Organization Development (OD) is a broad set of competencies ranging from “hard” factors (job design, compensation, reward systems, performance measurement, etc.) to “soft” factors (morale, communication, customer satisfaction, leadership style, etc.).

Our consultants bring a rich blend of sound research and practical techniques to help you discover the best ways to keep your organization vibrant and successful over time.  And each consultant has extensive experience working with all employee levels and types of organizations.

Change Management – uses an inquiry-based action planning method that supports employee involvement, collaboration, and a systems-wide approach to planned change.  Leads to a more responsive, adaptive, and effective organization. (view sample outline)

Executive Coaching – A Workforce Dimensions coach plays a critical – sometimes decisive – role in helping you reach peak performance levels by providing you with expert guidance and support. A coach serves as your impartial set of eyes, observing not just what you do but also what effect it has on your desired results.

Culture of Innovation – offers a series of customized learning labs and coaching designed to transform your organization into a workplace filled with energized employees working on new and exciting ideas. (view sample outline)

Choosing the right strategic direction is critical in your ability to get the right programs and services … to the right people … at the right time … all the time.

Workforce Dimensions works hand-in-hand with you to identify and implement the best approach for determining your organization’s strategic direction.

• Our popular Board retreats and staff development sessions are excellent ways to establish a strategic thinking approach throughout your agency. (view sample outline)
• We guide you through the process of creating a strategy plan you can use to align your team, programs, services and resources in order to meet the ever-changing needs of your customers.
• With our systems approach, we help you explore the many factors that can either support or thwart your initiative – such as management and leadership style, ability to adapt to change, working with system partners, and others.
• And our associates have experience in using such high-involvement tools as strategic assessment (SWOT), goal-driven MBO, scenario planning, strategy mapping (balanced scorecard), benchmarking, appreciative inquiry, product/service mapping, and more.

We also help you manage the human side of strategy development, such as the ways you include stakeholders, the way you communicate a strategic initiative to others, and the way you can effectively deal with resistance to change.

Getting the best possible results in your organization is no simple task. It’s certainly more complex than ordering or imploring employees to work harder or smarter. Performance management looks at all the factors – social and technical – that go into obtaining the results your organization needs to be successful.

Workforce Dimensions offers expert performance diagnosis, performance assessment, and executive coaching services to help your entire organization achieve its maximum potential.

Performance Consulting – Performance consulting is a combined set of knowledge, skills and abilities that we use to address many different organizational issues that may not be solved by training alone. You can count on our performance consulting services for the technical know-how needed to bring you the performance results you expect.

Measured Assessment of Performance – Being able to assess a person’s competence and performance is important throughout the employment cycle – hiring, training, performance appraisal, promotion, termination. Your organization’s ability to analyze and manage performance behavior has a profound and lasting impact on the results you achieve.  Our behaviorally-based Measured Assessment™ services help you obtain more objective and reliable assessments of your employees’ performance and provide better performance feedback.

Competency Models – Creating a new job?  Having difficulty figuring out exactly what employees should be doing?  Want some structure in helping make objective talent management decisions such as hiring, appraising, or promoting people?  Competency models may be the solution you’re looking for.  They’re a valuable tool for managing performance outcomes on the job.  You can have our consultants build a model or we can train your staff to develop a model. (view sample outline)

Want a group of employees who work collaboratively and consistently perform at high levels?

Workforce Dimensions uses a field-proven process to help you transform your staff into a high performance and adaptive team. The process consists of four elements designed to build the internal competence you need to sustain new techniques and team structures over time.

1. Organization Diagnosis and Profile

Our unique behavioral-based Team Profile gathers quantitative and qualitative data about your organization’s current performance. The diagnosis typically includes focus group interviews and two data-gathering questionnaires: Readiness for Team Approach and Information Flow Analysis.

2. Top Management and Team Leadership Overview

A Teambuilding Learning Lab for executives and key managers working with new organizational designs and teams. The overview establishes the foundation for implementing and sustaining an adaptive team approach.  Besides clarifying roles and expectations of management through the team design and implementation stages, the overview demonstrates top managements support for the team approach.

