Organization and Employee Development – Page 16

May 27, 2022

How to Write a Great HR Cover Letter

?While you might read hundreds (or thousands) of cover letters as part of your HR job, it can be a challenge to write one of your own. Where do you begin? What should you include? How do you get someone to read it carefully? And probably the most important question: Do you still need one?

The answer is yes. A cover letter is still an important tool in an effective job search. The cover letter’s job is to give the reader specific information tailored to the open position. It is also the perfect place to show passion for your career. You want to go above and beyond what’s on your resume by giving a personal touch to your achievements and stories of success.

You’re likely familiar with the basics of a cover letter. You should have a strong opening that highlights an accomplishment, talks about your excitement for the job or shares a networking connection. The body should showcase your most relevant stories of success and skills (using either paragraphs or bullet points), and your closing should thank the reader for their time. But a cover letter is also an opportunity to stand out by tailoring your message.

What follows is an overview of the various types of cover letters, how to decide which one you should use and how to best personalize your cover letter to capture your reader’s attention.

Types of Cover Letters

Did you know there are many types of cover letters? You’re likely familiar with the traditional cover letter that responds directly to a job posting, but there are actually several versions you might need to utilize in your job search. Some of the more common types include:

Job-Posting Reply Letters

Your “normal” cover letter. This cover letter is tailored to a specific job posting and company.

Key Tip: Focus on demonstrating why you are the best candidate for the role by showcasing specific skills and achievements tailored to the open position.

Cold-Call Letters

A letter used to reach out to a company or recruiter to explore potential opportunities. You’re not responding to a particular job posting but instead introducing yourself to a company you’d like to work for.

Key Tip: A cold-call letter needs to grab the reader’s attention. Consider a powerful first sentence highlighting your best result or answering a specific problem: “Does your organization need a proven diversity and inclusion expert with 20+ years of experience?”

Recruiter Letters

A recruiter letter is simply a letter sent to a recruiter or search firm. You’ll use this kind of letter when you want to respond to job postings placed by a search firm or to explore potential roles the recruiter is trying to fill.

Key Tip: Similar to a traditional cover letter, you’ll want to talk specifically about your best achievements related to the job you’re targeting.

Networking Letters

This letter’s purpose is exactly as it sounds: to network with a colleague, an acquaintance, a former manager and anyone else who can help your search.

Key Tip: Immediately let your contact know why you’re reaching out and how they can help you. Are you seeking a recommendation? A new connection to get your foot in the door at a company? Keep the letter brief and to the point.

Should You Write an E-Note or Traditional Letter?

An e-note is simply a letter sent in the body of an e-mail rather than a stand-alone letter in a separate attachment. There’s no need to let the recipient know you’re enclosing a cover letter—just write it in the e-mail itself.

An e-note is shorter than a traditional cover letter attachment and doesn’t have the normal heading (with your name, contact info and formatting that matches your resume). Both an e-note and a traditional cover letter should be customized to the job and focused on your achievements.

In most cases, an e-note is the best approach with just a few exceptions. If you’re submitting your documents to a database or e-mailing a top executive (like a CEO or member of a board), you’ll still want to use the traditional cover letter. If you’re simply e-mailing your resume, use an e-note instead.

Key Tip: I recommend writing a traditional cover letter and then copying and pasting the body of the letter when you need to use an e-note (simply remove the format/heading). Then read through it to make sure it isn’t too long for an e-mail.

Write Separate Cover Letters for Specific Jobs

There’s no doubt that an effective cover letter needs to be written for individual jobs and companies. But how? Focus on your best achievements, relevant skills and something that the resume may not have: a personal touch!

Look through your resume for some of your best stories and proudest moments. Maybe you reduced the average time-to-hire by weeks or lowered the monthly health insurance premiums by 36 percent. Consider using these results within your cover letter by sharing the story in detail, with information on how you went above and beyond.

Also, consider showcasing your best skills, whether they are talent sourcing, creating job descriptions, preparing budgets, onboarding, benefits coordination, project management or any other HR-related function. Don’t forget about leadership, mentoring and training—key skills for many HR positions. You can also share your relevant education, training, certifications, credentials and organizational activities, including being a member of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Lastly, don’t forget the human touch. Write about why you are passionate about what you do. Why do you love HR? What skills are you fantastic at? Why are you the perfect fit for this role? How can you help transform the organization’s HR efforts?

