Courses

Opportunities to that a regional business into a global market make it possible to strategically, smartly and profitably accomplish more than you can by staying local. To start you have to set your business for success by being open to learning, to applying new ideas and to continually reviewing how you can create success in the global market. Topics such as trade financing, regulatory considerations, international business planning, sustainability and much more are included in this course. The materials here are well suited for small and medium sized business leaders as they prepare to take their company into the global marketplace.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course you will be able to:

• Describe the complexities of doing business in a global context
• Discuss trends in global business
• Apply strategies and tools needed to help shift regional business into a global enterprise
• Closely evaluate your current business operation and determine its readiness moving into a global market place
• Create an international business plan and prepare it for implementation

Wouldn’t it be nice to be your own boss, work on your own schedule and make money doing something you are passionate about? Millions of people around the world are living that dream and running their own business.

This course will teach you the basic of entrepreneurship. You will consider if entrepreneurship is right for you and learn the basic steps of creating your own business. At th end of the course you will have a solid foundation to start your entrepreneurial journey.

• Identify the traits of an entrepreneur and assess your own entrepreneurial capabilities
• Outline and evaluate a business idea
• Develop a product idea
• Identify your target market and customers
• Develop your value proposition
• Understand different types of business ownership and structures
• Evaluate franchising and business purchasing opportunities
• Create a pitch deck, executive summary, company presentation, technical white paper and business plan
• Create financial projection for your business
• Identify where to find business funding
• Create a product development plan, marketing plan and sales strategy
• Identify how to protect your intellectual property
• Describe effective ways to brand your business
• Choose the right location for your business
• Launch and grow your business
• Demonstrate the behaviours of an entrepreneurial leader
• Find appropriate resources to help you in your journey

As the global internet population continue to grow electronic commerce is growing as well. By the end of 2015 e-commerce is expected to generate $400 Billion annually. This huge market encompasses traditional e-commerce as well as m-commerce (which is growing than any other sector) and location-based e-commerce. This course will teach entrepreneurs how to develop, market and manage an e-commerce business. Giving them a crucial advantage in today’s competitive market.

Learning Objectives

• Describe what the terms e-commerce and m-commerce means
• Develop an e-commerce business plan
• Evaluate e-commerce software options
• Build an online store with product pages, supporting features, a shopping cart and an effective checkout process
• Test, launch and update your e-commerce site
• Design engaging, responsive web content
• Understand e-commerce payment options and choose appropriate option for your site
• Use appropriate tools to track key e-commerce metrics
• Identify and optimize supporting e-commerce activities such as customer service, sales and inventory management
• Create a marketing plan with all the essential elements
• Market your online store using social media and other appropriate channels
• Use discounts and promotions to market your e-commerce business
• Understand what security and privacy issues face e-commerce businesses and handle customers information with accordingly
• Protect your intellectual property
• Identify the rules and regulations that will govern your e-commerce business

The Internet has changed the way that we work, live, shop, and play. You can take advantage of this new way of doing business whether you want to set up a part-time venture or create the next million-dollar enterprise. This course will give you everything that you need to build a successful online business

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define what an online business is.
• Identify opportunities for an online business.
• Find resources to support your business.
• Create a business strategy that includes a business plan, budget, and marketing plan.
• Begin setting up a website, mobile presence, and storefront with e-commerce support.
• Decide whether or not your online business can benefit from joining an online marketplace.
• Market your online business using social media and the Internet.

Promoting a Marketing Webinar

Course Overview

Webinars are an affordable and effective tool for connecting with your staff, customers and your online community. As someone who already has the skills to create webinars — from the structure and content to how to use webinar platform technology — you are ready to join the thousands of companies and entrepreneurs using webinars to promote their products and grow their revenue.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define the marketing objectives of your webinar
• Create an attendee avatar to connect with your target audience
• Create and use a lead magnet
• Develop a promotion strategy
• Explore the potential of a joint venture
• Create a webinar marketing calendar

Webinars are an affordable and effective tool for connecting with your staff, customers and your online community. As someone who already has the skills to create webinars — from the structure and content to how to use webinar platform technology — you are ready to join the thousands of companies and entrepreneurs using webinars to promote their products and grow their revenue.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define the marketing objectives of your webinar
• Create an attendee avatar to connect with your target audience
• Create and use a lead magnet
• Develop a promotion strategy
• Explore the potential of a joint venture
• Create a webinar marketing calendar

Social media remains an evolving aspect of our daily lives in addition to being a part of our businesses. This course is designed for people who have some familiarity with social media already. Participants will learn to develop a social media marketing plan as a part of their overall marketing strategy, determine who should be on their team, and choose how they will measure what is taking place. In addition, we will explore some of the major social media sites and look at how specialty sites and social media management tools can take their social media marketing to the next level.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the value of social media to your marketing plan.
• Create and launch a social media marketing plan.
• Select the right resources for a social media marketing team.
• Define how to use social media to build an internal community.
• Use metrics to measure the impact of a social media plan.
• Manage difficult social media situations.
• Describe features of some of the key social media sites, including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Decide whether a blog adds value to a social media plan.
• Speak about specialty sites and social medial management tools.
• Stay on top of social media trends and adjust your plan as the online world evolves.

