“CEOs can put together marketing, sales, production and business-development plans all day long, but their companies cannot win in the marketplace if they don’t have the right people to carry out those plans.” (Forbes.com)
In our increasingly knowledge-based economy, the best companies are coming to appreciate and understand that they are only as good as their workforce. The need to engage and develop employees is recognized as a way to win in today’s competitive markets.
Many companies today put tremendous effort into attracting employees to their companies and increasingly are spending more time and focusing more effort on defining, retaining, and developing the top talent that they already have in their teams. It is an approach that is more commonly a part of the business strategy of many companies and encouraged at all levels of an organization.
Once the talent is defined, the focus is not just on today’s performance but on potential — what the employee might achieve given the right development of skills and the opportunity for higher education and increased responsibility. Leadership development within organizations and more emphasis on career development and succession planning — growing their own talent — is increasingly becoming a part of many senior managers’ focus and subsequently how they are evaluated on their own performance to grow their teams, divisions, and the companies they are a part of.
Given these realities, Leave of Absence opportunities — allowing for pursuit of higher education and training — are increasingly becoming one of the ways organizations can develop and keep talent. Ivey’s one-year MBA Program perfectly aligns with many of these corporate leave policies. Ivey MBA students — both past and current — who have taken advantage of Leave of Absence opportunities have returned to their companies equipped to take on increased responsibility and more in-depth leadership roles within their organizations. Through our Leave of Absence Program, we work with MBA applicants and students to facilitate requesting a leave from your employer as well as making the transition back to advanced roles in the company following completion of the MBA. As well, all candidates approved for the LOA Program will receive a $10,000 incentive upon completion of the program and return to their employer.
If you have questions about what a Leave of Absence would mean to your organization, how to discuss it with your manager, or how it might fit in with your career plans, feel free to contact us to schedule a call with a CareerManagement representative or Recruiting Manager: mba@ivey.ca
Sharon Irwin-Foulon is Executive Director of Career Management and Corporate Recruiting at Ivey Business School. For the recently released MBA 2013 Employment Report, go to: http://go.ivey.ca/placement