Category: Development and Training

This is a guest post written by Lydia Weiss at the WorkLife Office.

Slowly but surely, the wage gap is decreasing. Currently, women earn on average 80 cents for every dollar paid to men. However, the reality is that even if the wage gap is decreasing over time, this inching towards parity has not really budged in over a decade, according to the American Association of University Women (AAUW). Although the Equal Pay Act was enacted by Congress in 1963, the wage gap persists. The gap is also particularly glaring for women of color.

In an effort to raise awareness about the wage gap, Equal Pay Day is a symbolic recognition that, in order for women’s yearly salary to reach that of men, women would have to work until April 10 in order to catch up to men’s previous year’s salary. But let’s be clear – that’s for white women. According to the AAUW, Asian American Women’s Equal Pay Day is in March, African American Women’s Equal Pay Day isn’t until August, Native American Women’s Equal Pay Day is in September, and Latina Equal Pay Day is in November.

One contributing factor to the pay gap is that women are often offered lower starting salaries than their peers who are men – and then women often do not negotiate to increase those offers. As many folks in the business world know, your starting salary is the foundation for future raises, therefore if women’s starting salaries are lower than men’s to begin with, their opportunity for raises is stunted, especially when those raises are based off a percentage of your current salary. For instance, if a woman negotiates a 1% raise and her salary is $40,000, and her colleague who is a man also negotiates a 1% raise, but is making $50,000 – the wage gap persists based on their existing salaries.

In order to address this issue, the Michigan State University MI-ACE Women’s Network Institutional Representatives, in collaboration with the AAUW and several MSU units are bringing salary negotiation workshops to campus for faculty and staff on April 11. You can register for the workshop for support staff or the workshop for faculty and academic staff.

At MSU, in addition to the salary negotiation workshops on April 11, other organizations exist to support women-identified folks in building professional skills in negotiation, mentoring, networking and confidence building. The Women’s Networking Association, Academic Women’s Forum, and Women’s Advisory Committee for Support Staff are just a few ways to get involved.

Every day, we are faced with new situations, people and conflicts. Organization and Professional Development has created a class to help you prevent and de-escalate situations.

In this featured course, attendee’s will be provided with practical information and methods designed to enhance internal and external customer service, learn strategies to maximize individual and team performance, positive communication and cohesiveness to manage circumstances before, during and after the situation.

The objectives of this course include:

• Learn self-management techniques to enhance one’s ability to effectively navigate a potentially difficult situation.
• Learn to proactively identify precipitating factors, situations, and dispositions that could be warning signs.
• Explore the Integrated Experience and Verbal Escalation Continuums.
• Learn, discuss, and practice non-violent (hands off) crisis intervention techniques.

This course will be held on Thursday, December 7, 2017 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 am in Room 10, Nisbet. Come out and learn something new and share your experiences!

A vital part to a successful career is constant development and training. MSU HR and MSU IT have teamed together to create a way for our employees to constantly learn and develop new skills from the comfort of their own computer.

elevateU resources include traditional online courses, job aids, skill briefs, business impacts, challenge series, simulations, books, videos, practice tests and mentoring. Another unique feature is inGenius too, a tool that can assist you in social networking and bringing together a community with similar interests to you.

Course content ranges from leadership, IT & Desktop, Finance and Human Resources, to Change Management, Project Management, Interpersonal Skills and more.

elevateU is available on all computers and now, mobile! Android and iOS users can download the Skillsoft Learning App to access elevateU courses on the go.

To login to your elevateU profile, use your MSU NetID and password.

Have you ever wondered why some people just don’t get you? Or ever thought, “I thought I did exactly what was expected…how could there have been such a big misunderstanding?” You’re not alone! Most of us have felt that way at one time or another.

It’s important to realize that no work behavioral style is necessarily better than another. The key is understanding yourself and learning how to flex your style when working with others who are different. The good news is that there’s a simple tool designed to help you understand yourself and others.

The upcoming Professional Development class, “Everything DiSC: Behavior Styles at Work” will help you build more effective working relationships based on an understanding of different behavior styles. The class will give you a detailed report that will be a roadmap to greater understanding.

“Everything DiSC: Behavior Styles at Work” is Wednesday, August 9, 1 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. in 10 Nisbet. The cost is $75.