Final Tips

The best piece of advice when writing a great cover letter is to tailor it to your goal. Think about your best, most relevant skills and achievements that you want to showcase. Then add a personal touch about why are you excited about this opportunity. Taking a few minutes to customize your cover letter will improve your chances of achieving your goal: to earn an interview.

DOWNLOAD A SAMPLE COVER LETTER

Laura Fontenot, ACRW, CPRW, is an award-winning expert resume writer who has helped thousands of clients excel in their job search for more than 15 years. She offers a complimentary resume review at www.masterworkresumes.com and at linkedin.com/in/laura-fontenot-acrw-cprw.

May 27, 2022

First-Generation College Students Need Internship Guidance

?Jim Mourey was a first-generation student in 2004, studying marketing and international business at Washington University in St. Louis. As a rising senior, he wasn’t sure how to land an internship.

“I didn’t know how the game was played,” recalled Mourey, who is now an associate professor of marketing at DePaul University in Chicago with a doctoral degree in marketing. He also is a professor for Outlier.org, which offers online university-level courses whose semester credits are transferrable to other colleges and universities, subject to those institutions’ review and approval.

Mourey’s internship break came through his involvement as student representative of the college’s career center. A staff member who knew Mourey through the career center recommended he apply to her friend’s marketing company, which was seeking interns.

“I was lucky I had a lot of people looking out for me,” said Mourey, whose internship led to a full-time marketing job when he graduated.

Lesson learned: Opportunities—especially for young adults whose parents haven’t gone to college—come through relationships. It’s something he said he tries to impress upon his students, who range from undergraduates to those working on a master’s degree or doctorate in business administration.

“You never know who you’re going to meet,” Mourey said, noting that “Batman” actor Michael Keaton was at his graduation because Keaton’s son was matriculating that day.

Mourey didn’t get to meet Keaton, but he knew his son, who played in a band that performed at campus events and shows Mourey helped produce.

“So many students don’t use the resources that are provided for them. They don’t reach out,” he observed. That includes being aware of friends’ and family members’ connections who could be potential networking sources.

[SHRM members-only resource: Student & Emerging Professional Resources]

First-Generation College Students

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) defines first-generation college students as those whose parents do not hold a bachelor’s degree.

This group of students is more racially and ethnically diverse than non-first-generation students, although NACE found that a majority of first-generation college students are white (49 percent). The second-largest population is Hispanic (27 percent), followed by a lesser number of other demographic groups.

“Landing internships and jobs is essential but often daunting for first-generation students,” noted Professor Erin Kimura-Walsh in a blog post for the Center for First-Generation Student Success at Santa Clara University in California.

She is the director of the school’s LEAD Scholars Program, which provides academic and vocational development opportunities, advice, peer mentoring, courses, programs and support networks.

Family members and friends of first-generation students are less likely to be in professional careers and, by extension, are less likely to have the professional networks that students can draw upon, she explained.

“I saw these challenges firsthand as our first-generation college participants struggled to find internships and jobs,” Kimura-Walsh noted.

These students may want to look for programs such as the LEAD Scholars Program and Year Up, a free job-training program that hosts interns for six months twice yearly. Angie Herrera, SHRM-CP, senior HR partner representative at United Airlines in Chicago, volunteers with Year Up.

“The student learners are often the first in their families to obtain corporate experience, and our goal is to create 80 percent conversion to full-time corporate employment before their internship ends,” she told SHRM Online earlier this year.

How to Land Internships

SHRM Online compiled the following tips for students unfamiliar with how to navigate the internship experience.

Start looking for internships early in your college career. “I encourage my students to start looking the summer after their freshman year; it’s that competitive,” Mourey said.

He also recommended students conduct an informational interview—such as talking with college alumni or contacting a particular company—to learn about an organization before applying for an internship.

“It’s so easy now with social media,” he said.

Understand what the internship is and what it isn’t. Mourey’s goal was to turn his internship into a full-time job offer, and he succeeded.

“But sometimes doing an internship allows you to see what you like and don’t like about a career path. It’s OK to get to your internship [and realize], ‘It’s not for me.’ … You can develop some transferrable skills that apply to another job that is a better fit,” he said.

It’s also a time to discover career paths within a job family. Marketing, for example, can include research, public relations and brand management.

Highlight activities on your resume that showcase workplace skills. Students may not have work experience, but likely their clubs or entrepreneurial efforts use skills transferrable to the workplace, said Austin J. Franklin, CEO and co-founder of Good-Natured Life, an adult and youth development company based in Jacksonville, Fla.

