Tag: courses

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New Year, New Professional Development Courses

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The Organization and Professional Development (OPD) department in MSU Human Resources has spots open in the following courses to support your learning and development in January, February and March:

EBS Financial Systems: Roles and Onboarding | January 25 | Virtual

Are you new to MSU and/or to a financial role? This session intends to answer the question: Where do I start? You have a vast toolbox available to you.

Taming the Email Beast | February 8 | Virtual

Professionals spend much of their work (and personal) time buried under a stream of email, spinning wheels and feeling highly unsatisfied. If you would like to get control of your email “beast,” attend this program featuring specific tips for Outlook and Gmail users, but applicable to ANY email user.

KFS Transactional Edocs: Types and Purposes | February 15 | Virtual

This class will provide detailed information about processing various types of Edocs in KFS, including those listed below, and information about action item buttons, document status, workflow routing and search functionality.

Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue | Starts March 13| In-Person

High-performing individuals and organizations know how to hold crucial conversations — where emotions are strong, opinions vary, and the stakes are high. In this two-day course, learn powerful skills to help you speak up quickly, directly and effectively when it matters most, including moments of disagreement, risk or change.     

Cultural Competency | March 18 | In-Person

One of MSU’s guiding principles is to lead inclusively, actively, and intentionally to promote full participation and a sense of safety and belonging for all employees and staff. Join us in building cultural awareness and inclusiveness skills that strengthen cultural competence.

All the current Organization and Professional Development courses are on the HR website. Class enrollment is completed within the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds towards course fees (if any).

Register Today! Spots Still Available in Professional Development Courses

Published on by Megan MacGregorLeave a comment

HR’s Organization and Professional Development (OPD) department has spots open in the following courses to support your learning and development in December and January:

  • Performance Management for Hybrid Teams | December 6 | In-person
    This class will share best practices and identify tips and strategies for developing strong and high-performing hybrid teams using MSU’s Performance Excellence process.
  • Conflict Management and Non-Escalation | December 6 AND 7 | In-person
    The primary goals of this course are conflict resolution, de-escalation, crisis management, and everyone’s safety. This training will prepare participants to apply the taught skills to real-life situations and to retain those skills over time.
  • Writing Policies and Procedures | December 7 | Virtual
    Learn proven strategies and methods for successfully writing policies and procedures in clear terms that can be understood by all.
  • Introduction to Process Mapping | January 11 | Virtual
    Learners in this course will be able to define key process improvement terminology, identify common elements of process maps, reduce barriers to success by adopting best practices, and create a process map.
  • Maximizing the Spartan Experience | January 17 | Virtual
    This engaging training provides a foundational perspective related to enhanced customer service delivery.
  • Everything DiSC: Behavior Styles at Work | January 18 | Virtual
    Everything DiSC® helps you build more effective working relationships based on an understanding of different behavioral styles.
  • New Leader Development Series | Starts January 24 | Virtual
    Designed for supervisors new to their roles or new to MSU, this nine-session series equips new leaders with a toolkit of crucial knowledge and resources.
  • The Power of Habit | January 25 | Virtual
    Learn how to spot your habit loop, turn bad days into good data, and create habits that get the results you want.

You can find all the current Organization and Professional Development courses on the HR website. Class enrollment is completed within the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds towards course fees (if any). 

Register Today! Spots Still Available in Professional Development Courses

Published on by Megan MacGregorLeave a comment

With a new year on the horizon, now is the perfect time to reflect on how you’re progressing with your professional development goals and what opportunities are still available this year to help you achieve them. HR’s Organization and Professional Development (OPD) department has spots open in the following courses to support your learning and development before the year ends.

