A new initiative from the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce is set to roll out in the coming weeks in hopes of boosting those employed by its members.

Coined the “Professional Development Program,” Chamber officials have created a new program that is intended to better educate professionals in several different fields.

Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Chuck Leonhardt said this will be an opportunity for employers to engage employees into a professional development program.

“If you’re an employer or if you’re an HR professional and you’re working with your employee base, you want to see progress with your employees,” he said. “You want to see them know everything about the company. You want them to be a professional employee. You want them to be productive. You want them to be contributors back to the company and you want to provide them with a healthy career. How do you help them as an HR professional?”

He said that’s where the Chamber steps in, offering the Professional Development Program to employers so they can offer it to employees.

“There’s about four different segments that it includes,” he said. “It requires 80 hours of commitment for everybody that wants to get this certificate.”

Leonhardt said that members of the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce have helped contribute to the program, including Clever Analytics which created an app for the program.

“Once an employee commits to the program, they have access to the app and they get on and they can record their hours in these different categories,” he said. “They know exactly where they are, they get kudos for making accomplishments and progress, so it’s a motivational thing as well as a tracking thing. Then when they’re finished, they’re recognized with their certificate and recognized by the Chamber.”

He said it includes a educational partnership with Weber State University and Ogden-Weber Technical College.

“They have formal business classroom training on anything from Excel Spreadsheets to AI or whatever it might be,” he said.

Engagement with the Chamber and Chamber events also counts towards the 80 hours along with non-profit support

“It’s holistic in what you want in terms of an employee and as a business professional,” Leonhardt said. “They’re all things that are being done out there, but what we found is there has been no way that it’s being tracked or recognized.”

Leonhardt said development of the program has been under way for about a year now, and in that time, he also learned that the idea was unique to Ogden.

“I personally did an incredible amount of research on this and I did not find one Chamber that is doing this,” he said. “We’re thinking outside the box as well. We’re probably going to take the app and sell it to other chambers across the country — the program as well. I think it will be something that will benefit the business community all across the country. This is groundbreaking and its never been done.”

He said they will start with other chambers from across Utah before extending the product out to other chambers across the country.

“We’ve been known as leaders in the chamber industry,” he said. “How our chamber is structured is now almost how every chamber is structured across the state because it works and they’ve seen our growth.”

Leonhardt said the Professional Development Program will hardly be the last major initiative the Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce pursues going forward.

“We’re going to keep pushing and doing new things and being innovative,” he said. “You’re only as good as what you’re currently producing. Our members want to know what they’re getting as part of their Chamber membership, so we have that responsibility to deliver things that are important. We know that their employees are their highest and biggest investment, so if we’re helping them with their employee investment, that is something that they’re asking for.”

He said the program will be rolled out this month and discussed further at next week’s annual Ogden-Weber Chamber of Commerce gala.