Webinars are now a common and effective tool being used by thousands and thousands of companies and people, across all industries. They are being used for everything from training to customer service, and education to marketing. Webinars are an affordable means of connecting with your staff, customers and online community.

This course will take you through the entire process of creating an effective webinar.

• Why and how to use Webinars
• Defining your webinar objectives
• Choosing the structure and content of your webinar
• Creating the outline
• Choosing the platform

This course will offer an introduction to Webinar Creation and provide you with a tool that is both appealing to you, the creator, and Webinar Attendees. With millions of webinars taking place online every month, this is a medium to be embraced.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand what webinars are and why they are important to your workplace.
• Implement best practices when developing and delivering webinars.
• Choose appropriate structure and platform for your webinar.
• Outline a webinar for your development and delivery.

Your brand speaks for your company and its products and/or services. In today’s online-focused world, it’s important that your brand has a definitive, consistent, and responsive presence.

Whether you’re looking to build a brand from scratch, or strengthen an existing brand, this course will help you build a brand using social media. We’ll cover how to build a social media strategy, identify social media platforms that fit your brand, craft strong messages that will engage your audience, and evaluate and revise your strategy.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define terms related to social media branding.
• Create a strategy for your social media brand.
• Describe various social media platforms and identify what platforms fit your brand.
• Communicate effectively over social media.
• Deal with negative feedback and criticism.
• Create a social media playbook to guide brand ambassadors.
• Evaluate your brand strength and revise your strategy.

Social selling isn’t just a fad or the latest approach to selling that businesses need to adopt. It’s a result of the massive integration of social media in how we conduct our lives. Sales professionals understand they can connect to and leverage these habits. This course is designed for entrepreneurs and sales professionals to learn how to function in that space.

In this course, we’re going to explore how social selling is an essential requirement for sales teams, and how the relationships that are created and nurtured within social media will help you grow and sustain your business. We’ll also learn how to apply specific techniques to connect with your audience and potential fans in the social space.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Describe the attributes of social selling.
• Explore how social selling can generate results for your small business.
• Apply social selling strategies to create relevance in social media.
• Understand the power of leveraging different social media platforms in social selling.
• Measure your social selling results.

It’s no secret that the sales industry continues to change and evolve rapidly. This is an exciting and dynamic profession, although it is often underrated and misunderstood. The back-slapping, high pressure, joke-telling salesperson has disappeared. In his place is a new generation of sales professionals: highly trained and well groomed, with the characteristics of honesty, trustworthiness, and competence. Today’s top salespeople are in the business of identifying needs and persuading potential customers to respond favourably to an idea that will result in mutual satisfaction for both the buyer and the seller. They do this in a way which puts the customer first, fully knowing that when they meet the customers’ needs, sales will follow.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Explain and apply concepts of customer focused selling.
• Use goal-setting techniques as a way to focus on what you want to accomplish and develop strategies for getting there.
• Apply success techniques to get the most out of your work.
• Understand productivity techniques to maximize your use of time.
• Identify ways to find new clients and network effectively.

Whether we choose to embrace them or cannot stand being interrupted by their calls, call centres are a business element that is here to stay. This course will help call centre agents learn to make the most of their telephone-based work, including understanding the best ways to listen and be heard. Each phone interaction has elements of sales and customer service skills, which we will explore in detail throughout this energizing and practical course.

Note that we will use two acronyms interchangeably throughout the course:

• CSR: Customer Service Representative
• CCA: Call Centre Agent

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the nuances of body language and verbal skills, which are so important in conversations that do not have a face-to-face element.
• Learn aspects of verbal communication such as tone, cadence, and pitch.
• Demonstrate an understanding of questioning and listening skills.
• Acquire comfort with delivering bad news and saying no.
• Learn effective ways to negotiate.
• Understand the importance of creating and delivering meaningful messages.
• Use tools to facilitate communication.
• Realize the value of personalizing interactions and developing relationships.
• Practice vocal techniques that enhance speech and communication ability.
• Personalize techniques for managing stress.

Your brand is the vehicle that propels your product or service into your customers’ lives, and into their hearts. A good brand is much more than an attractive image combined with some witty type. Your brand must reflect the heart and soul of your product, and offer a promise that you can live up to.

This course will get you started on the road to creating a perfect brand. The first part of the course will cover the basics of branding, including how to develop a visual identity from start to finish. We will also give you some graphic design tips to help you communicate your expectations to a professional designer. The second part will focus on how to put your brand out there in the right way. We’ll also talk about how to keep your brand energized and alive with monitoring and evaluation tools.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Define what a brand is (particularly a strong brand) and what branding is about.
• Define various types of brand architecture and brand extension.
• Identify your brand’s products, the features of those products, and their values.
• Write a mission, vision, and style statement for a brand.
• Describe the basics of positioning a brand.
• Understand the basics of creating a visual identity, including a brand name, slogan, and logo.
• Help your employees live the brand by empowering them to be ambassadors and creating strong brand touchpoints.
• Effectively plan an internal and external brand launch.
• Monitor and evaluate your brand, and understand how to respond to the results.

