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Virtual Research
Strategy Coaching
Executive Briefings
HR Capacity
Manager Training
Employee Engagement |
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Manager Training: The Road to "Culture Shift"
A flexible workplace is marked above all by flexible
leadership and management – it is not flexible
schedules alone. Each organization has to decide
where it wants its managers to end up on the
flexible skills continuum and how much time and
energy it will devote to that process. A greater
investment will yield a greater return. There are
many options in a comprehensive training regimen:
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Instructive Guidelines
We design all our FlexWise™ guidelines primarily as
instructional tools. Unlike many guides that are aimed
largely at employee users, ours
speak to both managers and employees. They offer rationale,
description and mechanics
for each option; they address the demonstrated pros and cons;
they offer best practices
and model cases of skilled, flexible managers at work.
Additional training elements can be
added.
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Online Trainings If the devil is in the
details, the undoing of FWAs occurs during
implementation. Our online training suite ranges from
orientation to the FlexWise™
system to comprehensive guides on how to excel at
telecommuting, remote work,
compressed schedules and job sharing. Just-in-time and always
accessible, these
virtual coaches can introduce and sustain best practices.
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Brief Training
Live, highly interactive and carefully designed
brief trainings for managers
offer a time- and cost-effective means for shifting managers’
attitudes toward flexible
schedules. Flexibility raises many concerns among managers.
They are rarely offset by
information and assertion alone. Discussion in 1.5 hour
sessions we design for HR delivery
can put skepticism to rest.
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Intensive Training Too many companies
describe – and bemoan – post-launch cultures
in which a significant population of managers remains closed
to any form of flexibility. We
have a strong track record of moving managers through direct
training in 3-4 hour intensive
sessions that turn hesitation into motivation.
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Mutual Respect Training More than a decade of
viewing flexibility as a “benefit” or
“program” has led to the belief that necessary changes for
so-called culture change are
shallow and easy. The belief that flexibility requires a
markedly different way of managing
and working suggests a more intensive skills training.
We work with clients to design a training mix that
will produce the desired outcome in management
behavior. Goals, resources and leadership commitment
will set the outer limits of the training
initiative. Common outcomes of any plan include: |
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Understanding both the potential business value and
employee satisfaction
of flex
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Familiarity with the guidelines and business-based
proposal process
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Comfort with and confidence in the decision-making
tools and procedures
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Recognition that business impact, not personal
reasons should drive
decisions
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The
ability to address the top 10 or more common
concerns and objections
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Fluency in applying flexible options to solution of
broader business problems
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Proficiency
in constructively monitoring and modifying flexible
arrangements |
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