A focus on continuous learning Companies are changing and people have to know what skills will be required, Galvanek says. That means human resource departments need to set new standards for collaboration and continuous learning, she explains. While all companies need to provide more employee training and career development under the new terms of employment, continuous learning and increased skills are vital in the fast-changing high technology industry. Unisys has embarked on quite an intense look at this, says Pat Bradford, vice president of resource productivity for the company s worldwide HR operation. We need to keep skill levels up to meet changing customer needs.
Employee development is an integral part of company policy.
The Unisys human resource staff works closely with the management team to meet strategic needs and to understand what business we are in, what kinds of skills are needed, and what our employee population needs to bring us there, she says. Employees have a keen interest in training and keeping themselves marketable and without career development opportunities, we would not be able to retain employees, she says. Unisys launched an intranet in May to deliver research tools to help employees improve their current skills. The company plans to open an Internet career center for its 32,000 employees worldwide to list job profiles and to identify the hot career trends that Unisys divisions say will be important in two to five years. When the company posts a job, the job is there now, which is good for people with those skills.