3. Creating the Right Architecture for Your Adaptive Teams

We develop a comprehensive program for successfully designing and implementing a team approach in your organization. The number and type of team interventions recommended for your organization is determined by the diagnosis made in the Organization Diagnosis stage. Interventions in this stage could consist of the following:

• Creation of an organization design team – a cross-departmental group formed to involve employees in the change process.
• Organization support – clinics and on-the-job learning experiences to increase competency in coordination and facilitation skills.
• Selection of Internal Coordinator(s) –to work closely with our associates and receive coaching in critical OD and team building skills.
• Team development implementation – bi-weekly team meetings and work-related team assignments.
• Job-related Learning Labs on development of team technical and social processes and performance improvement techniques.
• On-line support – electronic support over the Internet allows your teams to obtain virtual advice and answers to questions as they progress throughout the implementation stage.
• Assessment of team performance and progress – provides a periodic and objective measurement on the outcomes achieved by the new teams compared to initial benchmarks and expectations.
• Action plans are created for further team development.

4. Learning Labs designed for Adaptive Teams

Over a dozen in-house Learning Labs are available for developing effective teams. Depending on the team’s needs, labs may cover:

• Building Your Organizational Competence in Adaptive Teams
• Organizational Considerations in Adopting a Team Approach
• Creating a Shared Team Vision and Mission
• Setting Team Goals
• Designing a Flexible Team Architecture
• Creating a Culture to Support Adaptive Teams
• Building Work Group Competence
• Managing Team Workflow Processes and Performance
• Dealing with Team Conflict
• Managing Team Social Processes – Group Roles and Dynamics
• Introduction to Collaborative Problem Solving
• Building Individual Competence
• Interpersonal Relations in Teams
• Facilitating Team Processes
• Managing Change
• Effective Team Meetings

Board Development

Workforce Boards contain their own set of circumstances that, over time, affect the quality and relevance of their strategic decisions – different people, with different experiences, different goals, values, and expectations. All lead to different agendas that can impact the effectiveness of a board and its local workforce system.

Workforce Dimensions can help you avoid such pitfalls with our popular board facilitation leadership development services.

You can use one of our associates as an impartial guide to lead your board  through important board meetings, short-term project, or major initiative.  Using our team as facilitators encourages your board to

• Function as a cohesive group with a common purpose
• Uncover the critical issues involved in your strategy and your operations
• Develop more effective communication and relations among board members
• Improve communications between the board and your management team
• Transform from a reactive to proactive mode

In many cases, we have also provided local boards with a final meeting summary, feedback report, or strategic roadmap resulting from the project.

The Applied Leadership Development Program

Previously offered only through a major state university in Central Ohio, we are now able to make this powerful one-of-a-kind learning experience available to our clients.

Here’s your chance to build key leadership competencies in your board members, your executive team, your community partners and subcontractors, and even potential leaders in your staff.

A series of project-based Learning Labs are designed around the competencies you want developed in your organization.  Here’s a partial list of the Learning Labs you can include:

• Understanding your role as a leader
• Developing your ability to see the big picture – systems thinking
• Leading people in work groups
• Facilitating team meetings and group processes
• Motivating team members
• Building trust and credibility with your team
• Leading change initiatives

Quality Service

Long noted for our popular Customer Service training programs, Workforce Dimensions looks at service as a total quality system for your entire organization, not just an add-on program for staff who have direct contact with clients. Quality service is everyone pulling together to continually provide what your customers expect.

To help you achieve this, we offer custom-designed programs and services that instill the quality service approach throughout your organization – from receptionist to chief executive, from job development to accounts payable – with proven ideas you can put to use immediately.

Service Results Audit – this informative survey tool measures how effective your organization and your employees rate in service quality

Quality Service Learning Labs – trains your staff in the basic tools used to implement and sustain a quality approach to the service they provide to customers; uses a work-related project to help apply new skills to their jobs

Action Planning for Quality Service – works closely with your work groups and project teams to identify opportunities to improve service and develop measurable action plans to implement their solutions

Coaching Support – assists in the design, planning, and implementation of organizational processes and systems critical to the success of your quality service initiative.

Continuous Process Improvement

One of the most powerful tools for staying relevant to your customers’ needs and expectations is the use of continuous process improvement (CPI).  And our Plus One™ services help everyone in your organization adopt and apply the core skills needed to use CPI effectively.

Our associates work closely with you to create a CPI mindset, set-up a systemwide framework, conduct a process analysis, find innovative ways to eliminate barriers, help employees work collaboratively to create a prototype and plan a course of action, and measure the results of their efforts.

Plus One™ can be used to obtain better results in such areas as eliminating waste, improving workflow, changing work environments, improving customer outcomes and satisfaction, reducing errors, developing innovative programs and services,improving cycle time and response time, and more.