Pro Bono Consultant Profile
RoJean DeChantal
Account Director in San Francisco Bay Area
Background
RoJean has worked in numerous consumer product and hospitality organizations as an SVP of Human Resources, leading HR teams in contributing to strategic and operational goals. She currently serves as a senior consultant with Torchiana, Mastrov and Sapiro.
Pro Bono Client & Project
Reading Partners, Human Resources Capacity Build
What was your Taproot Foundation project?
Reading Partners is dedicated to transforming struggling children into confident readers who are excited about learning. They recruit and train community volunteers to tutor children one on one, helping them develop the reading skills they need to reach their full potential. Reading Partners anticipated significant growth and turned to the Taproot Foundation for help in assessing and understand their HR function.
What was your team experience?
Our team came together quickly to understand the client’s needs. Each member of the team approached the project with skill, professionalism and enthusiasm. Collaborating as a virtual team worked well, team members were committed and accountable for deliverables. We also really got the chance to bond during our in-person meetings with the client and continue to stay in touch with each other. As our team came together, we all agreed that we chose the Taproot Foundation as an opportunity to do pro bono work because it allowed us to contribute our professional expertise and actively involve ourselves in building much needed HR knowledge and capabilities in client organizations.
What were the biggest challenges?
Our biggest challenge was the fact that we were all new to the Taproot Foundation, both the pro bono consultant team and the client team. We acknowledged this upfront in a joint team meeting and agreed we would follow the Taproot Foundation’s blueprint as closely as possible to ensure desired outcomes were achieved.
How can the business community and nonprofit sector strengthen one another?
People are people regardless of whether they work in a nonprofit or a for-profit organization. The needs for effective HR programs, systems, and processes are generally the same. The challenge is that many nonprofits have neither the expertise nor the resources to build a strategic framework to help people succeed. At the same time, the business community stands to learn a lot from the way nonprofits use mission passion to motivate their employees.
What impact did your work have on the nonprofit?
While the client had some basic HR in place, we discovered there was less structure and focus in this area than anyone thought. This discovery created the opportunity to fully engage the client in identifying solutions and rethinking the effectiveness of their current system. It also was a significant education process for the client in understanding the nuances of the HR function and the importance of understanding both the intended and unintended consequences of implementing new procedures and systems. As a result of our analysis, Reading Partners was able to secure a $25,000 grant to help build their HR capacity.
How have you grown from your pro bono work?
This project was what I would call ‘Heaven for an HR professional.’ I loved seeing the impact of HR on a small, growth oriented nonprofit.
What do you do when you’re not doing pro bono?
I work as a senior career consultant with candidates in job search and travel around the world. I just returned from a 3-week trip to Morocco.
