Skilled Credentials: A New Strategy for HR Professionals
Session seating is first come, first served. Thank you for your cooperation.
Skilled credentials – not 2- or 4-year degrees - are a way for learners to signal a skill or competency to employers. The number of these credentials has skyrocketed over the last few years as providers recognize that learners – particularly those who have been displaced by economic factors or do not have the means to attend a post-secondary institution including people of color, those with history with the criminal justice system, opportunity youth, people with disabilities -– need a way to get the skills employers demand. In addition, during the pandemic many learners had the time to get additional credentials as they reassessed their employment opportunities. However, many employers have been slow to utilize these credentials for a variety of reasons when it comes to hiring needed talent, instead relying on more traditional criterion – degrees and extensive work experience - resulting in a continued skills gap. This session will explore how senior management, hiring managers, HR professionals and workers can better assess, utilize and leverage alternative credentials to provide employers with the talent they need and address issues of diversity, equity and inclusion and how they can be key to nimbly responding to the future needs of the organization.
Learning Objectives:
- Develop a better understanding of skilled credentials.
- How skilled credentials are developed, evaluated and tracked.
- How can skilled credentials be integral to workforce planning.
- Why are skilled credentials critical for meeting DEI&A targets.
Cassie Maschhoff
Cassie currently leads Workforce Development Partnerships for the Google Career Certificates. This program helps job seekers -- regardless of their educational background and work experience - learn the skills they need to enter in-demand high-growth career fields that pay well. Prior to this role, Cassie served as the Product Lead for the second most popular certificate on Coursera: The Google Project Management Certificate.
During her tenure at Google, Cassie has led Strategy and Operations for Grow with Google & Waze. She also served as an Account Strategist for small businesses using Google AdWords and Analytics to grow their presence.
She is currently pursuing her Executive MBA at NYU Stern School of Business.
David Benhamou
David is a Manager within Deloitte's Human Capital practice within Consulting focusing on Change Management and Workforce Transformation projects for large scale initiatives in the technology sector. David has a background in leading Job Architecture change programs and helping to launch and embed new ways of working across businesses and their HR organizations. David also leads the Deloitte Partnership with Grow with Google which has established Deloitte as both a trusted advisor for course content and to become a hiring consortium member of the program.
Wendi Safstrom
Wendi Safstrom is a senior non-profit leader committed to serving the public through philanthropic program management, cultivating strategic partnerships and managing and developing high performing teams. She has both association and nonprofit management experience including; national program development and administration, membership strategy, marketing and product development, grant management, development and donor stewardship, and leading cross functional teams. Safstrom currently serves as President for the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation (SHRM Foundation), where she leads the development and implementation of SHRM Foundation's programmatic, development, and marketing and communication strategies in support of SHRM Foundation's new mission and vision, creating growth plans and ensuring alignment with SHRM goals.
Prior to assuming the role at SHRM Foundation, Safstrom served as Vice President at the National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, where she led the development and implementation of their Foundation's most recent five-year strategic plan, and was responsible for all Foundation programming, including workforce development initiatives, scholarship and event management, community relations and engagement initiatives. The NRAEF's philanthropic programming supported a number of audiences including high school youth, veterans transitioning from service to civilian work and life, opportunity youth and incumbent workers. Of particular note, she led the implementation of the restaurant industry's premier high school career and technical education program, growing the program to over 2,000 public high schools, engaging over 150,000 students annually, nationwide. In 2016, she served as lead project director for the development of a $10 million contract awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor to develop the hospitality industry's first apprenticeship program, and was instrumental in the Foundation's reorganization and relocation of operations from Chicago, Illinois to Washington, D.C., transforming the staff and culture.
Safstrom has also held human resource management roles with the Leo Burnett Company and Hyatt Hotels Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. She has a BS in Business Administration from the Eli Broad School of Business at Michigan State University and was recognized as a member of the 2014 "Power 20" by Restaurant Business Magazine as a leader in philanthropy within the restaurant industry.