Learning and Development Workshops

Challenge Consulting's Professional Learning and Development Workshops, presented by our entertaining and experienced facilitator, will give participants skills and knowledge vital to ensuring success in today's highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment.

The Workshops

Interview Skills for Successul Hiring

   Learn all the latest, proven and practical skills to become a good interviewer ...

Building Better Employee Performance

   Manage performance effectively and reduce staff turnover ...

Effective Supervision

   A practical guide to maximise leadership skills and team effectiveness ...

Building Better Customer Relationships

   How to make your customers a real business asset ...

Workshop Feedback

"I used the interview skills material and advice in interviews the very next day!"

"This workshop will help us ensure we ask the right question to get the right people to fit our corporate culture."

"The workshops are very topical - participants do not get bogged down in theory."

"I can't believe I have actually interviewed people without these core skills!"

"Attending this workshop helped erase self-doubt regarding my management skills."

"I learned so many useful, practical skills that I will be able to apply every day in my job."

"This was the most professionally-presented workshop I have ever been to!"

Interview Skills for Successful Hiring

Who should attend this workshop?

This HALF-day workshop is designed for human resources staff, team leaders, supervisors and new managers who would like to learn or enhance their recruitment interviewing skills. In a competitive employment market the interview is a make or break situation for attracting good candidates to work for your organisation.

This interactive and practical workshop provides you with all the questioning and probing techniques to give you the confidence that you are hiring the best candidates to fit into your culture.

Leave the theory behind and learn all the latest, proven and practical skills to become a good interviewer.

Key learning outcomes:

 What is the reality of the current employment market? We will look at the factors influencing the current candidate shortage and how these market conditions affect your interviewing and hiring practices. We will explore recruitment best practice to help you overcome the candidate shortage.

Character and Capabilities vs Job Knowledge and Skills. What makes a good candidate and where do you place the most emphasis in the interview.

Understand the importance of preparation prior to the interview. Candidates take only 4 seconds to form an impression and only 40 seconds to form a lasting impression of you and your organisation. Here we will look at what preparation you need undertake to insure that you make a GREAT impression.

Learn how to keep out of court by being aware of anti-discrimination laws as they relate to recruitment practices. You will learn which types of questions are illegal (due to Privacy and Anti-Discrimination legislation). Understand what is direct and indirect discrimination and learn that by innocently asking the wrong question you could end up in court.

The Do’s and Don’t’s of reference checking. Conducting reference checking is essential to acquiring the best new talent for your organisation. A quality and timely reference check reveals current or potential star performers. We will look at the best ways to maximise the information gathering process and reveal some “danger signs” along the way.

Learn the different types of questioning techniques and be able to use competency based or behavioural questioning to ensure the right organisational fit. Behaviour-based interviewing is a standard interviewing approach that looks at PAST behaviour as the best predictor of FUTURE performance. Research has shown that behavioural-based interviewing is more than 70% more effective than traditional old style questioning at predicting how candidates are likely to perform in the future.

Get  beyond the “veneer responses” in the interview. The secret of skilful interviewing lies in knowing when and how to ask the right questions to drill down to get the truth. You will learn how use subtle probing techniques to clarify some typical “dodgy” responses.

Recognise the importance of being able to present the selling features of your organisation to encourage the right candidate to accept your offer. In every recruitment interview your candidate is actually interviewing you and your organisation. We will explore some of the key features of your organisation and then appreciate how they can be of benefit to your candidates.  You will learn how to “sell” the benefits to win the best candidates.

Understand and  follow  the seven steps of a structured interview to maintain and control the flow of information. You will receive an interview framework that will give you a timely, focused, conversational, two-way communication which will allow you to gather the required information from the candidate to make the right hiring decision.

Workshop Dates

Choose your preferred date:

4th June - FULL

6th August - FULL

17th September - OPEN

Workshop Venue

The Boardroom

Challenge Consulting

Level 3, 280 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Workshop Fee

$275 + GST - includes all workshop materials

To Register

Please email Elizabeth Varley on evarley@chall.com.au

or contact Elizabeth on

(02) 9221 6422 for more information.

Building Better Employee Performance

Using Job Descriptions, Goals, Performance Reviews and Development Plans as Tools

Who should attend this workshop?

This half-day workshop is designed for team leaders, supervisors and new managers who would like to learn or enhance the skills required to manage performance effectively. It provides a comprehensive introduction to the elements of an integrated performance management programme, as well as practical tools to turn the theory to reality.

Participants will learn:

 Performance management and its objectives. The use of systematic methods to assess and improve employee outcomes.

The process of quantifying, measuring, correcting and reporting on performance. You will learn about:

  - the good,

  - the bad, and

  - the ugly practices in performance management.

That retaining the right people is every manager’s responsibility. Participants will gain an appreciation that the time and financial cost of letting experienced staff go costs organisations millions of dollars every year.

 The management tools that make up an effective performance management system and how to use them.

The skills and techniques required to effectively manage performance, and some practical models to apply. We will look in detail at skills and techniques and allow you to practice the models.

How to manage performance by setting meaningful and manageable goals. Goals which integrate performance measures and benchmarks in order to achieve optimal employee and productivity outcomes.

How to prepare and conduct performance reviews that really work. The importance of preparation, collection of data and evidence in order to conduct a review that has real “meat” and meaning. No more bland, meaningless commentary or “just going through the motions”.

