Learning & Development Assistant

The Department of Human Resources at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University is seeking a full-time Personnel Assistant / Learning & Development Assistant.

Job Summary

To foster a culture of learning at SUNY Downstate, this role will support the development, implementation and evaluation of learning solutions that help employees meet their organizational, departmental and individual development needs.

Reporting to the Senior Learning and Development Associate, the Learning and Development Assistant will be responsible for providing administrative support to HR Learning & Development initiatives at Downstate, overseeing the coordination of New Employee Orientation, and supporting Human Resources projects as needed.

The ideal candidate will bring timely and accurate communication, a proactive approach, a customer service mindset and a desire to elevate a small but resourceful training department.

Key Responsibilities & Duties

Learning & Development

• Administrative support: Providing customer service, handling inquiries, liaising with facilitators, and ensuring deadlines are met.
• Data management: Maintaining and securing accurate records, including participation records. Oracle familiarity is a plus.
• Communication: Providing a reliable point of contact for all L&D matters by communicating with staff and managers about training requirements.
• Learning and development materials: Preparing guidance, learning and development resources, slides, handouts, and articles for in-house publications.
• Content creation: Assist with building content for leadership development program and other learning initiatives for managers or all staff.
• Event planning: Coordinating bookings for courses and trainers, reserving venues and catering.
• Learning Platform Administration: Uploading training content and materials into the Learning Management System (LMS; HealthStream), monitoring learner progress, tracking completion rates, and troubleshooting technical issues related to online learning platforms.
• Reports: Compiling and producing reports on key training and development metrics like participation, completion rates, and course effectiveness.
• Evaluation forms: Monitoring evaluation forms to enable amendments to programs.
• Calendars: Maintaining the L&D calendar, monitoring responses, and updating records.
• Process improvement: Continuously improving L&D processes through personal observation and employee feedback (Employee Engagement Survey).
• Training: Occasionally assisting in delivering classroom training or co-facilitating distance learning or eLearning (Percipio).
• Providing ongoing administrative support to comply with Federal, New York State and SUNY mandatory trainings (e.g., COELIG Ethics, Title VI & IX, ADA, EO31, etc.).

New Employee Orientation (NEO)

• Overseeing the coordination of the NEO process. Manage the flow of NEO, and ensure presenters, buddies, and managers are on time.
• Prior to NEO, notifying new employees of orientation information, ensure relevant parties have necessary information (e.g., Sodexo is notified of number of participants for breakfast, Hospital Police provided NEO list for badge creation, lunch vouchers are obtained, etc.)
• Creating “Welcome Kits” for NEO and ensuring sign-in sheet and Buddy sign-in sheets are created.
• Managing “New Employee Buddy Program” including tracking trained buddies, vetting interested individuals and ensuring training for qualified individuals, as well as pairing buddies with new hires prior to orientation day.

HR Operations

• Establishing working relationships with key HR stakeholders and external vendors.
• Scheduling meetings for senior HR leadership with key stakeholders.
• Support other HR staff and occasionally perform specific tasks in the absence of others including fielding/directing HR-related questions.
• Ensuring all relevant HR practices and policies are being followed.
• Providing excellent customer service to members of the organization at all levels.
• Performing accurate and timely completion, delivery, and communication of assignments.
• Manage Financial Disclosure Statement (FDS) audits
• Working on Human Resources projects and initiatives as needed.
• Other duties and responsibilities as required.

Required Qualifications

• Associate’s Degree and 1+ year of professional experience in administrative role, preferably in higher education or the public sector;

• Or a satisfactorily equivalent of education, training and/or experience to above.

Preferreed Qualifications

• Experience in a Government Agency, University, and/or Hospital setting. 

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and emotional intelligence.

• Excellent customer service skills.

• Excellent organizational skills and extremely detail-orientated.

• Basic understanding of adult learning principles and training methodologies.

• Knowledge of Human Resources policies and practices in HR core areas.

• Comfort working independently and as part of a team.

• Excellent computer skills including PowerPoint, advanced Excel, and advanced Outlook.

• Oracle experience is a plus.