Supervisory Skills

Description

eCornell has worked hand-in-hand with Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations to adapt its renowned Supervisory Skills Certificate for convenient online delivery. This series of 11 courses provides supervisors and managers from entry level to mid-level with the skills and competencies they need to manage their time, communicate effectively, motivate their employees, resolve workplace confrontations, prevent and address inappropriate workplace behavior, conduct legal and unbiased employee interviews, and manage the performance of their direct reports.

Whether taken individually to develop or sharpen specific skills or collectively in pursuit of the certificate, these courses will help supervisors and managers become more efficient, more effective, and better able to fulfill their workplace responsibilities. In addition, students who earn the full certificate possess a recognized and highly-regarded credential to give them the competitive edge they are seeking while contributing greater value to their organization.

Who Should Enroll in This Certificate?

The courses comprising the Supervisory Skills Certificate are designed for shift supervisors, entry-level managers and supervisors up to mid-level managers seeking an opportunity to obtain a richer, deeper understanding of supervisory and management skills.

Enrollment

To register, contact an Enrollment Counselor at info@ecornell.com or 1-866-326-7635 (+1-607-330-3200 from outside the United States).

Certificate programs are eligible for eCornell Payment Plans. Discounts are available for military personnel, veterans, and Cornell University Alumni. eCornell programs are not eligible for financial aid or federal Pell Grants. Contact an enrollment counselor for more information.

Courses in this Certificate

• Selection Requirements and Communications Skills for Interviewing
  • Making the wrong hiring choices is costly and time consuming for organizations of all sizes. An effective way for businesses to identify the best candidates for a position is through a structured, job-focused interviewing process, where interviewers have effective interviewing skills and understand the legal aspects of employment practices. In this interactive, skill-based course, participants learn how to structure an interview using the Results-based Selection Requirements (RSR) process.

    This model eliminates bias and stereotyping of job candidates, examines compliance with employment laws, and focuses on the communication and listening skills required for effective interviewing.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Communication Skills for Interviewing
    • Determining your communication style and applying it productively during the interview process
    • Three primary communication styles and the strengths of each
    • Increasing the degree to which you are perceived as approachable to elicit more candid responses from candidates
    • Nonverbal, verbal, and interpretive dimensions of listening
    • Using Job Results to Develop Selection Requirements
    • Why develop Results-based Selection Requirements (RSRs)
    • Preparing a Results-based Selection Requirements form

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing the course, participants will be able to:

    • Develop and demonstrate effective, unbiased interviewing techniques
    • Use advanced listening skills
    • Learn how approachability and openness can elicit candid responses from job candidates
    • Recognize and ensure compliance with applicable employment processes
    • Design and implement a system of Results-based Selection Requirements as a foundation for the interview process
    
    
• Legal and Unbiased Interviewing and Selection
  • In a competitive global economy it is essential for all organizations to conduct job interviews that result in the selection of the most capable and competent candidates available. Effective and efficient interviewing requires advanced preparation and a structured approach. In addition to carefully constructing job-related questions, interviewers must ensure compliance with applicable laws and must also make certain that their assessments and recommendations remain unbiased.

    In this interactive, skill-based course, participants will learn how to prepare for job interviews, create a positive interviewing environment, conduct legal and unbiased interviews, and identify the best-qualified candidate for the position.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Legal and Unbiased Interviewing
    • Problematic and inappropriate questions, statements, and behaviors, and the specific law(s) to which they relate
    • Additional resources for questions about specific employment laws
    • Avoiding legal problems prior to and during the interview and selection process
    • Societal, organizational, and individual biases and how they can affect the assessment of candidates
    • Interviewing and Selecting Candidates
    • Effective questioning techniques to use when interviewing
    • Effective note-taking techniques
    • Selecting effective questions that are consistent with the Results-based Selection Requirements (RSR) form
    • The role of the resume in the interview process
    • Creating an interview environment that is conducive to the exchange of information
    • Watching for verbal and nonverbal cues
    • When and how to ask probing follow-up questions during the interview
    • Effective ways to close interviews, and strategies for dealing with challenges that candidates may present at the end of the interview
    • Warning signs during the interview/selection process
    • The role and importance of checking references
    • Communicating with candidates to whom offers of employment are, and are not, extended
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Ensure compliance with applicable employment laws
    • Identify problematic and inappropriate questions, statements, and behaviors that can occur in an interview
    • Proactively avoid legal problems throughout the interview process
    • Avoid bias and stereotypes in order to accurately assess a candidate
    • Develop and carry out highly effective, efficient, unbiased interviews using a Results-based Selection Requirements (RSR) process
    • Objectively compare candidates and select the best-qualified candidates for their organization
    
