Training Workshops

Workshops can be tailored for employees, leads, supervisors, mid-level managers or top management. We recognize that each has different perspectives and require different presentations and methodologies to be effective.

Courses and discussion topics can cover the following topic or any issue you feel is appropriate.  It can be in a single session or a multi-session series to fit the timing of your people.

Fundamental Skills of Management

• Introduction to management, including orientation, training and employee counseling skills

Customer Service

• How we are all part of the service team how to handle difficult people and the management principles and employee principles of excellent customer service.

How to Find and Hire Good Workers

• What you can/cannot ask, how to extract accurate information from the candidate and how to avoid hiring the wrong person.

Employee Discipline That Works

How to counsel, hold employees accountable for their actions and turn around troublesome employees.

How to Avoid Wrongful Discharge Claims

• How to terminate without resentment and how to minimize legal action and retaliation.

Team Building & Workplace Diversity

• How differences are a strength for your company and how to get your people to work together and like it.

Motivating Employees

• How to get employees to motivate themselves.

Preventing Harassment

• What it is, what it isn't, how to stop it, and how to keep it from happening at your company.

Effective Employee Communication

• A practical approach including conflict resolution, how to give and receive criticism and hot to get to a Win/Win solution.

Leadership Dynamics

• Situational leadership and how different styles can be an effective key to employee motivation.

Employee Communication

Effective communication with employees is a two-way street and involves both quantitative as well as qualitative approaches.

It isn’t enough to tell employees what you are doing and why, but you have to listen to what they are telling you. Today’s worker isn’t like the one of old who will take orders and simply do his or her job in silence.  That has all changed and unless you understand the new work force, your company may not be able to keep pace.

The following are ways to communicate to and listen to your employees:

• Employee Handbooks
• Accident Prevention & Safety Manuals
• Policy Manuals
• Managers Manuals
• Employee Surveys
• Focus Group Meetings
• Employee Dispute Resolution

Planning Programs

Planning is the forgotten and misunderstood stepchild of today’s business. Many say the fast paced decisions that are made today preclude any meaningful planning cycle. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Planning isn’t about setting ideas into concrete. It’s about flexibility. By knowing what to expect and developing effective action plans with contingency options, you can adapt to what comes your way. Otherwise, being a reactionary will only put you on the end of the whip instead of at the handle.

Effective planning assistance can be achieved by the following:

• Change Facilitation
• Goal Identification
• Annual Planning Meetings
• Meetings Facilitator
• Organization Development
• Management Assessment
Management Development

Human Resource Risk Analysis/Program Audit

Knowing what risks you may face in the future is more than a financial analysis.  With ever changing laws, court rulings and interpretations…you may be at the mercy of those who know little about or care even less about your business.

That is why every business needs to threat analysis as well as an audit of what can potentially destroy your business.

If you assess that there are a dozen things that can adversely affect your business, you will then want to assess the likelihood of each of those events happening.  Next, you will assess the impact on your company should that event take place.  If the likelihood is slight, but the result is catastrophic, they you will want to be prepared for that event. If, on the other hand, an event has a higher degree of probability but has little economic, social or public relations consequences, then you are less likely to worry about that event. One may get much more local publicity without any meaningful consequence.  So, which would you worry most about?

Following are just a few of the areas we review to see if your company has a threat of getting off track:

• State/Federal Compliance
• ADA/FLSA Reviews
• OSHA/WISHA Compliance
• Labor & Industries
• Unemployment Compensation
• Affirmative Action Plans
• EEO-1/VET-100 Reporting
• Are You Confident in the Status Of Your "Human Resources" Function?

Employee Benefits

The Management Trust works with insurance brokers to provide the best possible employee benefits programs for clients. Those programs encompass:

• Self-Funded Plans
• Fully Insured Plans
• Section 125 Flex Plans
• Life/LTD Coverage
• Long Term Care
• Being An Independent Advocate

If you would like to have us look at your current benefits programs to give you an independent audit of their status, please contact Paul Schaber for an appointment.  You may not know what you’re missing or how much money you are paying unnecessarily.  We’ll let you know for sure.

Compensation Programs

One of the myths of management is that money is a motivator.  Money won’t get your people to work harder, work more as a team or be more concerned about the success of a project or the company.  Just look at some high paid athletes as an example.

What we know is that without proper compensation and employee benefit programs, employees are less likely to be effectively motivated by management.  So, we owe it to ourselves to do the best we can to keep our compensation systems competitive to assure ourselves an even chance at keeping the good people we have and attracting those who expect to be adequately paid for their efforts.

To do that, we help you with the following:

• Job Descriptions/Self Analysis
• Salary Surveys
• Competitive Pay Analysis
• Incentive Programs
• Executive Compensation
• Performance Appraisal Plans
• Developing Forms You Can Use and That Make Sense
• Customer Service Programs

Customer service is no longer today’s equalizer.

Everyone expects good service as a given.  When it is substandard, it is conspicuously absent and puts you in a deep competitive hole.

We all know the #1 rule of customer service you treat your employees, so shall they treat your customers.” Yet, we see companies nickel and dime their employees and wonder why they return the favor to their customers.

Starbucks is noted for their service and that in great part is due to how the company treats its individual associates.  They don’t get the highest pay.  Yet, they give full measure to their customers. Why?

You don't have to be a genius to figure out the answer.  They have dedicated employees who genuinely like working with each other.  Of course their benefits package is outstanding, but without the relationships in the workplace, it would mean little.  Just ask Paul's wife, daughter and sister-in-law…they all work there and are happy doing so.

For the rest of us, we can do much to make sure our employees treat each other as well as our customer.  We can help you with the following:

• Customer Surveys
• Customer Feedback Programs
• Employee Training
• Reinventing Customer Service