Purdue Today

New website offers resources for managers

A new leadership and organizational development website offers a plethora of resources to managers across all Purdue campuses.

Found at www.purdue.edu/lod, the site includes access to four main features: a library of summarized books about leadership, a portal for accessing key University policies, links to performance review tools and related workshop offerings, and registration information about Leadership in Action, the University's new manager training program. The site is officially launching today, says Adedayo Adeniyi, director of leadership and organizational development.

The website was created during the past six months to meet the needs of new and established Purdue managers who desire more supervisor training and support, Adeniyi says.

"We want our managers and supervisors to use this website as their first stop for leadership tools here at Purdue," Adeniyi says.

"Many supervisors and managers have been asking for more support over the years. This helps us fill that void, as well as fulfill goals found in the strategic plans for both the University and Human Resources."

Leadership library

Any of the approximately 2,700 Purdue employees who manage or supervise others may access the library found on the website.

The library contains summaries -- each about eight pages in length -- of more than 8,000 books on topics related to leadership. Files are available as PDFs or as audio files. They also may be downloaded to e-reader, tablet, BlackBerry or Palm devices.

Managers may visit the website and register to download these summaries. Registration lasts for 30 days; managers may re-register an unlimited number of times. The site also allows managers to create libraries of summaries accessible to their employees.

Leadership and organizational development staff soon will begin sending to incoming managers emails containing an initial password for the first 30 days of library registration, Adeniyi says.

Leadership in Action

The website also contains information about Leadership in Action, the University's new manager training program.

The training sessions, piloted earlier this month, are available to all new supervisors during the first three months of their appointments. Experienced managers seeking to refresh their leadership skills and employees undergoing development for supervisory and leadership positions also may register to attend.

Training session participants will assess and document opportunities and challenges within their units, study universal leadership and management skills, identify managerial skills essential for advancing goals specific to their unit, inventory their existing managerial skills, and document strengths, growth opportunities and managerial development strategies. Participants also will interact with supervisors across the University to building lasting, cross-functional managerial networks.

The first non-pilot training sessions are scheduled for June 4 and 26. Registration information is available on the website.

Leading Edge

The Leading Edge policy portal contains information for 15 key University policies, including those covering information about paid sick leave, paid parental leave, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act and compulsory jury duty.

Each topic includes step-by-step information for actions supervisors must take as required by the policies. Topics also include access to necessary forms, to online training materials and to schedules of relevant workshops.

Accompanying each topic are audio files detailing key advice about the policies in question. The website includes an email address where users can send requests for new topics or submit suggestions to help improve the tool's contents.

Leading Edge represents collaboration among several areas of Human Resources, Adeniyi says. It's meant to help create a hub of information about policies managers must reference the most.

"This is designed to be a one-stop reference tool for managers to help answer their questions quickly and efficiently. We also hope it will reduce confusion about the policies that affect employees the most," Adeniyi says.

All Purdue employees may access Leading Edge's resources.

Performance review tools

A link to information about staff evaluations can be found on the left-hand side of the website. This is meant to help managers meet the recently implemented requirement of providing all benefits-eligible staff with annual evaluations.

The site contains resources to help with performance planning, updates, and the evaluation itself. Training materials for individual units also are offered, as well as a registration link for the University's staff evaluation standards workshops.

Planned services

In addition to the features the site contains now, expanded offerings will be rolled out later in the year, Adeniyi says.

In August, leadership and organizational staff will add succession planning support resources to the website. These features, which will include online tools and workshops, are expected to help Purdue managers building talent throughout the University and within their respective units.

In September, the website will implement automated assessment tools to help employees provide feedback to their managers.

In October, through Employee Self Service (ESS) and Manager Self Service (MSS), the University will provide automated performance review tools, Adeniyi says.

"The Leadership and Organizational Development website we're rolling out helps fills a lot of needs managers and employees have expressed to us," Adeniyi says. "But we also want everyone to know about these new services we have coming, because it all fits into the same goal of helping our employees succeed."