A team of professionals examining a draft chart during a meeting.

Custom Programs

As a hub of connection for over 1,000 subject matter experts with abundant industry experience, many of which are nationally recognized, WMU Professional Development is your ideal local resource for customized education and employee training programs. We partner with you to discover your unique business needs and collaborate to create innovative, timely, and relevant training programs that help develop the specific skills that are necessary for your organization to foster employee and business growth.

Examples of program competency areas include:

Leadership Development
Communicating With Confidence
Managing Change
Creative Problem Solving
Conflict Resolution
Leading vs. Managing

Ethical Approaches to Management
Product and Design Development
Design Thinking
Manufacturing and Operational Efficiency
...and many other industry- and company-specific competency areas

What We Offer

Expertise

Drawing from our 8 colleges and over 200 academic programs, we connect you with the right subject matter experts to develop and deliver the training you need.

Our instructors have abundant research and industry experience, giving them the ability to create real-world and company-specific examples that convey important concepts clearly and bring learning to life.
WMU utilizes our in-house market research team, instructional design expertise, and various formats of delivery methods to provide personalized professional development options for employee training.

Customization & Service

We don’t try to piece together pre-developed sessions to fit your unique needs—we collaborate with you every step of the way to create the perfect trainings for your team.

Our consultative approach to program design begins by analyzing your needs and discussing how success will be measured.
Next, we’ll collaboratively determine the type of offering (training session, series of sessions, or entire training program) and delivery method (in-person, online, or hybrid) that best serves your organization.
From working together with your in-house development professionals to our team leading the way in building your customized program, you’ll have unparalleled access to our staff and subject matter experts throughout the entire process.

Results

Training is only as good as the results it delivers. Clients whose teams have participated in our custom professional development programs witnessed:

Increased employee knowledge based on pre- and post-survey scores
Practical, hands-on application of the training material within their departments
Mastery of new skills leading to promotions earned by those who participated
Increased confidence and willingness to collaborate among their peers
Staff coming out of their comfort zones and becoming more inspired to contribute to the organization’s success

What Our Clients Say

We knew partnering with a reputable institution would provide another level of subject matter experts that would enhance the content and professionalism delivered to our management staff. We’ve seen an increase in practical knowledge based on pre- and post-survey data.

Sue
Many of the topics that we covered helped me lead my team in new ways. I learned to approach topics like change and conflict in a way that was more effective and beneficial to the health of my team and store.

Dezzie
I felt that the sessions and training topics were very well thought out and that there were great opportunities for managers not only to learn more about their leadership but also how to work with the many different styles and personalities that they work with on a daily basis.

Jason
Learning about the different communication styles made me more confident in my communications with the staff I work with.

Liz

Clients We've Worked With

Goodwill of Greater Grand Rapids

To help fulfill their mission of “changing lives and communities through the power of work,” Goodwill Industries of Greater Grand Rapids collaborated with WMU Professional Development to expand and provide additional depth to their internal management training program. Partnering together to customize the specific training topics and content that best met their organization’s needs, WMU and Goodwill created an eight-month Leadership Academy for their middle managers.

Parker Hannifin

In the fast-paced world of manufacturing, Parker Hannifin sought out WMU Professional Development to coordinate manager training for their rapidly growing teams. By learning innovative communication strategies and fostering better conflict resolution abilities, their employees were empowered to meet deadlines and production quotas more efficiently and effectively.

Cherry Health

Cherry Health needed to provide on-going skill development for their junior leaders and AmeriCorps volunteers. In addition to the medical services training provided by Cherry Health, they were looking to help their team members to manage change, increase collaboration, and improve team dynamics.

Michigan Recycling Coalition

Changes to industry regulations can create havoc and unforeseen delays if an organization doesn’t have a plan in place and employees who are skilled in navigating the nuances of adjusting to new processes. The Michigan Recycling Coalition needed to find an expert to help them manage change and discover how their teams can best prepare for the transition, so they reached out to a distinguished WMU instructor to lead a training session at their annual conference.