GSW business students present to Jacksonville Jaguars HR executives

Six students from Georgia Southwestern State University’s (GSW) College of Business and Computing traveled to Jacksonville, Fl. this week to present human resource management solutions to the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Martin Bech of Svendborg, Denmark, Christian Bostick of Camilla, Ga., Andrew Carter of Sylvester, Ga., Raquel Kenyon of Aguada, Puerto Rico, McKenzie Simmons of McDonough, Ga., and Tucker Smith of Leesburg, Fl. met with the Jaguars’ Vice President of People Development and Administration Jessica Jones and Manager of People Development Victoria Croy at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. As part of their Performance Management class, the students were tasked with improving Jaguar employee retention season-to-season.

"Opportunities for students to apply concepts learned in the classroom to the real world are extremely important,” said assistant professor of human resource management Jim Aller, Ph.D. “In Performance Management, it is even more relevant to explore the different performance management methods including motivation, coaching, discipline and even terminations. The Jacksonville Jaguars project gave our students a real-life opportunity to do just that.”

Throughout the fall semester, the students met via video conference with the Jaguar executives and put together several solutions to better manage both full-time and seasonal Jaguars employees. These solutions included talent acquisition, team building, succession planning, orientation and onboarding for new employees and contractors, and cultivating the Jaguar culture.

Following their presentation, the students took a personal tour of the stadium, which included the owner’s box, press boxes, and the inner workings of the facility.

“I am personally very appreciative of the Jaguars organization and their willingness to participate in the project,” said Aller. “They are an organization with a big heart that cares about our students’ progress here at GSW. We are also very proud of our GSW students as they embraced this opportunity to polish skills they will need to take their careers by storm.”

Pictured left to right at TIAA Bank Field are (front row) Christian Bostick, Andrew Carter, McKenzie Simmons, Martin Bech, (back row) Tucker Smith, and Raquel Kenyon.