There are lots of good reasons to offer training, and even more reasons to participate and take training. But there is also an accountability element, where we ask ourselves:

• What was the value of that training?
• Did we meet the objectives that were set out?
• Did the training bring about some kind of lasting change in behavior?

In this course, we’ll explore the essential elements in evaluating training and measuring results, while creating a process that is simple for trainers and human resource practitioners to implement.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the most effective methods of training evaluation.
• Describe the steps required in the essential elements of measuring training results.
• Tie training measurements back to the original training objectives.
• Explore the most effective methods to report training results, including a return on investment.

It is impossible to be part of an organization today and not attend meetings. Staff meetings, project meetings, and planning and coordinating meetings all take time.

There has been a growing realization that we have to pay attention to the process elements of meetings if we want them to be effective. With its focus on asking rather than telling, and listening to build consensus, facilitation is the new leadership ideal, the core competency everybody needs. Managers and supervisors are often asked to facilitate rather than instruct or manage their meetings and training sessions.

How can you facilitate, rather than control, group decision-making and team interaction? With no formal training, people may find it difficult to make the transition from instructors or managers to facilitators.

This course has been created to make core facilitation skills better understood and readily available for your organization. It represents materials and ideas that have been tested and refined over twenty years of active facilitation in all types of settings.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Distinguish facilitation from instruction and training.
• Identify the competencies linked to effective small group facilitation.
• Understand the difference between content and process.
• Identify the stages of team development and ways to help teams through each stage
• Use common process tools to make meetings easier and more productive.

Training is an essential element of development in any organization. Being knowledgeable and continuing to learn throughout your career can make you a very valuable asset. We also know that training and orientation (or ‘onboarding’) for newly hired employees is a key factor in retention.

In order for training to be valuable, the person that designs and plans the training must have an excellent understanding of what the training objectives are. In addition, if the trainer is able to research the strategic objectives of the company providing the training to their staff, what resources are available, and what elements of those plans can enhance the training experience, the entire experience is much more meaningful. At the same time, if a trainer is aware of any barriers that training could present (such as trainees being on call during a session, having to spread training over a long period of time, or trainees who are not accustomed to theory or classroom types of presentations), then the trainer can present a much stronger program that is tailored specifically to the participants’ needs.

This course is designed for a trainer who wants to develop training programs that are meaningful, practical, and will benefit both trainees and the organizations they work for.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be better able to:

• Describe the essential elements of a training program.
• Apply different methodologies to program design.
• Demonstrate skills in preparation, research, and delivery of strong content.
• Explain an instructional model.
• Be prepared to create a training program proposal.

The right training at the right time can make a huge difference in the productivity and profitability of your organization. Whether you are scanning your workplace for opportunities to make things better and training is the answer, or a client asks you to come into their organization and do an assessment, your answer is best framed in the form of a training needs analysis. Your ability to create an analysis that is comprehensive yet simply prepared is critical for it to be understood and acted upon. This course will help you to gather the information, assess the data, and present your suggestions for training or non-training solutions.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the value of creating a training needs analysis.
• Apply the ICE method to assess the situation and build your training needs analysis.
• Create a simple yet thorough training needs analysis for your organization or client.

If you and the people who work with you don’t understand where the company is going, they may all develop their own priorities and actually prevent you from getting where you need to be. Part of getting everyone on board is creating a strategic plan complete with the organization’s values, vision, and mission. Then, there’s the challenge of bringing these principles to life in a meaningful way that people can relate to. This course will help you describe what you want to do and get people where you want to go.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the values that support the company.
• Define the vision for the company.
• Write a mission statement that explains what the company’s purpose is.
• Complete meaningful SWOT analyses.
• Apply tools and techniques to create a strategic plan that directs the organization from the executive to the front line.
• Implement, evaluate, and review a strategic plan.
• Identify how related tools, such as the strategy map and balanced scorecard, can help you develop a strategic plan.

Six Sigma is a set of qualitative and quantitative quality tools that can help a business improve its processes. The efficiency built into the business processes brings about improved profits, confidence and quality. Ultimately this effort is there to ensure customer satisfaction.

The term Six Sigma comes from statistics to indicate that the process outputs fall within three standard deviations from the centre (expected value) giving a range of six standard deviations (or 6 sigma- 6 σ). As a result, in terms of individual outputs it means you would have 3.4 defects per million items.

This course is designed to introduce students to basic concepts of Six Sigma particularly in continuous process improvement. Various quality tools used in process improvements will be explored as well as the importance of customer relationships. Courses in Lean, quality and teams will provide knowledge on the other aspects of how Six Sigma works. It is a predecessor to studies in Six Sigma Yellow, Green and Black Belt.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the Basics of Six Sigma.
• Describe the seven quality tools to solve process problems.
• Describe the various quality management tools.
• Describe incremental and breakthrough improvements and understand the methodologies of continuous improvement projects.
• Describe the importance of customer relationships in a quality organization.