How to manage difficult people and situations during the performance review - emotional, timid, angry, threatened, unresponsive, etc. How to be prepared, what questions to ask, and how to defuse difficult situations.

The seven steps to an effective performance management interview. We will develop a roadmap for you to follow, identifying the signposts to success.

The importance of making development plans an integral part of the process. Performance management has to be about development, growth and improvement for the individual as well as evaluating past performance. You’ll learn how to manage this important component well.

Workshop Dates

Choose your preferred date:

4th June - FULL

6th August - FULL

Workshop Venue

The Boardroom

Challenge Consulting

Level 3, 280 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Workshop Fee

$275 + GST - includes all workshop materials

To Register

Please email Elizabeth Varley on evarley@chall.com.au

or contact Elizabeth on

(02) 9221 6422 for more information.

Effective Supervision

Who should attend this workshop?

This one-day workshop is a hands-on learning experience for all supervisors, managers and team leaders, regardless of years of experience. You will learn to confidently manage your staff and your work load by using a range of practical and useful tools.

What you will learn:

The role of the supervisor in staff retention

   - What does staff turnover cost your company?

   - What are the common supervision pitfalls and how do you avoid

     them?

   - What are the five key rules of good supervision?

Communicating with your team effectively

   - What is active listening?

   - What are the right questioning techniques to use, and when

     should you use them?

   - What’s the difference between orders, instructions, requests

     and suggestions, and when should you use each?

Managing generational differences in the workplace 

   - What have been the key influences for each working generation?

   - How can you effectively engage with the new generation of

     employees?

Managing and resolving conflict

   - What constitutes conflict?

   - Does it exist in your workplace and what is its cost?

   - How can you resolve conflict using the Win/Win technique?

Managing interpersonal relationships

   - How important are interpersonal relationships at work?

   - When is it appropriate to modify your behaviour?

   - What are the different personality types and how do you use this

     understanding to promote more effective teamwork?

Managing your time

   - What are the top five time wasters at work?

   - What strategies can you adopt to overcome them?

Effective delegation

   - What is the five step model for effective delegation?

   - What are the benefits of delegating - to you, to your employees,

     and to your company?

Problem solving and decision making

   - Practice simple, effective and transferable techniques

The effective use of goals

   - What are goals and how do you set them?

   - How do you help team members to set their own goals?

   - How do you monitor progress towards goals?

Understanding your responsibility to identify and manage

   common performance constraints in the workplace

   - What are the most common constraints?

   - To what extent do they exist in your workplace?

   - What should you be doing to address them?

Providing constructive feedback

   - What is constructive feedback?

   - When and how should it be given?

To sum up - a health checklist for your team

   - What are the ten key criteria of a healthy team?

   - How does your team rate?

Workshop Dates

13th Aug - 8.30am to 5.00pm

Workshop Venue

The Boardroom

Challenge Consulting

Level 3, 280 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Workshop Fee

$450 + GST - includes all workshop materials + lunch

To Register

Please email Elizabeth Varley on evarley@chall.com.au

or contact Elizabeth on

(02) 9221 6422 for more information.

Building Better Customer Relationships

Who should attend this workshop?

Whether you are delivering a service or a product to internal or external customers the need to build better customer relationships is vital to the success of your organisation.

This one-day workshop is designed for all levels of staff - Managers, Supervisors, Team Leaders and Team Members - who deal with clients and customers:

What you will learn:

 Understanding your customers’ needs and expectations

   - Who are the key players and what are their roles?

   - What is your relationship with the key players?

   - How much do you really know about the key players?

   - How do you improve you customers’ experiences?

 Where “making sales” ends and “customer service” begins

   - Customer service and the risks to your business relationship

   - Keeping the business: the six types of customer contacts you   

     need to know

   - What "value-added" really means

   - How to add mutual value to the customer relationship

 Understand “networking” and really make it work

   - How can you build and retain valuable customer-centric

     networks?

   - How can you establish connections and relationships that really

     last?

   - How can you gain referrals and recommendations when and  

     where you need them?

 Retaining the customers you want

   - What is a GOOD customer or a BAD customer?

   - Which customers do you really want to keep?

   - How easy is it for your customers to leave you?

   - How can you effectively engage with your customers?

   - How can you build real protection around valuable customers?

 Ensuring customer profitability

   - The benefits of customer retention

   - Learn the building blocks of great customer engagement

   - How do you measure customer profitability?

   - What's the difference between customer obsession and

     customer focus?

 Surveying customers - “the feedback loop”

   - What you need to know from and about your customers

   - How often should you be asking the questions?

   - What tools can you use to gather the information?

   - What should you be doing with the information?

 Managing customer expectations

   - How do you balance assertiveness and control in the

     relationship?

   - How do you deal with customer dissatisfaction?

   - What can you do if your customer is unreasonable?

   - How can you use the Win-Win approach to resolve customer

     conflict?

PLUS!  

Discover THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE

Workshop Dates

20th Aug - 8.30am to 5.00pm

Workshop Venue

The Boardroom

Challenge Consulting

Level 3, 280 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

Workshop Fee

$450 + GST - includes all workshop materials + lunch

To Register

Please email Elizabeth Varley on evarley@chall.com.au

or contact Elizabeth on

(02) 9221 6422 for more information.