Human Resources: Dealing with Personnel Issues

Course Duration:  1 or 2 days – 6-12 hours

Maximum Class Size:  25

Description of Target Population:  Managers and Experienced Supervisors

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Deal effectively with common personnel issues.

• Supervise in a unionized environment.

• Implement  fair and legal  progressive discipline.

• Understand equity issues in the workplace.

• Successfully manage difficult employees and challenging behavior.

Hiring the Best

Course Duration:  1 Day - 6 Hour

Maximum Class Size:  35

Description of Target Population:  Supervisors and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Identifying the core skills necessary for an individual to be successful on the job.

• Preparing appropriate interview questions that accurately assess a candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities.

• Conducting a fair and legal interview.

• Assessing the candidates based on established evaluation criteria.

• Utilizing a constructive decision-making process.

• Name the competencies, experience, credentials, education and qualities needed for particular position.

• Plan a comprehensive search strategy that addresses posting, screening resumes, interviewing, and successful integration of hired candidate into organization.

• Write interview questions that test the candidate’s experience to determine match for needed competencies and skills.

• Prepare an interview session.

• Construct a plan that integrates the successful candidate into the organization, including measures of success, expectations, key players, organizational culture, communication mechanisms etc.

Interview Skills

Course Duration:  2 days - 12 hours

Maximum Class Size:  35

Description of Target Population:  Supervisors and Managers 

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Conduct a successful interview.

• Understand five different kinds of questions.

• Control interview-content of questions.

• Develop effective interview planning.

• Structure useful interview questions.

• Understand how people speak--non verbal language signals.

• Practice interviewing skills with videotaped feedback.

• Engage in self reflection and collaborative learning.

EPRS Training for Supervisors and Managers

Course Duration:  1/2 day or full day – 3 or 6 hours|

Maximum Class Size  35

Description of Target Population:  Supervisors and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Understand how the system works and what their responsibilities are under the system.

• Write clear job duty statements and criteria to measure individual performance towards attainment of those duties.

• Fairly evaluate employee performance.

• Give employees direct feedback on their job performance in relationship to the evaluation.

• Use skills and techniques for communicating in difficult situations.

• Effectively use the critical role of Reviewer in the performance evaluation process.

Employee Recognition and Rewards

Course Duration:  1 day -   6 hours

Maximum Class Size:  30

Description of Target Population:  Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• State the goals and objectives of employee recognition and reward initiatives and identify the primary reasons that more than 50% of employee recognition and reward programs fail.

• Recognize that constraints in state government do not preclude development of successful employee recognition and reward programs.

• Identify the specific needs and goals behind development of recognition and rewards for one’s own employees.

• Provide examples and generate a list of creative, no-cost and low cost rewards and recognition options and measure them against the criteria to determine their likely degree of success.

• Explain the importance of employee involvement in the development of the program, and the typical problems that occur when this is not done.

• Describe the on-going monitoring process, and the evaluation cycle and evaluation tools needed to ensure that the program is effective and continues to be so over time.

• Demonstrate how to conduct a positive and productive employee meeting to introduce the concept and explain the steps to take to build receptivity to and enthusiasm for the program.

• Describe the steps for forming an effective and efficient reward and recognition employee committee, roles of the members and the objectives of the meetings and launching the program.

• Identify potential obstacles to success and strategies for mitigating them.

Engaging in Performance Evaluation - Effective EPRS Communication Skills for Employees

Course Duration  1/2 day - 3 hours

Maximum Class Size  30

Description of Target Population:  Employees and Supervisors

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• To be current with the EPRS Stages.

• To learn to have effective conversations through implementing good listening skills.

• To increase awareness of the barriers to good communications between you and your manager or employee through Role Play.

• To increase the use of strength based, solution focused approaches in performance evaluation.

• Develop a learning plan for continued growth and professional development.

Understanding and Preventing Sexual Harassment for Managers

Course Duration:  1/2 day - 3 hours

Maximum Class Size:  35

Description of Target Population:  Supervisors and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Understand definition of sexual harassment in workplace.

• Know how to recognize examples of sexual harassment.

• Understand Massachusetts Sexual Harassment Policy.

• Know how to deal with incidents of harassment.

• Understand how to report harassment.

• Know role of Managers and Sexual Harassment Officer in Process.

Understanding and Preventing Sexual Harassment for Staff

Course Duration:  1/2 day - 3 hours

Maximum Class Size:  35

Description of Target Population:  Supervisors and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Understand definition of sexual harassment in workplace.

• Know how to recognize examples of sexual harassment.

• Understand Massachusetts Sexual Harassment Policy.

• Know how to deal with incidents of harassment.

• Understand how to report harassment.

• Know role of Managers and Sexual Harassment Officer in Process.

Career Development -Introductory

Course Duration:  1 day - 6 hours

Maximum Class Size: 30

Description of Target Population:  Staff and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Be more knowledgeable of career development theory and the psychology of career/life choices.

• Be more aware of their skills, interests, values, personality type, and other factors pertinent to career/life exploration, planning, decision-making, and self-efficacy.

• Be more familiar with occupational environments and various clusters in the world of work including introductory identification of appropriate person/environment matches and relevant occupational and labor market resources useful for further research including use of the Internet.

