Organization Makes Professional Development Part of Its Culture

 

Professional development plays a vital role in the journey of your career. While professional development is often offered by employers, each individual has to take his or her own initiative to improve their course. To breakdown the topic of professional development, we’re joined by two experts from Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging (WRAAA), Training and Development Specialist Molly Vollmer, MSSA, LSW, and Manager of Training and Development, Danielle Clay, LSW.

WRAAA is a unique organization when it comes to empowering their employees through professional development. Danielle shared, “While each person is responsible for his or her own learning, professional development, and career path, they’ll stay longer when they have an employer who invests in their ability to keep learning. Every year, we provide each employee a stipend to do this. It’s certainly a differentiator for the company and a big reason why people want to work here and stay here.”

Molly added, “Professional development is part of our culture. From day one, employees know that we expect them to continue to grow and learn because ultimately, that impacts the success of the entire company.”

The opportunities that WRAAA offers vary from certificate programs to speakers from organizations coming to the facility, to employees furthering their education with a master’s degree. In addition to these options, mentorship always plays a significant role in the company’s professional development philosophy.

Molly said, “Mentors are important in the beginning to your career. It’s good to have someone to look up to and have a resource to ask questions and provide guidance. New employees are assigned to a team lead or someone who can stay with them through the orientation process—a go-to person for them as they acclimate to a new environment.”

Discover more about WRAA’s culture of professional development and how you can choose the best continuing education program to help you meet your goals by listening to the podcast.

For the latest news, videos, and podcasts in the Healthcare Industry, be sure to subscribe to our industry publication.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @HealthMKSL
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

leadership resilience
Rewriting the Odds: Leadership Resilience at the Heart of Norberto Orellana’s Rise
June 23, 2025

Economic mobility is often portrayed as a straight climb. In reality, it’s shaped by adversity, identity, and access to opportunity. As research from the University of Michigan notes, mobility requires not only income, education, and employment, but also more intangible resources such as social inclusion and power—the ability to make choices and exert influence….

Read More
revenue growth strategy
Aligning People, Process, and Innovation Creates a Revenue Growth Strategy Built for Long-Term Impact—Not Just Quick Wins in High Trust Industries
June 20, 2025

Law enforcement agencies are under growing pressure to investigate faster, operate smarter, and serve increasingly complex communities. Yet many still rely on legacy systems that slow progress. Private sector partners are stepping in, offering tools that bridge this divide using a focused revenue growth strategy that balances speed, trust, and long-term impact. A recent…

Read More
human-centered
How Human-Centered Design Led to a Startup Accelerator for Education: A Conversation with Transcend Network’s Co-founder Michael Narea
June 20, 2025

The convergence of human-centered design and education innovation is reshaping how edtech ventures emerge and scale. As AI enables hyper-efficiency and bootstrapped entrepreneurship becomes more viable, the real differentiator is empathy—founders who listen deeply to users before building solutions. A McKinsey study of 300 public companies found that design-led organizations significantly outperformed their peers, with…

Read More
care navigation
AI-Powered Care Navigation Reduces Healthcare Spend and Improves Patient Access
June 20, 2025

The U.S. healthcare system is strained by rising costs, uneven quality, and fragmented care navigation. Employers are bearing the brunt, spending more without always securing better care for their teams. According to the RAND Corporation, one effective strategy is to “change their network and benefit designs to encourage patients to use lower‑priced, higher‑value providers…

Read More