Interview an Hrd Professional

Interview an HRD Professional

Week 1: Individual Assignment 1

LaShanda Simons

Webster University

HRDV-5000

William D. Rearden

October 28, 2017

Introduction

        According to Werner (2017, p 4), human resource development (HRD) is defined as “a process of shaping individuals’ values and beliefs and installing required knowledge, skills, competencies, and attitudes through learning intervention to support the performance and sustainability of the host system” or organization.  Anyone who has ever trained a new employee to do his or her job, taught another person how to use new technology, attended an orientation session for new employees, taken part in a company-sponsored training program, gone through an experiential training experience, completed some type of career planning project or assessment, or participated in an organization-wide change effort, has been involved in some form of human resource development.”

        The purpose of this paper is to discuss questions and answers from an informational interview with a human resource development professional.  The interview was done on the campus of Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) located in Fayetteville, NC with Ms. Kim Lewis at her office on October 27, 2017. Ms. Lewis has been an employee with FTCC since 2012 and has taken on various roles and positions throughout the course of her career at FTCC.  I chose to do the interview with Ms. Lewis because she specializes in HRD and hires instructors for FTCC to teach adult continuing education classes for HRD, as well as, other continuing education classes that integrates with HRD for both civilian and military students.  Following is the question and answer session I had with Ms. Lewis discussing her role as an HRD professional.

Questions and Answer Session

1. What is your current position and what do you do?

        Ms. Lewis is the department chair for HRD (a state-funded program administered by the NC Community College System) in the continuing education (Con Ed) department at FTCC.  She hires full-time and part-time instructors to teach HRD to civilian and military adults in the Con Ed department.  She currently has 25 instructors under her and has trained other program coordinators in the Con Ed department.  When instructors are hired, Ms. Lewis, “assist them with training so they can help unemployed and underemployed adults to develop basic workplace skills by providing skill assessment services, employability skills training and career development counseling. The goals of the program are to enhance and develop the participants’ employability skills, assist them in obtaining meaningful employment and training opportunities, increase their economic self-sufficiency, and reduce their dependency on government assistance benefits.”  Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017).

        The instructors are given the necessary tools to help them succeed with teaching students, such as “meeting to get a one-on-one orientation, lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, and the option to shadow other instructors who are already teaching the program”. Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017).

1. What has changed in your job over the last five to ten years and where do you see it going in the future?

        Ms. Lewis indicated that “technology was the biggest change since coming on board at FTCC”.  Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017). When she first started as the program coordinator, a lot of the department’s processes where still being done in paper format.  Computerized systems where not being use very much so things took a lot longer to get done.  This also affected how information was presented to the students by her instructors.  For example, “when students where doing job searches, the only source of information they were able to pull from was newspapers want ads.  When instructors needed to do aptitude tests, they were also only done on paper because the computer technology wasn’t available at the time”. Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017). Ms. Lewis also states that her “leaders, even as of recent, have not embraced technology as much one would have expected them to. This is an ongoing issue when attending organizational meetings.” Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017).

        Ms. Lewis feels that the future of her field will “rely heavily on technology and what other larger community colleges are doing. For it to succeed they must embrace technology wholeheartedly and be willing to educate and train staff to use it”. Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017).

1. Have you noticed a change in how the rest of the organization views your contribution to the goals of the organization?  If so, what have you noticed?

        When I asked Ms. Lewis this question, she seemed a little uneasy and frustrated upon pondering her answer.  She is very passionate about the HRD program in her department but doesn’t feel her leaders value it or see the value of it as much as she does.  She stated that “the external partners concerning the HRD program value it more than internal leaders”.  Lewis, K. (personal communication, October 27, 2017).