Delegate Management Services, a newly formed occupational support services company, has signed a training agreement with a partner in Dubai to provide programmes for clients across the Gulf.
The Marsascala-based firm will design training and occupational psychology support programmes aimed at people holding management or executive posts besides providing consultancy services. Clients will range from oil and energy companies to IT firms based in countries including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and as far as Malaysia, managing director Phelim Cavlan told The Times Business.
Delegate Management Services was established six months ago to specialise in occupational psychology resources backed by a qualified and experienced team of specialists. It aims to help companies maximise human capital.
The company merges its two main strengths – its international team’s expertise in both IT and occupational psychology – to help knowledge workers develop or fine-tune their skills to enhance their performance at work. Programmes are particularly aimed to help technical people in a range of sectors, including financial services, improve communication and leadership skills to fulfil their potential.
Delegate Management Services’ portfolio incorporates psychometric testing, competence testing, and personality profiling. Short courses aimed at organisations’ higher echelons are based on ‘REAL’ programmes so that they are realistic, experiential, applied and long-lasting or evidence-based.
Its “Well @ Work” programme focuses on supporting employees to be more engaged and enthusiastic, raise their performance levels by guiding them to think more effectively, master tasks, and strike better work/life balances.
January will also see the launch of management retreats to coincide with firms launching their business plans for 2011.
Senior associate Vincent Cassar explained Delegate Management Services also aimed to satisfy the demand from companies seeking to externalise management of specific aspects related to staff during organisational changes such as restructuring.
The company works with internal teams to help them face up to change from both the psychological and business angles.
“When companies look at issues solely from a business or strategic point of view, they miss out on the most important sustainers of change – the people,” Dr Cassar pointed out.
“People very often have two forces: one is the status quo, the other is fear of the unknown. Very often the difference between occupational psychology and other approaches is that in occupational psychology we work on the dynamics that keep people from accepting challenges. It is a little like therapy or counselling. We first understand why people want to change and work on that. We identify strengths to mobilise them out of the impasse. It is more about the processes and the dynamics, unlike other perspectives which look at strategy and marketing.”
Dr Cassar explained how statistics on organisational change often showed how many programmes never get off the ground because the people who sustain them do not believe in them.
By applying organisational psychology to the workplace, Delegate Management Services was able to help firms identify the most suitable candidates for specific posts or help employees enhance their potential to perform better in their current roles, he added.
“Occupational psychology focuses on human dynamics in the workplace from performance to attitude. Psychometric testing looks at the context in which that candidate works. Personality is very important. Not everybody is appropriate for certain posts. We verify how fit people are for particular contexts. We offer tools that are scientifically validated to help clients make the most informed decision, not one based on biases or perception.”
Mr Cavlan added that testing was based mainly on the interpretation of results rather than simple scoring. With clients able to have a better picture of candidates, they would avoid unnecessarily costly or lengthy and duplicate selection processes in difficult trading times.
www.delegatemalta.com