    
• Overcoming Barriers to Successful Management
  • Successful organizations use the creative energy of their employees in seeking solutions to organizational problems. They realize that those individuals involved in the actual work are in the best position to define systemic and process weaknesses and identify opportunities for improvement.

    In this course, participants learn to increase productivity, creativity, and efficiency by involving their employees in a continuous improvement process that encourages improved communication and collaboration. Participants will also explore personal paradigms or patterns of thought and behavior that prevent them from achieving positive change and success.

    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • Paradigms and Change
    • Paradigms and day-to-day challenges in the workplace
    • Evaluating paradigms as useful or in need of change
    • Recognizing "good" versus "bad" change Problem-solving techniques Involving employees in process changes
    • Communication and Listening
    • Barriers to communication
    • Differing communication styles as barriers to getting work done
    • Clear communication and use of terminology to avoid misunderstandings
    • Approachability, trust, and effective communication
    • Attitudes and behaviors that are essential to clear communication
    • Active listening techniques
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing the course, participants will be able to:

    • Identify personal and professional paradigms and understand how shifts in thinking can improve performance
    • Analyze when organizational change is beneficial and when it should be avoided
    • Involve employees in problem solving and decision making
    • Assess personal communication styles toward improved listening skills and approachability
    
    
• Leading People to Higher Performance

  • An improperly motivated workforce always results in a less efficient, less productive, and less profitable organization. The goals of individuals must be aligned with the goals of the organization in order to thrive.

    In this course, participants will examine leadership styles that are exhibited by highly successful managers. They will explore techniques for aligning individual employee motivators with an organization's goals and interests. Participants will also learn how to create a motivated, team-oriented, and productive workforce and how to appropriately and positively confront problems and resolve conflict.

    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • Motivating for Achievement
    • Determining individual motivators
    • Identifying motivational opportunities in work assignments
    • The importance of motivation to a supervisor
    • Non-financial motivators that support the goals of the organization and the employee
    • Indicators of motivation
    • Aligning motivators with organizational objectives
    • Positive Confrontation
      • Confrontation as a motivational and developmental tool
      • Differences between confrontation and conflict
      • The consequences of avoiding confrontation
      • Common pitfalls to conflict resolution
      • Five-step process to resolve conflict
      • Six different types of difficult people
      • Techniques to make difficult people more productive
      • Progressive discipline
    • Leadership
    • A practical model for using different leadership styles
    • The interrelationship between supervising, managing, and leadership techniques
    • Balancing directive and supportive leadership styles to develop employees' performance
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Apply motivational techniques to improve employee performance and enhance productivity
    • Align workers' personal goals with the goals of the organization
    • Resolve internal conflict in a positive and productive manner
    • Balance directive and supportive leadership styles to develop and improve employees' performance
    
    
• Legal Issues in the Workplace

  • Explore federal, state, and local employment laws and learn how to comply with Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Affirmative Action (AA) and Diversity issues. Learn to recognize and avoid potential legal risks in everyday workplace situations, and know when to seek in-house or outside counsel.

    Work within the law when interviewing, hiring, evaluating, and firing employees.