Workplace accidents and injuries cost corporations millions of dollars and thousands of hours lost every year. They also have a profound, often lifelong impact on workers. Introducing a safety culture into your organization, where safety is valued as an integral part of the business’s operation, not only saves the business time and money, it also builds a committed, loyal, healthy workforce. This course will give you the foundation to start building your safety culture.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the difference between a safety program and a safety culture.
• Use resources to help you understand the regulations in your area.
• Launch a safety committee.
• Identify hazards and reduce them.
• Apply hiring measures that can improve safety.
• Explain what a safety training program will involve.
• Identify groups particularly at risk for injury and know how to protect them.
• Help your organization write, implement, and review a safety plan.
• Respond to incidents and near misses.
• Understand the basics of accident investigation and documentation.

Purchasing and procurement functions are about much more than bringing goods and services into an organization. They are the foundation of strong, collaborative relationships with suppliers. Since many companies source products from around the globe more frequently than ever, a procurement manager needs strong capabilities. These skills cannot just be learned on the job: they need to be taught. As well, the value of procurement is now recognized as an integral part of cost control within the organization.

In this course, you’ll learn the basics of procurement, including what a supply chain looks like, the purchasing cycle, essential tools and strategies for making the best purchasing relationships work, managing bids, and more.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Describe what a supply chain is.
• Describe your procurement department’s role within the organization.
• Understand the principles of the purchasing cycle.
• Apply the steps needed for managing a competitive bid process, from the request for proposals or qualifications through to negotiating the contract.
• Know what it takes to set up a competitive bid for a contract.
• Defend your position on why a particular supplier should be selected based on an evaluation strategy.
• Be responsible for managing supplier performance, including controlling quality and setting and monitoring standards.
• Apply the tools of the procurement trade, from PC-based applications to cloud-based solutions.

Beginning with the Organizational Safety Policy, the company’s Safety Plan shows that Senior Management takes the commitment to worker health and safety seriously. The safety plan provides a system of policies, procedures and practices to help prevent accidents/incidents, gives workers the knowledge to help them create a safe working environment and outlines a consistent methodology for the company’s approach to Health and Safety. It is one of the more important safety documents that a company can produce.

This course will give you the foundation to develop your Organizational Safety Plan and take the next step in building your safety culture.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Explain what a safety plan will include.
• Understand and write an Organizational Safety Policy.
• Know the importance of the Introduction to the Safety Plan.
• Develop a basic Communications Plan for a specific accident/incident occurrence.
• Decide upon training solutions to common accidents/incidents.
• Understand and explain the importance and structure of Incident Response Plans and Critical Incident Response Plans.
• Understand Safety Inspections and Safety Audits as methods to identify unsafe conditions and apply corrective action.
• Use a 6S Inspection Checklist to conduct a 6S Inspection.
• Brainstorm policies and procedures that you might find in the Appendix of a Safety Plan.
• Help your organization write, implement, and review a safety plan.

An article in the March 11, 2010 edition of TIME magazine purported to explain “why we have entered the post-trust era.” Indeed, we seem to be in a time where people act inappropriately and then refuse to take responsibility for their actions. Who can we blame for the world economic crisis, or issues with religion, or the outcomes of our governments, or the state of the environment? More to the point, why do we spend so much time and energy looking to pin the blame on someone (usually anyone but ourselves)?

With this in mind, it’s no wonder that organizations who promote accountability are more successful and more productive. In this course, you will learn about what accountability is, how to promote it in your organization, and how to become more accountable to yourself and others.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand what accountability is and what events in history have shaped our view of it.
• Identify the requirements for personal and corporate accountability.
• Apply the cycle of accountability and the fundamental elements required to build an accountable organization.
• Describe what individuals must do to become accountable.
• Build skills required for accountability, including goal setting, giving and receiving feedback, and delegation.
• Pinpoint ways to build ownership in your organization.
• Isolate areas for further self-improvement.

Viable organizations need to be ready for emergencies because they are a fact of doing business. The worst plan is not to have any kind of plan at all, and the best plans are tested and adjusted so that they work over time. Fortunately, you do not need separate plans for fire, weather disasters, and all the different kinds of crises that can occur. One solid plan will help you to prevent, respond, and recover from all crises. This course will help you ensure your organization is ready to manage any kind of crisis.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Assign people to an appropriate crisis team role.
• Conduct a crisis audit.
• Establish the means for business continuity.
• Determine how to manage incidents.
• Help your team recover from a crisis.
• Apply the process in practical exercise.

Business process management helps organizations leverage processes to achieve their goals and be successful. Once processes are implemented, they must be monitored, evaluated, and optimized to make sure they are still meeting the goals that they were designed to accomplish. A business that can successfully manage its processes is able to maintain a competitive edge, while increasing productivity and efficiency and decreasing costs.

This course will introduce you to business process management. You’ll learn how business processes can help you improve your company’s bottom line by providing a higher level of quality and consistency for your customers.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define business process management and related concepts.
• Recognize the vital role processes play in a business.
• Appreciate the role of technology in process management.
• Develop a vision to guide process improvement.
• Understand how to design or enhance an existing process using the business process life cycle.
• Construct a process map.
• Perform a what-if analysis to improve your processes.
• Implement and monitor process changes.
• Identify how Lean and Six Sigma methods can assist in managing and improving processes.
• Use a variety of tools and techniques to eliminate waste and redundancies.

