Does Your Company Invest in its Employees?

by Rachel Kjack, director of member services, SAO

Employees not only want opportunities for professional development from their employer, but succession-planning and increasing individual productivity are key components of any successful company strategy. SAO is committed to helping maximize a company’s most valuable resource through learning best practices in both technical and people skills. Two recent partnerships have been formed that combine an understanding of the technology industry with learning experiences that technically minded employees need.

Leadership and sales training heightens productivity
To support the technical training we've been bringing you for years, we now introduce cutting-edge leadership training for technology professionals. Turbo Leadership Systems offers the Leadership Development Lab (LDL), an intensive 10-week program designed for new or existing leaders who want to gain additional skills in communication, leadership, selling ideas and building self-confidence.

A one-day sales manager training is also available to help supervisors motivate their sales force. How to Turbo Charge Your Sales Force is geared toward sales managers who are responsible for achieving sales results through the efforts of others. Participants will leave this workshop with tools and action plans to use immediately.

The courses are offered at a discount to SAO members and are ideal for project managers, team leads and C-level executives. Larry Dennis, president of Turbo Leadership Systems and best-selling author, has personally trained over 120,000 management and sales personnel all over the world and will be leading this program. Click here for more information.

Improved relations between IT department and needs of the business
ITIL has become the most widely adopted framework of best practices for IT service management in the world. ITIL now provides expanded guidance on establishing and quantifying the business value of IT services. Most significant with the new V3 classes is the inclusion of all processes and activities into an IT service lifecycle of strategy, design, transition, operation and continuous improvement. Our new training partner will provide insight into the importance of training your IT department in this well-established set of best practices at the upcoming ITIL Executive Overview. Click here to register or here for more information on the full series of IT courses available through the end of the year.

About the author
Rachel Kjack is the director of member services of the SAO. Prior to this role she was the director of the Washington FFA Association and Foundation. She has also worked in high-tech public relations training with Waggener Edstrom, in sales and marketing with a Portland-based tech training company, and in the public education system. Kjack is an alumna of The Evergreen State College and Bastyr University/Leadership Institute of Seattle. She can be reached at rachel.kjack@sao.org.