Welcome To Penguin HR Consulting

When does joking go too far? What are acceptable boundaries for interaction between genders? What about the gray areas of perception and intent? Issues like these challenge people at work every day. Employers today need to insure that all staff know the organization’s stance on discriminatory behavior and are trained in what is acceptable behavior in their workplace. When in place, an organization can protect itself from many of the worst accusations of discrimination and hostile environment.

Creating a Respectful Workplace is an interactive workshop designed to ensure that your staff understand appropriate workplace behaviors as well as the responsibilities and the risks associated with creating a perceived or potentially hostile working environment. The workshop will also reinforce the value of a diverse workforce.

Workshop Objectives

Facilitate associates’ understanding of:

What is acceptable behavior in the workplace
Working in a multicultural workforce
The effect of culture on communication
The business case for diversity

Key Topics

Recognizing sexual and other forms of workplace harassment.
What is unacceptable behavior in the workplace?
What each employee or associate can do to create a respectful workplace.

MANAGING PERFORMANCE

In Managing Performance participants not only learn the theory of good performance management, they also have ample opportunity to discuss and practice what they learn through an integrated set of small-group activities, case studies, and role-playing.

This workshop examines effective performance management by focusing on:

• The role effective objective setting plays in employee and organizational improvement.
• The need for objective documentation of good and bad performance.
• The critical importance of continual feedback and effective communication.
• The employees' need to understand how their responsibilities relate to organizational goals.
• Objective and consistent performance measurement.
• The clear delivery of formal and informal performance feedback.
• The benefit of employee development to the employee and the organization.

KEY TOPICS

• The difference between performance management and performance appraisal
• Obstacles to managing performance
• Orienting the new employee to the job
• Defining performance standards
• Setting and communicating objectives
• Aligning organization and employee goals
• Documenting performance
• Providing continuous feedback
• Planning and writing the performance appraisal
• Conducting a productive performance appraisal feedback session
• Ineffective evaluation techniques to avoid
• Dealing with the problem performer
• The importance of employee development

When does joking go too far? What are acceptable boundaries for interaction between genders? What about the gray areas of perception and intent? What can a manager do to control the workplace? Issues like these challenge people at work every day. Employers today need to insure that all staff know the organization's stance on discriminatory behavior and are trained in what is acceptable behavior in their workplace. When in place, an organization can protect itself from many of the worst accusations of discrimination and hostile environment.

Legal or Liable is an interactive workshop designed to ensure that your managers understand appropriate workplace behaviors as well as their responsibilities and the risks associated with creating a perceived or potentially hostile working environment. The workshop will also reinforce the value of a diverse workforce.

• How to avoid legal landmines
• What is acceptable behavior in the workplace
• Ways to manage a multicultural workforce
• The effect of culture on communication
• The business case for diversity

• Understanding the laws and managers' roles and responsibilities.
• Recognizing sexual and other forms of workplace harassment.
• What is unacceptable behavior in the workplace?
• Steps to take when informed of or made aware of an incident of sexual harassment.

This is a series of interactive workshops designed to ensure that managers understand the concepts that are essential to successful management. The three phase approach addresses first Communication; second, The Role of the Manager in an Organization and lastly; Increasing Interpersonal Effectiveness.

The second and third workshops build on and further the skills and techniques explored in the first. As communication is often at the core of management, we first need to understand appropriate workplace communication techniques and the risks associated with ineffective communication. Going beyond the basics of communication and listening (though including them) these workshops will allow managers to try out different means of getting their points across and starting the migration from management to leadership.

Through a series of individual, small group and large group activities, participants will explore and learn about their own communication style, the obstacles that exist to successful communication and how to bridge the communication gap that often exists between management and staff.

Communication

Facilitate managers’ understanding of:

Non-verbal communication.
The need for a common language.
Probing for understanding.
Active listening.
Barriers to effective communication.
One-way and two-way communication.
The business case for effective communication.

The Role of the Manager in an Organization

This workshop will allow managers to understand:

What makes a good manager?
The impact of different communication styles.
The power of perceptions.
Their own approachability.
The need for consistency in implementation.
Their responsibility as role and behavior models.

Increasing Interpersonal Effectiveness

This workshop will explore topics including:
Motivation
Confrontation
Transitions management
Coaching
Productive meeting management

Through a “double loop” application we will address not only the solutions to, but also the root causes of, ineffective management. We can only address a problem when we fully understand why it exists.

