HR Solutions and Connections: Employee Newsletter
This monthly e-publication is for faculty and staff of the university. It provides timely information about university priorities, strategies and processes.
JULY 2009 - Adapting Professional Development to Changing University Needs
July 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of the Learning and Development (L&D) program at Carnegie Mellon. We sat down with Barbara Smith, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Ronald Placone, Assistant VP for Learning and Development, to talk about how the program has evolved over the past decade to meet the changing needs of the university.
A Strategic Beginning
In the late 1990’s, the university engaged in a Strategic Planning process. President Cohon and the strategic planning team identified staff development as a key priority. “It was before the dot-com bust, and there was a lot of recruiting going on, especially technical talent,” Barbara recalls. The university already had a strong tuition benefit program (which allows eligible staff to take classes and earn a degree at Carnegie Mellon or elsewhere). “However, we needed to do more to enhance the applied skills (of our employees), to make them job-ready for the changing work-place,” she explains. The university recognized that developing the skills of current employees prepared them to take on new roles in the future, and improved job satisfaction and retention.
Ron Placone was brought in as the director of an in-house Learning and Development program. Establishing the role of L&D was, and continues to be, a collaborative process. Key university leaders participated in the early planning process, and continue to provide guidance via an L&D Advisory Board. L&D first developed a handful of learning seminars open and geared to staff. That first semester saw 140 enrollments. In 2001, Ron hired Lola Mason, and offerings expanded. Today, L&D offers dozens of programs each year, with several thousand participants. Open seminars continue to be a primary focus of L&D, because they benefit all faculty and staff, regardless of the resources that may be available for professional development activities.
Expanding the Focus
A critical factor in the success of any Carnegie Mellon program is the recognition of changing university needs and adapting to address those realities. While the L&D function was initially developed for staff, it quickly became clear that there were development needs for specific groups. In speaking with the university community upon his hire, Ron says that “it became clear that we were not doing enough for academic department heads. And (they) are so pivotal in terms of how the university operates.”
There was strong support from senior leadership for such a program, including the Provost, President and several Deans. “This is when I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore,” Ron recalls. “I was walking down Forbes Avenue – I had only been here a matter of months. I’d met President Cohon once for 15 minutes. He stopped me on the street. Not only did he know my name, but he said ‘I understand you’re working on a program for department heads.’ The fact that the President knew who I was and cared about something I was working on was very motivational.” A department head program was created in 2000, and Ron soon joined forces with the Eberly Center to cosponsor the program.
L&D also created a new leader assimilation program for academic and administrative leaders, patterned after a successful program at General Electric. The day-long program is a non-threatening opportunity for everyone to ask and answer questions, clear up rumors, hear the new leader’s philosophy for the group and get to know each other. “It shortens that six-month period where everyone dances around each other, feeling the new people out, to about two to three months. It creates a wonderful platform for the leader and sets the stage for a positive atmosphere,” Barbara observes.
In addition, L&D has developed customized and department programs (from on-site presentations of general curriculum and customized content, to surveys and discussion facilitation) to address the needs in a particular area. The Interactive Theatre program is a unique and award-winning program that capitalizes on the presence of a professional acting troupe on campus.
Preparing for the Future
L&D is now playing a critical role in preparing the university for the future. Human Resources has worked hard to position itself as a strategic partner in the university, from devising effective compensation and benefits strategies to implementing workforce management resources. “L&D is a great opportunity for HR to influence the future of the organization. It is the talent that is going to be here in the future, and (preparing that talent) is where people see the value added by HR,” she notes.
The L&D group became involved in the Leadership Symposium soon after Ron’s arrival. This program began as an annual legal update for managers. “Then, we saw a potential to do more than that, to make it broader by getting at best practices,” Ron explains. The bi-annual symposium has grown tremendously in both attendance and senior leadership support. In 2009 the Symposium brought in over 225 participants, and included a panel discussion with the Provost, CFO and Barbara.
Senior leadership also expressed the need to identify staff with high potential to be university leaders in the future, and provide a more intense development program for them. L&D launched the pilot year of the Leadership Academy in 2009. From among dozens of exceptional candidates, 20 participants were selected by a selection committee comprised of senior leaders. They are now engaged in a rigorous, year-long program that includes classroom work, a group capstone project, and individual assessments.
Ron also foresees the need for L&D to go beyond the typical classroom environment, particularly as the university continues to grow beyond the Oakland campus. “We have identified ways to deal with these global changes and do things not just from the classroom, but also utilizing videoconferencing and eLearning,” Ron explains. On-demand training is also seen as critical for those who can’t often attend scheduled classes. In addition to developing numerous in-house eLearning programs, L&D contracted with Harvard Business Publishing to make available a library of online programs called ManageMentor. For only $50, participants get unlimited access to nearly 50 programs for a full year.
A Culture of Learning
Ron and Barbara agree that Carnegie Mellon is unique in its spirit of continuous development, lifelong growth, and willingness to try new things. The importance of L&D has become “institutionalized” here, they say. “We have become very, very credible,” Barb notes. “We are recognized for having the expertise and providing value to the community.” Our reputation is growing. Ron says that he gets calls from around the country about L&D’s programs, as those organizations and universities seek to learn from our best practices.
Ron believes that our culture of learning stems from having senior leadership involved and engaged from the very beginning. “The Dean of the Heinz School (Mark Kamlet) was on the search committee for my position, and was on the first L&D advisory committee. He still came to the meetings for a year after he became Provost. Then he said, ‘I don’t think I can come anymore with my schedule. It’s not because of a lack of interest. But I feel good about where this program is.’ When you have the chief academic officer involved from point zero, that means something.” Ron was also able to build strong relationships with key department heads and leaders. L&D continues to work with senior leadership to ensure that L&D is addressing the most pressing needs of the university.
Perhaps more importantly, the staff who attend our programs see their value. And they tell others. Barb notes that “Our experience is that one success leads to another.” Ron concurs. “This is a small enough place that word of mouth can be your biggest advocate. If you are adding value, it doesn’t take long. We have a good relationship with managers across campus, because they were the major audience for many of our programs when I first arrived,” he explains. “I know that our programs are a success when people tell me they got more out of our seminars than they did from a training program they spent hundreds of dollars to attend. With departmental budgets being tight now, we hope to be seen as an even more critical resource for staff development at the university,” Ron says.
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