The case for augmenting talent development with relationship-driven resourcing partnerships

One would be hard-pressed to find an organization in any sector – private, non-profit, or government – that is not concerned about the need to attract and retain a workforce that will support their organizational mission.  This has created worrisome situations such as failure to attract qualified applicants (even at increased pay rates) and high turnover. 

Organizations have responded by developing a variety of “education as a benefit” programs that provide employees access to continuous learning to develop in-demand skills and grow with the organization.  These include tuition assistance/reimbursement programs, student loan repayment plans, on site (or online) classroom-based training, and access to libraries of learning assets and other self-directed online courses.  While these are all effective tools that talent acquisition and development professionals can employ, they do not necessarily yield their intended results and often are underutilized.

What, then, can be added to the mix that further addresses the needs of employee-learners and their employers – for employees, short-term skill acquisition, for employers the ability to quickly pivot to the needs of fast-changing markets, and for both employees and employers, sustainable development of the next generation of leaders from a robust internal talent pipeline of employees that espouse the organization’s culture?

Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education recognized the need for a solution that meets the personal learning and career needs of employees and the business, talent acquisition, and talent retention requirements of employers … the Personal Learning Co-Created Cohort delivery model.

The Personal Learning Co-Created Cohort delivery model

Key to our approach is building quality professional relationships with our partners.

Informed by the changing dynamics in the economy (e.g., technology/AI, flattened organizations, labor shortages, supply chain/sourcing issues, globalization, etc.), our approach combines best practices from industry with proven frameworks from academia – this brings the best of both worlds to your organization.  Two imperatives drive our approach: the increased need for ongoing reskilling/upskilling to take advantage of changes in the way work is done and the value of attracting/retaining/promoting employees who embrace the culture of the organization. 

We combine those elements of our Personal Learning Coach practitioner-academic model – one that focus on the career goals of your organization’s employee-learners – with the more traditional cohort-based hybrid delivery that focuses on those skills your organization needs to achieve the flexibility required to meet the ever-changing demands of your customers (private sector) or clients (non-profit and government agencies).    

How it works

We begin our conversation by listening.

Combining a team of seasoned management consulting professionals from the private sector with the weight of academic experts from Rutgers School of Business- Camden, our team begins by identifying the important outcomes you seek for your organization. Our proposed training solution takes a strategic enterprise approach and will be co-created with those in your organization who are responsible for delivering on the organization’s strategy.  This results in impactful programs that balance a key requirement of the organization’s success in its industry (i.e., talent acquisition, retention, and engagement) with the needs of the human capital that will drive that success (i.e., talent development, skill acquisition, and career support).

Additional benefits of our approach include enhancing your organization’s brand; advancing, diversity, equity, and inclusion; displaying corporate citizenship; and driving revenue and profitability.

Audience

Talent acquisition and development departments are tasked with doing more and knowing more … often within tight budgets. Organizations recognize that having ongoing learning and development activities that support the needs of their business – or mission of their non-profit – is crucial to staying competitive and maintaining a thriving organization.  

On the one hand, organizations do not have the budget, staff, or the range of expertise to meet the expanding training needs of their organization.  But at the same time, the organization needs to meet an ongoing stream of changes occurring in their operating environment and employees are impatient to acquire those skills that they need to advance their career.  Both want – and need – them now. 

One solution an organization can draw upon to meet these two seemingly conflicting forces resides in developing relationship-driven resourcing partnerships with trusted partners such as Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education to augment the reach of your training and development department.

Some examples that you may be faced with today where Rutgers University – Camden Professional and Executive Education can step in to support your training and development efforts include:

• You have numerous, diverse training needs
• You lack technology or process expertise
• You want interactive e-learning on a topic that has arisen as a key driver of your business
• You have temporary or short-term training or development needs
• You have budget or time constraints
• You want a credible outside organization to deliver the training

In addition to serving the needs of your organization, upon successful program completion, learners will earn a credential to put on their resume that showcases their newly acquired skills from a trusted public institution serving the people, businesses, and government agencies in the state of New Jersey for over 250 years.

Rutgers is a brand associated with quality that instills confidence in learners and employers¹.

For more information about Rutgers–Camden’s Professional and Executive Education programs, visit execed.rutgers.edu, send an email to execed@camden.rutgers.edu or call our office at 856-225-6685.

¹. Rutgers’ founding in 1766 puts it in the same esteemed class as the Ivy League colleges.  Its decision to serve the needs of all learners as a public institution translates into the same quality as those that chose a private path that we now call “Ivies.”