| Training and Development |
Pinnacle has developed a series of workshops designed to improve your management team's performance in handling key human resource issues. Our training focus is on aligning employee performance in support of business plans and objectives and managing liability related to supervisor and employee behavior.
It's been our experience that most managers and supervisors have well-developed technical and business skills, but often lack an understanding of the people side of the business. In organizations of all size, managers typically hire employees, evaluate performance, and handle employee discipline problems as part of their day-to-day responsibilities. Each of these tasks have a clear bottom line impact, yet very little emphasis is placed on ensuring that managers are performing these responsibilities in a way that bolters the business.
The overwhelming majority of managers and supervisors want to do a good job and have their company's best interest in mind. All employers, however, should be aware of the potential for a manger or supervisor to unintentionally run afoul of the law. Poor decision making in carrying out employment practices creates significant risk and potential liability.
Consistently matching the right person to job is the first step in developing high performance teams. Hiring the wrong person for the job can have significant financial consequences for employers. The cost of making a poor hiring decision results in increased recruiting and pre-screening expenses, investments of time and resources to onboard and train, and lost productivity while a person is acclimating to the environment and learning the ropes.
Pinnacle’s Effective Hiring Practices workshop introduces participants to principles that are essential to making successful hiring decisions. Workshop participants will:
- Gain an understanding of the hard and soft costs of mishires
- Learn how to create a defensible interview process
- Develop a clear understanding of permissible and impermissible inquiries under the Equal Employment Opportunity Guidelines
- Discover how to use behavioral based interviewing techniques, candidate scorecards and other proven tools for selecting A players
Performance Management Training for Supervisors
A common concern among supervisors is their personal effectiveness in dealing with performance management issues. The tools presented in this workshop will help your supervisors develop the skills needed to produce positive results by identifying and overcoming barriers affecting your team’s performance.
We will introduce your leadership team to proven strategies for establishing performance expectations, measuring results, coaching team members on issues ranging from interpersonal conflicts to poor work quality, and documenting performance discussions. To build performance management skills of the workshop participants, we will work on actual performance gaps affecting their team members and use the tools presented to develop a plan for closing those gaps.
Workshop participants will:
- Learn how to link performance expectations to business needs
- Apply workshop tools to identify and overcome performance barriers
- Determine the most appropriate intervention for addressing performance gaps
- Discover how to discuss performance issues constructively
- Learn how to document performance issues using simple, plain language
Conducting Meaningful Performance Reviews
Performance reviews, if approached strategically, are an effective tool for reviewing a team member’s results during the review period, establishing expectations for future performance, and creating personal development plans that are linked to operating objectives.
The benefits of a well-managed performance review system include strengthen manager-team member relationships and enhanced communication about specific objectives and behaviors that drive strategy execution. Additionally, the data collected from performance reviews can aid with the development of hiring criteria and help in developing a defense in legal actions.
Attendees of this workshop will learn:
- The components of an effective performance management system
- How to establish job related performance criteria
- Techniques for documenting performance and writing reviews
- How to provide meaningful feedback to team members
- How to avoid common rating errors
Workplace Harassment and Discrimination Workshops
Workplace harassment and discrimination is a serious issue which affects thousands of U.S. workers annually and creates significant liability concerns for employers. Pinnacle has developed common sense employee and supervisor workshops that clarify the responsibilities of both employers and employees in preventing workplace harassment and discrimination.
Attendees at our employee workshop will learn:
- The types of behavior that is problematic in today’s work environments
- Why the impact of a person’s behavior matters more than their intentions
- Individual responsibilities in creating respectful workplaces that are free of harassment and discrimination
- What to do if they experience unwelcome and offensive behavior
Our supervisor workshop on workplace harassment and discrimination focuses on:
- Identifying behaviors that are at risk for being considered sexually harassing or discriminatory
- The primary laws under which discrimination claims are brought
- The consequences of harassment and discrimination
- Steps an employer should take to prevent sexual harassment
- How to respond to allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination
Employee Educational Awareness
Pinnacle’s on-site drug-free workshops are lively, interactive and thought provoking. Employee Educational Awareness Drug-Free workshop participants will gain an understanding of how substance abuse issues impact the workplace as well as responsibilities under their employer’s drug-free workplace program. Specific areas of discussion include:
- Overview of a drug-free workplace program
- The major problems represented by substance abuse in the workplace
- On-the-job enabling behaviors and their potential consequences
- An addiction and recovery model for alcohol and other drugs
- The signs and symptoms of substance abuse
- What assistance (community resources) employees can receive if they or their family members have a substance abuse problem
Supervisor Skill Building
Our supervisor drug-free workshop is designed to help supervisors build essential skills to meet their responsibilities for supporting a drug-free workplace program. The following topic points are covered with participants:
- How to recognize a possible alcohol/drug problem
- How to document behaviors that demonstrate an alcohol/drug problem
- How to confront employees with the problem from observed behaviors
- How to initiate reasonable suspicion and post-accident testing
- How to handle the procedures associated with random testing
- How to make an appropriate referral for assessment or assistance
- How to follow up with employees returning to work after a positive drug test
- How to handle drug-free workplace program responsibilities in a manner that is consistent with collective bargaining agreements, if applicable.
Pinnacle is a qualified provider of training for the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Drug-Free Workplace Program.