Manage People
This learning series is designed to help managers effectively supervise their employees. Courses support supervisors in developing skills to facilitate the Employment Life Cycle and to implement strategy and structure among their direct reports. Learners will gain tools and techniques for planning and holding customized conversations that lead to unit success. Learning outcomes support several of UVic’s competencies and Strategic Plan priorities.
Download the Employee Learning Program Series Overview
Manage People Series Snapshot (7 core courses):
Performance and Development Conversations (PDC): Engage in rewarding performance conversations that provide employees with strengths-based performance development feedback.
Labour Relations Best Practices for Supervisors: Learn how Collective Agreements and other regulations impact the supervision of employees at UVic.
Orientating Your New Employees: Set your new employee up for success by connecting them with your team and the broader UVic community.
Moment of Choice Coaching: Learn coaching skills to have conversations that support the people on your team to reach their goals.
Recognize Employees: Build a culture of recognition that encourages your employees to do their best.
Plan & Delegate Work: Effectively delegate work to others.
Coaching Others Through Conflict: Develop others to dialogue through their differences.
There are no electives for this series. We invite series learners to carry out four hours of implementation and practice.
Intended Audience
This content is specifically designed for UVic employees who are people leaders or may function as hiring managers. Those with personal and professional development goals pertaining to supervision, human resources, and improving unit effectiveness may have a particular interest.
Detailed Course Descriptions
Performance & Development Conversations (PDC): Engage in rewarding performance conversations that provide employees with strengths-based performance development feedback.
Having rewarding performance conversations with your employees takes planning, skill and confidence. Engaging in these conversations effectively has many benefits for you as a supervisor, the people on your team, and the entire organization.
In this course, you will be introduced to UVic's Performance and Development Cycle and use strategies and tools to draw upon to support your employees through each of the three steps in the cycle. Strategies explored will include setting meaningful goals, adopting a coaching/appreciative mindset, giving effective feedback, and responding to defensiveness.
This is an essential course to have in your "supervisor's toolkit" to contribute to the growth of your employees, your team, and the organization.
Learning Objectives
- Explain your role and responsibilities at UVic in supporting the Performance and Development Cycle with your employees
- Apply good goal-setting process to help employees create meaningful goals
- Use communication tools and strategies in performance conversations to support employee development
- Identify tools and resources that support your role and your employees (PDC form and handouts), and where to find them
Labour Relations Best Practices for Supervisors: Learn how Collective Agreements and other regulations impact the supervision of employees at UVic.
Supervisory responsibilities are more complex when staff are members of a bargaining unit such as CUPE or the PEA at UVic. The employment relationship is governed by legislation and workplace collective agreements that create a different environment than in non-union workplaces. Unions play a role in negotiating terms and conditions of employment and represent employees in issues relating to those provisions. Supervisors must be aware of how collective agreements impact day to day decisions and interactions with employees, as well ask key processes and requirements for addressing infrequent, but serious employee issues. This course will help supervisors and managers better understand their responsibilities in this unique employment relationship.
Learning Objectives
- Explain the impact of collective agreements and select legislation on the employment relationship at UVic
- In your role as a supervisor, apply collective agreement provisions related to common employee issues, requests, and situations in the workplace
- Distinguish between your responsibilities as a supervisor and the need to access professional HR support to effectively address and respond to labour relations issues
Orienting Your New Employees: Set your new employee up for success by connecting them with your team and the broader UVic community.
Once you’ve worked with Human Resources to navigate the recruitment and hiring process, the work of departmental orientation truly begins. This course will provide you with information and resources to understand your responsibility to help your employee feel connected in terms of structure, relationships, and purpose.
Learning Objectives
- Appreciate the connection between your early efforts as a supervisor and ongoing employee engagement
- Apply the tools and resources available to set your employees up for success
- Customize and document your departmental orientation experience for repeated use within your team
- Facilitate relational and strategic connections for your employee within their team, department, and larger UVic community
Moment of Choice Coaching: Learn coaching skills to have conversations that support the people on your team to reach their goals.
