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Welcome to the SR&A February 2011 Newsletter! This issue comes with a note of celebration, as this month has marked our 20th year in business. We don't apologise if this piece sounds self-congratulatory - coping with the ups and downs of the UK economy during the period since 1991 has probably not been easy for any business psychology organisation, but we are glad to have progressed successfully, enthusiastically, and with a great service record with our clients. In addition to this however, we are also celebrating the completion of Chartering by one of our consultants, Vicky Edwards. We are delighted with Vicky's achievement as the article below will show.
In this issue we also have pieces on Licensed Quintax Training, our work with North Wales Police, news of some forthcoming high impact workshops, how to obtain re-affirmation at Level A and B and more besides!
If you think the Newsletter may be useful to a colleague, then why not use the 'forward email' link at the foot of the Newsletter to send a copy to their email address. They will only become subscribed to our list if they then choose to click the 'Join Our Mailing List' button on the left!
If you don't want to receive our Newsletter you can unsubscribe at the foot of this page. We limit ourselves in each one to around 5 or 6 main news items, and we don't send them out very often! We try to make the content useful to our clients and among the other articles there are some attractive offers for you to consider in each issue.
Finally you can get access to previous Newsletters by clicking the 'Newsletter Archive' option in the green 'Quick Links' box to the left of this introduction. If you check them out you will find a number of useful downloadable resources, from Quintax Norm and Type Tables to Learning Log materials for free use, and much more besides. You will also find helpful advice and some illustrative case studies involving Quintax and CMi. |
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SR&A Celebrate 20 years in Business | | | A Brief History of Our Time!
During the last 20 years SR&A consultants have been busy providing assessment and development services into virtually every sector of the UK economy and more widely in Europe and beyond. With strong credentials in psychometrics, individual differences, statistical analysis and experimental design, the business was focussed at the outset on the use of assessment and assessment tools in the workplace. Since that time we have been providing assessment and development centre consulting, psychometric training and assessment products - including both bespoke and off the shelf assessment tools - for private and public sector organisations of widely different types. Throughout the period we have also been supporting the BPS, both through the verification process in its efforts to establish Level A and B certification standards, and through the test review process to offer independent assessments of psychometric tools in current use.
Our early work was spent servicing the needs of some major retail chains, accountancy firms, and lawyers, with work for manufacturers, outplacement and career counselling firms, and some local authorities adding to the mix. Subsequently we started to acquire more public sector work with a variety of government Commissions, emergency services, civil service groups, and additional local authorities while adding to our private client sector list with pharmaceutical companies and others.
In the last few years we have extended our lists while working in some strategic partnerships to service the needs of, for example, the Valuation Office and the MoD. This work has enabled us to use our own project design and management skills while engaging some very distinguished Associates to help service contracts of national importance.
We intend to go on, through our consulting and training services and through our products such as Quintax, CMi, and the Discovery Series, building effective solutions that maintain our reputation for high quality delivery and client satisfaction.
If you feel some enthusiasm and engagement for what we do, and would like to know more about our services and products, why not contact Stuart Robertson on 0161 877 3277 or via email - to discuss things. You can also make contact through Stuart's LinkedIn page. We would like to meet you! | |
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Chromis Consulting becomes a Licensed Quintax Trainer! | | | Background
In our last issue we described the pleasure and pride we've taken over the years in the development and validation of the Quintax Personality Questionnaire. Naturally, we also think that this is more than just the authors' chauvinism in favour of a measure we have developed! Some years ago Quintax received an excellent BPS review, and we have done much validation research and product development since to build further value into the measure making it even more effective and predictive as a work based personality instrument.
Quintax has reached maturity with an impressive list of users. These range from individual consultants in career coaching, selection and elsewhere, through private sector companies in every area of the economy and also in the public sector. Here it has found use among major authorites such as the Ministry of Defence, the Audit Commission, the IPCC, and more, as well as an increasingly large group of local authorities and PCTs.
An opportunity for involvement
We also offered an opportunity for involvement in Quintax training to Chartered Psychologists interested in developing their skills and business into this area. In the past we have ourselves performed all of the training of people who want to become users of the questionnaire. However, as we want to see the instrument and its use more fully disseminated we decided to invite others who are interested in Quintax to help to promote this process further across the UK and beyond.
As a result we have now established an agreement with Chromis Consulting to take care of Quintax training in the South West of England. Amanda Gartshore heads up Chromis and has already run a pilot course based upon the SR&A model. This has given rise to a number of new registrations and we are looking forward to this link developing further in the future. Our desire is to create a collegiate interest in Quintax among a community of interested professionals across the UK. As we are still looking for other psychologists who may be interested in forging links with us in order to deal with other regions in the UK there is plenty of opportunity for involvement.
If you are interested in this possibility then contact Stuart on 0161 877 3277 or via email to see what being a Licensed Quintax Trainer involves and what it can offer. We would be delighted to discuss it further! | |
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Working with North Wales Police | Leadership Development Contract
Towards the end of last year we were delighted to win a contract to support the North Wales Police in their effort to mount a new leadership development programme. We have been working side by side with police staff since the contract came into being, providing a three day component of a five day programme for both uniform and police staff.
Content
The overall aim is to support delegates in developing confident leadership skills and abilities through
- Understanding the foundations and practice of leadership
- Enhanced self-awareness of personal competencies and styles
- Understanding how to harness the power of continuous learning at work.
