OMNI Human Resource Management is pleased to announce the launch of a new #podcast, “Power of People: Higher Education Edition,” on May 1, 2023. Hosting the podcast are Dr. Roger Dusing, Senior Consultant and Higher Education Practice Leader with OMNI Human Resource Management, and Dr. Dale Marrant, VP Human Resources with Cleveland University-Kansas City. Dr. Dusing and Dr. Marrant have extensive experience in human resources, both inside and outside of higher education.
OMNI Human Resource Management is pleased to announce the launch of a new podcast, “Power of People: Higher Education Edition,” on May 1, 2023.
Hosting the podcast are Dr. Roger Dusing, Senior Consultant and Higher Education Practice Leader with OMNI Human Resource Management, and Dr. Dale Marrant, VP Human Resources with Cleveland University-Kansas City. Dr. Dusing and Dr. Marrant have extensive experience in human resources, both inside and outside of higher education.
With more than a decade as a Chief Human Resources Officer in higher education, podcast Dr. Dusing says he has learned a few interesting things. Having worked in banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, publishing, and more, he’s noticed some distinct characteristics to the higher ed industry, which include:
- A long business cycle,
- A lengthier decision-making process and an even lengthier period of time to know if the decisions were the right ones.
- Faculty with tenure, academic freedom, and shared governance.
- Confusion over what is the product and who are the customers.
Shrinking enrollments, increased competition, and the pending enrollment cliff, higher education, pose serious threats to small liberal arts universities in particular. These institutions have cut costs every way they can, but the only costs left are people. People are just about the only thing that can distinguish one university from another, so failing to attract and retain the right people worsens the risk. And those people still want to have meaningful work, to know that they make a difference, and to feel appreciated. They want to receive a fair wage with good benefits, to know if they are doing a good job, to work for people and institutions they can respect, and to have a reasonable work/life balance.
Dr. Dusing joined OMNI to launch the higher education practice to try to help these schools keep their doors open. This includes helping them to attract and retain talent, to develop and install the systems that allow them to recognize and reward employees, to make sure that people are appropriately paid, and to make the tough decisions about what things to stop doing, in order to reallocate those funds to where they really need to be spent.
Dr. Marrant says, “When I was invited to be part of the podcast, I immediately knew it was something that was well aligned with the things I’m passionate about.” His father’s education ended with his high school diploma, and his mother never graduated from high school. Yet both worked very hard to ensure that he could take advantage of educational opportunities. As a result, he experienced firsthand the benefit that education can play in improving quality of life for individuals and families, be it traditional higher education like we will be talking about in this podcast, or perhaps career and technical education and even informal education endeavors. At the end of the day, the world is changing fast, he believes it’s up to each of us to stay current, and that the dialog to be offered on this podcast will do just that.
With educational institutions feeling pressure from all sides, it is more important than ever for leaders and human resource professionals to be strategic. Moreover, those at relatively small institutions are trying to do all the same things as much larger institutions are doing, but with far fewer resources, both human and financial. Cleveland University has just 100 full-time employees to do everything that needs to be done. Building key partnerships with organizations like OMNI isn’t a luxury for small institutions, but a necessity.
Throughout Season 1 of the “Power of People” podcast, co-hosts will meet with subject matter experts and higher education leaders to talk about the world of work, the role of the manager, employee engagement, fiduciary liability, HR technology and much, much more. We invite you to join us on this ride, and hopefully we’ll all learn something together.
Jennifer Gross-Statler, Marketing & Communications Manager, comes to us with over 20 years’ experience as a nonprofit professional. Her background includes four years as Executive Director of a Connecticut nonprofit with a state mandate to evaluate state-funded mental health programs, assess strengths and unmet needs, and make recommendations for improvements. She brings valuable expertise to OMNI in community and media relations, marketing and branding, project management, and strategic planning. Jennifer is a graduate of The College of William & Mary.