“Many students, especially during the pandemic, have entered the entrepreneurial space, and this is something they could include” on their resumes, he said. Franklin founded his company in 2015 as a 20-year-old college junior.

They also may have volunteer or leadership experience or have their own podcasts or YouTube channels that they can highlight.

Franklin encourages students to include a personal motto or statement before listing their education and extracurricular activities “so people get a snapshot of who you are.” And it’s important that prospective interns have a sense of the organization where they’re applying.

“There are some businesses that are shirt-and-tie, and there are other companies that [have] a more relaxed environment,” he said.

Learn from the interview. “Students need to ask different questions that could give greater insight [into the organization],” Franklin advised.

That includes asking about the organization’s expectations, who the student will report to, the organization’s primary goal for the internship and if there is an opportunity for full-time employment upon successful completion of the internship.

A successful experience, he said, “starts with understanding why you want to do this internship.”

Other SHRM resources:

Daniel Weissland: From Audi Intern to Company President, SHRM Online, May 2022

Internships Open Doors to Jobs, Workplace Expectations, SHRM Online, April 2022

EPAC Members Offer Internship Advice, SHRM Online, April 2022

Looking for an Internship? Consider These Factors First, SHRM Online, March 2022

Study Finds Students Are Confused About How to Prepare for Their Careers, SHRM Online, March 2022

How Does Your Company Support ‘First-Generation Professionals’? SHRM Online, January 2022

May 25, 2022

Skills-Based Hiring Guidance Issued for Federal Jobs

?The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has issued guidance on adopting skills-based hiring practices to fill federal government jobs. Historically, the government has based a candidate’s hiring eligibility on formal education or candidates’ assessments of how their skills related to educational requirements.

Skills-based hiring broadens the labor pool, according to Kiran Ahuja, OPM director.

“By focusing on what an applicant can do—and not where they learned to do it—skills-based hiring will expand talent pools by making it easier for applicants without a bachelor’s degree to demonstrate their skills,” Ahuja said in a news release, “and will help remove barriers to employment for historically under-represented groups.”

The OPM noted that presently, “most agencies use federal resumes and an occupational questionnaire to screen applicants for minimum qualifications. A ‘deeper dive’ needs to be taken in order to address the actual competencies needed to perform work successfully.”

[SHRM members-only resource: How to Address the Skills Gap]

Skills-based hiring and the value of alternative credentials have been receiving increasing interest in recent years as organizations struggle to fill positions in the midst of the Great Resignation.

SHRM Online compiled the following news stories and resources about the use of skills-based hiring approaches.

Skills-Based Hiring Is on the Rise

Early in the 2000s, a significant number of employers began adding degree requirements to job descriptions for positions that hadn’t previously required degrees, even though the jobs themselves hadn’t changed. The trend became particularly pronounced after the Great Recession of 2008-2009, at which point leaders in government, business, and community-based organizations recognized that a reset was in order. Many large corporations soon announced that they would eliminate degree requirements in much of their hiring.
(Harvard Business Review)

In Search for Qualified Workers, Maryland Drops Requirement for 4-Year Degree

Maryland’s recent elimination of a four-year college degree as a job requirement for thousands of the state’s jobs is shining a spotlight on the value of alternative credentials and experience.
The aim of the state initiative—which the governor’s office says is the first of its kind in the U.S.—is to ensure that “qualified, non-degree candidates are regularly being considered for these career-changing opportunities,” Gov. Larry Hogan said in a news release.
(SHRM Online)

Next Steps for HR Professionals, Hiring Managers

Nationally, nearly half of all U.S. workers possess some form of an alternative credential, according to a new report, Making Alternative Credentials Work: A New Strategy for HR Professionals.

The findings are from research the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the SHRM Foundation conducted with executives, supervisors, HR professionals and employees. It includes recommendations for better identifying job candidates who have the skills that organizations seek.
(SHRM Online)

No College Degree? No Problem. More Companies Are Eliminating Requirements to Attract the Workers They Need

The tech industry has been plagued by chronic talent shortages for years. Now many companies are trying something new: eliminating degree requirements for jobs. A growing number of companies, including many in tech, are dropping the requirement for a bachelor’s degree for many middle-skill and even higher-skill roles, according to a recent study from Harvard Business Review and Emsi Burning Glass, a leading labor market data company. More than 51 million jobs posted between 2017 and 2020 were analyzed for the study.
(CNBC)

Skills-Based Hiring and Older Workers

In response to a perceived skills gap, employers are increasingly hiring workers based on their specific skills and competencies. Skills-based hiring could disadvantage older workers, particularly those with low wages, if their skills are no longer relevant, or it could benefit them if they have the desired skills but not college degrees.