    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content. This course contains the following module:

    • Legal Issues in the Workplace
    • The scope of employment laws
    • Equal Employment Opportunity laws, Affirmative Action, and Diversity
    • Recognizing EEO legal risks
    • Strategies for minimizing EEO legal risks
    • Wage, safety, and other employment laws
    • Assessing whether an FMLA, FLSA, OSHA, or state law situation represents a legal risk
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing the course, participants will be able to:

    • Recognize employment-related laws and assess their impact on employment-related decisions
    • Recognize how Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, or Diversity applies to employment-related issues
    • Categorize employment-related issues into legal or employee relations issues to enable you to assess legal risks associated with management decisions
    • Recognize the difference between employee relations issues and potentially unlawful situations in the workplace
    • Avoid potentially illegal behaviors when interviewing, evaluating, and disciplining employees
    • Avoid potentially illegal behaviors in situations involving FMLA, FLSA, OSHA, or state laws
    
    
• Preventing and Addressing Inappropriate Workplace Behaviors

  • Managers frequently make employment decisions that have legal implications for their organizations. This course addresses the relevant laws and their application to daily operations and special situations in layperson's terms.

    The course focuses on avoiding potentially illegal behaviors when interviewing, evaluating, and disciplining employees and on applying strategies for dealing with inappropriate behavior according to company policy and best practices.

    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content. This course contains the following module:

    • Preventing and Addressing Inappropriate Workplace Behaviors
    • Scope and range of inappropriate behaviors
    • Role of managers in fostering appropriateness in the workplace
    • Sexual and other forms of illegal harassment
    • Inappropriate behavior and company policy
    • Strategies for dealing with inappropriate behaviors
    • Handling confidential issues
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Identify whether a behavior is appropriate or inappropriate in a given situation and why
    • Identify and follow company policies and procedures when handling potential policy violations involving inappropriate behaviors
    • Apply strategies for dealing with inappropriate behavior according to company policy and best practices
    • Manage confidential issues surrounding inappropriate behavior correctly
    
    
• The Power of Managing Your Time and Personal Priorities
  • The ability to manage time and prioritize one’s work is an essential skill that professional managers must master in order to be successful. Today, most jobs require managing multiple priorities while simultaneously looking for ways to improve performance. In addition, professionals need to balance careers with personal priorities. In this course, participants learn a series of invaluable techniques for managing time, setting priorities, changing mental patterns to enhance productivity, and focusing on personal values and life goals.
    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • The Power of Managing Priorities
    • Mind-set and how it affects productivity
    • The benefits and results of changing mental patterns, and techniques for changing them
    • Differences between a task and a priority
    • Setting goals with the SMARTS technique
    • The importance of goal setting in managing time and priorities
    • Defining your personal mission Delegation techniques
    • Identify and Overcome Time-Wasters
    • Analyzing and addressing time-wasters
    • Tools for planning and tracking priorities
    • Techniques to maximize daily productivity
    • Techniques to overcome internal and external productivity roadblocks
    • Techniques to reduce burdensome and unimportant paperwork
    • Managing email more successfully
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Recognize and respond to the benefits of setting priorities
    • Recognize and practice mental techniques for becoming more organized
    • Develop a personal mission statement to balance work and personal goals in a way that promotes achieving both
    • Identify time-wasters and practice techniques for managing them Use tools to set and rank priorities
    • Process paperwork systematically and efficiently
    • Create an action plan for managing multiple priorities
    
    
• Managing People Issues to Stay Focused on Priorities
  • Successful leaders and managers are dependent on their abilities to deal with and manage the interruptions, conflicts, and stress that are inherent in managing others. In this course, participants will learn about a number of resources and practical techniques for maintaining good working relationships and working with others efficiently and harmoniously. They will also learn the tools and techniques that are instrumental for effective communication and conflict resolution and how to deal with potentially unproductive situations and co-workers.
    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • Manage Interruptions
    • Recognizing interruptions that have little or no relevance to responsibilities
    • Using a positive approach to handle interruptions
    • Redesigning work to reduce interruptions
    • Delegation, Motivation, and Communication
    • The meaning of delegation and the strategic use of delegation techniques
    • Applying active listening techniques to be more productive
    • The value of prompt and lasting conflict resolution
    • Tools that enhance efficiency
    • Successfully Managing Stress
    • Indicators that you are under stress, and situations in your life that generate stress
    • Stress-management techniques
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Manage interruptions while maintaining good working relationships
    • Improve productivity by delegating tasks, motivating others, and resolving conflicts
    • Successfully manage stress
    • Create an action plan for managing multiple priorities
    
