Which was the point, of course. Harvard's Fifth Work Force Management Conference, held last Friday, Nov. 3, at the Charles Hotel, tackled the issue of employee retention and maintaining a diverse work force by using a classroom-style approach. James Honan, a lecturer at the Graduate School of Education, led a discussion of Millennium's situation that started slowly, but soon got the roomful of managers from across the University engaged and pondering the company's problems. The case was intended to get people to look at their own offices through new eyes, by seeing both similarities and differences between the situation at Millennium and the situation in their own workplace. Retention is a real issue.
People leave for all sorts of reasons.
Progress toward creating a more diverse work force at Harvard is slow, however, and largely due to problems keeping the most talented and promising people, according to James Hoyte, associate vice president and assistant to the president. We make some modest progress, but given our problems with retention, we often see that progress lost. Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine kicked off the conference by saying that Harvard is indeed concerned about keeping a diverse work force. We need to think about how to develop people. We need to think about how to mentor people.