Fair Work Ombudsman
Having delivered a number of technical and management training solutions over the years for the Fair Work Ombudsman, they approached The Consulting Space in 2011 and again in 2013 to assist them to deliver training to meet the changing focus of the Department. The Fair Work Ombudsman was shifting their focus from an inspection and compliance focus to an assisted voluntary compliance focus. Naturally the skills of the staff would need to evolve to meet this new approach.
Scoping the training involved analysing the outcomes that the organisation was looking for. Not only was there a requirement to focus on general communication skills, listening, dealing with emotion etc, but the difficulty appeared to be in moving clients to the next stage of achieving resolution, which meant training staff to use their influence to achieve an outcome.
We thoroughly reviewed the FWO’s Assisted Voluntary Resolution structure and policy and developed a training program that sat within the processes that participants already knew. We also engaged a member of the AVR team and the FWO L&D team to work with us on reality checking and testing content throughout the development process. Feedback on the program was excellent.
The FWO returned to us in 2013, asking for a refresh to the original training in terms of influencing and an addition to further shift staff’s mindsets in order to help them ‘close the deal’. This time, the workshop focused on giving staff courage to challenge clients, and also to look inwardly at what they were experiencing in their interactions with clients. The sessions were run by one of our Consultant Psychologists who has vast experience in working in difficult and challenging environments and who brought a sense of perspective and openness to the workshop.