Viable organizations need to be ready for emergencies because they are a fact of doing business. The worst plan is not to have any kind of plan at all, and the best plans are tested and adjusted so that they work over time. Fortunately, you do not need separate plans for fire, weather disasters, and all the different kinds of crises that can occur. One solid plan will help you to prevent, respond, and recover from all crises. This course will help you ensure your organization is ready to manage any kind of crisis.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Assign people to an appropriate crisis team role.
• Conduct a crisis audit.
• Establish the means for business continuity.
• Determine how to manage incidents.
• Help your team recover from a crisis.
• Apply the process in practical exercise.

Emotional Intelligence also called EQ is the ability to be aware of and control emotions and relationships. It’s a pivotal factor in personal and professional success. IQ will get you in the door, but its your EQ, ability to connect with others and manage the emotions of yourself and others that will determine how successful you are in life.

We have all worked with and listened to brilliant people.  Some of them were great, well… some of them not so great. The mean and the meek and all those who are in between can teach us more than they realise. When we look at the truly extraordinary people who inspire and make a difference you will see that they do this by connecting with people at a personal and emotional level. What differentiated them as not their IQ but their EQ – Their Emotional Intelligence. This course will help you develop your Emotional Intelligence

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course you will be able to:

• Understand what Emotional Intelligence means
• Recognize how our emotional and physical health is related
• Learn techniques to understand, use and appreciate the role of emotional intelligence in the workplace
• Understand the different emotions and how to manage them
• Create a personal vision statement
• Understand the difference between pessimism and optimism
• Validate emotions in others

There have been a number of studies that identify the key skills workers need to be successful. Various studies call them different things – Critical employability skills, soft skills and transferrable skills. Regardless of the names, these skills are critical for workplace success. Eight of the most commonly identified skills are: being a productive team member, problems solving and resourcefulness, giving and receiving feedback, self -confidence, critical thinking and emotional intelligence. Many of us possess some of these attributes already or all of them. Luckily these skills can be improved upon through training.

His course looks to take you from where you are now to a new level of understanding for the key skills that will help to make you successful at work.

Learning Objectives:

• Know your own team members roles and responsibilities
• Understand ways to be an effective team member
• Know how it feels to experience change and know your level of change tolerance
• Understand ways to be flexible in times of change
• Know what a problem is and ways to approach problem solving
• Recognize the self-fulfilling prophesy and its relevance to their work
• Appreciate the variety of behaviours that characterize resourcefulness at the workplace
• Identify tips to giving and receiving feedback
• Utilize a three-step process to building your own self confidence
• Apply a number of group method for creative thinking
• Recount the history of social and emotional intelligence theory
• Define Daniel Goleman’s 5 sets of social and emotional competencies and correlate them to the workplace experiences

Rudeness in the workplace is increasing to the level that universities are studying it. Everyone is busy, everyone is stressed, and most people take it out on their colleagues at one time or another. We’ve all been in a situation where we need to print something ASAP and someone has left the printer jammed, or we need coffee and the coffeepot is empty. Technology is supposed to make life easier and simpler, but most managers find themselves cleaning up the messes caused by too many gadgets. This course will show you how to leverage technology to work smarter, not harder.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Make your workplace a technology-friendly place.
• Make the most of computers, telephones, instant messaging, e-mail,
  contact management applications, and scheduling software.
• Communicate better with the IT department.
• Make the best software and training choices.
• Set an IT budget.
• Set expectations and responsibilities for security and privacy.
• Keep employees safe and healthy.
• Develop and implement a system usage policy.
• Implement policies for dealing with company property.
• Decide whether or not employees should telecommute.
• Make telecommuting work.
• Deal with workplace rage.
• Address technological issues.

Abigail Van Buren, the writer of Dear Abby, once said, “There are two kinds of people: those who come into a room with the attitude, ‘Here I am!’ and those who have the attitude, ‘There you are!’”

This course is an exploration about the type of impact you want to have in life and work. You will consider and define the influence that you can have on your life and work. You will also learn skills for success and how to create those circumstances.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Speak in terms of the impact and influence that you want to have in life and work.
• Understand your personal style in terms of your personal brand.
• Develop skill in areas like focus, concentration, and communication to support your brand.
• Build credibility and trust by living your brand.
• Take ownership of your image, both online and in person.

In today’s society, many people experience information overload. We are bombarded with messages to believe various ideas, purchase things, support causes, and lead our lifestyle in a particular way. How do you know what to believe? How do you separate the truth from the myths?

The answer lies in critical thinking skills. The ability to clearly reason through problems and to present arguments in a logical, compelling way has become a key skill for survival in today’s world. This course will give you some practical tools and hands-on experience with critical thinking and problem solving.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define critical and non-critical thinking.
• Identify your critical thinking style(s), including areas of strength and improvement.
• Describe other thinking styles, including left/right brain thinking and whole-brain thinking.
• Work through the critical thinking process to build or analyze arguments.
• Develop and evaluate explanations.
• Improve key critical thinking skills, including active listening and questioning.
• Use analytical thought systems and creative thinking techniques.
• Prepare and present powerful arguments.

