Improving Your Professional Writing Skills

This program is designed to teach employees how to improve their professional writing, including e-mail messages and letters, marketing copy (i.e. brochures), and more. Individuals will learn how to create accurate, clear, compelling content for any medium. Through hands-on, skill-building activities and interactive discussions, individuals will be confident that their message will be received. Who should attend: This course is designed for individuals who want to enhance their writing skills and learn how to create messages that will connect with their audiences. Continue your journey to becoming an expert writer who understands their audience, can craft a clear and meaningful message, and edit it to a perfect shine.

TIAA: Getting a Head Start: A step-by-step overview of the Penn State TIAA Retirement Plan

A guide to the ins and outs of the plans offered at Penn State, the advantages of a retirement program, how to create a retirement strategy and how to update your account with TIAA

Time Management

This program discusses practical, common sense techniques to use time wisely at work. It provides paradigms to help set priorities, manage meetings, organize workspaces, and develop personal daily and weekly plans. Employees learn to identify time wasters at work and to recognize time-use barriers.

Personal Safety and Awareness

A 75-minute session that introduces key strategies for personal safety, including physical resistance strategies that includes a self-defense technique demonstration.

The Black Experience at Penn State

Provided Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), Penn State alum Darryl Daisey discusses the Penn State African American Chronicles, an interactive multimedia website and timeline that tells the stories of the African American students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have inspired and empowered the Penn State community. The website chronicles the struggles and successes experienced by African Americans at Penn State. Daisey discusses what it took to make the project a reality and shares how despite relatively small numbers, African Americans have been an important part of the Penn State fabric and helped to shape Penn State's strong national reputation.

Health Advocate: Caring for the Caregiver

Few people are prepared for the challenges of caring for the elderly or infirm, yet many do not have a choice. This webinar stresses the importance of caring for yourself, and outlines proven strategies for coping with the many challenges that come with being a caregiver. It also reviews the Caregiver’s Bill of Rights.

Getting to Know the LRN for Managers

Learn how you can quickly navigate through the over 17,000+ FREE, online courses available to all full and part time employees. These courses allow you to learn at your convenience by using the Learning Resource Network (LRN) to browse, launch and learn. Plus learn how to take advantage of the over 95,000 free, online book titles that are available to you as a Penn State employee. As a manager, you will learn how to run reports, view dashboards, and help manage your employee’s development.

Financial Wellness Workshop: It’s a Balancing Act – A Workshop for the Sandwich Generation

Members of the Sandwich Generation (adults caring simultaneously for their children and adult parents) can learn how to help balance their own financial security and the demands of caring for both children and aging parents.

Performance Management - Tips for Making the End-of-Year Review as Effective as Possible - Managers

Please join us via Zoom for a brief session to equip you with the skills necessary to ensure that you are ready to conduct an effective review conversation (including tips for how to finish the performance management cycle in Workday), and to help your employees plan for their continued growth and development. 

The Art of Delegation

The course provides instruction on why delegation is important, what delegation is, and insight into a multi-step process for delegation. PLEASE NOTE: There is PRE-PROGRAM WORK that needs to be completed as part of this course. You will receive the pre-work assignments a week or so before the course reminder email you will receive from the Learning Resource Network: - Read Case Studies (one page) --- will receive before reminder email - Complete Self Assessment (one page) --- will receive before reminder email

Performance Management - How to Prepare for Your End-of-Year Review (Individual Contributor)

Please join us via Zoom for a brief session to get you moving in the right direction to complete this year’s performance management process. Useful information will be provided to help you set the stage for participating in a successful review conversation with your manager (including tips for how to finish the performance management cycle in Workday) and to plan for your continued growth and development. 

Providing Exceptional Customer Service in a Hybrid Workplace

Life as we know it is very different; we are living and serving our internal and external customers in ways we could not have even imagined even one year ago. But are we achieving success or are we finding excuses to explain why customer service is falling behind?

Health Advocate: Assertiveness

Assertiveness is the ability to confidently express one’s thoughts, feelings and actions with confidence, without negatively impacting others. This workshop outlines strategies for becoming more assertive without becoming aggressive. Participants will learn the difference between assertive and aggressive behaviors, the rules for valuing themselves and others, new skills to become more assertive, and how to say “no” without off ending others.

