{"id":81835,"date":"2018-11-02T08:59:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T13:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=81835"},"modified":"2019-01-03T08:27:22","modified_gmt":"2019-01-03T14:27:22","slug":"delta-states-first-employer-listening-session-draws-rave-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2018\/11\/delta-states-first-employer-listening-session-draws-rave-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta State\u2019s First Employer Listening Session Draws Rave Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than two dozen area employers convened at Delta State University\u2019s first Employer Listening Session on Thursday, Nov. 1 to share workplace needs and potential ways the campus could help fill them. Representatives from a wide variety of sectors across the nonprofit, for-profit, and public service realms\u2014including healthcare, telecommunications, finance, government, utilities, hospitality, automotive, and law enforcement\u2014expressed curiosity and eagerness throughout the half-day event. Delta State administrators and professors moderated. An optional tour of some of the university\u2019s one-of-a-kind offerings concluded the program.<\/p>\n

The free-flowing and enthusiastic exchange, which incorporated small-group assignments via industry type and a similarly arranged networking lunch, addressed three main questions: skills employers expect from Delta State graduates (and all college graduates), skills employers want recent graduates to improve on, and additional skills employers would like their current employees to have.<\/p>\n

Or, as Charles McAdams, Delta State provost and vice president for academic affairs\u2014and organizer of the meeting of the minds\u2014put it in his introductory remarks: Employers and schools must \u201ckeep up with the times\u201d as well as anticipate \u201cjobs that don\u2019t even exist yet.\u201d The intent of the Employer Listening Session, he summarized, was \u201cto meet your needs for current and future employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

That rang true to Tredrick Johnson, corporate director of environmental health and safety and training at Quality Steel, which is based in Cleveland. \u201cThe most interesting thing for me was hearing that other employers are seeing the same needs and disparities,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I Iiked the fact that the university is reaching out about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carlean Horton, administrative officer at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service in Stoneville, agreed. \u201cIt was interesting to hear from other businesses,\u201d she said, \u201cand to know that Delta State administration is interested in the skills gaps and what tools that students need to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others mentioned how helpful it would be to increase applied educational experiences in the undergraduate programs, especially in business, criminal justice, and computer information systems.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Delta State President William N. LaForge (standing in blue suit) listens to comments from a small group of area employers and Delta State colleagues.<\/p><\/div>\n

Solving Today\u2019s Needs\u2014and Tomorrow\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Participants spent a significant amount of time dissecting the proficiencies employers demand from new young hires. Responses included critical thinking, problem-solving, reading comprehension, writing, other types of communication, building and leveraging relationships, flexibility, commitment, self-reliance, professionalism (in dress, behavior, email, social media, et al.), research, and data analysis.<\/p>\n

When asked what skills these graduates must get better at, the first observation by an attendee, \u201cAll of the above!\u201d\u2014referencing answers to the preceding question about demanded proficiencies\u2014drew a laugh. These decision-makers came to an instant, cheerful consensus that there was no reason to break off into small groups to brainstorm.<\/p>\n

For the topic of additional skills for current employees, respondents switched between industry-specific and universal capabilities. Examples of the former included robotics, blueprints, and systems improvement. Examples of the latter included teamwork, multigenerational communication, and follow-through (i.e.: just because an email is sent doesn\u2019t mean the given task is done).<\/p>\n

Facilitator Dr. Gray Kane, director of the Ford Center for Teaching and Learning, guided area employers to consider two related issues. What degree programs or unique skills will new employees need in five years? Suggestions ranged from applied technology certificates to foreign language fluency to polymer products to government contracts and acquisitions. What undergraduate or graduate programs or certificates should Delta State modify or create? Participants proposed health information technology, industrial maintenance, network engineering, data management and security, and clinical nurse leadership, among others.<\/p>\n

Both the breadth and the details of the discussion proved worthwhile to Allison Poindexter, assistant vice president for education and outreach at Delta Health Alliance, based in Stoneville. \u201cAs someone in a position to hire people, I see the skills that are lacking in candidates,\u201d she said. \u201cThis was so important for the university to look at what it\u2019s been doing well and what it could improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinesh Chawla, chief executive officer of Chawla Hotels in Cleveland, concurred. \u201cWe\u2019re constantly recruiting and wanted to see if some of the problems we\u2019re having are the same as with other companies,\u201d he said. \u201cAnything that\u2019s good for Cleveland is good for Delta State, and anything that is good for Delta State is good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Employer Listening Session exceeded Delta State\u2019s expectations, concluded McAdams. \u201cThis is the beginning of a very helpful discussion,\u201d he said, \u201cthat will enable Delta State to provide meaningful opportunities for our students and at the same time provide employers what they need to increase economic productivity in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than two dozen area employers convened at Delta State University\u2019s first Employer Listening Session on Thursday, Nov. 1 to share workplace needs and potential ways the campus could help…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":566,"featured_media":81836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1517],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-academics","category-career-services"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/566"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81835"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82301,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81835\/revisions\/82301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}