Stacey Holcomb is the Human Resources Director for the entire Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. The Tribe is a fully functioning government consisting of their own police force, social services, health services, economic development, community and family services and many other departments, so Stacey's HR Department provides services for up to 780 employees at any given time.
Many of the Tribe's departments have several layers of management and Stacey noticed that whenever there was any kind of issue with an employee, it was being referred to HR and forgotten about. The departments did not have the tools they needed to address employee concerns in a professional and consistent way. In 2016 he began strongly recommending CITEC's Supervisor Certification series for managers across all of the departments of the organization. So far more than 80 individuals have begun the series.
Participation continues to grow each time the classes are offered because it is making a difference. "Professionals learn the skills of their trade; they are great nurses, lawyers, police officers ...etc, but they don't learn how to manage people necessarily. They don't learn leadership, or even their legal responsiblities, at school," Stacey explains. "The Supervisor Series gives us consistent knowledge across the organization about how to handle problems, how to develop resources within departments like manuals and policies, and how to communicate effectively."
The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe has seen results. Fewer problems coming to the HR Department; fewer problems up and down the line because supervisor now have new skills in employee motivation, communication, retention, managing change, and a lot more. By involving so many participants, the knowledge is becoming institutionalized in a positive feedback loop throughout the organization.
An organization doesn't have to be huge to reap the benfits of this training, however. "Every company has leaders," explains CITEC Business Advisor Sharon Van Auken. "So often we promote the person with the best technicals skills without realizing there is a completely different set of skills needed to deal wtih the people side of the job. The we scratch our heads as to why the person we promoted isn't being as successful as we thought they would be. At CITEC we designed this program to complement their technical skills with the soft skills they need to make them successful leaders."
"Levels One and Two Supervisory training should be mandatory," Stacey says. He is working to make that the case for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe.
Contact Steve Lockwood for more information.
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