While many companies promise to deliver an incredible customer experience, some are better at supplying this than others. This course is designed around six critical elements of customer service that, when a company truly embraces them, bring customers back to experience service that outdoes the competition.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand what a customer service approach is
• Understand how your own behaviour affects the behaviour of others
• Demonstrate confidence and skill as a problem solver
• Apply techniques to deal with difficult customers
• Know how to provide excellent customer service

Creative thinking and innovation are vital components in both our personal and professional lives. However, many people feel as though they are lacking in creativity. What most of us do not recognize is that we are creative on a daily basis, whether it’s picking out what clothes to wear in the morning or stretching a tight budget at work. While these tasks may not normally be associated with creativity, there is a great deal of creativity involved to get those jobs done.

While some people seem to be simply bursting with creativity, others find it a struggle to think outside the square. If you fall into the latter category, it is important to understand that boosting your creative and innovative abilities takes practice. Recognizing and honing your own creative potential is a process. That’s what this course is all about.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Identify the difference between creativity and innovation.
• Recognize your own creativity.
• Build your own creative environment.
• Explain the importance of creativity and innovation in business.
• Apply problem solving steps and tools.
• Use individual and group techniques to help generate creative ideas.
• Implement creative ideas.

Today’s workforce is experiencing job burnout and stress in epidemic proportions. Workers at all levels feel stressed out, insecure, and misunderstood. Many people feel the demands of the workplace, combined with the demands of home, have become too much to handle. This course explores the causes of such stress, and suggests general and specific stress management strategies that people can use every day.

Learning Objectives

• Understand that stress is a positive, unavoidable part of everybody’s life.
• Recognize the symptoms that tell you when you have chronic stress overload.
• Change the situations and actions that can be changed.
• Deal better with situations and actions that can’t be changed.
• Create an action plan for work, home, and play to help reduce and manage stress.

A safe, inclusive workplace in many jurisdictions is not just the law; it is a goal of every employee and company that values the contributions, well-being, and productivity of everyone in the organization. In society today, individuals are of many personal communities. In addition to heterosexual or ‘straight’ there is also LGBTQ2 – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and 2, for two-spirited: an aboriginal concept of two sexualities within one body. ‘Trans’, however, refers to gender identity, whereas the other terms describe sexual orientation. The importance of understanding terms of identification is critical to creating and maintain a safe workplace.

Transgender Employees: Creating an Inclusive Community is a course to introduce the importance and elements of safe inclusive workspaces for transgender persons – those identifying as one gender but born into the body of the opposing gender. This course will offer an introduction to terminology, elements, policies, and resources to build and sustain a safe, inclusive environment for transgender employees and increase the comfort level and productivity off all in your organization.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the importance and history of inclusivity in the workplace.
• Increase your understanding of the transgendered experience.
• Explore and address personal and societal biases, misconceptions, and choices.
• Identify and implement elements to support a safe inclusive workplace.

Inspiring someone to be their best is no easy task. Just how do you manage for optimum performance? How do you create a motivating environment that encourages people to go beyond their best? This course will give you some of those skills.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the role of goal setting in performance management.
• Have tools to help your employees set and achieve goals.
• Have a three-phase model that will help you prepare employees for peak performance, activate their inner motivation, and evaluate their skills.
• Have a better knowledge of motivational tools and techniques.

Have you ever been in a workplace situation where a supervisor has made a decision that you didn’t agree with? Did you wish that you could ask someone else what they thought of the decision; whether they would have done the same thing? The peer review process offers employees just that chance, using a formalized procedure to ask, consider, and resolve just these sorts of questions. This course will teach you everything you need to know about employee dispute resolution through mediation.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Describe what the peer review process is.
• Apply a process for employees to file grievances and for management to respond.
• Choose a facilitator and panel.
• Understand what is involved in the hearing process, from preliminary meetings to the hearing, and the decision process.
• Explain what responsibilities and powers a panel should have.
• Apply professional questioning and probing techniques.
• Understand why peer review panels fail and how to avoid those pitfalls.

The need to lead, model, and promote the organizational values within a customer service environment is essential for business success. This course will provide you with opportunities to explore your responsibilities within your role as a leader (supervisor or manager) in a customer service environment.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Identify ways to establish links between excellence in customer service and your business practices and policies.
• Develop the skills and practices that are essential elements of a customer service-focused manager.
• Recognize what employees are looking for to be truly engaged.
• Recognize who the customers are and what they are looking for.
• Develop strategies for creating engaged employees and satisfied customers in whatever business units you manage.

Many people see conflict as a negative experience. In fact, conflict is a necessary part of our personal growth and development. Think of when you were trying to choose your major in college, for example, or trying to decide between two jobs.

However, conflict becomes an issue when the people involved cannot work through it. They become engaged in a battle that does not result in growth. When this type of conflict arises, negative energy can result, causing hurt feelings and damaged relationships.

This course will give you the tools that will help you resolve conflict successfully and produce a win-win outcome.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand what conflict is and how it can escalate.
• Understand the types of conflict and the stages of conflict.
• Recognize the five most common conflict resolution styles and when to use them.
• Increase positive information flow through non-verbal and verbal communication skills.
• Develop effective techniques for intervention strategies.
• Become more confident of your ability to manage conflicts to enhance productivity and performance.

