May 17, 2010

On March 25, 2010, Continuing & Innovative Education’s (CIE) Professional Development Center (PDC) welcomed 60 Austin-based human resources (HR) professionals —and alumni of PDC’s Human Resources Management (HRM) program —“back home” to the university campus. The event, held at the Thompson Conference Center, was designed to celebrate these PDC alumni, offer them a valuable opportunity to network, and earn continuing education credit by attending an important and spirited panel discussion.

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The HRM program prepares HR workers to take and pass national certification exams, such as the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). “It’s a challenging course, but students have a great pass rate after taking this program,” says Betsy Arumi, program coordinator for the PDC. “The pass rate is 100% for PHR and in the high 80 percentile for the SPHR.” Continuing education credit is required of HR professionals to keep their certification up to date. Thus, attending the panel discussion provided attendees with a one hour credit toward this goal.

“Continuing & Innovative Education is always looking for new ways to bring added value to the lives of our students, clients and alumni,” stated Stacy McCracken, CIE’s chief development officer. “It’s wonderful to bring people together and to create fresh opportunities for continuing professional development or education. It’s what CIE is all about.”

Julien Carter, the university’s associate VP for Human Resource Services, led the panel discussion, made up of PDC instructors, entitled “How Will Technology Affect the Future Alignment of HR?”  The discussion attempted to address the concerns of many attendees as to the use of various technologies to develop and/or carry out an organization’s strategic plan. “Whether it is making a decision to purchase technology or how to best use the technology you have, HR must focus on the business needs and issues of the organization,” stated Carter. “If that can’t be done, then technology is just a business cost rather than a business asset.”

Speakers also discussed how technology may ultimately change HR professions—either by making them obsolete or completely unrecognizable from today’s standards.  “Individuals considering entry-level positions [in human resources] should be as familiar with technology as possible,” says panelist Donna Howard. “That includes being familiar with as many different systems available and taking advantage of technology-focused opportunities, such as taking part in implementation teams, workshops and focus groups.”

By the end of the discussion, each of the panelists concluded that while we’ll all be using technology more than ever before, technology still won’t fully replace the human resources employee. The intangible “human element” is still needed to make the kinds of life-altering decisions demanded of human resources. “A person with good judgment and experience will still be necessary to put HR issues into perspective,” summed up Arumi.

Please visit the PDC Web site for more information on upcoming events, Webinars, seminars and workshops.