Critical Conversations - Manager

This session will help equip leaders who manage people to explore the art of dialogue to prepare yourself to manage and facilitate critical conversations with your staff. – with a focus on discussions pertaining to the new Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) policy.

PENN STATE POLICE: Who We Are and What We Do

Information on how to contact University Police and Public Safety and services and resources provided by University Park police.

Performance Management - How to Prepare for Your End-of-Year Review (Individual Contributor)

Please join us via Zoom for a brief session to get you moving in the right direction to complete this year’s performance management process. Useful information will be provided to help you set the stage for participating in a successful review conversation with your manager (including tips for how to finish the performance management cycle in Workday) and to plan for your continued growth and development. 

Performance Management - How to Prepare for Your End-of-Year Review (Individual Contributor)

Please join us via Zoom for a brief session to get you moving in the right direction to complete this year’s performance management process. Useful information will be provided to help you set the stage for participating in a successful review conversation with your manager (including tips for how to finish the performance management cycle in Workday) and to plan for your continued growth and development. 

Critical Conversations -- Individual

This session will help prepare you to explore the art of dialogue and how you can better prepare yourself for critical conversations – with a focus on application for conversations regarding the new Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) policy.

Effective Email Communication

This session will explore how to communicate with others via email and messaging apps. Learn how to craft strong emails that get to the point professionally and quickly. The session will also briefly examine messaging apps, such as Microsoft Teams, to uncover the best practices for these modes of communication.

Performance Management - How to Prepare for Your End-of-Year Review (Individual Contributor)

Please join us via Zoom for a brief session to get you moving in the right direction to complete this year’s performance management process. Useful information will be provided to help you set the stage for participating in a successful review conversation with your manager (including tips for how to finish the performance management cycle in Workday) and to plan for your continued growth and development. 

[email protected]

This session introduces the main points of accessibility policy and guidelines and uses demos of assistive technologies, such as screen readers, and testing strategies and tools to show how following accessibility guidelines benefits everyone. The session ends with information on how to learn the skills and strategies to successfully implement accessibility guidelines based on your job duties and technological environment.

 Beyond Diversity: Creating a Culture of Belonging

We interact daily with individuals who have diverse traits and beliefs and are different from us in multiple ways. How we handle these interactions will determine our individual and collective experiences in both our workplaces and larger communities, and who feels included or left out. This program helps participants understand the various aspects of diversity and the many immediate actions each of us can take to create a culture of belonging in all our spheres of influence

Trust in the Workplace

Trust is key to the success of every organization.  Organizations with low trust pay a high price.  The costs take the form of low morale, low productivity, and low job satisfaction and often lead to a lack of creativity, innovation, and even more important, respect.  This seminar will explore how trust is lost and how it can be regained so that your organization or group can work together more effectively, creatively, and with greater satisfaction and respect for each other. 

Advanced Professional Writing Class: Persuasive Writing

In this course, participants will learn how to write persuasive prose intended to compel, drive, provoke, and interest their audience. Writers are often tasked with creating language that entices their audience to do something, and for University employees, this can include everything from making donations and increasing enrollment, to clicking the next page on a website or signing up for a newsletter. This advanced course will discuss the different types of persuasive writing: ethos, logos, and pathos. Through discussion and exercises, participants will become familiar with persuasive writing techniques and how to use them.

The Art of Persuasion

In this interactive training seminar, participants will learn about various strategies and techniques to help them persuade others on important issues and ideas.   Certain Emotional Intelligence techniques will be presented that are important to utilize when trying to persuade coworkers on an issue or idea.  Participants will also learn about the art of “Winning Others Over” or “WOO” – including the importance of surveying the situation, confronting potential barriers, securing commitments, and generating your pitch.  Participants will have a chance to practice their persuasion skills while engaging in a mock debate.  Finally, participants will uncover their own Persuasion Style through completing a persuasion-style assessment.   

TIAA: Halfway There: A retirement checkup

With a solid career and a strong financial foundation, it's not taboo to start discussing retirement--but is the plan working? Give your retirement savings a checkup and learn steps to help you get back on track if you're behind

Introduction to Empathy for Leaders

Empathy is the basis of social awareness and relationship management. It is the ability to sense the emotions and understand the perspective of others. In leadership, empathy is the ability to relate to different types of people, listen attentively, and communicate effectively.

