Promising Human Resource Strategies: A Key to the Economic Rebound

Date: Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Time: 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET

Earlier this year, in one of the most ambitious undertakings of its kind, the Pew Center of the States, a division of the Pew Charitable Trusts, released a report titled Human Capital Trends and Innovations. In the forward to the report, Susan K. Urahn, Managing Director of the Pew Center on the States, and Neal C. Johnson, Director of the Government Performance Project wrote, “The nation is facing the most challenging financial crisis in at least a generation. As states struggle to adjust, the question is not whether to cut programs, but by how much. And it is not just the programs that are being cut, but also states’ capacity to run them. The women and men who make government operate, state employees, are facing early retirements, buyouts, wage cuts and furloughs, weakening the ability of state agencies to do their jobs.”

“It may seem counterintuitive in this time of budget cuts to suggest that states put time and effort into strengthening their workforces, but improving the performance and productivity of state employees will deliver more cost-effective and better services to residents. It will also yield higher morale and a renewed commitment to quality in a workforce regularly tasked to do more with less.”

Human Capital Trends and Innovations identified states where successful human resource policies and programs have been implemented by examining how those departments:

• Correctly identify their needs
• Hire the right employees for the job
• Train and develop their workforce
• Retain high functioning, competent workers
• Manage employee performance

The state governments featured in this report have demonstrated that focusing on these core objectives yields increased productivity and improved service delivery, with the added benefit of closer alignment between a state’s personnel and its goals.

Join the author of this report, Sally Selden, Ph.D., consultant for the Government Performance Project and professor of management and chair of the management program in the School of Business and Economics at Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Va., as she presents some of the findings of this important study. Dr. Selden will focus on promising Human Resource Management strategies that contribute to states’ human resource management capacity and their ability to rebound during these very difficult economic times. Specifically, the Webinar will examine workforce planning, hiring, training, performance management, mobility, morale, and communications. In focusing on these areas, Dr. Selden will present examples of effective and innovative practices, as well as illustrate approaches that could be employed as an organization’s resources shrink.

Dr. Selden will be joined by Neal C. Johnson, Director of the Pew Center on the States’ GPP. Neal oversees extensive research and analysis that seeks to understand how states can better serve the public, and works with states to help strengthen state policy and management. GPP’s signature product is a 50-state report card which provides cross-state comparative information and detailed analyses of how individual states manage their money, people, infrastructure and information. Neal comes to Pew from the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), Center for Public Trusteeship and Governance where he served as deputy executive director. At AGB Neal helped launch a new center to strengthen governance of higher education, organized and facilitated state leadership summits, created an electronic news bulletin entitled, centerforgovernance.net and served as staff director to a national AGB task force on the state of the presidency in American higher education.  Prior to this, Neal worked as a senior research partner with the Office of Public Leadership at the Educational Testing Service; an executive editor with the National Academy of Public Administration, Alliance for Redesigning Government; a senior policy/budget analyst for the Office of the Governor of Colorado in the Office of State Budgeting and Planning; and a fiscal analyst for the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency as well as other legislative, program and policy analyst positions.

Dr. Selden will also be joined by Jeffrey Herring, Executive Director of Human Resources for the State of Utah and president of the National Association of State Personnel Executives. Mr. Herring has made practical use of the grades his department received in the 2008 Pew “Grading the States” program, and has achieved measurable improvements as a result of those changes. He will discuss some of the steps that Utah has taken to address recommendations of the Government Performance Project to improve the state’s already strong human capital system.

This Webinar is essential for HR professionals in the government sector, as well as for managers in the private sector who are interested in learning best practices that are transferable to virtually any HR department.

Register quickly and easily online to secure your space now. Or, please call 1-800-372-1033 option 6, then sub-menu option 1, and refer to date and title of conference. Lines are open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET, excluding most federal holidays.

Don't miss this opportunity to hear a lively, dynamic presentation. Not only are Webinars an excellent way for you to stay current; with BNA you also get:

• Quality. Count on it. Nothing is canned.
• Objectivity. BNA provides you with the best and most objective information. Unlike other companies, we don't use our Webinars as a forum to sell outside solutions.
• Affordability. BNA Webinars are inexpensive compared to the cost of travel to attend a conference. Plus, you may use a speakerphone and invite as many of your colleagues as you want to listen in-all for the price of a single registration.
• Convenience. No airlines. No travel. No time out of the office.

In addition, you'll receive:

• Personal attention. Once you've registered, send your questions in advance to msottong@bna.com and they'll be included in the program. You'll also have a chance to ask your questions during the Webinar.
• Follow-up materials. You need no materials upfront to follow along to our live conference. But BNA always issues a follow up e-mail with contact information for our speakers, as well as other materials related to the topic.
• 1.0 CPE or 1.5 HRCI credits by attending this Webinar. Find out how.

If you would like to apply for CPE credits, please make sure to provide your contact information when you register, note that you want to apply for CPEs, and attend the Webinar from start to finish. Please review the rules and restrictions.