FutureU hosts Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn discuss the alarming trend of higher education employees resigning or considering new fields and how universities and colleges could potentially mitigate the trend. They are joined by Mary Opperman, chief human resources officer at Cornell University, and Kevin McClure, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, who has published on how colleges manage their talent.
“That movement can look like some people, yes, deciding that they no longer want to work in higher education, and so they have literally resigned and are looking at other industries,” McClure said. Opperman adds that universities must have a value proposition for employees and focus on developing the management skills of leaders. “We need to be thoughtful about that right
from the top of the organizations, from the deans and others down to department chairs and managers, and make sure and be very intentional about who we put in those roles, how we train them, and how we evaluate them, because they are the linchpin to a quality experience.”