Change is a hallmark of today’s business world. In particular, our workforce is constantly changing – people come and go, and move into new roles within the company. Succession planning can help you make the most of that change by ensuring that when someone leaves, there is someone new to take their place. This course will teach you the basics about creating and maintaining a succession plan.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the value of succession planning for successful businesses.
• Demonstrate expertise with the key elements of a succession plan.
• Create and discuss aspects of a succession plan.
• Discuss the elements of a succession plan in terms of roles, responsibility, function, scope, and evaluation.

With teams at the core of corporate strategy, your success as an organization can often depend on how well you and other team members operate together. How are your problem-solving skills? Is the team enthusiastic and motivated to do its best? Do you work well together? This course can help you get there!

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the value of working as a team.
• Develop team norms, ground rules, and team contracts.
• Identify your team player style and how it can be used effectively with your own team.
• Build team trust.
• Identify the stages of team development and how to help a team move through them.
• Recognize the critical role communication skills will play in building and maintaining a team atmosphere.
• Identify ways that team members can be involved and grow in a team setting.

Viable organizations need to be ready for emergencies because they are a fact of doing business. The worst plan is not to have any kind of plan at all, and the best plans are tested and adjusted so that they work over time. Fortunately, you do not need separate plans for fire, weather disasters, and all the different kinds of crises that can occur. One solid plan will help you to prevent, respond, and recover from all crises. This course will help you ensure your organization is ready to manage any kind of crisis.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Assign people to an appropriate crisis team role.
• Conduct a crisis audit.
• Establish the means for business continuity.
• Determine how to manage incidents.
• Help your team recover from a crisis.
• Apply the process in practical exercise.

A safe, inclusive workplace in many jurisdictions is not just the law; it is a goal of every employee and company that values the contributions, well-being, and productivity of everyone in the organization. In society today, individuals are of many personal communities. In addition to heterosexual or ‘straight’ there is also LGBTQ2 – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and 2, for two-spirited: an aboriginal concept of two sexualities within one body. ‘Trans’, however, refers to gender identity, whereas the other terms describe sexual orientation. The importance of understanding terms of identification is critical to creating and maintain a safe workplace.

Transgender Employees: Creating an Inclusive Community is a course to introduce the importance and elements of safe inclusive workspaces for transgender persons – those identifying as one gender but born into the body of the opposing gender. This course will offer an introduction to terminology, elements, policies, and resources to build and sustain a safe, inclusive environment for transgender employees and increase the comfort level and productivity off all in your organization.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand the importance and history of inclusivity in the workplace.
• Increase your understanding of the transgendered experience.
• Explore and address personal and societal biases, misconceptions, and choices.
• Identify and implement elements to support a safe inclusive workplace.

Negotiating is about resolving differences. People who can master the process of negotiation find they can save time and money, develop a higher degree of satisfaction with outcomes at home and at work, and earn greater respect in their communities when they understand how to negotiate well.

Negotiating is a fundamental fact of life. Whether you are working on a project or fulfilling support duties, this course will provide you with a basic comfort level to negotiate in any situation. This course includes techniques to promote effective communication and gives you techniques for turning face-to-face confrontation into side-by-side problem solving.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand how often we all negotiate and the benefits of good negotiation skills.
• Recognize the importance of preparing for the negotiation process, regardless of the circumstances.
• Identify the various negotiation styles and their advantages and disadvantages.
• Develop strategies for dealing with tough or unfair tactics.
• Gain skill in developing alternatives and recognizing options.
• Understand basic negotiation principles, including BATNA, WATNA, WAP, and the ZOPA.

Virtual workers and virtual teams are an essential part of today’s workforce. More than ever, people are using technology to work anywhere, anytime.

There are big benefits to today’s virtual workplace, but there can be big challenges, too. This course will teach managers and supervisors how to prepare employees for the virtual workplace, create telework programs, build virtual teams, leverage technology, and overcome cultural barriers.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Create a virtual workplace strategy.
• Develop, implement, and maintain telecommuting programs.
• Build a virtual team and lead them to success.
• Plan and lead virtual meetings.
• Use technology to support your virtual workplace.
• Overcome cultural barriers when leading virtual teams.
• Develop your virtual leadership skills.

Our culture defines many aspects of how we think, feel, and act. It can be challenging for managers to bridge cultural differences and bring employees together into a functioning team. This course will give supervisors and managers easy-to-use techniques for communicating across cultures, building teams, promoting multiculturalism in the organization, and leveraging the global talent pool.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define what culture is and how it shapes the workplace.
• Identify how stereotypes shape our perception.
• Develop useful cross-cultural attitudes.
• Communicate effectively across cultures.
• Effectively manage employees from different cultures.
• Help teams overcome cross-cultural and virtual barriers.
• Promote acceptance and awareness in your organization to help create a multicultural environment.
• Leverage the global talent pool.

Although it does take plenty of creativity to design an event that is memorable and meaningful, it also takes careful attention to detail, adaptability, effective delegating, and a lot of work. This course will walk you through the process of event management, from the beginning stages of planning, to the final touches (like decorations, food, and music).

