Individual HR Solutions for Start-ups or Small to Medium Sized Businesses

Help leaders recognize how and why providing feedback doesn't always go as planned.

Providing employees feedback is a key aspect of a leader's role.  But most leaders, especially newer leaders, might admit it is one of the most difficult tasks of the job. This training sets the stage for subsequent trainings where the focus is on why and how we give feedback to employees. Here, the interactive dialogue focuses on leaders recounting situations where feedback situations didn't go as intended. We identify the reasons it didn't go well, and collectively explore what factors lead to the unintended outcomes.  When we move on to the feedback delivery trainings, being cognizant of these barriers helps to prevent their future use, and reinforces the use of the successful strategies from the training.

Objective: Educate leaders on effective ways to provide motivational and constructive feedback that is well-timed, fits the situation and is clear and focused so that the employee knows what went well or didn't go well when provided feedback.

With this training, we provide information that highlights what type of feedback employees prefer and what is most effective. One of the key reasons for providing motivational feedback is to .. motivate!  So we also focus on what activities leaders unwittingly do that actually work to de-motivate. This training stresses the importance of  "catching" employees when they are "doing it right" and providing motivational feedback to reinforce the good performance and preempt behavior that is "not so right."  Sometimes though, employees put themselves in situations where constructive feedback is warranted.  We identify effective feedback strategies that highlight what to do and what not to do.  With interactive dialogue and structured activities leaders get to practice the strategies that are most effective. 

Objective: Educate leaders on determining what course of action to take when an employee has committed an infraction and to effectively provide informal and formal feedback to employees that is well-planned and well-documented.

This training provides a step by step approach for leaders to fully understand the performance improvement process for employees. It starts with 3 stages of informal feedback designed to help keep an employee doing great work or nudging them back in their lane when needed. If an employee's actions warrants more than informal feedback, the training walks leaders through 3 stages of formal, corrective action. This training is infused with many interactive activities allowing them to practice the techniques with real-world examples. It also covers ways for leaders to handle situations when employees make feedback giving difficult, and how to document each stage of feedback.

Objective: Provide leaders with best practices for completing investigations broken down into a clear 8-step process.

Conducting investigations can be difficult, but when completed correctly, a fair, appropriate and legally sound outcome can be achieved.  This training provides best practices for completing investigations broken down into an 8- step process: 1- Create an Organized Plan; 2- Be Thorough; 3. Be Prompt; 4- Be Fair; 5- Be Professional; 6- Ensure Accuracy; 7- Document; 8- Follow-up. Investigation templates are provided as an example to help facilitate the process. Solutions to real world situations that can occur during investigations are also covered to prepare a leader to handle special circumstances. 

Objective: provide leaders best practices to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace, and should an allegation of harassment or discrimination be made, how to effectively address it to mitigate personal an organizational risk.

In today's climate, understanding harassment in all forms, including sexual harassment, is essential for anyone in a leadership role. This training provides critical information to help managers understand the implications of discrimination and harassment. It provides guidance on how to prevent, recognize, and address harassment and/or discrimination in the workplace.  Areas covered include what qualifies harassment and the legal implications that must be considered, discrimination and harassment policies, anti-discrimination enforcement in the workplace, an overview of the legal implications, what to do if harassment is alleged and retaliation and how to avoid it. 

Objective: provide leaders with a process and tools needed to have ongoing employee evaluation, inclusive of ongoing employee development.

One of the best ways to achieve high employee engagement is to provide employees with a solid understanding of their role within the organization. This can be presented in the employee evaluation to provide a win-win situation for both the employee and the company. The goal is to provide leaders with the tools necessary to deliver employee feedback that achieves their objectives while providing an opportunity to foster employee engagement. This training outlines the best practices for delivering employee feedback in a system that includes job description development, evaluation tools, employee development plans, and reiterates how to provide feedback and how to appropriately document the process. 

Objective: Provide leaders with clear, actionable ways to engage employees.

A DEEP DIVE The initial employee engagement training module presents a model of employee engagement.  It explores the foundational elements that impact employee engagement (and those that don't).

WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT The second engagement installment reviews who is engaged in the workforce and provides a clearunderstanding of the positive outcomes at both the employee level and organizational level.

HOW TO ENGAGE The final installment focuses on what leaders and organizations can do to best engage their employees.  We highlight the ways engagement can be fostered throughout the employee life-cycle. 

Objective: Provide leaders with a detailed process for hiring that starts with a good job description and ends with hiring, ensures fair and consistent practices and ends with a great candidate well-suited for the job.

The ultimate goal of an interview is to hire the right candidate for the job presented. Hiring the right candidates is crucial for your organization's long term success. A single poor choice can cost an organization 1.5 times the annual salary, as well losses related to decreased morale, lost productivity and diminished customer service. For this training, we focus on every aspect of the hiring process, including: leaders understanding the critical importance of job descriptions, how to effectively screen candidates, how to develop structured interviews with behavioral or situational interview questions, how to conduct an interview that is free from bias, and how to develop a system to evaluate and select the right candidate for the job!

Objective: Educate leaders about skills effective leaders possess, including "soft" skills, and how they impact engagement.

This training provides a detailed understanding of what leadership is, and how leaders best interact with their employees.  The training starts by distinguishing the difference between "managing" and "leading".  We provide a data-driven approach for participants to provide them an understanding of what leadership qualities most favorably impact employees.  Of special consideration is how these qualities impact employee engagement. Research shows the employee-manager relationship is one of the most important facets of engagement. We stress engagement throughout many of the trainings, because poor engagement impacts organization's bottom line via turnover, poor productivity and the like. We round out this training by introducing "soft" skills, and discussing how these skills have a far greater impact than technical skills when leading people.

Objective: To provide leaders with an understanding of FMLA and ADA and apply it to day to day administration.

Understanding FMLA and ADA can be very confusing even for seasoned HR professionals. This training is designed to help leaders understand FMLA and ADA in a way that is easy to follow and apply.  This includes a review of the basic laws, an understanding of a leader's front-line responsibility, an understanding of how to initiate an interactive process, and a discussion of a leader's role in documentation and follow through.

Objective: Educate leaders about today's increasingly diverse workforce, introduce the concept of employee engagement and focus on how they impact engagement as leaders.

This training starts with a review of current workplace demographics. Rapid changes to the workforce are taking place right before our eyes. There are 5 different generations in the workplace and by 2060, minority groups will be the majority of the workforce.   Research highlights the benefits of a diverse workforce, but with differing world-views and cultural backgrounds, this can also bring conflict. The training focuses on how leaders must understand who their employees are from a broad sense (generationally & culturally), and as individuals to effectively lead them. We introduce the concept of employee engagement as it relates to the current workforce, and how they as leaders have a lion's share of responsibility in engaging (or disengaging) those they lead.