Dr. Amir Moghadam

As we enter the final month of 2014, I like to reflect on the year and think about the future. Because it is the people within organizations that drive change, performance, and achievement, I truly believe it is imperative for institutional leaders to put a greater emphasis on developing their talent. Thus, I'd like to share three key ideas on employee development that I hope will provide some perspective for institutions as we approach 2015.

1. Increase Focus on Employee Development and Training

As we know, the demand for higher education is expected to increase. However, higher education institutions will… >>>

"Today's economy is not a recession. It's the end of an era." When I first heard this quote from Arthur Brock, it struck a chord. We have indeed entered a new era as well as a knowledge-based economy where an organization's effective utilization of intangible assets such as employee skills, abilities and innovation are key to building a competitive edge. What does this mean for career colleges?

Career colleges, just like all organizations, must improve their adaptive capabilities to sustain long-term competitive advantage. Likewise today, every institution must be exceptional at creating change; not just responding to it. Disruption has… >>>

The upsurge in investigations, lawsuits, and school closures due to compliance issues may have some believing that more regulatory oversight is necessary for career colleges and universities. The reality is that career education is already one of the most highly regulated sectors in all of higher education. For example, a career college may be approved and/or licensed by several separate state agencies, an institutional accreditor, several different programmatic accreditors and the U.S. Department of Education. Amid this amount of regulation, does even more oversight sound like a reasonable solution to reducing compliance issues? Or does effective employee training have more… >>>

As institutions look at different ways to ensure compliance at every level of their organizations it has become clear that sharing regulations with employees and asking them to comply is simply not enough.

1. Modeling Ethics and Integrity - When leadership models ethical behavior in their actions and reflects these values in policies, it lays the foundation for establishing a culture of integrity.

2. Effective Employee Training - Training helps to create a compliant organization. In fact, all employees of an organization need to receive compliance training, especially regarding communications with students. All school personnel, including administrators, staff and faculty,… >>>

Friday, July 26th, 2013 marked the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA has expanded opportunities for Americans with disabilities by reducing barriers, changing perceptions and increasing full participation in community life. I wanted to review two federal laws that protect students with disabilities from discrimination at the postsecondary level.

The first law is found in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (implemented in 1977). As it applies to higher education, the critical portion of Section 504 essentially says that if you are a school that receives any kind of federal… >>>

Performance Management is a systematic approach to improving productivity in the workplace based on observable and measurable results. For example, in a manufacturing facility, results would be based upon the amount of production of a particular product with a certain level of quality in a specified period of time.

In the career education setting, positive student outcomes are ultimately the results we are looking for. Retention, completion and placement rates are performance indicators that all career colleges must continuously measure and improve.

To achieve our desired business results, we must maintain and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our people… >>>

Study after study shows that effective employees continually assess and seek to improve their own knowledge, skills and behavior. Personal self-assessment plays a major role in career development and performance improvement by allowing employees to identify and act upon their strengths and weaknesses.

Consider the following scenarios:

John aspired to have his boss's job. When his boss transferred to another organization, John was promoted to his boss's position. Things turned sour from the start. In his new position, John was required to make frequent presentations and speeches. He had always feared public speaking. John eventually learned to perform these speaking… >>>

Accredited institutions must establish annual faculty development plans to enhance faculty expertise in the areas of instructional skills and content knowledge. In most institutions, the individual development plan is primarily used to schedule, record and document an instructor’s developmental activities. The development plan is typically driven by planned institutional activities followed by an explanation as why participation in the listed activities meets the instructor’s needs. 

An effective development plan must start with the identification of individual goals to be achieved. These goals should be performance based and measurable.  The established goals should then drive the process of identifying and planning… >>>

Training ROI

Do you measure the return on investment (ROI) for your personnel training and development programs? If you are like most career colleges, you are probably very good at calculating the ROI for your various advertising programs but have never measured the ROI for your training programs. Right?

Is Your Institution Compliance or Quality-Driven When it Comes to Training?

In fact some schools view employee training as a cost item needed to meet compliance requirements for professional development and continuing education. They ramp up their employee training programs just before their state license or accreditation is up for evaluation… >>>

The Biggest Leadership Myth

Perhaps the biggest and most widely believed myth is that leaders are born, not made. But the fact is that the skills required to lead can be learned through effective training. You've probably heard the statement: "leadership is a rare skill". Well, that may be true. But the reason is simply because of the lack of training and coaching required to develop leadership skills.

Another reason that leadership may have become a rare skill is because of our perceptions of what a good leader should look like. These perceptions affect our ability to identify and train… >>>