Ms. Ann Young

ANN YOUNG-JAFFE and her family, have lived in Granby for 2 years.Ann works at Aetna in Hartford managing a leadership development program in information technology.In addition she has a passion for politics and women's rights and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.Her husband Scott is head of sales at a family owned company in Hartford.

Ms. Ann Young

Ann Young, head of resource management, notes that the group is eager to add women and minorities.
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"We're making a concerted effort to increase the numbers of women and people of color," Young says.
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But a dual-track college hiring initiative, launched in 2002, also plays an essential role, Young says.Included is a fast-track leadership development program and a technical development program, each with an intensive mentoring component.

"Structured programs like these are the best way to retain new recruits and assimilate them into the company culture," Young says.
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AIS now assigns new hires to volunteer mentors, typically managers or experienced IT pros "who genuinely enjoy developing young talent," says Young.Leadership recruits partner with their mentors for three years as they rotate through the IT area.They also attend educational forums.

"In three years when they come out of the program, they'll likely be in leadership roles, possibly as project managers leading small teams," Young explains.

The leadership program has ten people in it right now.But most new hires - twenty-five out of thirty in 2003, Young notes - move into the technical development program.It offers two choices: a one-year, non-rotational track, and a three-year program that rotates recruits through three technical slots, in project management, application development and QA."It gives them a multifaceted view of our entire organization," Young explains.

Diversity is a major goal of the recruitment process for these programs.For this year, 45 percent of new recruits are female and 31 percent are people of color, says Young.

A key part of the initiative has been reassuring senior professionals as the bright new kids flood in. "We explain that we expect a partnership to grow between them.Each group can learn from the other," says Young.
...
Attention to diversity, both in recruiting and retention, is key to keeping AIS sharp, says Young.

Ann Young, head of resource management, notes that the group is eager to add women and minorities.
...
"We're making a concerted effort to increase the numbers of women and people of color," Young says.
...
But a dual-track college hiring initiative, launched in 2002, also plays an essential role, Young says.Included is a fast-track leadership development program and a technical development program, each with an intensive mentoring component.

"Structured programs like these are the best way to retain new recruits and assimilate them into the company culture," Young says.
...
AIS now assigns new hires to volunteer mentors, typically managers or experienced IT pros "who genuinely enjoy developing young talent," says Young.Leadership recruits partner with their mentors for three years as they rotate through the IT area.They also attend educational forums.

"In three years when they come out of the program, they'll likely be in leadership roles, possibly as project managers leading small teams," Young explains.

The leadership program has ten people in it right now.But most new hires - twenty-five out of thirty in 2003, Young notes - move into the technical development program.It offers two choices: a one-year, non-rotational track, and a three-year program that rotates recruits through three technical slots, in project management, application development and QA."It gives them a multifaceted view of our entire organization," Young explains.

Diversity is a major goal of the recruitment process for these programs.For this year, 45 percent of new recruits are female and 31 percent are people of color, says Young.

A key part of the initiative has been reassuring senior professionals as the bright new kids flood in. "We explain that we expect a partnership to grow between them.Each group can learn from the other," says Young.
...
Attention to diversity, both in recruiting and retention, is key to keeping AIS sharp, says Young.

Ms Ann Young
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Ms Ann Young

Ann Young, head of Aetna Inc.'s professional development services, a part of the company's 3,000-person information technology division, says she's found interns no longer want to settle for busy work. “They want very substantive positions,” she says.

Ms Ann Young
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Ms Ann Young

Ann Young, head of resource management for Aetna's information technology services, is working to bring more women and people of color into her department with a year-old program whose goal is to hire 30 recent college grads annually to invigorate a field dominated by white men.

"When we looked at our information services population, we found we had very limited numbers of women, particularly in our younger age group," Young said."We wanted to make sure we were attracting some of the best and brightest women."

Women comprise less than 20 percent of the nation's information technology workforce, Young said.Of the 30 people in her first recruiting class, 12 are women and eight are people of color.

"That's unheard of," Young said."What's more, we are confident that we are getting top-drawer talent who are contributing to the bottom line.We are grooming them to be future managers, and we're investing a lot because we expect there will be a big payoff.This wasn't just a nice thing to do.This is really helping IT be a stronger organization here."

For retail and service organizations, perhaps, the business imperative is more critical than for manufacturing or construction companies whose focus is business-to-business or government transactions.