Chief Learning Officer - September 2007 - (Page 55)

case study If you ask a room of second-graders what they’d like to be when they grow up, you can expect the usual rundown: firefighter, astronaut, police officer, ballerina. Few, if any, children say, “When I grow up, I want to be a dog catcher.” The Humane Society of the United States would like to change that. With classes ranging from humane education to animal activism, Humane Society University (HSU) is dedicated to teaching people what it truly means to be an animal welfare worker. Its mission is clearly stated in its slogan: Put your passion into action. Although its primary audience consists of animal shelter workers, animal control officers, lobbyists and volunteers, HSU is run more like a proprietary university than a corporate learning institution — its classes are open to anyone who would like to learn more about operating an animal shelter, lobbying for animal rights or anything else that involves assisting animals in need, said Robert Roop, Humane Society of the United States vice president of HR and education. “We run this corporate university as a large outreach organization that tries to professionalize the animal care community through various learning experiences,” he said. HSU’s charitable mission is what drives its educational goals, said Diana Clement, HSU director. “What we would like to do is create a more humane and sustainable world,” she said. “My department does that through education.” HSU’s goal is to offer professional development classes for people who want to build careers as animal welfare workers. Before HSU (which began in 1999 as a separate learning department of the Humane Society of the United States), there were no university programs available for students interested in pursuing this line of work, Clement said. With no standardized education on the market, most animal care professionals learned primarily from the hands-on experience of working at their local shelter. “In the animal welfare profession, there is no history of an academic career track, so we offer a place for people to go,” she said. This type of national knowledge bank is important, given the high turnover rate animal shelters experience each year — because the staff and manager life cycles in these institutions are very short, on-the-job training often is not enough to teach workers everything they need to know. “The average shelter turnover is about a third of the staff every year, which means that they don’t have institutional knowledge,” Clement said. “So, if you’re not constantly teaching the managers what they need to know, these organizations are reactive only.” Teaching managers is one of the primary goals of HSU, which prides itself on promoting professionalism in the field. Although the handson work performed in animal shelters is generally of the highest quality, many organizations are so intent on helping the animals in their care that they spend little time on things such as organizational development. Yet, taking the time to identify and meet an institution’s strategic goals is critical to improve the quality of service it provides, Roop said. “The animal care profession is very hands-on, so workers become focused on the applied side of the profession and less focused on the management side,” he explained. “I’ve pushed the management side of the operation because I think you can make a better operation through better management. As with any corporation, in order to be effective, you have to have good management, and you have to have good strategic planning. So, we have tried to help promote that thought process over the last several years.” To assist shelter workers and directors in this process, HSU has partnered with Duquesne University in Pittsburgh to offer a bachelor’s degree-completion program in humane leadership and a master’s degree program in leadership. Although HSU staff members play a large part in writing and developing the courses, Duquesne professors teach and assess them. Both programs can be completed online and are geared to meet the needs of animal care professionals. CASE STUDY continued on page 64 55 September 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Strategies Selling up, Selling Down Take Five Imperatives Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Embarking on a Learning Journey Clo Profile Environment CIGNA Service Operations: Making Strategic Change Happen, and Making It Stick Tactics Black & Decker: On-Demand Learning Creation and Consumption Productivity The Army You Have Human Capital Holiday Inn Express: Delivering Critical Training Globally Case Study: Tegan Jones Business Intelligence Case Study: Lisa Rummler Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

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