Find a list of upcoming courses:

  • Maximize the Spartan Experience | November 8 | Virtual
    This engaging training provides a foundational perspective related to enhanced customer service delivery.
  • Payments to Non-U.S. Citizens and International Vendors | November 8 | Virtual
    Employees coordinating and preparing Disbursement Voucher payments to non-U.S. citizens/international vendors can learn about the documentation required.
  • Strategic Planning | November 15 | Virtual
    Participants will gain a foundational base for implementing strategic planning in a unit.
  • Records Management and Retention at MSU| November 16 | Virtual
    Learn the rules, regulations, and strategies to help manage university records. 
  • Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue | November 16 AND 17 | In-person
    This program teaches techniques that allow you to make room for different opinions and perspectives, find mutual respect and common purpose, and dialogue openly. 
  • Ready, Set, Change! | November 17 | In-person
    Based on April Callis-Birchmeier’s #1 Amazon bestselling book, Ready, Set, Change! discover a simpler and faster approach to help individuals and organizations adopt change to ensure objectives are met. 
  • Performance Management for Hybrid Teams | December 6 | In-person
    This class will share best practices and identify tips and strategies for developing strong and high-performing hybrid teams using MSU’s Performance Excellence process.
  • Conflict Management and Non-Escalation | December 6 AND 7 | In-person
    The primary goals of this course are conflict resolution, de-escalation, crisis management, and everyone’s safety. This training will prepare participants to apply the taught skills to real-life situations and to retain those skills over time.
  • Writing Policies and Procedures | December 7 | Virtual
    Learn proven strategies and methods for successfully writing policies and procedures in clear terms that can be understood by all.
  • Identify and Maximize Your Strengths | December 13 | In-person
    Identify your natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, so that you can discover what makes you exceptional and maximize your potential.
  • Managing and Leading Across Locations | December 13 | In-person
    Whether you’re currently supervising an existing hybrid team, preparing for changes related to MSU’s new remote work policy, or looking for strategies to address the unique challenges you may encounter while leading in our current environment, this session will help you integrate new skills into your leadership practice through interactive exercises and peer-to-peer learning.

You can find all the current Organization and Professional Development courses on the HR website. Class enrollment is completed within the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds towards course fees (if any). 

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Summer Organization and Professional Development Courses

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Updated May 2023

The Organization and Professional Development (OPD) team in MSU Human Resources is proud to offer a variety of courses to support you in achieving your goals. Since Educational Assistance benefits for support staff reset with the fall semester, use your remaining benefits this summer on a personal or professional development course from OPD. 

Please note that courses vary between virtual and in-person, so be sure to check the format before enrolling.

Business Analysis Courses

Communication Courses

Customer Service Courses

Diversity, Equity And Inclusion Courses

Finance And Accounting Courses

Human Resources Courses

Leadership Courses

Management Courses

Operations Courses

Personal Development Courses

You can find all current OPD courses on the HR website. Sign up through the EBS Portal. Questions? Contact Organization and Professional Development at prodev@hr.msu.edu.

Winter Events, Activities, Holiday Shopping, and Courses

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As the colder weather sets in and the holidays approach, take note of the following opportunities on campus or in the surrounding area for you and your family. Please note: the events below are subject to change at any time. Please confirm event details, safety policies, etc. directly with each event listed.

Family/Kid Friendly

  • Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – MSU Abrams Planetarium Family Shows: In November, check out Violent Universe: Catastrophes of the Cosmos and The Little Star That Could. They also offer sensory friendly shows on the third Sunday of the month.
  • Nov. 6 – Family Day: Perspective: Make creative connections with our exhibitions through free hands-on and interactive family fun throughout the museum. All ages are welcome. See all upcoming events at the MSU Broad Art Museum here.
  • Nov. 19 – Silver Bells in the City: Millions of lights. Thousands of people. One very special guest. Lansing’s premiere holiday event.
  • Starts Nov. 20 – Wonderland of Lights at Potter Park Zoo: Tour grounds with friends and family as thousands of lights and decorations transform the zoo into a holiday spectacle.
  • Nov. 21 – CADL-Downtown Branch Sensory Friendly Movies: Join in on the 3rd Sunday of the month for sensory-friendly family-friendly movies when we turn the lights up and turn the sound down. Feel free to get up, dance, walk, shout or sing! Snacks provided.

