A unique collaboration between a Harbert College of Business faculty member and the state of Alabama personnel department is providing management undergraduates with invaluable human resource (HR) consulting experience.

Students in Lecturer Carrie Belsito’s HR planning, development and appraisal (HRMN 5510) course spent the fall 2024 semester helping the State Personnel Training department understand how to attract and retain the younger employees needed to fill leadership positions in Alabama’s 104 state agencies.

“We need to get younger generations into leadership roles because the existing leaders are retiring,” said Harry Abrams, training coordinator for the more than 28,000 state employees. “One of the challenges is there aren’t as many people who want to get into leadership roles.”

Abrams and colleague Jennifer Thomasson are responsible for providing the development training to help state employees advance in their careers and move into leadership positions.

“We have made improvements and updated information to [our training materials] but we want to make major improvements,” said Thomasson. “Harry and I have spoken a lot about how we can make training more engaging and more valuable. As a trainer, you want [employees] to walk away and say that was a day well spent.”

Working in small teams, the Harbert students addressed specific issues that Thomasson and Abrams face as they work to cultivate a new generation of leaders in education, law enforcement, agriculture, conservation, transportation and other Alabama agencies.

For example, student teams explored ways to enhance public sector mentorship programs and designed an interactive employee training workshop.

Senior Caili McCarthy and her teammates Sophia Dean and Morgan Barr reimagined how state employee training is designed and delivered.

They addressed two issues, McCarthy said—younger employees’ lack of motivation to step into leadership roles and a knowledge gap between younger and older generations of workers.

“Based on our research, younger generations often feel intimidated by a new environment and strive to find a sense of community within their workplace,” said McCarthy, whose team developed a training plan that emphasized mentorship and peer support to help younger employees gradually gain experience and move into leadership roles.

Seniors Josie Miller, Tatum Mitchell, Sydney Miller and Anna Wohlers identified why millennials and GenZ employees are reluctant to take leadership training and management positions. Specifically, they created a survey to understand what motivates GenZ individuals and then administered it to fellow Auburn students involved in campus organizations that they lead.

Miller said they received 119 responses from student members of the Society of Human Resource Management, Auburn Dance Marathon, Auburn First Year Experience and the Auburn softball team.

“The top two motivators of our respondents were money and work-life balance,” said Miller, whose team recommended that the state trainers focus on fostering trust-building relationships between different generations of workers.

Both McCarthy and Miller expressed appreciation for the experiential learning offered in the course and how it will help them in their future careers.

“This course taught me a lot about the details that go into training programs that I did not really acknowledge prior to taking the course,” said McCarthy.

Belsito is pleased with the results of the course and the students’ projects, pointing out how this partnership falls in line with Auburn’s land-grant mission.

“As a land-grant institution, part of our mission is to serve our community,” Belsito said. “You can’t reach a bigger community than the state of Alabama. It’s exciting to see the students have an impact at that level.”

In Thomasson’s view, the collaboration provided her and Abrams with actionable insights into what motivates the younger generation about to enter the workforce, as well as valuable information about what HR majors are learning.

“We’ve already seen things today that we can use,” said Abrams, following the first round of student team presentations in late November. “There are certain themes popping up, especially on the mentor-mentee [topic].”

“As we are making our training better, the information the students provide today can benefit employees next week and for years to come,” said Thomasson. “The students’ efforts will be filtering to employees who work throughout the state.”

The class project is a big win for the students, too.

“Being able to be a part of something that is going to be used by the state and impact training for employees in the future has been a great experience and I am so thankful for the opportunity to help out the community,” said McCarthy.

Added Miller: “I am confident that everything I have learned in this class will be used in my future endeavors post-graduation.”

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Learn more about a Management degree and Human Resource Management minor.