Communication and Soft Skills Training Courses

Reduce staff stress levels, boost their productivity and banish their time bandits with our practical time management course. The course includes:

• Time management styles and how they affect us
• Crystal clear objectives to help us prioritise
• Prioritising tools and how to use them
• Practical time management techniques
• Managing emails so they don’t manage us
• Better and shorter to do lists
• Project planning and concurrent activities
• Time bandits and how to minimise them

Give staff the confidence to communicate more effectively and convincingly, dealing with challenging situations more confidently. Our communication experts will explore the concept of personal impact, how communication styles affect all interactions and what can be done to adjust it. This course includes:

• Communication styles and how to work with them
• How communication problems arise
• The 4 psychological fears
• Feeling empowered – rights vs responsibilities
• The 3-step assertiveness technique
• Asking great questions and listening actively
• Stages of conflict
• Handling conflict situations

As most are self taught in spreadsheets, Claire our mistress of all things Excel, will fill in the gaps, provide some super-slick tricks of the trade as well as answer any burning questions from the group. The course includes:

• Entering text, numbers and Autofill
• Navigating Excel
• Selecting and editing
• Using the Sum function
• Basic formulae
• Rows, columns and borders
• Freezing panes
• Printing from Excel
• Burning questions

Bring everyday Excel skills up a notch and build staff confidence to take on more demanding and complex tasks in Excel. We’ll show them new ways to manipulate data, analyse information, and automate tasks, making them quicker and more effective all at once! This course includes:

• Functions for analysis
• Working with dates
• Absolute referencing
• IF function
• Nesting functions
• Basic charting
• Burning questions

Positive and confident decision-making comes from practical tools and techniques to cut through the overwhelm of too much information and too many options. Our trainers are here to rescue anyone who has difficulty to make speedy and effective decisions, making problem solving a breeze! This course includes:

• Different ways to define and analyse problems
• Is the problem ours to solve?
• Being clear about solutions – Would Like, Want and Must-Have
• Using brainstorming, problem solving and creative thinking techniques
• Evaluate all the options using simple criteria
• Information overload and how to avoid it
• Decision making techniques

Help staff to banish those presentation gremlins and communicate with confidence and clarity. With lots of opportunities for practice in a very safe space, participants will build their skills in the guiding hands of our experts. This course includes:

• Beating the nerves and building confidence
• Knowing our audience
• Perfect planning for impact and credibility
• Specialist techniques for online presentations
• Presenting to audiences of different cultures and languages
• Posture, breathing and vocal skills
• Telling stories to build memorable messages
• The importance of simple slides with vibrant visuals

Support culture change by giving line managers the skills to look at practices within their areas, role model appropriately and address unacceptable behaviours. Our dynamic, assertive trainer for EDI has a very practical approach, with plenty of real-life examples to help participants view the subject from a new angle. A bespoke course might include:

• Key legislation for EDI and the workplace
• The consequences of getting EDI wrong
• What you say or do and how it can be interpreted
• Direct/indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Conscious and unconscious bias
• Being an ‘active bystander’.
• Culture and EDI
• Tackling unacceptable behaviour and difficult situations.
• Practical strategies and action plans