Holiday Shopping

  • Nov. 4 – Dec. 23 (every Thursday, Friday and Saturday) – Michigan Made Holiday Art Exhibition: Showcasing established and emerging artists, enjoy holiday shopping and opportunities to support makers in the local economy.
  • Nov. 5 – 2021 MSU Houseplant & Succulent Sale: All sales from this fundraiser help support the gardens, including funding for garden maintenance, educational programming, and support for our undergraduate student employees.
  • Nov. 5 – Arts Night Out: Shops host a special sale, exhibits, arts and crafts demo, live performances.
  • Second Friday of the Month – Second Friday Shop Hop in Old Town: Hop around to multiple participating businesses for specials, make and takes, pop up shops, local artist, and more.

Music

Performance and Art

  • Nov. 3 – Whose Live Anyway? 90 minutes of hilarious improvised comedy and song all based on audience suggestions.
  • Nov. 14 – Print Club!: Print Club! is a LGBTQ+ affirming social club founded by Lansing artist Randi Richards (they/them/she/her) dedicated to making space for those that love ink to work together, share, and build skills without financial barriers.

Personal/Professional Development Opportunities

Sports/Fitness

  • Nov. 20 – Silver Bells 5K: Participants will be able to run/walk the 5K marked course in downtown Lansing or from home virtually.
  • Nov. 25 – Lansing Turkey Trot (in-person or virtual): Proceeds from the race go to support High School and Middle School Cross Country and Track programs, and Youth Running Clubs through the Michigan Running Foundation grant program.

Do you have an event you’d like us to consider including in a future article? Please email HR.CommunicationsList@campusad.msu.edu with the details.

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OPD Course Spotlight – Maximizing the Spartan Experience: Customer Service Training

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“All of your customers are partners in your mission.” – Shep Hyken

In higher education, we serve an enormous variety of customers — everyone from colleagues to students to granting agencies. Realizing the importance of high-quality service and effective communication can lead to increasingly satisfied customers. MSU HR’s Organization and Professional Development (OPD) department offers a live, virtual course designed to help you take your customer service skills to the next level and provide what’s referred to at MSU as “The Spartan Experience.”

Maximizing the Spartan Experience is currently open for registration in the EBS Portal for November 8, 2022, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.

This updated and engaging version of the popular The Spartan Experience training provides a foundational perspective related to enhanced customer service delivery and is based around high, clear, and concise customer service expectations that are the key to maximizing opportunities in engagement, inclusivity, and Delivering Outstanding Spartan Experiences (DOSE).

In this OPD course, you will learn how to:

  • Communicate effectively with customers
  • Create a positive first impression
  • Develop and maintain high customer service standards
  • Plan for great customer service

Todd Bradley, MSU HR Senior Learning and Organization Development Specialist, brings his trademark positivity and extensive expertise when facilitating Maximizing the Spartan Experience, explaining, “High morale, enthusiasm, and positive engagement are all desired outcomes of this course.” For a quick preview, check out Todd’s recent Todd Talk video regarding this topic.

Recent course participant, Christie Provost-Perkins, Operations Coordinator for the MSU College of Nursing, shares, “I truly enjoyed attending Maximizing the Spartan Experience. The class reinforced essential customer service skills but also took a deeper dive. It expanded on the topic in new and interesting ways. I also appreciated how well the content was delivered in the virtual format. Real world examples and discussion added to an engaging presentation. This was one of the first professional development courses I’ve been able to attend, and it set a high bar.”

Ready to learn more? Register for an upcoming Maximizing the Spartan Experience session in the EBS Portal, or contact OPD at prodev@hr.msu.edu or 517-355-0813 for additional information.

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OPD Course Spotlight – Everything DiSC®: Behavioral Styles at Work

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“Eye-opening”

“Inspiring and fun”

“True game changer”

Everything DiSC®, a popular virtual training and personalized learning experience from HR Organization and Professional Development (OPD), has earned rave reviews from participants and is currently open for registration in the EBS Portal for October 20, 2022.

