CHRM Newletter, April 2013

CENTER FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

2013 CHRM Highlights

April 2013

The year 2013 is off to an exciting start at the Center for Human Resource Management and the Master of Science in Human Resource Management program. Twenty-four of our students graduated in December. And once again, 100% of our full-time students (with US work authorization) found placement within a month of graduation-- 73% of those students are with our CHRM partner companies!

A total of twenty-two MS students are on campus this spring semester. Thanks to our partner companies, we were able to feature a CHRM Spring Speaker Series. The Series incorporated speakers from our partner companies and provided additional, practical education for the students in certain important areas within the field of HR. A few more key activities are coming up this semester for our students, including a case competition at the Southwest Central Student SHRM Conference and the Finance-for-HR class. Within a month, all of our students will be off to their summer internships, most of them with our CHRM partners. Thank you all for your continued support and involvement with the Center and our MS program.

All of our first-year students have secured summer internships. Sixteen of the twenty-one will work for CHRM partner companies. Additionally, we have recruited a class of forty students to enter the program next fall. We are pleased to report that we have successfully increased the size of the program while maintaining our high admission standards.

The average GPA of the incoming class is 3.6, and the average test scores are at the 65th percentile on the verbal portion of the GRA/ GMAT, and 52nd percentile on the quantitative portion of the exams. These numbers are almost identical to those of our previous classes. The new students are from nine different states, and they have an average of seven months of work experience in Human Resources. We look forward to their arrival and to introducing them to our partner companies in early September.

February 20 MS-HRM students attended a lunch-and-learn seminar led by Mark Wojcik, Former VP of HR for Shell Qatar. Mark discussed International and Global HR, a topic of interest to many students in the MS-HRM program. Mark shared his experiences leading HR teams in Shell’s headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands, in a new pipeline build in Sakhalin, Russia, and in a new country entry in The Pearl, Qatar. Valuable insight was also given into best HR practices when working overseas as well as beneficial advice for careers in HR. After Mark’s presentation, the students engaged in a question-and-answer session with Mark and Frank Krekeler (from the Houston Shell office) to learn more about the growing demands for Global Teams and HR roles.

In this issue: Guest speakers from Lockheed Martin, Marathon Oil, and Raytheon. Page 2.

Guest speaker from Devon Energy, GE Networking Session, and Dr. Schleicher’s Organizational Behavior class. Page 3.

Above: Shell’s Mark Wojcik and Frank Krekeler enjoy a laugh with student Katherine Jacoby Below: Mark Wojcik points at a map of Sakhalin Island, where he worked for Shell

Guest Speakers in MS-HRM classes March 6 Gary McPherson, VP of HR at Lockheed Martin taught our Human Resource Development class and then was the star attraction in a lunch-and-learn session with the MS-HRM students. Gary presented the topic “Coaching Leaders.” He spoke in depth about the processes involved in leadership coaching and the value it can bring an organization. The students benefited from hearing Gary’s personal experiences and advice on effective coaching of high-level executives, as well as mid-level managers and supervisors. Gary highlighted the differences between internal and external coaching, mentoring vs. coaching, and the importance of establishing upfront agreements about desired coaching outcomes, Gary McPherson, Lockheed-Martin, gives advice to The students then engaged in a questionMSHRM students on executive coaching and-answer session with Gary to get further insight into how to be an effective leadership coach and what skills to develop when considering coaching as a career opportunity.

March 18

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Tamara Atkins, a Senior OD Consultant with Marathon Oil came to talk to the students about effective communication. Tamara shared insights regarding the transition from school to the corporate setting, and discussed business etiquette and the corporate environment. Importantly, Tamara also gave the students practical guidance on things like email communication, executive presentations and the use of PowerPoint.

March 19 Dana Meyer, Director of Employee Engagement and HR Strategy at Raytheon, spoke to the MS-HRM students about effective partnering. She talked about how to build proper business relationships with clients and truly become an active member of a leadership team. Dana provided specific examples of strategic HR professionals contributing to business decisions and facilitating leadership teams through critical discussions and initiatives, even on things that are not normally with in the “HR bucket.” She also spoke about Change Management, and helped the students see what successful HR involvement in leading change initiatives really looks like.

Guest Speakers in MS-HRM classes March 28 Sarah Fisher, an HR Manager with Devon Energy, taught the students about Talent Management processes and how to have discussions with leaders. She focused specifically on the work that our students will soon face in working their client groups through succession planning. Sarah’s presentation was very practical in nature, even covering the intricacies of preparing leaders for the succession planning process, scheduling calibration sessions, and how to challenge and push-back appropriately during those calibration discussions. In a question and answer session the students were able to learn from several of Sarah’s experiences in having difficult conversations, and they heard excellent advice on how to handle talent discussions.

April 9 In Dr. Deidra Schleicher’s Organization Behavior class, students recently participated in job interview role play exercises. They benefited tremendously from studying talent selection and then experiencing real interview scenarios, each followed by a class critique. Through this hands-on approach, the students gained better insight into the challenges of structuring an interview, developing specific questions, managing the conversation and accurately evaluating the candidates.

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Students Katherine Jacoby and Amanda Eller conduct a mock job interview while Professor Deidra Schleicher evaluates their performance.

April 12 Dr. Ben Welch and Ron Chandler had the privilege of participating in a Networking and Development Session for GE’s Houston HR professionals. Dr. Welch conducted a workshop about “The Art of Coaching,” which included role-plays with GE HR Managers as willing participants.

This was a great opportunity to share ideas and network with one of our partner companies.

Class critique was lively!