Southworth Completes Supervisory Training

It all started with a small idea that turned into great things! Shelly Barley, previous Human Resource Manager at Southworth, wanted to train some of the floor employees to become leaders. Stacey and Shelly met several times to iron out a curriculum and work on writing the grants. Southworth wanted their employees to make sure they understood "What I say is important, but how I say it will affect: Quality, Productivity, and what it feels like to work here." The best thing about The Solutions Group is that they can customize training. What's even better is we have the resources to apply college credit to training, if it meets general requirements.

With many ideas and some time to iron out the details with the potential instructors, Southworth and The Solutions Group came up with this format:

Spectrum Temperament Awareness Training

                ∙ Personality Assessment

                ∙ Building relationships

                ∙ What do different personalities add to the workplace?

                ∙ Why do people do what they do?

Defining the Supervisor’s Job

                ∙ What is the role of the supervisor?

                ∙ What is management?

                ∙ The four management functions: Planning,

Leadership Styles                         

Organizing an Effective Department

Stimulating Individual and Group Performance           

Handling Conflict      

Dealing with change             

Communication

·         Understanding communication barriers

·         Paraverbal Communication Skills

o   The Power of Pitch

o   The Truth about Tone

o   The Strength of Speed

·         Active listening skills

·         Asking Good Questions

·         Mastering the Art of Conversation

·         Non-Verbal Communication

·         Overcoming shyness

Teambuilding

Decision Making

Time Management

The format was a bit different than a normal training session, we had two instructors that conducted training twice a week. One was an adjunct instructor that specializes in Leadership Skills, Dr Jamie Frakes and the other is our full-time Metallurgical Engineer, Rob Semmel, who also has a strong background in soft skills. The class class was a reflective class, both instructors attended this session and allowed the participants to "run the class."  They were tasked with developing a case study that related to their scope of work. The report consisted of pictures and evaluating a potential problem in the workplace and using their training to come up with solutions. 

Comments from the participants about this training included:

• I liked the spectrum personality assessment
• I liked the topics the best
• Opened my eyes to new ways to use all members of the team and recognize different personalities 
• Needs to be a longer course

The total training hours were 44, which is enough to earn the 12 participants college credit. At the end of the course all 12 participants received 3 hours college credit in Principles of Supervision. By utilizing EWTP and Great River Economic Foundation grants approximately 75% of the total cost of training was paid for leaving Southworth to only pay approximately 25% of the training.

The Solutions Group would like to thank everyone involved in making this training possible!

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