• Have a practical understanding of the “career/life” concept, the basic processes involved in problem-solving and decision-making, and useful techniques for balancing various life roles.

Career Development -Advanced

Course Duration:  2 days - 12 hours

Maximum Class Size:

Description of Target Population:  Staff and Managers 

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Be more knowledgeable of career development and life stage theory, person/environment matching theory, and the psychology of career/life choices.

• Be more knowledgeable of one’s skills, interests, values, personality type, and other factors pertinent to career/life exploration, planning, and decision-making and self-efficacy.

• Be more familiar with occupational environments and various clusters in the world of work including the identification of appropriate person/environment matches and the use of relevant occupational, labor market and educational information resources including the Internet.

• Have a practical understanding of the “career/life” concept, the basic processes involved in problem-solving and decision-making, and useful techniques for balancing various life roles.

Developing Cost-Effective Systematic Career Guidance for an Agency, School or College Setting

Course Duration:  2 days - 12 hours

Maximum Class Size:  30

Description of Target Population:  Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Become familiar with the purpose and uses of The National Career Development Guidelines and its use as a basis for justification of career services and the creation of a 21st century program.

• Review and understand the application of several theories (including developmental, matching and career decision making) as a basis for program development.

• Examine and learn about a cost-effective systematic micro-model within a career center utilizing multi-mode/multi-media approaches including group formats, professional and paraprofessional support staff, computer/multimedia technology and self-paced resources.

• Examine and learn about the development of an overall institutional systematic macro-model including the creation of career modules to be infused in regular classroom instruction, specific orientation / advising activities for entering students and interface activities with libraries and learning centers.

• Learn how to justify their career services programs including specific requests for funding personnel and equipment necessary for implementing program activities.

• Learn to assess current career services programs and create approaches and implementation strategies (based on appropriate theory and National Guidelines) for a 21st century model that matches agency, school or college settings including creating a job description for a 21st century career services professional.

Training for Trainers:  Instructional Design

Course Duration:  5 days - 30 hours

Maximum Class Size:  15

Description of Target Population:  Agency Trainers and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to: 

• Define participant needs and expectations.

• Develop resources for training message and determine appropriate delivery strategies for intended participants.  

• Write behavioral objectives to meet participant requirements.

• Develop training program that meets diverse learning styles (Kohl model) and modalities.

• Write measures of success for each section of the training program.

• Complete a curriculum planning sheet that builds a lesson plan for a specific training message.

• Write a curriculum outline with adult learning theory in mind.

• Design a program that is creative, engaging and has impact.

• Develop an instructional outline, PowerPoint slides, facilitator notes and learning materials.

• Organize the training message using a variety of organizational formats.

• Effectively communicate a training message utilizing a variety of training methods.

• Understand the role of “listening” in communicating the training message.

• Manage challenging participants.

• Write an evaluation plan to measure training for next steps or ongoing improvements.

• Develop evaluations to receive significant feedback about the topic.

• Use feedback from critiques video-taped presentations to improve their delivery.

Ethics: Doing The Right Thing

Course Duration:  1 day - 6 hours

Maximum Class Size:  35

Description of Target Population:  All Staff and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Explore ethical questions and the relationship between personal morals and business ethics.

• Develop an ethical self-awareness.

• Identify acceptable behaviors.

• Create guidelines to effectively handle difficult ethical situations.

• Understand how to be a leader with integrity.

• Participate in group discussions about ethical dilemmas and resolutions.

Professional Boundaries

Course Duration:  1 day - 6 hours

Maximum Class Size:  25

Description of Target Population:  All Staff

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Develop a greater understanding of the multiple issues and factors that lead to unhealthy work environments, and stressful relations with colleagues and clients.

• Identify the challenges involved with maintaining professional boundaries.

• Design creative strategies for consistent and appropriate interaction with staff and clients to gain productive and professional relationships.

• Participate in course-related activities and role plays. 

• Creative individual action plans for consistent us of appropriate workplace behaviors.

Balancing Work And Family

Course Duration:  1 day - 6 hours

Maximum Class Size:  30

Description of Target Population:  All Staff and Managers 

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Identify the main causes of tension and stress arising from work and family role conflicts.

• Identify results of work and family role conflicts including physiological, psychological, and sociological implications.

• Better understand positive and negative coping behaviors at work and family settings.

• Identify and practice tools for effectively balancing work and family roles.

• Develop an action plan for supporting increased work/family balance.

Smoking Cessation

Course Duration:  6  90-minute sessions for 9 hours total

Maximum Class Size:  20

Description of Target Population:  All Staff and Managers

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Participants will be able to.

• State three serious health risks of smoking. 

• Recognize and develop his/her motivation to stop smoking.

• Identify his/her most important reason to quit smoking.

• Specify two strategies to use as an alternative to smoking.

Worker Safety: Defusing Tense Situation and Violence

Course Duration:  1/2 day – 3 hours

Maximum Class Size: 25

Description of Target Population: all employees

Program Results
Participants will be able to:

• Deal more capably with hostile situations so they can reduce stress levels.

• Protect their time.

• Reduce the occurrences of crisis situations.

• Enhance the reputation of their organization.