Health Advocate Program 101: Learn How to Explore and Utilize Its Vast Resources

In this session, learn how to navigate the Health Advocate website and find out about the free, personal assistance available to you and your family about personal, family, financial, and work issues to help you achieve a healthy work/life balance. Intended Audience: Benefits Eligible Penn State faculty and staff wishing to learn more about the Health Advocate Program benefit.

From Unconscious Bias to Conscious Inclusion

We often have unconscious biases towards individuals with diverse traits and beliefs who are different from us or unfamiliar to us in multiple ways. Detecting and becoming aware of this bias and learning to manage it by acting on the awareness is crucial to creating an inclusive workplace. This session will introduce participants to conscious inclusion practices and focus on developing the empathy and awareness to combat biases, while diversifying their networks and experiences, and committing to inclusive behaviors. Practicing these new inclusive behaviors and tracking individual and collective progress is also essential.

Enhance Your Personal Brand: Lessons from the World's Most Successful Companies

Apple. Google. Target. Twitter. Coca-Cola. Starbucks. These are some of the most famous brands in the world. But did you know that you have a brand as well? Your personal brand is the essence or promise of what will be experienced by others when interacting with you. Through self-reflective exercises and creative thought experiments, this program will show participants what factors comprise their personal brand, which ones may be increasing or decreasing their effectiveness, and how to develop a personal brand that enhances personal and professional success.

PNC Financial Wellness Workshop: Credit Scores and Reporting – Understanding and Improving Your Score

Credit can have a big effect on your financial life. Understand how credit scores and reports work to help you keep your finances healthy and achieve your financial goals, such as buying a new home, leasing a car, or paying off debt.

Introduction Into Inspirational Leadership

Inspirational Leadership is having the ability to inspire others to align their actions towards a common goal or vision, to get the job done, and to bring out their best qualities along the way. With inspiration you can connect with something meaningful and articulate a shared mission and/or values in a way that motivates people and offers a sense of purpose beyond day-to-day tasks. Inspirational leaders are agents of positive change, sometimes going against the grain of conventional norms or taking risks in their approach. These kinds of leaders ultimately leave the people they work with feeling inspired, motivated, and connected. So how does one develop this competency? What does it look like in different contexts?

Run Hide Fight: Active Attacker Response Program

Guidance on how to respond to an Active Attacker situation for Faculty, Students and Staff can be obtained through the Run Hide Fight: Surviving an Active Attacker Program, presented by the University Police. The Run Hide Fight: Surviving an Active Attacker Program provides information on the steps you can take to mitigate the actions of an Active Attacker.

What is Change Management?

The term “change management” might seem to be a buzz word but, in fact, it is a defined process that organizations use to manage the people aspects of change. Change management professionals often work in collaboration with a project manager to help ensure the change being implemented is more likely to be successful. Becoming aware of this process can provide you with context on a change project you are involved in.

[email protected]

This session introduces the main points of accessibility policy and guidelines and uses demos of assistive technologies, such as screen readers, and testing strategies and tools to show how following accessibility guidelines benefits everyone. The session ends with information on how to learn the skills and strategies to successfully implement accessibility guidelines based on your job duties and technological environment.

Health Advocate: Retirement Planning: An Emotional Perspective

A major concern for many people is how they will handle the emotional stages of retirement. How will they create a new identity? This workshop explores the six phases of retirement from a social perspective: everything from pre-retirement planning, to the honeymoon phase, and ultimately to reorientation and development of a new lifestyle. This workshop reviews all of the stages, which can span 5 to 15 years before retirement to up to 15 years or more after retirement.

Effective Meeting Facilitation

To provide practical strategies that ensures efficient use of meeting time through amazing facilitation. Have you ever sat in a meeting asking yourself, 'why am I here', or 'this is such a waste of time--when will this end'? If you lead meetings, you certainly don't what this said about your meeting leadership. Attend this interactive session to pick up some new tips and techniques to make the most productive use of everyone's meeting time.

Health Advocate: Bullying in the Workplace for Employees

Unfortunately, bullying does not always stop on the playground. This workshop identifies the signs and different types of bullying and provides key statistics regarding its impact on workplace productivity and morale. Participants will learn best practices and strategies to effectively combat and conquer this damaging behavior.