July 11, 2019

Register Now for 2019-20 Developing Exceptional Supervisors Professional Development Series

In the fall of 2018, Human Resources launched a new professional development program, “Developing Exceptional Supervisors.” The initial cohort was made up of nine supervisors from different departments across the college. These individuals supervised exempt staff, union staff, students, or a combination of all three, and their experience levels varied from brand new supervisors to supervisors with five or more years of experience.

In line with the college’s strategic goal to recognize and reward staff by providing greater professional development and advancement opportunities, the Developing Exceptional Supervisors program focuses on supervision basics, including compliance, rules and regulations, union contracts, and Lewis & Clark policies.

The goal of the program is to take managers through the life-cycle of an employee and provide both legal and practical knowledge related to day-to-day supervision, leaves, performance management, coaching, and motivation. Participants received in-depth information on topics such as payroll practices, leave laws, and misconduct vs. poor performance.

Post-program survey responses to “What information was especially helpful?” included:

  • “All of the ‘nuts & bolts’ information on payroll, union contracts, onboarding requirements, PDQ’s, setting salaries, labor and leave laws, etc…was great.”
  • “I appreciated most when the sessions were based on clear processes with steps/bullet points that could be noted and followed outside of the sessions when issues might arise in real life.”
  • “It was reassuring to hear that most supervisors faced similar challenges and to hear solutions from the entire group.”

Feedback from participants at the end of the program was positive, and included suggestions for additional issues to address, a recommendation to require this for all new mangers within the first year of employment, and an appreciation of the opportunity to work with people from different parts of the college to gain a better understanding of differences and challenges.

The program consists of ten sessions that are approximately two hours in length. Two of the sessions, the Unconscious Bias workshop and the Pre-Hire workshop, are held separately and may be completed at any time during the year. (Note: participants who have already completed these workshops do not have to repeat them for this series.) The first session will be held in October 2019, and the final session will be in May 2020.

If you are interested in participating in this program, please sign up here. The schedule for the program is contained in the registration.

Please note that this is offered on a first come, first serve basis, and the maximum number of participants for a cohort is 15. A wait list will be provided.