Staff Development employees (left to right) Dorian Walker, office manager, and Barb Simon and Leeann Hotchkiss, administrative assistants, greet a participant arriving for a recent seminar in the IMU’s Richey Ballroom. Participation in Staff Development programs grew by 145 percent between 1995-96 and 2000-01.

Staying on top of things at work sometimes can be challenging.

Maybe you’re facing the task of expelling bad attitudes from your staff or you’re pulling your hair out trying to keep a handle on the e-mail that is clogging your in-box. Perhaps you’ve taken on new responsibilities in the office—or a new position altogether—and you could use some refreshment on certain University policies and procedures.

Try turning to Staff Development, a unit within WorkLife, for assistance. This office consists of a team of five employees working to make our jobs go smoother, to foster our career and personal development, and, ultimately, to help the University fulfill its goals.

Much of this is achieved through continuous course offerings, which are listed monthly in fyi. Most are work-related, last a few hours or less, and are free. Some require a fee and may last a full day or more. You can learn how to manage stress, improve your communication skills, get an overview of the University’s accounts payable system, brush up on your grammar, prepare for retirement, and more.

With new resources as well as strong support from administrators, Staff Development has seen a 145 percent increase in the number of participants between 1995-96 and 2000-01, a jump from 2,907 to 7,123. Maureen McCormick, director of Staff Development, says most of the courses offered are tied to the University’s strategic plan.

“Even when someone has been working in the same area of campus for a long time, chances are what he or she is doing may constantly be changing,” she explains. “For example, staff members continually need to learn or update computer software applications. Because of this, we will start working this fall with Skillsoft Corp., a web-based training vendor that offers more than 700 courses in 22 subject areas. Staff members will be able to access resources on a wide range of critical workplace issues, such as human resources, project management, marketing skills, strategic planning, team building, and many desktop software applications.”

When a campus need is identified, the team at Staff Development works together to find an available instructor to teach a class on the subject matter, arrange a time and place, advertise, and register participants. Although experts outside the University occasionally are used, most instructors are found on campus. For example, Diane Finnerty, diversity coordinator in the Office of Affirmative Action, has taught a variety of courses on diversity issues, and Cindy Seyfer, program associate in the Office of Student Financial Aid, has talked to employees about hiring students.

Nikole Mac, education specialist at Staff Development, is one of the facilitators for the popular Seven Habits of Highly Effective People training. The program stresses the importance of being proactive in life planning and goal setting and can be useful to staff in both their professional and personal lives.

A newer program at Staff Development is the Management Series, a comprehensive yearlong training program for campus supervisors and managers that results in certification of achievement. Participants complete a core curriculum as well as electives and may opt to have an adviser. McCormick and Mac worked with a number of University managers to develop the curriculum; some of the classes include Effective People Skills, Emotionally Intelligent Leadership, and Conflict Management.

“The program has been wonderfully received,” says Mac, who teaches three of the core courses. “Participants have stressed that one of the greatest benefits of the program is having the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with managers from across campus. We have more people applying than we can accommodate.”

Staff Development also occasionally offers lighter, fun classes over the lunch hour. For these Opportune Noon courses, Staff Development finds UI employees with special interests and asks them to prepare a short class. Emil Rinderspacher, senior associate director of admissions, is a certified master gardener through Iowa State University Extension and teaches several gardening courses each year. Mac used to work for Frontier Natural Products Co-Op and recently began taking that experience into the classroom with Making Scents of Aromatherapy.

In addition to course work, Staff Development organizes monthly staff orientation sessions, individual departmental training, special events programming, an internship program, the trainers network, and the staff tuition programs. The staff also maintains a large resource center.

“I think people would be surprised not only by the variety of our programming but also by the quality and accessibility of our resource center,” McCormick says. “Employees can call to check out a book on any number of issues and we will send it to them. This service is free of charge.”

Having an internal office devoted to professional development, she says, helps ensure that specific University needs will continually be met.

“The ultimate benefit, though, is to be able to allow staff members to grow and develop in the workplace. We constantly need to be changing to be effective in our work.”

Current course listings as well as information on the resource center are available on the Staff Development web site, www.uiowa.edu/~fusstfdv. All faculty and staff members are welcome to register.

Article by Sara Epstein