Create a Better Workplace by Understanding Emotional Intelligence

Posted on October 18, 2021 by Rachel L.

There are two categories of skills in the workplace — hard, technical abilities and soft skills that deal with employees’ self-knowledge and interactions. Emotional intelligence falls into the latter category, and that means some leaders might underestimate it. After all, employees can be instructed in how to use a new piece of software, but can they be taught to understand others’ feelings?

The answer is yes, workers can learn to improve their emotional intelligence skills. Moreover, this kind of education is an opportunity to create a better workplace. From leadership and teamwork to company culture and organizational values, many aspects of work improve when employees have empathy and awareness of emotion and the impact of the emotional state — their own and others’.

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Questioning Techniques to Enhance Customer Service

Posted on October 15, 2021 by Rachel L.

How Questioning Techniques Enhance Customer Service

While being a customer representative is all about answering questions, the best performers in this field are also adept at asking questions.

When people call your business seeking information or help with their problems, what kind of response will your team give them? If your reps are skilled in questioning techniques, they can guide the conversation with effective questions and find an answer that’s satisfying to everyone.

Questioning skills are often used in a classroom or educational settings, but when you introduce them into the workplace through training, they represent an exciting tool kit for your employees to work with. Your customers reap the benefits of better service, and that in turn builds their engagement and loyalty to the brand, so everyone wins. Continue reading →

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Substance Abuse in the Workplace: What to Look For, How to Stop It

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Rachel L.

Employee problems with alcohol abuse, as well as the misuse of prescription drugs and illicit drugs, can be devastating on personal and professional levels. Unfortunately, these issues are fairly common.

Not only is substance abuse an ongoing issue, it can change over time, exacerbated by new factors. A rising rate of opioid addiction and related drug abuse has become an especially prevalent problem in recent years. The isolation and stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic may have also played a role in worsening addiction and substance misuse problems.

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Bystander Intervention: A Harassment Prevention Skill for Your Employees

Posted on August 26, 2021 by Rachel L.

While companies of all kinds have sexual harassment and sexual violence prevention policies on the books, and they’re required by law to provide a safe work environment, widespread problems are still present.

It’s worth asking what more you could be doing to strengthen your own workplace culture against these incidents. One common issue is that there are rules in place against harassment, but workers haven’t been given practical information about how to act on those values.

This is where bystander intervention training can make a real difference. By briefing workers on the types of real-life harassment or sexual assault incidents they might witness, then giving them actions to take in these cases, a bystander intervention program is practical to the core.

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Communication Training for Employees: Reach all Departments

Posted on July 13, 2021 by Rachel L.

Employees listen to one another.

What does communication mean for employees in varied roles?

The ability to communicate clearly is the archetypal “soft skill” for your employees. In contrast to understanding how to perform a specific process or use a piece of technology, communication is all about empathy, emotional intelligence and the ability to put thoughts into words clearly.

It’s natural to assume that only a certain subset of employees need good communication skills, such as customer service personnel, frontline retail workers or hospitality clerks. While these individuals do need to know how to communicate, so do the other members of your team.  Continue reading →

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