Drexel's Human Resources team has worked with senior management to develop a full range of training and development programs that support StudentsFirst. New_employees are immediately given exposure to the FIRST Principles on their first day as part of the Welcome_Aboard_Program. Both faculty and staff managers experience the FIRST_Principles for Leaders, and individual contributors participate in FIRST_Principles_for_Success. In addition, senior_managers work together in retreat settings to apply the FIRST Principles to their own work and plan strategically for broad service improvements. The Six Sigma Green Belt certification, now offered to Drexel employees, is also a part of the StudentsFirst training initiative. Workshops on Action_Planning_for_the_Future are currently being delivered to all faculty and staff, supervisors, and managers.
FIRST Principles for New Employees
At Drexel, employee development begins the first day on the job. The FIRST Principles are applied in three ways with regard to new employees:
- As a guide for selecting and hiring the right people.
- Both online and classroom components of the new employee orientation program, Welcome Aboard reinforce the FIRST Principles in action. Starting on December 5, 2005 all new employees participate in a FIRST Principles module during their orientation program on their first day of employment.
- HR works with hiring managers to make sure things go well smoothly the new employee's first months here, that employees easily assimilate into their new role, and that they understand and can apply FIRST Principles on the job.
FIRST Principles for Leaders
Over 350 middle managers, Drexel's mid- and line-level leadership pool, have participated in this 4½ hour training session. This interactive classroom session includes content and skill practice on how to demonstrate and support the FIRST Principles within each participant's work team, including effective coaching and appropriate use of rewards and recognition. Participants were also required to complete a brief pre-work assignment before attending this training session.
First Principles for Success
Nearly all 900 administrative staff have participated in training on the FIRST Principles. This 4-hour interactive classroom session includes content and skill practice on how to demonstrate and support the FIRST Principles on-the-job. As with First Principles for Leaders , participants were required to complete a brief pre-work assignment before attending.
StudentsFirst Executive Session
22 executives including the president and his direct reports participated in a day-long executive session held on Saturday, October 22, 2005. In this session, participants discussed the forces that are driving change in education and for Drexel, identified service and leadership “musts”, and defined objectives for communication and collaboration across the University.
Action Planning for the Future
Drexel has made a real and substantial commitment to enhancing the quality of service we provide to students through our administrative functions. The data collected through Gallup 's Q-12 Employee Engagement assessment is one of the benchmarks against which we will measure our success. All managers will receive a scorecard that relates to their areas of responsibility, and some managers will receive an individual scorecard showing cumulative responses from their own direct reports. All managers are expected to review results and work with their team with the objective of showing appreciable gains when the survey is administered again in early 2007. To emphasize the importance of this process, President Papadakis indicated that all faculty and staff who manage one or more administrative employees should participate in one of these training sessions.
During your Q-12 Employee Engagement training session, you will receive:
- An overview of Gallup 's assessment methodology
- Instruction on how to read and interpret Gallup 's unique reporting format
- Q-12 Assessment results for their area
- Tools and process for discussing, selecting, planning, and following-through on these results with your team
- Preparation for the 2007 follow-up assessment