Leading a team of people is not just about getting the work done effectively, it's about helping employees meet their goals and aspirations through their work. Using coaching skills as a manager or supervisor is an essential part of your role, and will enable you to have meaningful conversations with your employees that will help you meet your goals as well as helping them meet theirs.
In this workshop, you will learn about the differences between three different types of conversations that you could use to support your team members, and how to select the appropriate approach based on the situation at hand. We will discuss and practice coaching for performance, coaching with expertise and coaching for potential, with an emphasis on coaching for potential as a way to help employees identify and reach their goals. You will leave the workshop with a tool to support you in your coaching conversations, and know how and when to use it effectively with your team.
Learning Objectives
- Distinguish between the three different types of coaching conversations
- Select the appropriate approach for coaching based on employee needs
- Use the GROWS coaching model to have coaching conversations with your employees that support them to reach their potential
Recognize Employees: Build a culture of recognition that encourages your employees to do their best.
Knowing how and when to recognize people on your team is an essential part of successful employee engagement. Recognition is a varied and ongoing process that can involve both formal and informal activities. Many of these are easy to implement on a frequent basis with your team.
In this workshop, we will discuss the various forms of recognition and how to implement them. We will review the key principles of recognition along with the guidelines and policies to follow when rewarding employees. This workshop will also explore the different languages of appreciation and will examine the individual recognition preferences that can co-exist within a team. We’ll give you the opportunity to assess your own habits when it comes to recognizing your team and help you develop a regular recognition practice.
Come prepared for an interactive session using UVic's Recognition Toolkit that will get your ideas flowing on how to increase your team morale, improve engagement, and promote long-term success through recognition and appreciation.
Learning Objectives
- Appreciate the role recognition plays in employee engagement and use the UVic principles to create a culture of recognition on your team
- Access tools and resources to identify ways to recognize the unique members of your team, that are sincere and relevant
- Evaluate your own recognition habits and develop timely and meaningful tools and techniques to improve your employee recognition practices
Plan & Delegate Work: Effectively delegate work to others.
Effectively delegating work to others is part of every leader’s role, whether you formally supervise or you lead through influence on project teams, committees or working groups. Delegation is a skill that can be used to appropriately distribute work to others for the benefit of the whole team, and it allows you as a leader to focus on more strategic activities. In this course you will identify the type of work that can appropriately be delegated, distinguish between different levels of delegation and oversight, and use a delegation checklist to clearly communicate expectations and ensure the employee has what they need to be successful. There are many benefits to increasing your delegation skills, both for your own success and for the success of your team.
Learning Objectives
- Assess the benefits of delegating work in your team context
- Identify work that can appropriately be delegated in your current work environment
- Apply the model of delegation to determine the level of oversight and accountability for different circumstances
- Follow the steps of delegation to assign work, clarify expectations and support success
Coaching Others Through Conflict: Develop others to dialogue through their differences.
Leaders regularly find themselves amidst conflict between staff members. This can feel difficult and stressful, particularly if their own conflict style leans toward avoidance of difficult conversations. This course helps leaders build confidence and clarity in their role as coaches by sharing tools, resources, and opportunities to practice in a neutral setting. This session encourages leaders to embrace their role as a coach when conflict arises. Coaching individuals to lean into the discomfort and engage as directly as possible to get it before it grows will empower the individuals to co-create the best possible outcome before things escalate.
Learning Objectives
- Bolster courage and sense of responsibility to coach others through conflict.
- Practice the skill of coaching others through conflict using the Experience Cube.
- Apply an assessment of the context in which conflict situations are taking place to make choices about next steps.
- Access support people, resources, skills practice, learning opportunities and models that support a healthy approach to conflict.
Implementation & Practice (Learning in Action)
Get four hours of credit for completing and reflecting on some of the various supervisory conversations and tasks associated with effective management.