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Hewlett-Packard report impact of CERI programme
Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:26:00 GMT
People Management 5th January 2011
Hewlett-Packard uses masters degree to retain top talent
IT giant teams up with Portsmouth to train Lean Sigma ‘black belts’ , Michelle Stevens
A masters degree at Hewlett-Packard (HP), developed with Portsmouth Business School, is proving a success and helping the firm to retain top talent.
The IT giant currently has 21 employees at the halfway point in its 18-month Strategic Quality Management MSc programme, which is undertaken alongside workers’ day jobs.
“The feedback from people already in the MSc is incredibly positive,” said Maurice Fitzgerald, HP’s vice-president of customer experience and strategy, EMEA, who initiated the new centralised training approach.
“The aim is to retain people who are very valuable on the open market and bring them increased motivation. Employees see the course as HP really giving something back to them – one described it as more important than a rise in salary.”
Fitzgerald explained that the masters degree was developed as part of a reinvigoration of HP’s ‘Lean Sigma’ programme – which identifies and trains top talent in the field of process improvement. Students on the course come from the highest tier of the Lean Sigma programme, and are known as 'Black Belts'.
The tie-up with Portsmouth arose after a review of UK universities, which found that academic courses at the south coast business school aligned closely with HP’s training vision, Fitzgerald added.
“I found our methodology and results quite dated and average, and wanted to bring Lean Sigma training into this century,” he continued. “We decided to set up a whole new set of coaching and processes to improve the proportion of people who get certified.”
The first Portsmouth intake comprises of staff from Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Fitzgerald added that HP aimed to induct a second class this May, including two employees on scholarships from Asia and North or South America.
Students spend two week-long sessions at the university and the remaining study is done via e-learning. A dissertation is also completed, based on a core HP business project.
Portsmouth degree leader Barbara Savage added: “The course team have worked closely with HP to develop a new way of delivering the existing MSc in Strategic Quality Management, so that it complements HP's Black Belt training programme and integrates effectively with the students’ day to day quality improvement activities.
“Just two months after the conclusion of the first university-based study week, students were reporting measurable benefits to the company that could be directly ascribed to their studies.”