Talent Development

Talent Development

The Talent Development service area provides the planning, development, growth, recognition, and workplace program and advisory services to help UVA organizations achieve their mission. Our specialized units address the following areas:

Talent Management – The way we support employees through their UVA career. 

Employee Relations – The way we collectively live our values, look out for our people, and address performance at the University of Virginia.

Organizational Development & Belonging – The way we strengthen leaders, teams, and workplace culture to help people thrive, embrace change, foster belonging, and achieve shared success at UVA.

Talent Development Leader – Shernita Rochelle, Associate Vice President for Talent Development

Talent Management

Our vision is to proactively ensure a qualified, motivated, and engaged workforce at UVA. We anticipate future workforce needs, develop individuals, invest in a learning culture, sustain desired behaviors, cultivate a productive and positive environment for feedback and accountability, prepare high potential employees to fill future roles, and provide exceptional tools and programs to retain and engage a skilled workforce. We work in close partnership with the Office of the Provost to complement the faculty experience.

Leader – Carolyn Cullen, Director of Talent Management

Service Offerings and Key Outcomes:

  • Learning & Development

    Learning & Development promotes effective learning that leads to greater employee motivation and satisfaction as employees feel valued and able to grow and develop throughout their careers. Learning and change are interlinked because learning enables organizations to respond to changes and adapt to an increasingly competitive and ever-changing market.

    Our Services

    • Facilitate and lead engaging learning experiences
    • Identify and prioritize current and future organizational learning and development requirements
    • Recommend University-wide, role-specific curricula programs and delivery approach
    • Design content and materials for employee development and education

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Learning and development needs assessment
    • Improved employee engagement
    • More productive workforce
    • Increased employee retention
    • Tailored learning experience
    • Identify skill gaps
    • Practical application of soft skills

  • Performance Management

    Performance Management is the ongoing dialogue between a supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year. With a primary focus on continuous development, these touchpoints go beyond the state/Joint Commission documentation requirements to include the individual’s specific contributions to the attainment of UVA priorities. Effective performance management creates a shared understanding of expectations, fosters constructive conversations, and ultimately fuels professional growth and individual performance. Performance management is a shared accountability that requires active engagement by both the manager and individual.

    Our Services

    • Communicate calendar of ongoing performance management activities
    • Offer leading practices on goal setting, giving and receiving feedback, and determining individual development activities
    • Provide training on performance management system, process, and tools
    • Recommend ways to differentiate and reward high performers

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Differentiated and improved individual performance
    • Support of talent readiness and career mobility
    • Individual and supervisor toolkits
    • Performance management program guidance and leading practice advice
    • Performance management training materials
    • Performance management communications and reminders

  • Rewards & Recognition Academic Division

    Rewards & Recognition creates and administers programs to acknowledge the contributions and service of outstanding staff and team members who deliver exceptional results for UVA. This is a complementary, pan-University effort that supplements the current programs in place at UVA Health and in the Academic Division. Rewards and recognition programs strengthen the employment experience and improve our ability to retain talent as well as reinforce the behaviors that are central to our mission of world-class teaching, research, patient care, and public service.

    Our Services

    • Provide resources to foster a culture of peer-to-peer recognition and a sense of community
    • Recommend rewards and recognition practices for high performers
    • Design and implement recognition and discount programs
    • Support service and UVA milestone achievement
    • Support coordination of employee engagement events in your organization
    • Administer the Rewards & Recognition system

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Recognition of employee contributions to UVA
    • Rewards & Recognition program guidance
    • Rewards & Recognition system
    • Service recognition program
    • Concierge and discount programs
    • Employee engagement events

  • Learning Design & Technology

    The Learning Design & Technology team provides instructional design, Workday technical training, and Workday Learning services for UVA Academic and UVA Health. We partner with schools, departments, units, teams, and individuals across Grounds to ensure people, teams, and organizations can do their best work every day. 

