Hi, I’m Rebecca Keith, and I’m IUAA’s Executive Director of Talent Management.
(Hi, Rebecca…)
Oftentimes I’m met with laughter when I tell people my title.
No, really!
It’s just because it’s misunderstood –and rightly so. Talent oftentimes refers to athletes or musicians (I happen to be the latter). But in this case, I’m meaning any human talent or asset critical to business. It’s your workforce…your cadre of volunteers. It’s the talented people that help you get your work done.
I love how simply Wikipedia defines Talent Management: Everything done to recruit, retain, develop, reward and make people perform forms a part of talent management.
And that’s exactly what I do. I handle retention, on-boarding, development, and succession planning for our 44 corporate staff members and 1,000+ alumni volunteers. Through online and in-person training opportunities, my goal is to make expectations clear on both sides: what is expected of me and my office, and in turn, what we expect of our talented people. The recruitment, classification, and compensation of staff is managed by my colleague, Stephanie Krebbs, assistant director of human resources. We are a powerful team that continually works to answer the question – how can we provide excellent, sustained talent for the IU Alumni Association? The commitment that IUAA has for talent management is apparent, too, through the strategic focus we’ve placed on it within the Strategic Plan 2015-2020. With this collective vision I hope to bolster engagement for our paid and non-paid workforce.
I love my job and the talented people with whom I work every day. In the end, I just want employees and volunteers to thrive and truly enjoy their roles at the IUAA. With your helpful feedback and participation, I will thrive in my role, too.
Warm wishes,
Rebecca Keith, MM’96, PHR