Contact Officer Workshop

The purpose of the 1 day Contact Officer Training Workshop program is to provide participants with the knowledge and practical skills to assist a colleague, through their support, information, referral and communication to enable the colleague to know what they can do in relation to their workplace issue and what options are available to assist them throughout the process.

Overview

Why Have Contact Officers? Contact Officers are people within a work place who in addition to their normal job also provide employees with confidential information, options and other resources in relation to a workplace issue. Contact Officers are a useful additional resource to employee assistance programs and provide employees with an internal information source to help them talk through what their options are.

Who is this course for?

As the role of a Contact Officer involves having well developed communication and interpersonal skills it is often appropriate to select people who are well liked and respected in the workplace. The Contact Officer must be good at managing his/her own emotions and other people’s emotions in difficult situations. However the Contact Officer is not a mediator and it is not their job to investigate the complaint or in any way resolve the issue. For this reason it is not recommended that any one in a position of authority or HR is a Contact Officer as their duty of care requirements could conflict with the confidential non-resolution role of a contact officer.

Course Description

The purpose of this 1 day course is to provide participants with the knowledge and practical skills to support, inform, refer and communicate effectively with a person who has a workplace issue. It also contains information for employees in relation to current legislation regarding discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying in the workplace and how to manage complaints.

What you will learn

• Practical understanding of what workplace discrimination, harassment and bullying could look like and how it impacts behaviours at work.
• What your complaint handling process is and how to explain it clearly to other employees
• Your responsibilities and liabilities as a Contact Officer
• Understand EEO related risk and liability for both your employer and the individual
• Be able to support and refer a person when they come to you with an issue
• Be able to identify when a matter needs to be referred to Human Resources, your Employee Assistance Program or another person/body
• Develop better communication skills

You will also get

• Useful checklists for having a conversation
• A resource book
• The experience of doing a role-play as a Contact Officer
• The ability to know how to listen, provide relevant information, generate possible options and refer to others when necessary.