Complex Issues in Staff Supervision
Spring 2008 - course #2
Instructor: Tricia Nolfi
CLOSED
Course Overview:
Supervision is a challenging and rewarding responsibility. Strong and effective supervision requires effective leadership, organizational skills, and an understanding of institutional, state, and federal regulations. In this course participants will learn how to manage some of the thornier issues of staff supervision. Participants will be expected to become further familiar with their own institution's policies, regulations, and expectations related staff supervision.
This course will focus on the supervision of full-time employees and will not spend a significant amount of time on the supervision of student employees or graduate staff.
Course Outline:
In week one, participants will explore the role of the supervisor in an organization. Readings and discussions will center on topics such as establishing credibility, defining expectations, and developing relationships. Participants will be exposed to competencies that can aid them in becoming strategic leaders in their organizations.
In week two, participants will explore the "alphabet soup" of supervision. Discussion and readings will focus on key employment laws including the Fair Labor Standards Act, Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, and the American with Disabilities Act.
Week three will focus on the difficult task of scheduling and assigning work hours for student affairs employees, while complying with their workweek designations. A final case study project will be assigned, requiring participants to draw upon concepts and approaches learned during the course.
Course Topics by Week:
Week One:
- Establishing Yourself as an Effective Supervisor
- Assignment: Plan for supervision
- Discussion: Characteristics and competencies of effective supervisors
Week Two:
- Alphabet Soup of Supervision: FMLA, FLSA, EEO/AA, CEPA, ADA
- Assignment: Ascertain institutions interpretation of regulations
- Discussion: How regulation are applied in the workplace
Week Three:
- Complying with FLSA: Scheduling Work for Student Affairs Professionals
- Final Project Case Study
- Discussion: Challenges in scheduling and assigning work
Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, active participants will gain:
- Have the ability to identify core competencies necessary for effective staff supervision
- Have the ability to identify areas for self-improvement
- Have gained an understanding of key employment laws and regulations
- Have learned how to apply employment laws and regulations in the workplace
- Have learned strategies for scheduling and assigning staff work
Participant Expectations:
Participants should expect to devote about 4 hours during each week of this three weeks course in order to read the online materials, research resources available on campus, fully participate in the online discussions, and submit the online assignments. The final project case study for the course will take all of the information discussed during the course and will require participants to apply it to their own work situation.
This will be administered as an asynchronous class which means participants can log on whenever they wish and whatever location they have Internet access. The Discussion Board is the focus of online learning in this course. There will be no "real time" meetings for this course. Participation in the online discussion is critical to your success in the class and is expected of each participant.
Instructor Bio:
Tricia Nolfi has spent the past 17 years working in higher education at both public and private institutions. Her professional travels have allowed her to work in the areas of student centers and student activities, judicial affairs, leadership education, and human resources. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Human Resources at Rutgers University providing leadership for employee professional development programs, divisional marketing and outreach, and new employee programs. As an independent consultant she has provided guidance in the areas of talent management, organizational assessment, and employee development. She has authored numerous articles on the topic of student leadership and is editor of Advising Student Governments: Models for Practice and Strategies for Success.
She received both her Bachelor of Science in Communication and Masters of Education from The Ohio University and is currently pursuing her doctorate in Education at Rutgers University.
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