    Our Services

    • Design and facilitate technical training
    • Respond to system changes by implementing timely digital and instructor-led resources and courses
    • Administrate the Learning Management System

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Educated and competent workforce who can comfortably use Human Resources systems
    • Various training resources for all skill levels and learning types
    • Maintain central Learning Management Systems to find and engage with training

Employee Relations

Working with various stakeholders (FEAP, EOCR, General Counsel, UPD, etc.), Employee Relations provides a quality work balance through fair treatment of employees and resolves employee matters and concerns in a fair and consistent manner.

Leaders:

  • Sandy Bakoczy, Manager, Employee Relations, Academic Division
  • Althea Howell, Manager, Employee Relations, UVA Health and UVA Physicians Group

Service Offerings and Key Outcomes:

  • Respect @UVA

    Our Services

    • Dealing with disrespectful behavior
    • Workplace guidelines
    • Resources for creating and maintaining a respectful workplace

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Creation and maintenance of a fair and equitable work environment
    • Resolution of employment-related disputes
    • Equitable treatment by managers and co-workers
    • Action plan if confronted with or accused of disrespectful behavior

  • Employee Toolkit

    Our Services

    • How to file a Respect@UVA complaint or EOCR complaint
    • Alternative dispute resolution
    • Appeals of annual performance evaluations
    • Requesting an exit interview
    • Child abuse and neglect reporting
    • Grievances resources

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Disciplinary performance management
    • Employee discipline and misconduct management
    • Understanding of how to address disputes and conflicts in the workplace
    • Recourse for perceived mismanagement or inappropriate conduct

  • Manager Toolkit

    Our Services

    • Corrective and disciplinary actions
    • Guidance to Medical Center managers around staff requests for reassignment

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Policy interpretation
    • HR investigations
    • Assisting employees with contributing fully to UVA’s mission and goals

  • Employee Relations Workshops

    Our Services

    • Interactive, workshop-style training series that redefines customer service and collaboration with a proactive approach to developing core professional skillsets

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Understanding how to create a productive, safe, and welcoming environment for all those within our UVA workplace
    • Skill-building in the management and application of employee discipline, while strengthening the organization through the strategic relevance of existing policy
    • Understanding of the University grievance process and the State grievance procedure
    • Appreciation of the forms, documentation, and business justification for layoffs

  • University Medical Center Employee Relations Consulting Services

    Our Services

    • Interpreting human resources and Medical Center policies and procedures
    • Advising on progressive discipline and/or employment separations
    • Conflict resolution tools and mediation
    • Advising on the development of Team Member Performance Improvement Plans (TPIPs)
    • Coaching on having crucial conversations
    • Leaves of absence and associated benefits, such as Family/Medical Leave, Short-term Disability programs, and accommodation of disabilities
    • Grievance process
    • Planning staffing strategies and consulting on Reductions-in-Force (RIF)
    • Conducting workplace investigations

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Understanding of the human resources issues confronted by Medical Center team members, managers, and leaders

Organizational Development & Belonging

Organizational Development is the creation of custom people solutions to support the most pressing organizational priorities. It is the blend of strategic alignment, leadership and team development, change management, and the coaching expertise required to influence behaviors and improve organizational effectiveness. Organizational Development helps UVA leaders and teams reinforce training, influence sustainable behaviors over time, realize their collective potential, and achieve outstanding results for the University.

Leader – Raymond Brown, Director, Organizational Development & Belonging

Service Offerings and Key Outcomes:

  • Organizational Development & Belonging

    Our Services

    • Conduct organizational needs assessment to identify improvement opportunities
    • Design and develop programs to support strategic initiatives
    • Consult with leaders to identify improvement priorities and intervention approaches
    • Facilitate team building and improvement activities
    • Administer employee engagement surveys and recommend improvement action plans
    • Offer leadership coaching services

    The Outcomes for Our Customers

    • Improved leadership aptitude
    • Increased team member engagement
    • Enhanced accountability
    • Active self-discovery and behavior change
    • Improved team dynamics
    • Targeted leader and team action planning