about our human resources concentration

JWMI MBA with Human Resources Concentration

Elevating HR professionals to a position of power and primacy within any organization.

Talent is the driving force behind any team. And HR’s role is to find and develop that talent, building great companies as a result. After all, what could be more important than who gets hired, developed, promoted, or moved out the door?

This SHRM-aligned concentration curriculum was designed by Jack Welch and features lessons from talent management executives at Netflix, Delta Airlines and other leading companies who understand what is required to help transform the HR function into the most critical department within an organization.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has acknowledged that the Jack Welch MBA with Human Resources Concentration is aligned with SHRM’s HR Curriculum Guidebook and Templates. The HR Curriculum Guidebook and Templates were developed by SHRM to define the minimum HR content areas that should be studied by HR students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The guidelines—created in 2006 and revalidated in 2017—are part of SHRM’s Academic Initiative to define HR education standards taught in university business schools and help universities develop degree programs that follow these standards. As a University with a degree program aligned to SHRM’s curriculum guidelines, JWMI students are eligible to apply for the SHRM-CP exam provided they’ve met SHRM’s student eligibility requirements.

Enroll now in our HR Concentration to learn proven management practices to identify and retain great talent, build careers and help forge the kind of teams that change lives and companies.

Gain the specialized skills to:

Position the HR role as a strategic partner to the C-suite
Develop talent and build your company’s leadership pipeline
Design and deploy strategic staffing plans
Implement differentiation and strategies to retain and reward top talent
Use candor to coach and navigate tough employment relationships
Manage confidentiality, conflict and power struggles

Here’s what you can expect:

Final program length will depend on the number of courses taken per quarter and the number of quarters attended per year.

Next application deadline

April 5, 2021

The SHRM-aligned Human Resources Concentration Curriculum

The Jack Welch MBA with Human Resources Concentration combines the leadership and business skills from our top-ranked MBA curriculum with essential talent management skills needed to transform today’s HR leaders into strategic drivers of organizational success. Students will take the following curriculum that fully aligns with the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) HR Curriculum Guidebook and Templates:

JWMI HR Concentration class overview

Leadership in the 21^st century

Leadership is different from management. Managers get predictable things done predictably. Leaders inspire action and adaptability in an unpredictable world. This course delves into the concepts, tools and skills leaders need today. It combines theory and practice to examine such topics as strengthening emotional intelligence, motivating people to achieve strong results, managing conflict, leading change, aligning teams and eliciting support from colleagues and bosses. In addition, this course lays out Jack Welch’s time-tested techniques for high-performance team leadership.

business communications & executive presence

Your career and ability to lead depend on effective communication. Communication is a learned skill that everyone can improve. This course will teach you techniques, often reserved for high potential executives, to advance your leadership presence, strategic communication, professional relationships, presentation performance, and workplace crisis management. You will sharpen your communication skills through targeted learning, practice, and coaching. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to optimize your online presence through strategic updates to your LinkedIn profile and peer feedback.

recruit, develop, assess, reward, retain

Learn to attract the best people, reward the right behaviors and develop better leaders within your organization and see how the principles of differentiation, trust and candor drive winning results. This course is an introduction to people management, with a focus on putting people before numbers, nurturing talent and practicing fair and balance management. You will explore the concept of differentiation in employee management, examine ways to enhance the employee experience, and determine the best metrics to track to achieve organizational goals.

marketing in a global environment

Marketing is the process of turning wants and needs into decisions and actions. It involves a range of activities designed to convey a persuasive message to a target audience. The course covers marketing plans, qualitative and quantitative research, consumer psychology, product positioning and strategy, pricing, packaging, brand equity, advertising, the marketing mix, customer value, and business-to-business global marketing.

strategic partnering with the c-suite

Human Resources encompass much more than benefits and birthdays. A leader must find ways to navigate past this perception themselves with not only a seat at the table but as an independent confidant to the CEO. Students will explore how to align the competencies and behaviors of the workforce with the strategic goals of the organization. Also, Human Resource leaders need to develop themselves as the in-house experts in dealing with complex ethical and legal issues facing employers today. Students will examine the various regulatory agencies, policies, and guidelines impacting the workforce and identify ways to ensure compliance while driving results. Students will learn about the impact of Federal and State Regulations as they pertain to employee relations, compensation, hiring, and terminations.

financial management i

Financial accounting is the “language of business.” Leaders must develop fluency in financial concepts, principles, and tools to understand and drive effective organizational decisions. In this course, you will learn to read, understand and analyze financial data as well as apply managerial accounting concepts such as costing, variance analysis, forecasting, and capital budgeting. Maximize the impact of your financial decisions by learning to speak with numbers.

financial management II

Emphasizing the investment strategies of Warren Buffett, this course will help you develop the financial management skills necessary to analyze the competitive strengths of companies, and from that analysis, gain a better understanding of the qualities that investors in those companies seek. You will leverage these financial management skills to become a more strategic and tactical manager and improve your communication abilities when dealing with senior financial professionals.

strategy

In this course, students learn how to define your organization’s capabilities to implement and execute a winning strategy. Using Jack Welch’s approach to developing and evaluating a strategy, you will create an effective plan of action designed to achieve the higher-level goals of an organization. You will learn to drive strategic outcomes by consistently assessing decisions. You will identify criteria for uncovering risk, and develop plans for proactively addressing risks inherent to strategy.

operational excellence

Everyone in the organization is responsible for operational excellence. This course focuses on the pursuit of operational excellence as a competitive strength. Students gain the tools needed to identify opportunities for improving process effectiveness and efficiency. Topics include value stream mapping, process analysis, quality, customer-focused design, Six Sigma, and Lean systems.

lead change by putting people first

As Jack states, “Every time you talk about changing, you have to put together the rationale for the change. You have to answer the question of what’s in it for the people who are forced to do something different than they are used to doing.” Business leaders need to stay ahead of the game and help people within their organization to understand that change is constant and effective change management is needed to win. Students will explore the role of Human Resources in executing successful change management initiatives within an organization.

new business ventures & entrepreneurship

Anyone can display an entrepreneurial streak, but not everyone can be an entrepreneur. In this course, you will learn what makes an entrepreneur tick and then walk through the stages of planning, financing and launching a new business. The course covers business plan development, market analysis, competitive positioning, business models, funding sources, company formation, intellectual property, sales, marketing, and hiring. The insights gained will give you a powerful leg up in launching new businesses and new ventures within existing businesses.

Business Analytics and Capstone

This course is where it all comes together. Students will synthesize and apply all they have learned during their JWMI MBA program. They will complete a Capstone Project in which they will prepare and present a well-researched strategic plan to take their organization to a more profitable and sustainable position of market leadership. Because business leaders, especially CEOs, cannot just act on hunches, the first half of this course will be focused on business analytics. This will include an overview of powerful quantitative strategies and techniques used to analyze business data in any organization and improve decision outcomes across all business functions. Students will use these same techniques to identify, collect and analyze the data needed to support their strategic plan.

Why most leaders get it wrong … HR should be the most powerful part of any organization.
Jack Welch

SHRM-CP Eligibility

Students attending a SHRM-aligned program, like JWMI’s MBA with Human Resources Concentration, will be eligible to apply for the Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) exam.

Students must be in their final year of the HR program
Must be able to provide proof of a minimum of 500 hours of relevant HR experience

For additional eligibility details, please click to view the SHRM-CP qualifications.

Learn from the ultimate talent management executives

C-level executives from our Experts of Practice series will provide insights and share tips on how to create a game-changing HR department and partner effectively with the C-suite to achieve the company’s long-term vision.