February 2017 Newsletter

Welcome to Our New Monthly Newsletter

The Office of Human Resources & Academic Personnel Services is pleased to introduce a new monthly professional development newsletter that provides a central repository of key training and development opportunities for campus employees. Think of the newsletter as your one-stop shop to employee professional development!

Each month, we will be featuring courses and other resources available to you for free through Skillport, our professional development learning management system. You will also find listings of upcoming training being offered on campus and through the CSU. Many of the featured online courses will also include a follow-up in person training to help you solidify your new skills.

The idea for a monthly newsletter came about as a way to co-locate professional development resources on campus, provide specific training based on campus needs, and to better communicate opportunities that are available to all employees, in support of the campus Strategic Plan. In 2015, a training and development needs assessment was conducted; featured Skillport trainings will be selected based on employee responses to the needs assessment survey, and on campus needs as stated in the strategic plan.

In keeping with the campus sustainability goals and efforts, this newsletter will be distributed and posted monthly in electronic format.

We hope you enjoy this first edition of our electronic professional development newsletter!

Featured Tech Course

Microsoft Office 2016 Intermediate Excel: Macros and Advanced Queries

If you are looking to push your excel capabilities from beginner/intermediate to advanced level, this course is for you. Discover ways to make your job easier and increase the sophistication of your data reporting and data analysis.

Learn how to automate routine, repetitive worksheet tasks by creating and using Excel macros;
Apply functions within formulas using the SUMIF, AVERAGEIF AND COUNTIF functions;
Understand the power of using a vertical and horizontal lookup function (VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP;
Flip-flop data from rows to columns or columns to rows using the Transpose option in excel;

Course time: 1 hour, 11 minutes

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Follow-Up Training

Employees who complete this course will be invited to attend an Instructor-Led follow up training on campus. We'll send a personal invitation with the place and date information.

Featured Soft Skills Course

Diplomacy and Tact in Challenging Situations

Being able to interact with diplomacy and tact smoothes the daily routine in any workplace. But in every workplace there are times when the daily routine is broken by some unpleasant event, situation, or task. At some point in our careers, we will likely all be faced with some very specific communication challenges such as dealing with a difficult personality or someone we just don't get along with, having to address a sensitive situation over e-mail, or correcting someone in a position of power such as a boss or client. These are the times when your ability to deploy diplomacy and tact with aplomb will serve you especially well. In this course, you'll review techniques for navigating difficult working relationships, creating diplomatic and tactful e-mail, neutralizing angry coworkers, and handling manipulative or bullying individuals.

Course time: 28 minutes

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CSU's Got Talent

CSU's GOT TALENT Recorded Training Webcasts – available to view

The "CSU's Got Talent" live webcast training series launched in 2015, and continues to grow each month, as we present innovative and essential training for your professional and personal environments.

If you are unable to join live, all the sessions are recorded and posted on Skillport at https://centralstationu.skillport.com (search "CSU's Got Talent" and select View All to see the entire list of episodes.)