    
• The Impact of Personality Styles on Communication
  • Interpersonal communication is one of the most challenging and important aspects of a successful career. It is essential for leaders and managers to understand the basics of communications, their own communication styles, the critical role of emotional intelligence, and the impact of all of this on their co-workers and their organization. In this course, participants will learn why good interpersonal communication skills are so important, how personality styles affect personal communication styles, and how this understanding can improve one’s ability to work with and manage employees.
    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • Effective Communication
    • Competencies of good communication
    • Benefits of improved communication in the workplace and elsewhere
    • Emotional intelligence and how it relates to communication competencies
    • Communication Preferences
    • The impact of the four Myers-Briggs scales
    • Effects of personality type on methods of communication
    • Work preferences for a variety of Myers-Briggs types
    • The effect of various response styles in different work place situations
    • Listening
    • Skills needed to listen actively
    • The role of nonverbal communication in listening
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Increase awareness of, and ability to manage, workplace communication behaviors
    • Understand the influence of personality type on communication
    • Develop strategies for effective listening
    • Sustain positive rapport during difficult discussions
    • Manage nonverbal messages
    • Give constructive feedback
    
    
• Managing Communication Challenges
  • Interpersonal communication is often one of the most challenging aspects of a career. To communicate successfully, professionals need to find a balanced approach to dealing with difficult people or conversations. One must be assertive enough to avoid being taken advantage of, but not so aggressive that he or she alienates or upsets co-workers. In this course, participants will learn how to be assertive and professional when dealing with challenging conversations and people. They will also learn how to analyze and make use of criticism to improve their skills and abilities.
    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following modules:

    • Assertive Communication Skills
    • Optimizing your message and your meaning when it's your turn to speak
    • Assertive communication skills
    • Coping with communication anxiety
    • Managing criticism
    • Communicating with Difficult People
    • Decreasing defensiveness in a challenging situation
    • Remaining assertive during challenging conversations
    • Analyzing difficult people
    • Building rapport
    • Non-verbal factors that influence challenging communication
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Demonstrate the skills needed to communicate in an assertive manner in all situations
    • Identify how to manage and cope with criticism
    • Identify how to manage and cope with communication anxiety
    • Use feedback to improve professionalism
    • Identify skills for clearly communicating ideas, thoughts, and feelings in challenging conversations
    • Create a plan for conducting a challenging conversation
    • Demonstrate an understanding of how non-verbal behavior can be used effectively in a challenging conversation
    • Identify effective methods for dealing with difficult people and situations
    
    
• Managing Performance
  • Organizations that run at peak performance understand that managing employee performance must be an active, continuous, and structured process of valuable feedback and constructive assessment. In this course, participants learn how to successfully design and use an integrated performance management model to effectively set specific goals that are tied to the organization’s productivity and are a basis of ongoing feedback and periodic job evaluations.
    Course Format
    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer specific questions about the course content. This course contains the following module:

    • Managing Performance
    • The role of the manager in the performance management process
    • Recognizing and overcoming factors that make managing performance challenging
    • Managing within the "Nine Boxes" of performance management
    • Collaborative goal setting
    • Using ongoing feedback and effective performance-based communication
    • Planning and writing performance appraisals, incorporating employee input
    • Delivering a collaborative performance appraisal
    • Engaging employees in the performance management process
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Demonstrate the role a manager should play in the performance management system
    • Participate in a collaborative goal-setting process that reflects overall organization goals
    • Use ongoing feedback and effective performance-based communication
    • Deliver a collaborative performance appraisal
    
    

Accreditation / CEUs

HRCI Recertification

Most of the courses in this certificate series have each been approved for six (6) recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR, and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute. See individual course descriptions for more information. Please contact the Human Resource Certificate Institute (HRCI) for further information about certification or recertification.

Accreditation

Students who successfully complete all 11 courses in this series receive a Supervisory Skills Certificate from Cornell University.

Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) awards 0.6 Continuing Education Units (CEUs) to each student who has successfully completed each course in the Supervisory Skills Certificate series.