SYMMONDS & ASSOCIATES GROUP
"The Customer experience is the next competitive battleground"
Executive & Staff Development
Training employees is not one-size-fits-all. It is important to understand at the outset, that there is not one simple answer or cookie cutter to building perfect employee training programs.
Every organisation is different, procedures and management expectations are different, employees are different, competitors are doing different things and most importantly, customers responses will be different. So with that as a background, the tailoring of training programs, carefully crafted to suit individual circumstances is an important foundational element.
To ensure that your organisation is getting the most value for money and that the course of executive or employee development will in fact address a specific set of concerns, there are a number of characteristics or deliverables which should be part and parcel of the program. These include:
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Effective training / development program management.
Assessment of Needs.
Alignment of Training with actual company objectives.
Goals and metrics that measure effectiveness & post-training performance.
Leadership engagement.
Relevant learning content.
Creativity as a deliverable.
Participant engagement initiatives to encourage physical & mental participation in training.
Systematic post-training reinforcement
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We have all seen organisations send employees to be trained, fully expecting a silver bullet response. News Break!!! That's neither practical, nor real. To achieve a return on your training investment, which is so critical in today's world, the above elements must be integrated into your planning.
Suite of Training Services
A training program allows you to strengthen those skills that each employee needs to improve. Under the correct circumstances, the individual improvement, then translates to organisational improvement; in service excellence, productivity, wastage, engagement and the list goes on. Similarly, development programs have the ability to bring all employees to a higher level of performance. They create situations where, all targeted employees develop similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links and encourages employees to hold one-another accountable.
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Clear and specific standards should be the bedrock of training & development programs. Using Key Performance Indicators, which are easily measured, compiled and communicated, is essential to achieve the desirable scenario, where management and employees alike, understand their relative performance improvement or lack thereof, post a training and development intervention.
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Symmonds & Associates delivers a range of training & development programs / interventions, some of which are noted below. We will tailor programs to match your needs and invite you to get in touch with us.
Service Excellence Program
Service excellence is an organisational effort. This training program can be delivered to forward facing personnel, but is equally applicable to an entire business, because everything customers hear, see and experience affects their measure of service excellence. We build our training on an understanding of how you as business define excellence and then construct supporting mechanisms which act as goalposts, for participants to aspire toward and measure themselves against before training, during, after and well into the future. We have found that objective measures are transformational.
Strategic Planning Session
This program is designed to combine proven-by-practice methods with new insights and ideas from a wide range of current strategic thinking. Participants at C and B level management gain a wider perspective of the strategic planning process through breakout sessions, exercises and case applications. Opportunities are presented to bring organisation specific strategic dilemmas to this program and get direction on analytical and organizational approaches.
We examine what organizations are doing to stay relevant and competitive in this fast-paced world, and which ones are doing it best. We then strategize in order to understand the implications of every choice our clients can make.
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Employee Engagement Initiatives
Employee engagement continues to be the key factor in how to attract and retain the very best people for your business. Further, it’s proven that engaged employees are more productive, deliver great service and live your brand. The issue that management often grapples with is how to engage their teams in a constructive and sustainable manner. Key to this is the acknowledgement that Employee Engagement is not a session, but a strategy. Having an employee engagement strategy will increase your profitability and help secure the long-term success of your business. Employee engagement requires a two-way relationship between employer and employee. Engaging employers provide the conditions for employees to give of their best.
Leadership Skills
Great leaders are a magnet for top talent and serve to create the culture of performance your organization needs to accelerate results. We help you tailor a leadership development solution specific to your organization's unique strategy, culture, people, and business challenges.
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It is fair to say that leadership training is an essential tool for every level of management and delivers a range of key benefits, including:
Ability to formulate and implement effective leadership strategies.
Ability to positively influence your team's work productivity.
Helping to identify and improve personal leadership styles.
Contribute to the development of communication skills, mastering the art of negotiation, influence and conflict management.
Marketing Strategy
Covers the concepts and tools you need to successfully develop a marketing strategy for a business, product or service. Our program begins by ensuring participants understand consumers and the main market research techniques. Participants then learn how to correctly segment, target and position their product or service to achieve success. The program analyzes four critical areas in marketing and how they are utilized; Product, Price, Promotion and Place. Finally, participants get the opportunity to communicate the actions through a Business and Marketing Plan.
