In touch - Saint Joseph's College of Maine

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Companies get youthful advice. Students get taste of corporate world. by Don Perkins Thanks to students majoring in human resource management, a local law firm now uses Facebook, an insurance company has the ability to “tweet,” and a nearby hospital knows what it will take to retain its new crop of Generation Y and Z employees. The major is a mere two years old, but under the tutelage of business professor Beth Richardson, its students have already proved their value to local companies. When a human resources office lacks the time or staff to research pressing issues, they turn to Richardson’s students to find answers. As a former human resources (HR) executive herself, Richardson has forged a rich network of corporate contacts. Thanks to those connections, Richardson was able to build a unique program that benefits businesses and students alike. Even as it provides needed research for companies, it prepares students professionally – sometimes leading directly to jobs. So far, her students have helped eight area companies research a range of issues, including recruitment strategies, the Employee Free Choice Act, executive compensation and new employee orientation. “I’m pleasantly surprised with how seriously the students take these projects. It’s not just another research paper for them. The fact that they are doing real work is not lost on them…. They rise to the occasion.” Beth Richardson, business professor Hiring qualified workers from Asia is a key issue for Fairchild Semiconductor, headquartered in South Portland, Maine. Brad Bingham ’08 did research to help the company with their visa issues for foreign workers. He is shown here with Pat Johnson, HR director at Fairchild. Jillian Leger ’08, a past student of Richardson’s who now works in HR at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, sums the program up best. “Those classes weren’t the type of classes where you could get an A or a B on a test,” she says. “You either did a good job with your projects at the company or you didn’t. There’s no fooling around. That was my first taste of the corporate world.” 12 S A I N T J O S E P H ’ S C O L L E G E M A G A Z I N E
Business professor Beth Richardson’s commitment and energetic style led to a unique partnership program that benefits students and businesses. No other college in Maine sponsors a corporate student learning experience in human resources, a fact that impresses the local chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management. Fairchild Semiconductor, headquartered in South Portland, Maine, often hires highly trained engineers from Asia, and Saint Joseph’s students helped the company navigate the world of immigration and visas. Brad Bingham ’08 researched Fairchild’s H-1B visa issues. “There is currently a cap on the number of immigrants allowed to come work in the United States,” says Bingham, who in working with the immigration system learned about ways to facilitate the hiring of highly skilled foreign employees who didn’t need visas. Bingham was hired by Fairchild after graduation in the training and development section. “Brad brought a lot to the table with his visa research,” says Pat Johnson, Fairchild’s HR director. “We invited our whole HR community to attend his presentation; he uncovered things we were not aware of.” At Mercy Hospital, a student team is developing standards for hospital-college partnerships. Last year, a different student team completed a large project on introducing younger generations to health care careers. “Young people bring in a different perspective and have done some very useful things for us,” says Peter Russell, Mercy’s HR director. “We want to develop a more in-depth partnership with Saint Joseph’s.” A group of Richardson’s students developed an internal social-networking project for UNUM, a Fortune 500 insurance company that wanted to connect people who work in different departments but have similar interests. “People of like-ethnicity and age groups can connect,” Richardson says. “The goal is to keep turnover low and to keep baby boomers engaged and not necessarily thinking about retirement.” Kim Wallace ’08 helped to implement those social networking applications at UNUM, when she got a job there after graduation. The company, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tenn., has more than 3,000 employees in Maine. One of the applications she helped to launch, “Third Thursdays,” brings newly hired college graduates together at the company for lunch where they learn more about each other and the organization. “Different forms of social networking build employee engagement,” says Marie Clements, assistant vice president of human resource strategies at UNUM, who notes there are four generations in today’s workplace for the first time in history. “Employee engagement is a very contemporary issue for companies; it’s certainly high on our radar screen. The work the Saint Joseph’s students helped us discover specifically was what Gen Y really looks for in an employer. We want to be able to communicate to all our employees – and prospective employees – in a way that works effectively for them.” Wallace has taken up “new media” projects for the company – using Twitter and Facebook as recruitment tools. Called “unumrecruit,” Wallace says the company’s Twitter account is helpful for visiting college campuses during UNUM’s annual fall recruitment drive. “Twitter users can easily find out where we might be,” says Wallace, 23. “It actually started as my per- (continued on next page) Jillian Leger ’08 researched social networking for employee retention at UNUM for her first real-world experience as a human resources management major. She now works in the human resources office at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine. A U T U M N 2 0 0 9 13
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