Central Mass. employers: Part-time programs a good option

Bart Metzger, chief human resources officer at UMass Memorial Health Care, praises the versatility and real-world emphasis of the MBA degree.

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By Livia Gershon Special To The Worcester Business Journal

Which is better for ambitious young workers? To stay on the job and focus on growing their careers? Or to supplement their education by enrolling in an MBA program? A number of Central Massachusetts business leaders say that, particularly with the growth of MBAs focused on particular aspects of the business world, the right choice is both. Part-time programs are particularly valuable for mid-career workers looking to move up, they say.

“I'm really a big fan of what I'll call the versatility of the MBA degree,” said Bart Metzger, chief human resources officer at Worcester-based UMass Memorial Health Care. “Probably the single thing that distinguishes it is (that) the faculty tends to be based in the real world.”

Unlike other graduate school programs, Metzger said, business school classes are typically taught by people with deep on-the-job experience in specific aspects of running a company, such as marketing, finance or entrepreneurship. A growing number of programs also hone in on particular fields such as health care or nonprofit management.

Suzanne Parsons, director of human resources and training for Whitinsville-based Unibank, said real-world experience is important not just for instructors but for the students too. Parsons got her own Master of Business Administration on a part-time basis while she was working. She found a lot of the program's value came from bringing her questions from the workplace into the classroom, and learning from fellow students who did the same thing.

More than two decades after earning her MBA, Parsons said she still regularly uses specific skills in statistics and quantitative analysis.

Just as important, she said, the program helped her learn leadership skills and practice working with others in effective ways.

“It makes you understand that you're not always right and there are other ways to get things done,” she said. “I always think you should open your ears more than you open your mouth, and I think you learn that it grad school, too.”

Of course, with any degree, the value lies not just in what a program teaches but in what it conveys to employers and potential employers. Parsons said that, everything else being equal, she'd always choose a job candidate with an MBA over one without, simply because going through a program reflects ambition and commitment. In her own experience, she said, that was especially true in her pre-banking career when she worked in health care, where many professionals have an “alphabet soup” of professional degrees.

“I think in the hospital environment, they valued the letters much more,” she said. “It's almost like you have to prove that you can play in the same playing field with the brilliant people you're working with.”

Medicine to management

Even for medical professionals who already have prestigious medical credentials, an MBA can help ease the transition to a leadership role.

Two UMass officials, Chair of Surgery Demetrius Litwin and Senior Vice President Jay Cyr, both said getting the degree after years working in the hospital system helped them think about health care issues in terms of financial and management, as well as health, outcomes.

Litwin, who had been a practicing surgeon for 15 years before getting his MBA, said he believes medical professionals should step up as hospital leaders, and they need training for that.

“As surgeons, we're trained to be leaders in the operating room, but we're not trained to be leaders outside of the operating room,” he said.

Cyr, who started his career as a nurse in the intensive care unit, said he got his MBA from Nichols College in 1995 — a time when few health care professionals were seeking the degree. At that time, he said, some people “thought I was being blasphemous, that I would talk about critical care and costs in the same sentence.”

But with the question of how to get optimal health outcomes at the lowest cost now a priority at hospitals and in public policy, Cyr said his focus on the subject has proved valuable. And he said new professionals now have more options than he did in training to address these issues, including many MBA programs focused on health care.

Tuition help from employers

The value of MBAs to Central Massachusetts employers is obvious from how many of them pay for all or part of the cost of a degree for current employees. Hopkinton-based data storage giant EMC, for example, pays employees up to $50,000 over the course of their tenures with the company to cover tuition, according to Lauri Tenney, the company's director of benefits and programs.

In 2013, Tenney said, the company had almost 1,000 employees enrolled in MBA programs.

“In many career paths it's good to have,” she said.

Tenney said EMC recently started offering a new benefit related to educational opportunities: a consultation service that helps employees figure out how different degrees or certificates might help them achieve their career goals.

The Hanover Insurance Group of Worcester also provides tuition reimbursement and other educational benefits. Nancy Persson, vice president for talent management, said in an email that the company finds strong MBA programs “can help individuals develop a well-rounded understanding of how businesses work.”

Persson said MBA specializations that are particularly valuable in the insurance field include finance, accounting and investments, marketing, and communications.

For candidates who have a good sense of where they're going in their careers, she said, an MBA program offers both a solid foundation in the business world and strong expertise in their specific field.

“MBA programs today help individuals develop a broader business sense and many skills that will enable them to succeed in business and that are highly valued by employers,” she said.