Our review of research studies and the semi-structured interviews with stakeholders suggest that skills-based hiring could help reduce age-related bias in hiring and in the workplace and help low-wage older workers overcome challenges stemming from the lack of a traditional degree or the inability to change careers. To do this, however, the skills-based hiring paradigm must undergo changes.
(Urban Institute)

The Shift to Skill-Based Hiring Instead of Degree-Based Hiring is Finally Happening! Here’s Why

The pandemic upended some long-held beliefs while hastening others. One thing that has come out of the pandemic is that acquiring industry-oriented skills has become the new degree equivalent. It might be safe to say that the pandemic may have cracked degree inflation and caused prominent hiring managers to become more careful about recognizing critical job skills and “vetting in” talent by validating skills.

Skill-based hiring that accelerated during the pandemic has now become a trend and is here to stay.
(India Today)

Tips for Finding Skilled, Non-Degreed Workers

Businesses across the U.S. need to adapt their hiring practices so they don’t miss out on the more than 70 million workers who are skilled through alternative routes (STARs), according to Bridgette Gray, chief customer officer at Opportunity@Work, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that promotes STARs.

Gray advises hiring managers on strategies for recruiting skilled workers who don’t hold college degrees. Making STARs an intentional part of talent strategy, she said, involves:

Incentivizing managers to hire and promote people who are STARs.

“Recognize they may perceive risks in hiring STARs and counter their concerns by letting them know this is an intentional strategy,” Gray said.

Look at the workers you employ. There may be employees with the skills to move up within your organization.

“The way to create those opportunities—and open opportunities to STARs outside of your company—is to remove unnecessary degree requirements from job descriptions. This is the biggest blocker for STARs and the primary reason employers don’t see STARs across their companies,” Gray said.

Encourage hiring managers to target STARs for specific roles, then partner with talent developers to create new pathways into the organization.

May 22, 2022

Ask HR: Should You Do Training If You Don’t Want a New Role?

?SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is answering HR questions as part of a series for USA Today.

Do you have an HR or work-related question you’d like him to answer? Submit it here.

My company invited me to enroll in a leadership training program for individuals on a track to a specific leadership role. I don’t have much interest in this specific position, but much of the training and development appeals to me. Should I participate in the program even though I am not seriously considering the targeted position?—Marius

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: First, congratulations on being selected for your employer’s leadership training program! Even if you are not seriously considering a leadership position with your employer, it says a lot about your value to your company. If the content appeals to you, and the benefits outweigh any known risks, you should consider taking advantage of the program. Be upfront with your employer about your current lack of interest in a specific leadership role, while also sharing your overall interest in the program.

Start by making a list of pros and cons about attending the leadership training program. Consider if you would have to repay your employer should you leave the company. Some employers require participants to sign a repayment agreement should they leave the employer within a specific time frame. Examine the curriculum to find out how the program can contribute to your career path. Can it add to or validate your current skill set?

Leadership is not necessarily about being in a managerial position. There are many soft skills associated with leadership that have benefits in many facets of life and in your current and future work.

If you find the rewards outweigh the risk, the program may be worth considering. You may end up enjoying leadership even more than you expect. Missing out on an investment your employer is willing to make in your development might be something you’ll later regret. Good luck with whatever choice you make!?

I am currently in a bachelor’s program but struggle to pay tuition. Jobs in my field generally require a four-year degree, and many offer some form of tuition assistance. Should I apply for jobs in my field that typically require a degree?—Lena

Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: There is no harm in applying for a job in your field that typically requires a four-year degree. In today’s talent market, there may be fewer candidates for positions, leaving many employers willing to value your experience over a degree. They may even hire you with an agreement to obtain your degree within a certain time frame.

In fact, 9 in 10 employers report being ready to accept candidates without a four-year college degree to fill positions in an increasingly tight labor market. Additionally, being enrolled in a degree program within their chosen field would make you an even more attractive candidate to employers.

