Stephen W. Oliver & Associates Launches Web Site – October 2005

Its official; Stephen W. Oliver & Associates launches their new website.
This fall look for the new web site of Stephen W. Oliver & Associates Training and Human Resources Consulting. After, a few months of preparation, the web site is up and running to serve clients in giving out information about the services we provide and to keep clients up to date on the latest training and organizational development news and services.

We’ve taken the past few months to put together the web site. We’ve written articles, collected news information, taken pictures, collaborated with your web site designer (thanks Lisa) and worked hard to get everything ready. The site offers many features and includes a section of our training and development services and courses offered.

The site gives the latest courses we have designed that can be customized to your organization, whether it be a large intact group or a small leadership group.

Some brand new course developed this year 2005, are communications skills for leaders, emotional intelligence, problem solving and generations in the workplace. All are designed to help leaders be more effective in their jobs.

The site gives testimonials of participants and students who have been through the courses for success. It also gives a list of clients that Stephen W. Oliver and Associates serves.

The site provides a list of coaching services for both managers and employees. The coaching services are both to assist manager or employee in his or her own self-improvement and career development to become a more effective leader and to help him or her to strategically navigate through changing staffing, employee relations and organizational development issues within their own departments and organizations. He uses a variety of instruments, needs assessments, self-development tools and coaching strategies to help the leader to succeed in achieving his or her leadership goals or employment goals.

Stephen W. Oliver & Associates also provides E-learning and development consulting. With his experience in on-line learning, he provides course development, subject matter expertise, course design, project management and on-line facilitation. He also provides coaching for new learners in a virtual environment. He can take courses that are traditionally designed and delivered in an “in-classroom environment” and put them into a virtual class room setting for e-learning and distance education.

The site was designed by Gray’s web design of Oregon. See link.

We look forward to your feedback and suggestions for future information, future requests and needs to be serve you on our web site.

Looking at Your Fall Training and Development Needs?

It’s time to clean house and look at your fall training and development needs. As the Labor Day holiday rolls by and your headed back from “down the shore” as we say in the Philadelphia region, or you are coming back from vacation and excited about the cooler weather, it’s time to think about your training needs.

With the excitement of the fall coming and that feeling of “going back to school” or taking on a new challenge, consider your training needs. It is never too late to get a program up and running.

Some questions to ask when looking at a training program: What training have you put off for the summer? What programs did you want to attend? What programs would you like to bring in house to your staff? What programs must you attend due to compliance? What courses have you wanted to attend to improve your own self-development? What courses would give you the return on investment for your staff, for your department and for your organization?

Training can add to productivity and to the bottom line of your organization.

So make a list and thing of things you would you like to improve, the skills would you like to enhance, and how you would like to improve your effectiveness in your organization!

A few suggestions for courses which can be brought to your organization this fall:

• Improving Communication Skills
• Problem Solving
• Getting Things Done – Project Management and Time Management
• Customer Service Skills
• Coaching and Influencing Skills
• Generations in Workplace
• Conflict Resolution
• Team Building

It’s Time to Network

Networking can be a key to success in any career. Getting re-connected to professional colleagues is a part of succeeding in the business world. Networking can also be beneficial to getting things done in any organization as you navigate your way through the maze of organizational politics.

While, this summer may have been busy with summer projects, summer work, staff vacations, holidays, and lazy day, fall is a good time to get “reconnected” with colleagues and reestablish your professional next working.

Networking can be time consuming and challenging. It takes some effort to connect people and schedule appointments. It can be frustrating when you have a lot going on.
However, the benefits can far out weight the challenges.

Some recommendations for networking:

• Getting ideas and exchanges
• Becoming apprised on the latest on technology in your field
• Getting assistance with problem solving
• Having someone to vent and listen to your issues and organizational challenges
• Reconnecting to your profession
• Socializing
• Getting caught up with old friends and colleagues
• Hearing about new jobs and business opportunities
• Helping to grow your business
• Establishing new friends and professional colleagues

Some Suggestions for Fall Networking:

• Make a list of all the business and social contacts you know
• Call several of your contacts and schedule a time for coffee, lunch, and/or just to chat
• Go to one professional meeting this fall
• Send out an e-mail asking how someone is doing
• Send a card, letter, note, or e-mail touching base with your colleagues
• Get out of your office and go to lunch with someone
• Read a professional journal
• Reconnect with your alma mater
• Reconnect with people from former jobs
• Attend a local meeting (community organization, community or neighborhood meeting, church, synagogue, sporting club, social club, etc.)

Have you considered taking an on-line course for continuing education and training?

On-line learning is the “wave of the future” for both academic learning and corporate education. However, many professionals have either never taken a course and/or are skeptical of the format of “virtual learning.”

On-line learning can be a great alternative to the busy executive who travels a lot and does not have time to come to a regularly scheduled course at a facility after work. He/she can continue his/her education and log on to the course at varying hours and times while continuing his/her busy schedule and work.

On-line also allows working parents, especially Mom’s, to take an on-line class while still taking care of their children and their busy households. The virtual learning experience can still promoting their learning experience, while allowing them to continue in their busy schedules.

Additionally, on-line learning and distance education can connect the learning of employees in organizations where there are multi-facilities and it is difficult for staff members to get to a central training facility. On-line learning and distance education can help reduce the cost of training travel while allowing employees to learn and still be at their jobs and serving the customers.

“Dale Bolger, the vice-president of information services for Oki Data Americas and a 2003 MBA graduate of the University of Phoenix online program, has worked in international business for almost 20 years. Maintaining a hectic travel schedule but wishing to advance his career with an MBA, Bolger saw an online program as his only option. "I could be in a hotel in Tokyo or on the road in Brazil or Europe -- and still learn and be attached to the school," says Bolger.”

“Many of the online programs are well-regarded and offer a way for busy people, such as Bolger, to get advanced education without having to sidetrack a career for a year or two.
The upside, people who take the time to research their options will see that there are a group of schools, including the University of Phoenix, that have produced a methodology that helps students produce quality work."

Mueller adds, "Our students will tell you that, when they compare our online courses to our classroom courses, the online courses require more time and are more rigorous than the classroom courses." Do Online MBAs Make the Grade? Avoiding scams in distance learning, by Jeffrey Gangemi – Business Week.

Let Stephen W. Oliver & Associates design and develop an on-line course for you. We can customize course that would be benefit for the on-line learning experience. We have experience in design, developing and creating courses that can be used in a “virtual environment.

Global Training and Organizational Development News Section

Workers Seeking More Training
Courier Mail (AU) (08/27/05) , P. E62

A survey from recruiting firm Michael Page International indicates that workers in Australia are demanding a greater focus on training and development programs from employers. The poll was based on responses from 2,453 employers and 1,290 employees in Australia across six areas including human resources, technology, and sales and marketing.
Robert Lyster, the firm's Brisbane manager, believes employers need to be more proactive in fulfilling worker's demands for more advanced training and development programs. Most employees surveyed described training programs as average, while 53 percent of employers rated their programs as "good" or "very good," notes Lyster. The majority of workers also said programs degraded over time the longer they remained in their position.
" Employers should be more focused on 'upskilling' employees that have been in a position for more than five years if they want to retain these skills and knowledge," he said. Such efforts also will help maintain skill levels, spur organizational development, and reduce employee churn, according to Lyster. Employers would also become more loyal, experience greater satisfaction, and be more productive, he adds.