The DiSC® program provides you with a pre-course, individual assessment — a tool powered by more than 40 years of research — which is then analyzed to deliver detailed information regarding your preferences and tendencies. The live, online portion of the course, led by OPD’s knowledgeable and experienced DiSC® facilitators, offers an opportunity to learn more about relating to others and how to utilize actionable strategies to help you improve your interactions and, ultimately, your performance.

In this OPD course, you will:

  • Gain insights into your own behaviors and those of others.
  • Understand and appreciate the work styles of others.
  • Learn how to communicate and persuade more effectively.
  • Create strategies for overcoming challenges when working with people of different DiSC® styles.

“Everything DiSC® can benefit everyone in an organization,” explains Carrie Galdes, MSU HR Senior Learning and Organization Development Specialist and DiSC® facilitator. “The program teaches participants to understand themselves and others while learning to appreciate the different priorities and values each person brings to the workplace.”

DiSC® participants have cited everything from decreased stress to increased productivity to an improved work environment as examples of the program’s positive results.

Angela Levack Michael, Associate Director for MSU Recreational Sports and Fitness Services, notes, “DiSC® training helped me see my colleagues from a different point of view. Understanding their personality styles allowed me to assess my communication style and gear interactions towards their strengths.”

DiSC® for Teams

OPD also hosts unit-specific DiSC® sessions, which can improve engagement, collaboration, and overall quality of a team and organization.

Lisa Duffey, Executive Staff Assistant and Graduate Program Assistant in MSU’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, shares, “Our team took advantage of the work-from-home situation to do some professional development and team building by taking the DiSC® assessment and having OPD help us understand the results. We learned about our own behavioral tendencies and those of our coworkers as well as ideas about how to facilitate teamwork and approach each other when things are awkward. It was an excellent opportunity for growth as individuals and as a team.”

Interested in learning more? Register for an upcoming Everything DiSC session in the EBS Portal, or complete an online OPD Work Request Form to schedule a DiSC® program for your department.

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Resources and Upcoming Courses for HR Professionals

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Are you a Human Resources (HR) professional at MSU? Whether you handle HR processes in your college or unit on a regular or infrequent basis, the following training opportunities and resources will help you stay up to date on relevant topics.

Upcoming Instructor-Led Courses

Please Note: you may use available educational assistance funds to pay for the following courses through HR Organization and Professional Development (OPD). Take advantage of this year’s educational assistance benefit before it resets at the beginning of fall semester!

  • Certified Human Resources Specialist (CHRS): In this virtual offering of the five-session series, participants will receive fundamental knowledge to be a successful HR professional. Pass a take-home exam to achieve CHRS certification. Course Dates: July 14, 21, 28, August 4 AND 11.

  • Advanced Certified Human Resources Specialist: As a Certified Human Resources Specialist, you know how important it is to stay abreast of changes in employment and labor laws. This CHRS follow-up program has been designed exclusively to help Certified Human Resources Specialists to stay up to date on important employment and labor law changes, discuss hot topics in HR management, learn how to apply best practices, and continue to build your professional network. Attend Advanced CHRS and earn 14 continuing education credits towards CHRS recertification. Course Dates: August 9 AND 16.

Free e-Learning Resources

  • Mitigating Bias in Hiring e-Learning Course: Learn about best practices and procedures for reducing potential bias in the screening and interview process and obtain tools for increasing understanding and self-awareness.

  • elevateU: The free elevateU online learning platform for MSU employees has a variety of resources on human resources topics. After you login to elevateU, select The Library in the top navigation, then Business Skills from the dropdown menu, followed by Human Resources in the sidebar. Subcategories on this page include HR Certifications, Engagement and Retention, Diversity and much more.

    In particular, we recommend the SHRM-CP/SCP: HR Competencies series, which identifies and discusses the eight behavioral competencies critical for HR professionals. These include Ethical Practice, Leadership and Navigation, Business Acumen, Relationship Management, Communication, Consultation, Critical Evaluation, and Global and Cultural Effectiveness. 

