This summer, the CEO of Gallup, Jim Clifton, indicated that 70 percent of American workers are disengaged at work as a direct result of poor management and leadership. The Workforce Training Series of Albany is a response to the growing need for strategic staff development in order to position the Capital Region as a workforce engine for the future and retain the talent the area has today.
The Workforce Training Series will be holding four separate, day-long workshops in the summer months to help develop local managerial talent and provide a cost-effective way to send staff to workshops.
Starting on Tuesday, Aug. 27, the first workshop will be “Building Accountability Within Your Workers.” The second workshop, on Thursday, Aug. 29, will be “Motivating and Retaining Staff Without Money,” followed by “Change Management: Dealing With Constant Change In Chaotic Times” on Tuesday, Sept. 3.
On Thursday, Sept. 5, the final workshop will be “Handling Workplace Conflict and Difficult People.” Each session costs $149, but if purchasing a seat in all four sessions, the price drops to $125 per seat.
Designed to be practical and affordable training seminars to the Capital Region, The New Directions Group, in collaboration with Braathe Enterprises and Manfred Real Estate Learning Center, developed the Workforce Training Series of Albany using input and guidance from the area’s top employers and associations.
“Management and leadership are at a critical juncture,” stated Matthew Harrington, director of business development at The New Directions Group. “As the Gallup poll recently indicated many employees are disengaged because they have an ineffective boss, manager or leader. We also know management and leadership is fatigued and tired from years of a recession, cuts, limited resources and being asked to do more with less.”
Harrington added, “We surveyed local employers and asked what was the most important ‘soft skills’ that we could address before the summer ended. Accountability, motivation, change and conflict were topics that rose to the top from the group. That’s how we chose the first four workshops to offer and we hope to offer more in the future if we see good engagement from the community.”
Harrington said current talent pipelines are producing fewer potential leaders and managers, with only 4 percent of organizations claiming the U.S. has a sufficient pipeline to meet current and future needs.
“That’s astounding,” he noted. “That means 96% of organizations don’t have a sufficient pipeline or plan. I think we all see the potential that the Capital Region has with the nanotech and Tech Valley opportunities moving in, and yet we’re running a leadership-deficit as the poll indicated. It’s getting tougher to retain the talent we do have here.”
He said he hoped the training series can help move the idea of workforce and leadership development away from a “wish list” for organizations and into an action step for them to take.
The New Directions Group, the primary trainers of the series, is a global employee development firm having trained for over 28 years in organizations like Alcoa, Coca-Cola, Lockheed Martin, Sanofi Pasteur, Delta Faucet, SI Group and the U.S. Navy.
Recently, two trainers from the group published “Survival of the Hive: 7 Leadership Lessons from a Beehive” through Author House publishing. The group is also well-known for having published three books in the Team-Building Tool Kit series, and having a fourth book with QPC’s Memory Jogger series in process.
All sessions will be held at Manfred Real Estate Learning Center at 920 Albany-Shaker Road in Latham. Workshops will begin at 8:30 a.m. and finish at 4 p.m.
To register or to learn more visit: www.newdirectionsconsulting.com/products or call 800-730-3631.