Free and fee-based workshops, coaching certification, and executive coaching are available upon request for USC managers and HR professionals.

Workshops

HRCI

Earning a certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute (HRCI), such as the Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), demonstrates expertise and dedication to strategic HR practices, policies, and principles. It also lends significant professional credibility to your expertise as an HR professional as you interact with the people you serve at USC. Achieving an HRCI certification shows that you have mastered the HR core knowledge and principles needed to perform within your chosen HR profession.

You can both complete your certification – and prepare for it – in TrojanLearn.

The Art of the Job Announcement – free

Learn to effectively attract the best talent in the marketplace through well-articulated job announcements:

  • Identify key elements of a job announcement
  • Deepen understanding of how to promote the USC brand and drive the candidate experience
  • Learn how to advertise your job announcements (e.g., JobTarget, LinkedIn) and optimize your internal referrals

Interview Edge learning bundle in TrojanLearn

These resources are designed to develop and sharpen interviewing techniques, and aim to ensure that individuals involved in hiring are prepared and confident throughout the interview process. Designed for all levels of our recruitment community (including recruiters, hiring managers and HR Partners), Interview Edge can be completed in under three hours, or users can focus on targeted topics broken into segments of 10 minutes each. Available topics will help you:

  • Improve overall interviewing practices and processes
  • Choose meaningful interview question types based on chosen competencies
  • Develop interview questions
  • Prepare for interviews, including appropriate interview opening and closing techniques
  • Avoid common interview errors
  • Identify legal responsibilities in interviewing in accordance with workplace discrimination and harassment laws

Interview “Architect” – fee required

This is a professional certification offered by Korn Ferry, a major recruiting and executive search firm:

  • Increase your ability to select talent for every role, at every level
  • Enhance your interview process through standardized, skill-based questions
  • Build a foundation for selecting your team

You may also find Interview Architect: ‘How To’ Guide in TrojanLearn. This resource offers an overview of the program as well as various guides to help you use the tool.

Leadership “Architect” – fee required

Another professional certification opportunity from Korn Ferry:

  • Provides HR professionals with a common language for development
  • Identifies behaviors that drive performance and enable staff to get work done – and those that derail efforts
  • Defines critical skills required for success

Many USC employees are now certified in one of the above two programs – and they are available to help your department create competency-based interview guides that will help elevate the quality of your hiring. Contact TalentAcquisition@hr.usc.edu for help identifying individuals who can help with this, or contact TrojanLearn@hr.usc.edu for more general information about any of the above training opportunities.

Coaching

Leaders are faced with new challenges every day and the new norm is constant change. Organizations that embrace coaching can help those leaders identify new insights and perspectives, improve decision-making, gain greater interpersonal effectiveness, and increase self-confidence, as well as teach their staff how to build strong performance, accountability and customer-centric cultures. According to the International Coach Federation, further benefits of coaching include increases in productivity, satisfaction with work/life balance and goal achievement.

  • Coaching Tools @ USC is an in-depth program leading to coaching certification that is offered periodically.
  • Leader as Coach is an abbreviated three-day program to help leaders more effectively inspire, communicate, engage, motivate and develop their teams.

Graduates from these coaching programs come from all across the university – from senior leadership, deans and faculty to HR professionals, counselors and individuals. We’ve trained employees from numerous schools, divisions and business units. Read what some of them have to say about our coaching programs:

Coaching Tools is the most beneficial professional development experience I’ve had in my career. The skills I learned were immediately useful in my position at USC and equipped me with effective communication tools that I continue to use daily with my colleagues and constituents.”

Joshua James Knightley | Associate Director, Marshall Learning and Development

“It provides a nice balance between theoretical concepts and practical aspects of coaching. Being a professor in accounting, I was initially skeptical about what the program would offer. However, having completed the program, I am more than pleased with how much I have learned… I give this program my highest recommendation.”

Christo Karuna | Professor of Accounting, Marshall

“Attending the coaching training program at USC might be the best professional decision I ever made. This program has invigorated my career development and expanded my ability to impact people’s lives. When it comes to training, I have high standards and low patience, and this course never failed to keep me motivated and engaged, with a clear sense of how to apply what I was learning. Even though I brought many years of clinical and consultative experience to the class, it still challenged me to develop new skill sets and frameworks, without ever feeling repetitive.”

Jason Sackett, LCSW | Center for Work and Family Life

“Not only did I learn the competencies essential for coaching, but I was given ample time to practice coaching and to build expertise and confidence beyond what was ‘book’ learned. The instructor rarely lectured but instead provided rich multimedia examples, facilitated collaborative exercises and exchanges, and arranged for relevant and engaging speakers. The materials presented thoroughly prepared us for the coaching experience… I learned so much from my classmates and built enduring friendships that I know will support me as I grow as a coach.”

Susan E. Metros | Associate Dean, Roski

“The Coaching Certification at USC is an incredibly valuable and life changing experience. Through this program, I have been able to become part of an amazing community, create new friendships, and build on as well as re-establish relationships at work and in my personal life. Being a coach brings value to others in maximizing their potential and creating opportunities, and this program, led by a masterful and purpose-driven coach, will bring more positivity and meaning to your life as well.”

David Ginchansky | Senior Career Counselor
, USC Career Center

Contact USC Training & Development to join them!