While this course is specifically for corporate event planning, the elements here can also be applied to more personal event planning like anniversaries, special birthday gatherings, weddings, and more. Essentially, we’re creating an effective and well-planned design that is ready for implementation and can be used over and over again.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

• Plan a complete corporate event, including an agenda, budget, goals, venue, audience, food, and whatever else your client needs.
• Keep your event on budget.
• Design an advertising and marketing plan that includes a comprehensive use of media, take-aways, and/or swag bags.
• Determine whether partners, sponsors, and volunteers can help to make your event unforgettable.
• Create an atmosphere of service that delegates will remember.
• Select speakers and a master of ceremonies to add impact to your event.
• Create a diversity plan.
• Evaluate the process once it’s all wrapped up.

Coach, Mentor, Role Model, Supporter, Guide… do these words ring a bell? Being a coach involves being able to draw from several disciplines. Coaching is based on a partnership that involves giving both support and challenging opportunities to employees. Mentorship is a related skill that is often a part of coaching. It’s about being a guide, offering wisdom and advice when it is needed.

Knowing how and when to coach (and when to use other tools, like mentoring) is an essential skill that can benefit both you and your organization.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand how coaching can be used to develop your team.
• Develop the coaching skills that help improve individual performance.
• Demonstrate the behaviours and practices of an effective coach.
• Recognize employees’ strengths and give them the feedback they need to succeed.
• Identify employee problems and ways you can help to correct them.

For managers in today’s business world, it’s essential to have a working knowledge of finance. We all play a role in our organization’s financial health, whether we realize it or not. If you don’t have training or a background in finance, you may be at a disadvantage as you sit around the management table.

Understanding the cycle of finance will help you figure out where you fit into your company’s financial structure, and how to keep your department out of the red. This course will help you prepare budgets and make decisions with confidence.

Participants should complete Accounting Skills for New Supervisors course before this course or have equivalent knowledge.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Define basic financial terminology.
• Prepare a budget of any type or size.
• Get your budget approved.
• Perform basic ratio analysis.
• Make better financial decisions.

Women have a long-standing history in the workforce, in all roles from front-line worker to visionary founder, influential behind-the-scenes patron to front-and-center CEO. As women, however, what are the influences, barriers and benefits to our leadership? Do we use or even acknowledge our strengths and skills?

This is a time of great change in the workforce, in part because of the increase in numbers and influence of women in the workplace. Flex time, daycare and caregiver support, and telecommuting are a few examples of workplace initiatives that benefit everyone, but evolved primarily due to the roles and influence of women who are often juggling multiple home, workplace, and community responsibilities. However, there are some areas in which women could still be more visible and vocal.

This course will explore the history of women in the workforce and offer personal opportunities for exploration, identification, and development of leadership strengths and skills.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Understand a brief history and evolution of women and leadership.
• Recognize barriers to women’s leadership and how to handle them.
• Learn how to use barriers to create benefits.
• Define Social and Emotional Intelligence and understand its importance in workplace leadership.
• Understand the importance of Self-Awareness in identifying and owning your own strengths and skills.
• Develop a basic vision and brand for your leadership.
• Understand the essential leadership skills for women.
• Examine steps and skills to good decision making.
• Create your own Workplace Philosophy Statement and Action Plan.

Project management isn’t just for construction engineers and military logistics experts anymore. Today, in addition to the regular duties of your job, you are often expected to take on extra assignments and to get that additional job done well, done under budget, and done on time. This course is not intended to take you from a supervisory or administrative position to that of a project manager. However, this course will familiarize you with the most common terms and the most current thinking about projects.

In this course, we will walk you through the nuts and bolts of project management, from setting priorities to controlling expenses and reporting on the results. You may still have to cope with the unexpected, but you’ll be better prepared.

Learning Objectives

• Understand what is meant by a project.
• Recognize what steps must be taken to complete projects on time and on budget.
• Have a better ability to sell ideas and make presentations.
• Know simple techniques and tools for planning and tracking your project.
• Have methods for keeping the team focused and motivated.

Success as a manager is heavily influenced by how well your team operates and what kind of results they achieve. Is your team able to solve problems? Can they resolve conflict? Are they enthusiastic and motivated to do their best? Do they work well together?

This course is designed for participants who want to develop their team leadership skills and unleash the talent of their individual team members.

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Identify different types of teams.
• Build teamwork by recognizing and tapping into the twelve characteristics of an effective team.
• Promote trust and rapport by exploring your team player style and how it impacts group dynamics.
• Recognize the key elements that move a team from involvement to empowerment and how to give these elements to your team.
• Develop strategies for dealing with team conflict and common problems.
• Understand how action planning and analysis tools can help your team perform better.

In today’s fast-moving world, many managers and supervisors are expected to deal with some human resource issues. They may be asked to take part in developing job descriptions, take part in interviews, or take responsibility for discipline. This course will introduce those managers to human resource concepts. We will walk you through the hiring process, from performing a skills inventory to conducting the interview; discuss orientation; and cover some issues that arise after the hiring (such as diversity issues, compensation, and discipline).

Learning Objectives

After you complete this course, you will be able to:

• Discuss current issues in the human resource field and the changing role of supervisors and managers in terms of HR functions.
• Write job specifications and identify core competencies.
• Apply methods of finding, selecting, and keeping the best people using behavioural description interviewing techniques.
• Get new employees off to a good start.
• Understand compensation and benefits.
• Maintain healthy employee relations.
• Make performance appraisals a cooperative process.