CUPA-HR Free Courses

The CUPA-HR website has a variety of free courses available, including a CUPA-HR: Boot Camp self-paced e-learning course that offers a higher education perspective on essential HR topics. Find all the CUPA-HR courses on the Knowledge Center CUPA-HR website.

Not yet a CUPA-HR member? Select Register for any of the linked courses on the CUPA-HR site, then choose Create a New Account in the Sign In section. Be sure to choose Michigan State University as your Organization to enjoy free membership and course access.

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Upcoming Virtual Professional Development Courses

Published on by Megan MacGregorLeave a comment

Whether you’ve jumped into the new year with a list of goals to work on or need a little inspiration, HR Organization and Professional Development (OPD) has a variety of online, live courses to help you. Find a list of upcoming courses sorted by topic below. You’ll see some familiar course names now offered in a virtual format, alongside some newer courses like Managing Employees Remotely and The Power of Habit.

Communication

Customer Service

Human Resources

Leadership

Management

  • Managing Employees Remotely – January 20: Shifting to remote work has required changes in our perspectives and approaches to work, and successfully managing employees in this environment means strengthening new and different skills. Learn more about how to do just that in this new, one-hour virtual course.

Operations

  • Query Studio – January 27: Query Studio is an ad hoc reporting tool that can be used to produce queries against enterprise data (HR and Finance) as well as additional data that has been added to the dimensional models in MSU’s enterprise data warehouse.
  • Records Management and Retention at MSU – February 25: Learn the rules, regulations, and strategies to help manage university records. Class will cover both electronic and print documents.

Personal Development

You can find all the current virtual Organization and Professional Development courses on the HR website. Class enrollment is completed within the EBS Portal. Employees may use available educational assistance funds towards course fees (if any).

Upcoming Supervisor Professional Development Courses

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As a supervisor or manager, it’s important to keep learning in order to build a successful team and keep your employees engaged. Whether you’re brand new to your leadership role or an experienced supervisor looking for resources to develop your skills, we offer a variety of classes to help you grow in your career. Stay on track with your personal and professional goals by taking one of these upcoming courses.

Fundamentals of Supervision – March 11

Supervisors are a main determinant of overall performance, retention, and morale in an organization. This session will help participants with less than three years of supervisory experience learn fundamental skills to become a successful supervisor.

Communication Strategies for Supervisors – March 12

One of the non-negotiables for successful leadership is being an effective communicator. Many leaders believe they do communicate effectively, but what most leaders do not understand about communicating with their team is that it is not just about what is said. It is about how it is said, when it is said, to whom, did the receiver understand the message in the way it was intended, and on and on. To lead successfully today, leaders must be able to persuade, inspire, listen, articulate the big picture, and create teams of people who buy into and trust the sender.

Manager as Coach – March 12

Successful managers today understand the importance of coaching in the workplace to improve productivity, loyalty, and results. Instead of telling team members what to do, or just expecting them to perform, it is important to guide, discuss and encourage – in other words, coach.  This session is geared to help leaders understand the importance of being a successful coach.

Creating an Inclusive Environment – March 17

While this course is for everyone, it’s especially important for leaders to understand how to create an inclusive working environment. First, you will work to understand and identify categories associated with the various labels we apply to ourselves and others. Second, you’ll consider the ways in which these categories apply to you and how this shapes your interactions with others. Finally, you’ll then be introduced to an exercise designed to enhance self-awareness and bridge connections.

Supervisor Strategies for Performance Planning – March 17

As a supervisor, it is important that you sufficiently prepare and work collaboratively with your employees to make the Performance Planning portion of Performance Excellence successful. In this program, you can expect to learn strategies to link university and departmental priorities to the employee’s role, clarify expectations, write effective SMART goals, identify skill gaps, create a development plan and increase engagement in the process.

Leading Change – March 31

Effective leadership is imperative in times of transition, regardless of the nature or source of the changes you’re experiencing. This session will enable you to understand the phases of change, deal with resistance, build support for change, and communicate more effectively to reduce resistance and build change adeptness in staff members.