American University
PAE-T2-2: Employee Training Opportunities

AU offers various opportunities for cultural competence opportunities available to all AU employees in the form of stand-alone workshops, trainings, as well as certificate programs that include a set of workshops. See below for a brief description.

Staff Orientation (Mandatory)
a. During the staff orientation, new staff members will receive information about the history and culture of AU, university policies and procedures, benefits, payroll, and training. A campus tour designed specifically for staff members is also be included, as is an orientation to technology at AU.


Service-related
a. Creating a Service culture
This program examines the role of managers in creating and supporting American University's commitment to service. It is designed to help organizational leaders identify barriers to service excellence and to provide them with five leader practices to create a service culture. This is a four-hour program for supervisors of service providers.

b. Service Plus
This course is the foundation for AU's Service Excellence Program. Learn about the Service Success Loop and strategies for creating strong service-client relationships in a student-centered environment. Also learn how to deal with dissatisfied clients and communicate under challenging circumstances.

Building Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion Certificate

a. The Safe Space Program seeks to create a safer and more inclusive campus environment for all members of the campus community by reducing heterosexism, homophobia, and transphobia. The Center for Diversity and Inclusion offers three different LGBTQ specific workshops. They are the Safe Space Workshop, the Trans 101 workshop, and the Safe Space 2.0 continuing education sessions.

b. Generations in the Workplace: Veterans, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials—groups whose birth years span eight decades—bring unique values, histories, and attitudes to the office, which can sometimes result in a clash of work styles. Thirty-something employees might bemoan the meetings favored by Boomers, while Veterans might not get younger workers’ predilection for telecommuting from their neighborhood Starbucks. Through this workshop, ask questions of the people you work with, start a conversation around these generational issues.

c. Exploring Intercultural Communication
This workshop explores the impact of culture on our work lives and in our day-to-day
communications with one another. In this session, participants will learn fundamental concepts related to intercultural communication, discuss examples of how these concepts demonstrate themselves in the workplace, and identify barriers to communication and ways to overcome those barriers.

d. Valuing Diversity and Inclusion
The differences people bring to the workplace can promote tremendous creativity and innovation. Those same differences, however, also can contribute to misunderstandings as we bump up against each other with our different styles and work ethics. This course
creates awareness of how to recognize and appreciate differences leading to more options and better problem solving.

Additional resources:
http://www.american.edu/training/new.cfm
http://www.american.edu/training/managers.cfm
http://www.american.edu/ocl/cdi/