News

University Park, Pa. – Fourteen students in the School of Labor and Employment Relations (LER) will travel to Silicon Valley during spring break as part of their special topics course LER 497 Human Resources in Technology. This four-day trip will provide students an opportunity to engage directly with engineers and human resource leaders in tech to gain a unique insight into a dynamic and growing industry. 

The class was first provided in the spring of 2017 by associate professor of LER, Sumita Raghuram. “Human resource management has to be contextualized,” stated Raghuram. “Manufacturing is different than software. A major role of HR has been to build employee commitment and reduce turnover; however, the average time an employee stays with a tech company is three years and organizations have to work with this reality.” 

Sumita Raghuram and Kim Plummer, LER career counselor, will accompany the students to provide additional insights and work directly with recruiters while they tour HP, Google, Reddit, Uber, Box, and Intel. Students will hear from company representatives what keeps employees motivated and draws them to these companies.  

“There is a lot of potential for HR trained students to work for the tech companies or start-ups who are not always HR savvy,” said Raghuram. “The tech industry is maturing.”

Students undergo eight weeks of instruction as part of the course before they visit Silicon Valley. The course prepares them in understanding the type of unique issues confronting this industry.