A range of tools, reports on personal style, role plays and small group activities are used to develop develop skills and set an agenda for continued learning in the workplace. Inputs on approaches to some typical and generic management problems are included. A central part of the programme is the use of Quintax to provide a starting point for learning, through the acquisition of enhanced self awareness.
We've received excellent feedback about the programme, and particularly the role of Quintax, together with experiential and action learning based approaches.
Contact Derek Wilkie by email or on 0161 877 3277 if you would like to discuss how this approach might be of value in your organisation!
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New High Impact SR&A Workshops | | SR&A offer New Public/In-company Workshops
We are now offering a programme of 1 day participative, experiential and engaging management and leadership development workshops which are designed to have high and immediate impact in the workplace. Our focus is on developing delegate skills in key areas of leadership, managing conflict, managing change and innovation, and working in teams. The workshops are stand alone or they can be combined flexibly into a comprehensive development programme. Each workshop is led by a Chartered Psychologist with extensive experience of management and leadership development.
In our view the most effective managers combine accurate self-awareness with an appetite for continuous learning. Our workshops are designed to model these processes and so accelerate personal development. This approach has enabled us to build a track record in successfully delivering management and leadership development programmes to many private and public sector organisations (e.g. Atos Origin, North Wales Police, Valuation Office Agency). We ensure that participants are armed both with skills that they can apply immediately and longer-term development objectives that they can pursue in the workplace. - individual feedback on personal styles based on Quintax
- integration of up-to-date management thinking with practical know-how
- practical exercises for skill development
- a take away workbook containing notes, templates, and activities to reference and practice
- a personal action planning toolkit to enable participants to immediately put into practice targeted development objectives
Pricing Best of all, the workshops are available to individuals at the staggeringly reasonable price of £199 + VAT each with discounts available for group bookings. Option for Quintax Users
An added attraction for Quintax Users is that these workshops can be taken on a train-the-trainer basis for subsequent use with your own clients. If you are interested, please contact Derek Wilkie for details using the information below.
Forthcoming Dates
Developing your Leadership Style will be running on 2nd March and 15th April.
Managing Conflict will be running on 14th March and 13th May.
Managing Change and Innovation will be running on 1st April and 7th June.
Team Development is for in-company booking only.
All the public programmes will be running on our premises in Manchester. Team Development can be run on company premises or at our offices as desired.
To make a booking please complete and return the booking form or call us on 0161 877 3277 (or email) to discuss your requirements with either Derek Wilkie or Vicky Edwards. |
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Looking for re-affirmation at Level A or B? Then read on! | | | Background
In recent months we have been working with individual test users who have been trained on Level A and B courses in the past but for one reason or another did not pick up their British Psychological Society certification. Occasionally this has occurred because the delegate has simply not submitted their affirmation forms within the required 1 year of grace in order to collect the relevant certificate. At other times it has been because the delegate has not submitted some final piece of follow-up work, and may have got out of kilter with the trainer's requirements.
A Solution for Past Delegates
It is now possible for such delegates to meet with a Verified Assessor (the BPS holds a list) who can discuss the delegate's position individually and conduct an assessment for affirmation or re-affirmation at Level A and/or at Level B. Psychologists at SR&A - including Stuart Robertson - have helped to suggest this scheme and are fully participating in it.
The process may involve going through previous assessed work, repeating elements such as a test administration or a feedback, checking some critical competencies around understanding of test principles as determined by the individual's experience and situation, etc. This activity rarely takes less than a day per certificate, and this can vary again depending on the individual's situation, the time that has passed since the original assessment etc.
If you are in this position and want to receive that long delayed BPS Certificate to demonstrate national recognition for your skills, call us today for information or email Stuart. We can help!
The Psychological Test Centre (PTC) has many of the details of the new scheme - it is a part of the BPS - click here to visit its website for more information. | |
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Vicky Edwards becomes Chartered | | | Congratulations are Due!
We are delighted to announce that Vicky Edwards, a Consultant Psychologist at SR&A, has recently acquired Chartered status with the British Psychological Society. We would like to congratulate Vicky on all the hard work she has put into the process of Chartering. It has also been a great pleasure for us at SR&A to be able to provide the range of work necessary for Vicky to complete Chartering.
We are sure Vicky would like to extend her own particular thanks to Dr Pat Lindley who has provided support and guidance to Vicky throughout the process. Pat is a distinguished occupational psychologist and we are most grateful to her for the time and energy she spent in supervising Vicky's work.
If you know Vicky and would like to send your congratulations, please feel free to email her at SR&A. | |
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Newsletter Feedback |
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Why not email us if you have any feedback on the content of this newsletter. If there are issues you want to raise or if there is content you would like to see in the next Newsletter we'd be glad to hear from you. If you have any bright ideas about our services or products that we can share with others we will ask you if we can include them in a forthcoming Newsletter.
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Who are we? |
| For Information
SR&A Limited is a UK company based in Manchester and registered at the address shown at the foot of this Newsletter under Company Registration No. 4887351. Specialising in Business Psychology, our company is led and run by Chartered Psychologists registered with the British Psychological Society. Through SR&A, our psychologists have been working with people in business and the public sector throughout the UK and more widely in the EC since 1990. Visit our website to see the full range of training courses, consulting services, and products we offer. |
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