Employment

Editor’s Note: Last week, the Hull College of Business finished teaching its inaugural PMP (Project Management Professionals) Exam prep course to seven students. For Dr. Rick Franza, the Dean of AU’s Hull College of Business, this is full circle for him. Decades ago, while in the Air Force Rick was a project manager and worked on ballistic missile defense initiatives from his base in Massachusetts. He would often visit with contractors in Massachusetts to Florida, Colorado and California and coordinate their efforts. ABD: What are employer appetites like for Project

Restaurants ask for our patience because of a lack of staff. Delivery times have lengthened (remember when Amazon prime was 2 days?). The pre-pandemic peak in employment in the Augusta MSA was 246,300 and currently stands at 238,400, a loss of 7,900 jobs. In percentage terms, the loss is similar to the national data. Almost all the difference in the jobs numbers is accounted for by a smaller labor force. In Augusta, the labor force (people in work or looking for work) decreased by 3,567 to 265,381 in September. The

14 speakers shared their take on workplace culture in various keynote and breakout sessions—in both the Azalea and Magnolia rooms of The Space. Two of the speakers AU Professor and SMR Leadership business owner Stacy Roberts (see above) and Walton Options/Hire Me GA communications executive Ann Campbell-Kelly (see below) tackled tough topics like discrimination, disabilities and inclusion in the workplace. “If I want change let me be that change,” said Ms. Roberts. It’s all about communication and language, but we must all be ready to have that conversation,” before we

Editor’s Note: In the last year, AU’s Hull College of Business joined six other business schools in the University of Georgia system to offer a shared on-line MBA program. Dr. Richard Franza, Dean of Hull just returned from a conference at Georgia Southern with other deans at the WebMBA program. ((Photo by Angelia Huggins, Managing Director, photographing three award-winning WebMBA professors)) There were six students in the most recent semester from Hull in the WebMBA program and nearly 40 in the MBA classrooms. Dr. Franza is preparing to grow both

Editor’s Note: We’ve all heard ad nauseum how hard it is to hire and retain good employees at our CSRA companies. What if there was a way to develop a relationship and recruit someone BEFORE you were ready to hire? Think of it like a pipeline. Think of having your company be part of the “Business Showcase” or “Business Connections” program at AU’s Hull College of Business.  They’ve had as many as 50-80 students participate depending if it is on campus or on-line. ABD: How does Hull’s Business Showcase/Connections programs