Empire Education, October 9, 2009, Friday
Empire Education
Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies
October 9, 2009, Friday
Empire Education
Schools roll with the job market changes
Cornell ILR School: Building the next generation of HR leaders
As companies slowly move away from hiring freezes and furloughs over the next few quarters, the focus will turn once again to growth. And while the current shortage of human resources talent may not be a critical issue now, it most likely will be when the economic recovery picks up. The strategic HR executive education programs at Cornell University’s ILR School (Industrial and Labor Relations) helps companies develop these critical future HR leaders.
A shortage of qualified HR talent
CEOs often cite skills gaps and talent deficiencies as critical issues they must wrestle with to keep their organizations performing at a high level. However, the same is true within the HR function itself. Anecdotal evidence suggests that organizations may be reaching a tipping point—one at which a lack of contemporary HR skills and future HR leaders intersects with higher demands placed on the HR function to deliver value and contribute more to business success.
Bridging the HR skills gap
Done well, university-based executive training programs—like at Cornell’s ILR School— can help close the skills gap for key HR executives and develop future HR leaders. “Hundreds of studies show that training is one of the most effective organizational interventions for enhancing employee capabilities and performance,” notes Brad Bell, associate professor of HR Studies and director of executive education in Cornell’s ILR School. “In addition, training has a powerful impact on employee engagement. Thus, companies that invest in developing their employees reap the benefits of a more competent and committed workforce.”
The ILR HR Executive Education Approach
Cornell ILR School HR executive education programs help HR professionals provide HR
services that enhance firm performance. To do this, program faculty focus on clearly linking
HR activities and strategies to bottom-line business outcomes. Programs are open to sets
of company teams, or can be customized for individual companies.
“Academic theory and real world practice often travel along parallel paths. Sometimes, practitioners get way out ahead of the science,” says John Haggerty, managing director of executive education in the Cornell ILR School. “In other cases, researchers know more about certain topics than they have been able to effectively transfer to practitioners. Our approach to HR executive education takes this dynamic into account. We try to make science relevant in the real world, while showing that some assumptions practitioners make may be in conflict with what the science shows. It’s a hands-on, focused discussion that sometimes looks more like a debate!”
For executive students, translating theory into practice begins when company teams bring a current business—not HR—problem to the course. Each team is expected to begin generating the HR solution to this business case through their work in class. The faculty serves as both subject matter expert and team coach or consultant, helping groups work their way from problem definition to a fully developed HR intervention.
Maximizing HR executive education
Cornell ILR HR executive education programs help build the strategic competency and business leadership of HR professionals. Week-long programs are intensive and designed for impact back in the office. As such, they can be an important component of a company’s HR development portfolio. And in today’s economic environment, maximizing the impact of HR training is more important than ever—especially with growth on the horizon.
ILR School advances the world of work
Cornell University’s ILR School -- advancing the world of work through teaching, research and outreach -- prepares leaders, informs national and international employment and labor policy and improves working lives.
The school offers undergraduate and graduate education, plus career-long learning for professionals, including executive education ilr.cornell.edu/execed/.
ILR studies many areas that shape the working world and contribute to an organization’s success in a global economy. These include:
- human resource management
- labor-management relations
- labor economics
- organizational behavior
- international and comparative labor
- labor relations
- labor law and history
- conflict resolution
- management development
- diversity management
- employment and disability
- social statistics.
organizations work and how they fit into the larger society and economy.
As a result, they acquire knowledge and skills that help them to solve problems on-the-job and to build and manage productive work relationships. An ILR education, for students and professionals, is practical and applied.
ILR has more full-time faculty involved in teaching and research that spans the broad range of work and employment disciplines than any other educational institution of its kind.
The school’s Martin P.Catherwood Library is regarded as the most comprehensive source of information in North America on work, employment and labor issues.
ILR was founded in 1945 as the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
As the world of work evolves, the school’s focus broadens to keep pace with that change. Today, the school is becoming better known simply as ILR.
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