “They have been nothing but supportive.”

The firm has a semi-annual review process where goals are set and discussed; they also do more frequent check-ins on goals during weekly meetings. Amy and Sarah have talked a lot about how On-Ramps can support Amy not only by providing a flexible schedule but by thinking about the intersection of her studies and her work. They’ve found that there are lots of transferable skills between her job as a search associate and her work as a social worker, such as interviewing and client management. In explaining why, they are so supportive of Amy’s educational activities, Sarah says, “We wouldn’t have done this for a low performer. We have to ask ourselves, ‘What would it take to hire another Amy?’” Amy will be finishing her master’s degree in May and she and Sarah have begun to discuss what’s next for her. Both hope that there is a way to combine her skills in search and her interest in social work to create a job that is ideal for both her and On-Ramps. (Adopted from Harvard Business Review, 2019).