Training Supervisors

Neferlaw · October 2003

We are a non-profit law firm serving the poor. We are divided into Units and each Unit is headed by a Managing Attorney, who also carries a case load. We have no budget for training materials, speakers or sending people to trainings on what it means to supervise. There is a perception among employees that some people are not treated the same as others, and I attribute this to a lack of supervisory skills of many of our Managing Attorneys. Do any of you know of any web sites or have any tips for training supervisors? I am an attorney, so the legal issues are easy, but the nuts and bolts of supervising are probably not my strength at this point in my career as a Human Resources Director. I would appreciate any help you all can give. Have a great day!

Tapatio · October 2003

You can go to any search engine on your internet service, type in the words "supervisory training," and you will get some articles, but probably not very substantive. Your best bet, since you don't have a budget, is for you to go to your main public library. They should certainly have an ample array of books and magazines dealing with supervisory training and/or management development. In addition, most large libraries also have videos on supervisory and/or management training, all of which you should be able to check out for free. Based upon what you find, you could then develop your own training program and implement it, making it a requirement for all managing attorneys. When I have done supervisory training in the past, I usually have spread it in several weekly 2-hour sessions, or a few 4 hour sessions to cover a program. Once I have developed my program, I prepare the appropriate handouts, overheads or Powerpoint presentations, to convey the information to my trainees. It takes a certain amount of skill and time to do this, and the more you do it, the better you become on it. Another possibility is for you to check with the AARP, and see if they have any retired Training professionals who might be able to assist you. Since you are non-profit organization, I would imagine that a retired Trainer would not mind helping you for free.

marc · October 2003

Don't you have a professional obligation to attend a certain number of continuing education hours every year? I ask this because if that is true, your professional staff could utilize management training towards those requirements - it may help with your budget crunch. Internet searches will find you more sites and topics. Secondly, there are numerous topical training materials on sites such as this one. I work for a non-profit organization also. A large part of our clientele are determined based on income qualifiers. One of our approaches includes a series of 'brown bag seminars' conducted in house. The staff bring their own lunches and we select appropriate topics such as hiring, interviewing, orientation, dealing with difficult people, evaluations, harassment, etc, etc - you get the idea. We recruit the trainers in house if any of our staff have an expertise or talent with the topic and have them put on a 1 1/2 hour session with handouts, discussions, power point presentations - whatever they feel best addresses the topic. If we do not have the expertise in house, we shamelessly recruit volunteers from the community that do have the expertise. Recruit from your network, chamber of commerce, etc.

Good luck.

JM in ATL · October 2003

[url]www.hrtools.com[/url]

They have a weekly email (free) that they can send to your supervisors on certain issues. Some topics are three weeks long, some 5 or more. I did it a while ago, collected some good information. I recommend you check them out and look for it on that site.

rad · October 2003

I just checked that site out, its great, lots of information.

Cheryl S SPHR · October 2003

I found this great book recently on the American Management's web site -- you can download it in electronic form. It is called The Rookie Manager. It looked like a wonderful resource for basics on supervisory/management topics. I think you could create a lot of training from this one book. The site is amanet.org

Another resource I use for "lunch and learn" type topics (1/2 to 1 hour of training) is BLR's (Business and Legal Reports, Inc. -- blr.com) 10-Minute HR Trainer. It is a three-ring binder complete with trainer's outline, handouts for participants, and a quiz for each topic. I did have to buy this for around $300 and pay an annual renewal fee. It is well worth it, though.

Lola815 · October 2003

I use the 10-minute HR Trainer also and I have found it to be very usefull.

Training Supervisors

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