Client case studies

Defra

A bespoke training programme for Defra, to engender partnership working between secretarial staff and their managers.

The challenge

Within Defra, the Secretaries’ Executive Forum is a peer group of administrative and secretarial staff which is a vehicle for discussion, debate and action around career issues. As with many organisations, the administrative and secretarial personnel felt that they didn’t have the same opportunities as others for career progression; one of the key career issues highlighted by the forum was the need for further training and development. Carole Bowey is a member of the forum: “We felt that the secretarial team hadn’t really been offered the kind of training which could benefit both us and Defra.” The forum approached Defra’s training department, which recommended the soft skills division of Xpertise.

The solution

Although Xpertise offers public courses which were close to the needs of the forum, they felt that something tailored to their needs would be far more effective. Xpertise agreed, and discussed the forum’s training requirements in depth, to fully understand their goals and how they might best be met. Xpertise proposed a new course, called ‘Working in Partnership with your Manager’.

The aim of the course was to develop those skills which secretaries need in order to become truly valuable partners to their managers. A key part of this is for secretarial and administrative staff to develop a stronger understanding of the concepts of partnership, and the goals within a partnership, enabling the two parties to work together as a far stronger team. The course also targeted the development of the forum’s influencing, problem-solving, conflict-resolution, assertiveness and communication skills.

The first step was to deliver the course to the forum’s executive committee. It soon became apparent that the course had hit the mark. According to Carole Bowey, “It wasn’t like being on a course – it was very enjoyable. It never became boring and the time really flew! While each of those attending needed to get different things from the course, we all felt that our needs had been met.”

Not only did the course provide the right skills, it was very motivational and really helped the forum to gel better as a team.

One of those attending the course, Pauline Higgs, felt that it made a real difference to the way that she works: “I have to say that this was the best course I have ever been on; I thoroughly enjoyed the whole two days. The trainer was excellent.”

The course certainly impressed the executive committee – and has now been rolled out to around seventy other members of the forum.