Keep in mind, without a college degree, you’ll have to rely more on your experience through the application process. Use your cover letter and resume to showcase how you have achieved other professional and life goals. Detail any work experience, certifications or completed coursework relevant to the job. Highlight your enrollment in college along with any relevant coursework or projects.

If you haven’t already, consider pursuing alternative credential programs. They are an affordable method of developing or validating the skills or experience necessary to advance your qualifications. The vast majority of executives, supervisors and especially HR professionals believe that people who hold alternative credentials add value to the workplace.

Many employers distinguish between required and preferred qualifications. If a college degree is a preferred qualification, you may have a better chance of success. Rather than holding out for those 100 percent job matches, if your qualifications match 80-90 percent of what’s listed in the posting, consider applying. Remember, a job description is simply a wish list from an employer, and it may not wind up hiring someone with all (or even most) of the qualifications.

Best of luck in your career endeavors!

May 18, 2022

Discrimination Claims Arising from RIF Fail

?Takeaway: Management should expect that its rationale for selections in a reduction in force (RIF) will be closely scrutinized, so all appropriate documentation should be reviewed and the reasons for selections should be applied consistently to all employees who are being considered. There is often deference to management’s decisions in a RIF; however, when statistical data shows a disparity, management will want to have an explanation for how this arose in a nondiscriminatory manner.

?Management’s failure to review all the historical records related to the reasons for selection for termination in a reduction in force (RIF) did not prevent summary judgment dismissing age and race discrimination claims, according to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

On Feb. 8, 2018, Benteler Automotive Corp. announced it would implement a RIF with job eliminations potentially starting in May 2018. The plaintiff, who was a white U.S. citizen, was 58 years old at the time he was terminated on May 4, 2018. Benteler considered several factors in selecting employees for termination, including “performance review[s], attendance, safety records [and] quality records.” However, Benteler did not review all the historical data for employees considered, and Benteler represented the records reviewed were up-to-date only as of 2017.

Benteler selected the plaintiff because he had two negative attendance points as of May 4, 2018, and his performance appraisal indicated that while “he works hard to hit his line goals[,]” he was also told “to stay on his line” and “not to wander[.]”

The plaintiff claimed he was selected for termination because of his age, his race and national origin in violation of federal and state law.

There was no direct proof of discrimination. As to circumstantial proof for the age claim, the plaintiff argued that initially he was on the list to be retained but that he was taken off and a 38-year-old employee was added. The court rejected this argument as there was no proof Benteler compared these two employees to each other. In a RIF, simply retaining a younger employee does not establish age discrimination.

The court also rejected the plaintiff’s age discrimination argument that, on average, those terminated were 7.09 years older than those considered and retained, finding such statistics were insufficient to eliminate the nondiscriminatory reasons in a RIF setting because there was no expert analysis offered to explain the statistical significance of the data.

Similarly, the race discrimination claim, which the plaintiff combined with a national origin claim, failed. The plaintiff claimed that for employees of Burmese national origin who were considered for the RIF, one of 27 was terminated compared to 38 terminations for the 170 non-Burmese employees who were considered.

In rejecting this argument, the court noted that the plaintiff did not show Benteler was the unusual employer who discriminated against majority employees (white) or that Benteler treated similarly situated Burmese employees differently. The court also observed it was difficult to determine if the demographic data on national origin was accurate and that “it was not apparent” from Benteler’s database whether someone was Burmese. Finally, the court noted that Benteler did not review all the historical data when making the selection decision for the RIF.

The plaintiff also failed to overcome Benteler’s nondiscriminatory reason for selecting him for termination because a reasonable decision-maker could reach the same conclusion when comparing the plaintiff’s performance and attendance to those retained.

Pio v. Benteler Auto Corp., 6th Cir., No. 21-1231 (Feb. 7, 2022).

John W. Simmons is an attorney with Simmons Law Firm PLLC, the Worklaw® Network member firm in Memphis, Tenn.

May 18, 2022

Daniel Weissland: From Audi Intern to Company President

?Daniel Weissland was an industrial engineering and management student from Germany learning the automotive business in 1998 as an intern at Audi of America in Michigan, while struggling to understand his English-speaking host family and colleagues.

In 2015, he became president of Audi Canada and today leads Audi of America, headquartered in Herndon, Va., as its president. Though it may have been quick, Weissland’s career progression from intern to the C-suite did not follow a linear path.

Weissland was apprenticing at the German Federal Railways in Munich before realizing the job wouldn’t lead to the life he wanted to create. He resigned and returned to school to earn his high school diploma and attend Hochschule Munchen University of Applied Sciences in Munich.

