Given the great variety of possible scenarios and objectives for PD advisory services and the wide range of personnel development instruments available, we will invite you to participate in a PD advisory session where we will jointly develop a tailor-made approach that suits your specific needs and the situation at your unit. One very important aspect of our approach is that you remain in full control of the scope, objectives, and contents of the process at all times.Possible reasons for using our PD advisory services:

• new team members

• new tasks that require specific training

• team conflict

• restructuring measures

• strategic reorientation

• high workload and stress

• dealing with differences among team members

• dealing with issues related to bilingual communication at WU

• processes of change

• etc.

If you are the head of a unit facing a specific challenge, and wonder if there are any personnel or organizational development instruments that may be helpful for mastering the situation at hand, just get in touch with us and we’ll take a look at the situation together during an informal preliminary meeting.

Together we’ll take a close look at your requirements to determine which PD measure best suits your needs. Below is a list of past PD advisory projects to provide some examples and illustrate the different types of PD measures that are available:

• A service unit with several new employees conducted a workshop of one and a half days, including team building activities intended to help create a better climate for collaboration and facilitated discussions intended to help the participants reflect on their role at WU and their interaction with academic units.

• A department used large-group facilitation services for conducting a strategy retreat with over 50 participants.

• An institute with a growing number of international staff members offered its employees an English course to better prepare them for using English as their everyday working language.

• With the help of a communication skills trainer, a service unit with frequent student contact developed a shared vision and understanding of its advisory services and worked on techniques for successful advising.

• An institute managed to resolve a long-standing conflict with the help of experienced mediators.

• A unit organized a project management workshop to prepare its employees for new tasks.Together with her team, the head of an institute made preparations for an extended stay abroad during a facilitated team retreat.

• Several units and institutes used the services of external consultants who provided guidance and advice with regard to restructuring processes. To prepare for the move to the new campus, a department conducted a workshop for its front office staff, providing an opportunity for the team members to get to know each other better and to prepare for new administrative and communicative challenges.

PD advisory projects provide tailor-made solutions designed to suit very specific needs, so the processes involved may vary considerably from project to project. Usually, however, PD advisory projects include the following stages:

• Preparatory stage

  • Preliminary consultations with the Personnel Development and Planning Office (PDP).

  • The PDP Office develops suggestions regarding.

    • the overall approach to be taken

    • potential external service providers (trainers, advisors, coaches, facilitators, mediators)

  • If necessary, further consultations are held between the head of the respective unit and the PDP Office to fine-tune the project.

  • Preparatory meeting with the external service provider (SP) involved in the project.

  • The PDP Office conducts price negotiations with the SP.

  • The SP submits an official bid.

  • The contract is awarded to the SP.

• The PD measure is carried out.

• Conclusion

  • The PDP Office receives and pays the invoice issued by the SP.

  • The deductible is charged to the unit that requested the PD project.

  • Quality assurance through feedback from the unit.

  • If necessary, meetings are held with the PDP office to discuss follow-up measures.

The costs of a PD advisory project depend on the scope of the measures employed and the rates charged by the external service providers selected for the project. The service providers will submit a binding bid, so you can plan for the expenses in advance. Your unit will have to pay a deductible of 50% of the total fee charged by the external service providers.

The PDP Office will receive and pay the invoice, and will then charge the deductible to your unit. Please note that we can only cover part of the actual fee charged by the external service providers. Your unit will have to cover any other expenses, e.g. for off-campus room bookings, hotel charges, catering, and transfers. Upon request, we’ll gladly recommend inexpensive options for these services.

English courses for your unit are an exception because they are eligible for special support as part of WU’s internationalization strategy. The deductible for English courses is € 20 per participant and day (one day = 8 hours), i.e. the same rate that is charged for English courses as part of WU’s in-house training program.