The nature of future workshops will be determined jointly with the client following completion of the initial workshop modules. These can include interviewing skills to build a winning team; managing performance for maximum productivity; aligning individual or departmental objectives with corporate objectives; dealing with change and teambuilding. The dual objectives of this training are to improve critical management skills and provide a basis for moving from management to leadership.

IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWING

More and more, an organization’s success is predicated on being able to put together the right team of people to achieve the organization's goals. This workshop gives managers and recruiters the interviewing skills needed to form a winning team with the necessary abilities and work styles. In this highly interactive workshop participants will:

• Learn the ingredients of a successful interview
• Evaluate their own personal skills in listening and communication
• Assess the job description to identify the critical skills candidates need for success in the position
• Develop questions that truly uncover a candidate's abilities

Target Audience

Managers and recruiters who interview job candidates and want a systematic approach to finding the best candidates for their organizations. Managers with the responsibility for assembling and managing project teams or task forces also will benefit.

The Workshop Outline

The Five Phases of an Interview

Essential Interviewing Skills

• Active listening
• Communicating with different types of communicators

Planning for the Interview

• Developing selection criteria for the job
• The right interview environment
• Creating rapport with candidates

How to Use Your Time with Candidates Most Effectively

Developing Interview Questions

• Different types of questions and how to use them
• Probing for additional information
• Legal Do's and Don'ts

Closing an Interview Effectively

Evaluating and Comparing Candidates

Skills Practice

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AWARENESS
AND PREVENTION

When does joking go too far? What are acceptable boundaries for interaction between genders? What about the gray areas of perception and intent? Managing staff today is a challenge like never before. Understanding workplace regulations is difficult, and there are even more complex issues that are not covered by laws.

Managers today need to have a clear understanding of their responsibilities under the law. Employers need to have a solid policy in place regarding harassment, insuring that all staff know the organization's stance on discriminatory behavior and that all managers are trained in what is acceptable behavior in their workplace. With these policies and practices in place an organization can protect itself from many of the worst accusations of discrimination and hostile environment.

Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention is an interactive workshop designed to ensure that managers and staff understand appropriate workplace behaviors and the risks associated with creating a perceived or potentially hostile working environment. Through exercise and discussion participants will explore the boundaries and gray areas surrounding these often-misunderstood issues.

Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention is designed to ensure that managers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities under the law. Major topics include:

What behaviors contribute to a hostile environment?

The definition of sexual harassment.
Legal guidelines.
Potential effects of sexual harassment.
Group discussion of specific cases.
Preventive practices and summary.

At the completion of this workshop, managers and staff will have an enhanced understanding of:

Acceptable behavior in the workplace.
The legal definition of sexual harassment.
The impact of sexual harassment on an organization.

The workshop will include some or all of the following modules:

What is Sexual Harassment?
Risky Business: a look at various behaviors
Harassment Policies: a Manager’s responsibilities
Sexual Harassment Case Study
Steps to Prevent Sexual Harassment

BRIDGING THE TECH COMMUNICATION GAP

“Speak English! I don’t understand “tech” !”

“We could solve this a lot quicker if we all spoke the same language!”

“Techies can only talk to their PC, they don’t know how to interact with humans!”

Bridging the Tech Communication Gap is an interactive workshop designed to ensure that your technical associates understand appropriate workplace communication techniques and the risks associated with ineffective communication. This workshop will prove helpful to both technical as well as non-technical staff, as both parties need to take steps to close this gap. The workshop will also reinforce the value of a diverse workforce.

Workshop Objectives

Facilitate technical and non-technical associates understanding of:

Their personal communication style.
The impact of different communication styles.
Active listening.
The business case for effective communication.
Barriers to effective communication.
The impact of culture on communication.
One-way and two-way communication.
Non-verbal communication.
Probing for understanding.

Through a series of individual, small group and large group activities, participants’ will explore and learn about their own communication style, the obstacles that exist to successful communication and how to bridge the communication gap that often exists between technical and non-technical staff.

The focus of this half or full-day workshop (length of the day is dependant on the specific exercises selected) will be the bottom-line impact of poor communication. The costs involved and the means to reduce the expense of poor communication by replacing it with an operational bridge to span the tech communication gap.