Closing the Talent Gap: Merging Business and Academia to create innovative workforce readiness strategies for your organization

Approved for 2.25 SHRM Professional Development Credits! Philly SHRM is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP.

C-Suite Event

Unlike any time in history, employers are facing growing instances when the number, quality, skills, and cost of available workers falls short of company’s needs. With more than 60 million Baby Boomers exiting the workforce by 2025, and only 40 million new workers entering, it is more critical than ever for companies to expand their supply of tools and solutions to address the growing talent shortages in the US workforce.

As HR professionals look for innovative approaches to overcome talent gaps, standard HR practices of acquiring, training or borrowing talent are being examined and new options are being considered to help overcome this growing challenge.

In this session, we will look at how organizations are thinking about their entire talent ecosystem and focusing on;

•Partnering with local educational institutions to align curriculum with talent needs.
•How to enhance talent sourcing to attract more untapped talent pools locally and beyond.
•Innovative ways of appointing employees to roles based on potentiality to grow skills

Moderator:
Steve Hart, Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Panelists:
Craig Loundas, AVP, University of Penn
Stacy Vahey, VP of HR, Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals
Lynda Risser, Principal and Department Head Talent Management, Vanguard
Laura Mably, VP of HR, AstraZeneca

Key learnings initiated by panelists: How organizations are looking at evolving skills to push the boundaries within their company and industry.

• Use of contingency talent in succession planning, rather than traditional talent succession ladders to increase talent retention, specifically with millennials.
• Details on leadership/manager development programs for emerging leaders; capabilities, behaviours and expectations to drive transformation which reflect the change needed in leadership in order to deliver on company mission and values.
• How organizations are looking at local resources and innovative ideas on approaching people development in challenging times and tactics to employ a diverse workforce.
• How to develop a culture that supports areas outside of compensation such as; lateral opportunities to progress, learning from experience and from one another to improve, strengths and competency development while maintaining a sense of curiosity and taking responsibility for individual development.
• How organizations are looking at learning agility, drive, judgment and influence to accelerate high potential individuals to grow them exponentially.
• How to maintain a sense of excitement about the future and consider how employees can push their own personal boundaries to help achieve upon the overall organizational goals.

Craig Loundas is the AVP for Penn Medicine, the academic medical center of the University of Pennsylvania, consisting of four hospitals, specialty research practices, primary care practices and home care/hospice services.  He is responsible for leader development, performance management, and organizational effectiveness initiatives, and staff development and change management impacting the patient experience for the top ten ranked academic medical center with 27,000+ faculty and staff and $5 billion in revenue.

Craig has also worked in the energy sector, with Sunoco Marketing as a change practice leader, focusing on talent development and system integration in their Midwest and Southeast Market acquisitions and with Exelon Nuclear, as a principal management development consultant, providing strategic talent management, succession planning, and executive coaching for four nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey.

Prior to working in the field of organizational development, Craig was a leader in student affairs, serving as associate dean and dean of students at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania and earlier, as director of residence life at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.   He served in a variety of professional organization leadership roles, including president of the Mid-Atlantic Association of College and University Housing officers.

Craig is a certified facilitator for Crucial Conversations, MBTI, DDI, and Denison Organizational Culture tools.  He has presented nationally at Press Ganey, University Healthcare Consortium, the American Society for Training and Development, and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership.

Craig holds the Ph.D., in Adult and Organizational Development from Temple University, where his dissertation studied the impact of active learning techniques on class involvement, satisfaction and achievement.  He serves as an adjunct faculty member for Drexel and Widener Universities, teaching organizational development, healthcare leadership and change management.

Stacy Vahey  With nearly 20 years in HR at Fortune 500 and healthcare organizations, Stacy Vahey brings her expertise in driving cultural change to Thomas Jefferson University & Hospitals as Vice President, Human Resources. In her first year at Jefferson in 2013, she lead the implementation of a business partner model to bring support to 12,000 employees during a period of the most significant change in Jefferson’s history. Through her leadership, HR is now an integral decision maker and partner in the strategic planning process and operations. Stacy’s dynamic style has successfully driven employee engagement and other strategic talent management initiatives throughout the organization. Prior to Jefferson, she was AVP at Temple University Health System and spent 8 years with Aramark in various HR leadership roles.

Lynda Risser is a Principal in the Human Resources division at Vanguard, overseeing the Talent Management subdivision. Comprised of 120+ crew, her organization provides deep subject matter expertise across the talent lifecycle around talent acquisition, performance management, learning and development, and career and succession planning.

Prior to leading this in area, Lynda has held many positions at Vanguard that include: Relationship Manager and HR Business Partner for several divisions, where she provided consultative and human resources solutions—driving a division’s full human capital business strategy. She has also supported Leadership Development and the Retail Investor Group by: leading the hiring process or designing and heading talent assessment and development, performance management, or succession management strategy.

Prior to working at Vanguard, Lynda began her career in HR in the health care industry, supporting staffing and strategic management recruiting. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Psychology from Albright College, a Master’s degree in Training and Organizational Development from St. Joseph’s University, and the Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR ®) Certification.

Laura Mably is a member of the Executive Team for AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals where she brings extensive experience in leadership, organizational development and change management to the table. Upon joining AstraZeneca in 2002, she worked as an HR Director in a variety of capacities, and prior to her current role had responsibility for the areas of compensation, pension, benefits, disability management, employee wellness and performance management for the Canadian organization.

Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Laura worked in a number of HR management and consulting roles at the energy company Enbridge. Prior to joining Enbridge, she spent three years with the Scarborough Board of Education as a Secondary School teacher.

Laura earned her Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) designation from the University of Toronto, and is a member of the Human Resources Professional Association of Ontario (HRPAO). She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and English from York University in Toronto, and her Master in Education and Teacher’s Certificate, from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.