Useful Guides
Steve’s e-book ‘A Useful Guide to Interviewing’ is now available. It provides a comprehensive start to finish guide to the recruitment process - an ideal resource for anyone getting involved in recruitment for the first time. It will soon be followed by ‘Interviewing Essentials’, a concise refresher guide aimed at more experienced panel members.
‘A Useful Guide to Dealing with Difficult Behaviour’, which Steve co-authored with SATC associates Debbie Moore and Berry Winter, is also available. This identifies seven types of behaviours which can be difficult to manage and develops strategies for responding effectively.
‘A Useful Guide to Interviewing’ costs £11.95, ‘A Useful Guide to Dealing with Difficult Behaviour’ costs £5.95. Both are available from www.pansophix.com.
Literary Triumph!
Steve has combined his writing skills with his knowledge of the workplace to win the Limnisa Short Story Competition.
Steve’s story, ‘The Last Days of Woolworths’, tells the story of a group of employees as they react to the closure of their store.
‘The Last Days of Woolworths’, along with other fiction written by Steve, can be found at www.bluethumbnail.com.
New Associates, New Services!
SATC has added three new recruits to its associate base, enabling us to extend the range of training we are able to offer.
David Foster is a highly experienced sales trainer. Following a successful corporate career he has spent the last two years working with over 30 businesses in Sussex to help them improve their sales.
Harish Davda specialises in equality & diversity training and project management. Harish is currently working with us to design a project management course for the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman’s Office.
Ian Truffet is an experienced investigator who has worked with us to deliver training for fatal incident investigators with the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman’s Office. His distinguished career with the Prison Service also equips him to contribute to our leadership and management programmes.
See the ‘Who We Are’ page for updated associate profiles.
SATC Helps Local Companies to Improve Their Effectiveness
Steve has just completed successful training and coaching projects with two top companies in East Sussex.
Steve worked with Hastings-based manufacturing company Plastipack to deliver a two-day course in management skills for their supervisors. Operations Manager Kevin Harman stated
‘The training was professionally delivered and supported by high quality written material supplied by Steve. The supervisors found the training interesting and very valuable, particularly in the area of helping them deal with the difficult issues of tackling unacceptable performance and behaviour.’
Over in Barcombe Steve has been working with the directors of Elephant Graphics Ltd, Jason Gadd and Jamie Benton, to help improve their business planning skills. Jason commented ‘The business planning coaching has been a big help and will help move the company forward. Steve is easy to talk and provided excellent written summaries of progress’.
Please contact us to find out how we can help your business. We can also advise on sources of funding.
Case Study – Steve Amos Training Consultancy and the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman’s Office
After a competitive tendering process Steve Amos Training Consultancy (
For this reason we began by conducting a full Training Needs Analysis, involving focus groups and face to face interviews with staff at all levels. We presented our findings to the PPO Senior Management team in April 2008, recommending the development of the ‘Delivering Excellence’ programme of modules:
· Managing Yourself and Your Work – a one-day module applying time management and project management techniques to PPO work
· Assertiveness, Influencing & Negotiating Skills – a two-day module applying these skills to dealing with a range of PPO stakeholders, including the Prison Service and prisoners themselves
· Effective Writing Skills – a half-day module equipping participants to write high quality reports of investigations
· Investigative Interviewing Skills – a three-day module for Fatal Incident Investigators and a two-day module for Complaints Investigators, reflecting the different nature and complexity of the two types of investigations
The first three modules were immediately well-received, bringing people from all areas of the PPO together and receiving praise for their relevance to the issues faced by investigators and other staff. The Investigative Interviewing Skills module was more challenging, and we eventually decided to develop separate programmes for the two groups of investigators and to co-deliver the programmes with experienced and respected PPO personnel. The success of this approach is highlighted by comments such as
“This is probably the best training event I have attended. It was well organised, professionally delivered and very informative. I have attended investigation training with three other government departments which pale into insignificance compared with this course.”
Following the success of ‘Delivering Excellence’ the PPO has also engaged
“The PPO is a unique office whose purpose is to conduct - in closed institutions - comprehensive, professional investigations that command public respect. The development modules and the stress audit have been invaluable in helping us to achieve that purpose.
Please contact us if you are interested in tailored training services for your organisation.
Teambuilding Projects
We have recently been working on a number of projects to help teams to overcome difficulties which have impared their effectiveness. Steve has written an article setting out his approach to working with dysfunctional teams, which has been published on the Training Zone website. Find it at www.trainingzone.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=185060 and let us know what you think!
