Stacey Holcomb is the Human Resources Director for the entire Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. The Tribe is a fully functioning government consisting of a police force, social services, health services, economic development, community and family services, and many other departments. The Tribe’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. Stacey noticed that whenever an issue arose with an employee, it was referred to HR but not followed up on by the manager. 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 supervisory training for managers across all departments of the organization. So far, more than 80 individuals have taken the training.
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 responsibilities, 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. There are fewer problems coming to the HR Department, and fewer problems in departments because supervisors now have new skills in employee motivation, communication, retention, managing change, and 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 large to reap the benefits of this training. “Every company has leaders,” explains CITEC Business Advisor, Sharon Van Auken. “So often we promote the person with the best technical skills without realizing there is a completely different set of skills needed to deal with the people-side of business. We designed the supervisory series to complement participants’ technical skills with the soft skills needed to make them successful leaders.”
“Levels One and Two Supervisory training should be mandatory,” Stacey Holcomb says. He is working to implement that for the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe.
Contact Steve Lockwood for more information.
315-777-0556
