Fall Training Updates
Supervisor Programs
NEW! Staff Supervisory Essentials Sessions
Transitioning to a supervisory role is a mindset shift requiring new skills and responsibilities. Understanding your role, communicating effectively, managing performance and awareness of legal responsibilities are key to your success. This session will introduce you to the essential concepts in each of these areas. You'll also learn when and how to work with the Office of Human Resources and where to access additional support and resources. Sessions will be held on Sept. 30, Oct. 21 and Nov. 13. Log in to FocusU to register.
Staff Supervisory Awareness Virtual Sessions
The Staff Supervisory Awareness program provides supervisors of all experience levels with a solid foundation of core human resources knowledge. The program emphasizes CMU's values and supports building a fair and equitable workplace. Nine instructor-led sessions run on Wednesdays, 9 a.m.–noon, beginning Sept. 10. Log in to FocusU to view descriptions and register. Each session requires separate registration.
Virtual Workshops Hosted by PNC Bank
- Tuesday, Oct. 14 from 10–11 a.m.: Budgeting 2.0: Making Budgets Work
This workshop will help you determine your own obstacles to budgeting, track and analyze your spending, decide on short- and long-term goals, discuss the importance of debt reduction and emergency savings, and manage your day-to-day spending to increase your financial security. Register now. - Tuesday, Nov. 18 from 10:30–11:30 a.m.: Debt Management
In this workshop, you'll learn to build a budget that helps pay down your debt, explore different debt management strategies, and create a personal plan for reducing your debt and improving your credit score. Register now.
Design Fusion Certificate Program Accepting Nominations
The Design Fusion Certificate Program is designed to foster a more creative, imaginative and collaborative culture at CMU. Participants work both individually and in teams with colleagues from across the university. Through hands-on experiences and guided exploration, they learn design methods and creative strategies that shift perspectives and spark new approaches to complex challenges. Each cohort will focus on a university facility, service or system as a real-world case study, developing proposals for meaningful, strategic improvement.
Nominations are currently being accepted for the October cohort. Visit the Design Fusion Certificate Program page to learn more about the nomination process, program format and schedule.
Learning Partners Meeting Sept. 25 at 9 a.m.
The Learning Partners group brings together more than 100 individuals within the campus community who provide training and other learning opportunities. Our quarterly meetings provide Learning Partners the opportunity to network and collaborate, to share what members are doing in their respective areas, to identify ways to support and promote one another's programs and services, and to engage in professional development activities that will help strengthen our respective programs. Interested in joining the group? Contact the Learning and Development team to get added to the meeting invite list and Google group.
Lean Six Sigma Update
The 2025 Lean Six Sigma program launched in June with nine participants representing six areas across the university. The program started with a week of in-person training covering the project management discipline. The training continued through June and July with virtual sessions as the program participants began to consider how best to apply these strategies to their assigned project.
The teams are now reviewing data and interviewing stakeholders to better understand the current state of the processes that they were asked to assess. This analysis will lead to recommendations for process improvement that will be shared in a presentation to the executive sponsors by year's end.
CMULead Update
The 2025 CMULead program launched in June with 28 participants representing 13 areas across the university. The program started with an in-person orientation and team building agenda. Since then, this year's participants have been meeting twice a month (both virtually and in person), addressing topics like building a leadership brand, employee retention, risk management and change management. They have also been meeting with college and division leaders to discuss their career journeys and address key leadership topics like the role of research at the university, strategic thinking and team building.
In August, the HR Learning and Development team hosted a networking event for current participants and past graduates. The program culminates with a graduation in November.