Human Services Large Agency
Scaling for Impact: Human Services Redesign
Background
The client is a large human services agency with over 1,500 employees. The agency offers a broad portfolio of programs and services that includes community-based residential housing, adult day services, affordable housing, and behavioral and mental health services. A recent leadership change was made at the CEO level, hired from within the organization.
Challenge
The client experienced rapid growth over the years, resulting in an organization that was pieced together in an effort to keep pace with the level of growth. The CEO was faced with a tremendous amount of fragmentation, issues with reporting structures, accountability obstacles, and a mindset of management that seemed more appropriate for a small-to-mid size organization.
In addition, a mixing of job roles and responsibilities within and across departments resulted in a lack of functional alignment in the organization. The challenge was that the leadership had aspirations of growth and service improvement which were being limited by the structure and design of the organization and operations.
Solution
Curtis Strategy was contracted by the client to conduct a year-long organization design project focused on assessing capabilities, restructuring for growth, improving role clarity, and supporting the change management efforts to achieve the desired outcomes.
A strong partnership was formed with the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and Chief Human Resources Officer. These positions were critical to enroll in the project to ensure ownership, co-create the plan, and drive the implementation.
An organization and staffing assessment was conducted to capture the as-is design of the structure. Discussions with staff at various levels assisted in obtaining an understanding of what was working and not working throughout the organization. This uncovered patterns which informed the organizational restructuring. The restructuring included moving positions and departments and identifying leadership that could manage at a higher strategic mindset. The culmination of this work and our partnership with the client allowed for functional alignment across the organization.
As we balanced implementing in certain departments with planning in others, we were able to support the client in managing the change in a way that produced the intended results of improving service, lowering costs, acquiring new capabilities, and building a solid foundation to support future growth.
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