• New Countywide Training Program
  
  
• Facilitative Leadership
  
  
• Performance Evaluation
  
  
• Workshop Info

Talent Development’s Planning for
FY 09 Trainings
PROGRESS UPDATE

The Need to Rebuild Countywide Training—Since FY ’03, when Multnomah County first began experiencing budget shortfalls, countywide training and organizational development suffered significant cuts. Recently, Multnomah County has recognized that it needs to restore and revitalize its countywide training program.

The 2007 Employee Survey found a strong correlation between job satisfaction and employee’s belief that they receive sufficient training, education, and mentoring. The 2008 report from the Vital Aging Task Force recommended ongoing investment in training and professional development as a key strategy to retain older workers as well as to recruit and retain the new generation of employees.

These charts indicate the County’s efforts over the past three complete fiscal years to rebuild its countywide training program, looking at the volume of offerings through three gauges: number of classes offered; number of employees who attended; and number of hours of classes.

Since January 2008, Talent Development began using Zoomerang Surveys to gauge employee satisfaction with countywide trainings, and the results have been very encouraging. Of 504 employees responding to the online survey, an overwhelming number agreed that they received training relevant to their current work and future professional development.

What Countywide Training Looks Like This Year—For FY ’09, the Board of County Commissioners approved funding to expand the training offerings that the Talent Development Team makes available to or coordinates for employees. Talent Development projects that for this fiscal year, the volume of training classes and employees served will continue to increase. In developing a plan for FY ’09, Talent Development used input from department Directors and HR and Training Managers, as well as recommendations from the 2007 Employee Survey and the Task Force on Vital Aging.†

Supervisory Trainings—The Talent Development Team hired a manager to revitalize its supervisory trainings and added or plans to add this year the following trainings to its existing menu of supervisory offerings:

• Supervisory Tools for the New Manager
• Hiring the Best
• Managing for PEAK Performance
• Emotional Intelligence for Managers
• Managing Cross-Culturally
• Managing Ethically
• Conflict Resolution in the Workplace
• Mentoring

Labor Related Trainings—In collaboration with Labor Relations, Talent Development is also helping to update several contract-related trainings, including: the Drug and Alcohol Policy Training for Managers; Effectively Responding to Grievances; Managing Substandard Performance; Managing Staff Who Telework; and Supervising in the Public Sector, among others.

† In determining which trainings to offer this year, Talent Development also took into account these values:

• A commitment to organizational learning;
• Balancing the training needs of both managers and employees;
• Tying everything offered to The Multnomah County Competency Model and ensuring a balance of trainings to address diverse competencies;
• Ensuring conceptual and philosophical consistency across trainings;
• Creating a menu of offerings that has long-term sustainability.