Employees Taking Advantage of Opportunity to Advance at Duke
Several of the students from the Professional Development Institute's office staff development program finish fast-food lunches as the group settles into executive office chairs around the polished oak conference tables of the medical center board room in Duke South.
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Sara Baird, a medical records clerk at Butner-Creedmor Family Medicine, commutes to Duke from Butner, then back home to Oxford to participate in the office staff development program. At 21, she is celebrating her five-year anniversary with Duke. Torn between continuing with nursing school or pursuing a career in medical office administration, she talked with her supervisor, who told her about the office staff development program. |
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"All recovered from financials?" Sally Allison, program leader for the Professional Development Institute, asks the 24 university and health system employees who spent the last few class sessions learning how to decipher department budgets and reconcile financial statements. She introduces Sue Button, an adult educator from Durham Technical Community College, who will lead the class through various filing systems over the next two three-hour classes.
Not so much as a weary sigh escapes any of the participants, most of whom have been at work the better part of the day; the rest will start evening shifts after the afternoon class ends. Three times a week for 40 weeks, the employees put in extra hours or crunch their work day to make time to learn office management skills that will help them qualify for higher-level positions at Duke.
Two months into the program, C. Faye Keith, a secretary in housing assignments on campus, is already seeing results.
"My job requires multi-tasking," Keith said. "It's a high-stress job. Sometimes I have 20 or 30 students standing here, and the phone is ringing, and one of my bosses is standing there wanting me to do something, and I'm staring at a pile of paperwork in front of me. I've learned how to prioritize and that reduces the stress."
Keith, 54, signed on at Duke 28 years ago because the university was one of the few places in her native Durham that offered an attractive benefits package. Over the years, she has taken advantage of advancement courses at Duke and classes at Durham Tech to augment her skills. Initially working in food preparation, she transferred to housekeeping, working her way up to a supervisory position before changing tracks four years ago to take a clerical slot in housing, where she has assumed more responsibility.
"People say 54 is near retirement, but I don't think that way," she said. "I'm just interested in improving myself."
Keith is the type of employee Duke wants to keep, and the office staff development program will equip her to meet the challenges of advancing in a career at Duke. Several studies have shown that promoting from within, or "growing your own," Allison said, saves costs and management time associated with hiring, orientation and training.
"The mid-level office staff category is where our largest number of vacancies are," she said. "We don't have to find people with the necessary skills externally to fill these positions. We already have the quality people here at Duke who want to move up and are willing to learn the necessary skills to do so."
The office staff development program takes three giant steps beyond the skills development courses of years past by including a mentorship component, offering internship opportunities and providing participants with a recruiter from Human Resources to help direct them toward advancement opportunities.
The curriculum covers customer service, computer software, business writing and financial systems, among other topics, and includes sessions on resume writing, interviewing and career planning.
Keith laid the groundwork to do her internship after connecting with a co-worker in Residential Life and Housing Services when she needed assistance with some of financial responsibilities.
"I'm getting a chance to work with other colleagues in the department," Keith said. "That gives me an opportunity to meet and form working relationships with colleagues from many other University departments."
Every step in the program's selection process, from the written application to the individual and panel interviews, was designed to find those who would be motivated to excel and advance.
"We looked for who had the drive and the potential to take advantage of what the program has to offer," Allison said.
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Richard Smith, a data entry clerk in the medical center's pharmacy department, began his career at Duke in 1999. He applied for the Professional Development Institute's office staff development program after his manager shared information with him about the program and encouraged him to apply. |
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Richard R. Smith, 31, planned to be a pharmacist but got sidetracked. Though he could have worked much closer to his home in Mebane, where he lives with his wife and toddler daughter, he began commuting to Duke in 1999 as a pharmacy technician. He became a data entry clerk in the medical center's pharmacy department as a step toward the clinical research field. His manager sent him information about the office staff development program to bring him closer still to his goal of research associate. Through the office staff development program, he has improved his communication skills and gained experience with computer programs such as Lotus Notes, Excel, and PowerPoint. The contacts he has made outside class have been equally beneficial.
"So far, the networking has been the most important," Smith said. "You are able to establish good contacts with people who may help you move your career along."
Smith's mentor, the head of Human Resources at Durham Regional Hospital, introduced him to a manager at Duke Clinical Research Institute, an important contact, as Smith hopes to do his internship at DCRI.
"The office staff development program is a very good opportunity for people who are trying to move up and may have had trouble getting noticed," Smith said. "It opens a few more doors to move into a better position."
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