彩民宝典

Employee Learning Week (ELW) is a global campaign sponsored by the Association for Talent Development to highlight the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results. Each year, the Department of Human Resources (HR) celebrates ELW by recognizing and promoting employee learning across campus.

This year Human Resources is featuring several activities for ELW, including a daily focus on our campus core competencies. Established in 2019, the campus core competencies translate values into behaviors, and helps to align those behaviors with the campus culture and vision. HR invites you to learn more about our core competencies and begin discussions with your colleagues on how these competencies play a role in your own work and learning. We invited campus colleagues to illuminate each core competency in a series of commentaries featured through Employee Learning Week.听

Core Competency: Communication

Ensuring that key and critical information is shared in a timely fashion. Developing and delivering information in multi modes that demonstrate the needs of different audiences.

Commentary by Kirsi Aulin, Ombuds Director

鈥�Kirsi 鈥婣ulin听is the 彩民宝典听Ombuds听Director.听The Ombuds听Office assists 彩民宝典 students, staff, and faculty with any university-related dispute or concern through听confidential consultation.听

• What is one skill that someone could do on our campus to embody this competency?听
  • "Get curious! Try to keep an open mind when you hear something disconcerting and ask open-ended questions to understand better. Take care to hear both sides before making a decision. At the Ombuds Office, we often see contentious situations that are fundamentally caused by missing information or a misunderstanding. 听It is also very helpful to state your intentions, in other words telling the 鈥渨hy鈥� behind the 鈥渨hat. So much conflict on campus can be prevented if people slow down and really seek to understand the other person as well as be transparent about their own motivations."
• What are the effects and outcomes when an organization truly embraces this competency?听
  • "Communication can seem like an unimportant soft skill. However, communication is not only critical to good professional relationships and departmental culture, it has a direct effect on our bottom-line. Unclear communication can result in costly mistakes. Abrasive communication can result in a negative departmental climate and increase turnover. Vague communication can result in frustrated employees who do not know where they should be directing their efforts. The good news is that communication skills can be learned! There are great resources on campus for honing communication skills through the Ombuds Office, Organizational and Employee Development and Faculty Relations."

Learn more about the Campus Core Competencies

To learn more about the campus core competencies, please visit the performance page of the Human Resources website.听

Key Behaviors of the Communication Competency

• Effective in variety of communications settings (groups, size, position, styles, diverse audiences), and adjusts to fit the audience and the message.听听听听听听听听
• Attentively listens to others.听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听
• Provides and encourages the expression of diverse ideas and opinions.
• Engages in candid and constructive dialogue on difficult topics.
• Is respectful of each other鈥檚 unique backgrounds and perspectives.

Employee Learning Courses We Recommend

Interested in learning more? Visit the Employee Learning website to explore learning opportunities. For this competency, we recommend:听

• Crucial Conversations听
• Managers Academy听
• 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team

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The Department of Human Resources (HR) creates success through others as we all strive to achieve the goals and fulfill the mission of 彩民宝典. HR contribute leadership, ideas, and services that allow each person 鈥� whether an individual contributor or manager; a member of the faculty or staff 鈥� to do what they do鈥�better. Visit听/hr听to learn more about HR.