West Virginia University’s Center for Executive Education will kick off a new Professional Development Series on Wednesday, Dec. 9, with two courses.

“Managing Across Generations” and “Succession Planning” will be offered by the center, which is housed within the College of Business and Economics.

National statistics show that 10,000 people turn 65 in the United States every day. While some choose to retire, others decide to stay in the workforce mostly due to the struggling economy. At the same time, Millennials and Generation Z individuals (born after 1995) are entering the workforce. This age and generation gap can cause strains within workplaces. Managing Across Generations will provide guidance on how to address challenges and difficulties when it comes to shifts in demographics and major changes in the workforce.

Data shows that employees do eventually transition to other companies or retire, opening up leadership and other roles. Lack of properly executed succession planning is costly in productivity and can have a negative impact on the mission and goals of any organization. The Succession Planning course will address topics such as organization-wide knowledge management, talent assessment and development which are crucial to ensure continuous efficient management in organizations.

“For the first time in history, the workforce contains four to five different generations working side-by-side. With each having such different skillsets, work styles, mindsets and overall characteristics, each are valuable to the marketplace but are also difficult to merge together,” said Dr. Joyce Heames, Associate Dean for Innovation, Outreach and Engagement for B&E. “Businesses and organizations will have to work to develop common ground for gaining respect across generations in order to bridge the generational gap, but also prepare for eventual vacancies in leadership and other positions.”

Dr. Jeff Houghton, Associate Professor of Management and Industrial Relations, will teach the two courses. Participants may enroll in one course for $199 or both courses for $349. The classes have been approved for six PDCs for the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP and six general HR credits for PHR or SPHR recertification through the HR Certification Institute.

For more information on these Professional Development Series courses or to register, please visit http://be.wvu.edu/execed/professional-development or contact Lisa Hart at 304.293.7961 or via email at lisa.hart@mail.wvu.edu.

For further information on the WVU College of Business and Economics, follow us on Twitter at @wvucobe or visit be.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

bd/11/20/15

CONTACT: Patrick Gregg, College of Business and Economics
304.293.5131, Patrick.Gregg@mail.wvu.edu

Follow @WVUToday on Twitter.