For some time, Emory has been one of the largest employers in the
Atlanta area, but for Human Resources, thats not enough: They
aim to help keep the University one of the citys best employers.
With an eye toward enhancing Emory as an employer of choice,
HR continues to design and modify development programs to help employees
improve their skills without having to leave campus. From new managers
looking to get a head start on supervisory skills to employees working
to earn their general equivalency degree (GED), there are programs
to help at 1762 Clifton.
We want a workplace where people want to come work with us
and want to stay with us, said Sharon DeHaven, manager of
training and development. An employer of choice
is one to whom employees have loyalty, speak well of, and recommend
to others.The slogan of our employee referral programFind
An Originalreflects the stature of our own employees.
The referral programs success is reflected in the statistics:
There have been more than 700 hires in the last four years as a
result of Emory employees referring people they know.
Emory won successive Governors Awards for its literacy training
that became the foundation for the Skills Enhancement Program (SEP).
The SEP consists of Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English as a
Second Language (ESL) course offerings. Program Development Specialist
La Shanda Perryman has coordinated these twice-weekly classes since
being hired more than two years ago, and this semester she is teaching
10 of the 12 classes being offered.
After last fall, Perryman said, the decision was made to create
classes by educational level, resulting in smaller classes that
catered more to the individual students. In the past, it was
sort of like The Little House on the Prairie, with all
the levels together in one classroom, Perryman said. By
breaking up the classes we can offer more targeted instruction based
on need. And weve probably increased the number of participants
by about 50 percent.
Three Emory employees have earned their GEDs during Perrymans
tenure, and another earned a high school diploma. Chauncey Brown,
who works in staging for Facilities Management (FM), earned his
GED in March 2001.
The thing I liked about it was that La Shanda worked with
each individual at their own speed, said Brown, who has also
taken University courses as a student in special standing. Emory
gave me the opportunity to get my education, and I think others
should take advantage of the opportunity.
One new offering is a conversational Spanish course for employees
who want to communicate better with Spanish-speaking colleagues.
DeHaven said two such classes have been offeredone for FM
supervisors and one at the Yerkes Field Stationand three more
will be offered this year.
In January, the 5-year-old Frontline Leadership received
a makeover and a new name: Leadership for Results. The
program provides training to better enable managers and supervisors
to provide a meaningful and productive work environment.
This is a new and improved version [of Frontline Leadership],
DeHaven said, explaining that the program contains both management
principles as well as Emory-specific policy and procedures. The
program is being conducted on the main campus and at the Oxford
and Briarcliff campuses. There have been more than 200 participants
since the programs rebirth at the beginning of the year.
Supervisors play an instrumental role in employee job satisfaction,
said Aimee Harris, call center supervisor at Crawford Long Hospital
and a recent Leadership for Results participant. This program
helped me to understand how I can be more effective.
Human Resources has also begun offering a class entitled HR
Toolkit that is designed as an overview of human resources
practices and procedures for those with HR responsibilities.
All of these programs are offered in addition to long-running HR
courses such as business writing, time management, telephone techniques
and others.
Thats what keeps us an employer of choice, DeHaven
said. Its our focus on developing people at Emory, its
our focus on enhancing the workplace for the entire Emory community.
Its about fostering an inclusive workplace, said
Alice Miller, vice president of Human Resources. We value
all of our employees, and we are offering progressive and responsive
HR programs for them. We are striving to stay an employer of choice.
For more information on HR development programs, visit http://emory.hr.emory.edu/HR/training.nsf
or call Sharon DeHaven at 404-727-0413.
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