In college, he interned at Volkswagen South Africa in Uitenhage (now Kariega), South Africa, and at Audi of America—then headquartered in Auburn Hills, Mich.—before graduating in 1999.

SHRM Online talked with Weissland about the role his internships played in preparing him for his global career, which has included:

Moving through yearlong positions as a full-time employee at Audi AG, the company’s luxury sedan product, from 1999 to 2005. He served as product manager, distribution manager for Northern Europe, dealer network development for Northern Europe, and sales manager for Ireland and Portugal.
Earning a master’s degree in business administration from Hochschule Munchen University in 2005.
Progressing through other areas of Audi AG from April 2005 to August 2015: sales director and deputy managing director for Audi Volkswagen Middle East, assistant to the board of management member for marketing and sales, and area manager for Southern Europe.
Completing the advanced management program at the University of Navarra’s IESE Business School—the University of Navarra’s graduate business program—in Barcelona, Spain, in 2013.
Serving as president of Audi Canada in Ajax, Canada, from August 2015 to January 2018.
Serving as president and CEO of Volkswagen Group Canada in Ajax from December 2017 to September 2019. Volkswagen is Audi’s parent company.
Serving as president of Audi of America at its current headquarters in Herndon, Va., since September 2019.

The following responses have been edited for length and clarity.

SHRM Online: What kind of learning experiences did you have as an intern in the automotive industry?

Weissland: I worked in the department for industrial engineering. I mainly did office work, with one exception: In South Africa, many times when people got paid, they didn’t show up for two or three days [after]. All the white-collar workers had to go to the assembly lines to finish those cars [in their absence]. On a normal day, they finish 100 cars; we finished 10 cars.

The workers went on strike for a few days while the factory assembly line was in the middle of preparing for the launch of the new model. It was important to clear the assembly line and finish the old models first. Since the workers went on strike, we—the corporate employees—had to help assemble the remaining old models.

It’s a culture that I’d never been exposed to before, and something you need to learn. The takeaway: Be prepared for new challenges and manage it. There is no book you can read to prepare you for all situations in life, on the job or off the job.

SHRM Online: What advice can you give to students to get the most out of their internship?

Weissland: There is no linear process of a career. Be open, take opportunities as they come. Work hard and be relentless. Every day, try to do your best. Be willing to step outside your comfort zone; I remember [my] mistakes and learned a lot from that.

As a student, I was always excited about cars. I wanted to understand the business behind it. I tried to get a foot in the door; that was one of the objectives I had for my internships. That’s where my passion started for the car industry. As an Audi intern, I had a little carpool I was managing for the leadership team. I had opportunities to drive those cars through the carwash and fill up the gas tank. Still today, I feel a passion for the cars.

SHRM Online: What impact did mentorship play in your career journey from intern to president?

Weissland: When I was an intern, my mentor was my boss. I’m still in touch with him; he still lives in Michigan [where Weissland interned]. He wanted to hire me at [the end of my internship], but as a student in America and a German citizen, it was not that easy at that time to get a green card or visa.

It’s important for a mentor to encourage you to step outside your comfort zone. One of my mentors [later in my career] told me, “You need to learn to play all the keys on the piano if you want to be a master.”

[During my U.S. internship,] one worker who started three or four weeks after me helped me a lot. I was able to get some advice on how things work. You need to rely on the team, find somebody to help you, coach you and grow within the organization.

SHRM Online: You’ve built your 24-year career working for Audi. It’s more typical these days for people to move around. What advice can you offer to young people looking to grow their careers within a single company or industry?

Weissland: It’s about loyalty. As long as I saw a career path I could develop and enjoyed working there, why should I change employers? Especially with international companies, you have tons of opportunities. I didn’t see a reason to change companies just because I can make a few thousand dollars more somewhere else. I believe in the company, I believe in the values of the company, and [I created] a path for myself to grow and develop.

My advice: Be open and use the opportunities. And you need to enjoy what you’re doing.

February 15, 2019

Workforce Skills Programs Need More Funding, Policy Reforms

Updating the Higher Education Act to reflect current labor market needs and supporting work-based skills training are two of the top priorities for workforce development policy in 2019.

January 19, 2019

Creating an Employment Immigration Strategy for the Future

Developing an employment-based immigration strategy that works for your business starts with knowing your options.