Supervisors are professionals who are responsible for overseeing all operations and employees within their departments. In most cases, supervisors report to managers and are responsible only for work that happens on specific shifts they supervise. These professionals do have special leadership duties, so many organizations require supervisors to participate in special supervisor training or seminars in which they can meet with other supervisors and practice honing their skills as supervisors. To choose the best supervisor seminar, it is important to consider the goals that you hope to achieve with this kind of training. For instance, if you would like to learn about ways to better supervise in your organization in particular, your best option might be to consult your manager and find out whether the organization for which you work offers special seminars.
For people who want to participate in supervisor seminars to advance their careers, the best ones might be those that enable participants to earn some kind of certification upon completion. In most cases, people who take these kinds of seminars enroll in programs offered by official professional organizations. If this is your goal, make sure that a supervisor seminar in which you enroll is recognized in your particular industry. You might find that for certain kinds of supervisor positions, such as those in manufacturing or healthcare, job candidates are required to earn this certification in order to practice.
If you are interested in learning some leadership skills from a supervisor seminar but are not looking for any kind of certification, it is important nonetheless that you participate in one that is designed or authored by an established professional. Before engaging in a seminar, you should make sure that it is designed or facilitated by a person who has years of experience as a successful manager, has taught relevant courses or perhaps wrote a book on the subject. Customer reviews of a supervisor seminar might be helpful for determining the strengths of a program, but keep in mind that most seminar facilitators are not going to post or draw attention to negative reviews.
Some professionals prefer supervisor seminars where they can network with other people in their field. For example, if you sell a certain product, such as software, you could attend a seminar where you can meet others in your industry and discuss issues that are specific to your profession. This also is a great way to learn about new job openings and other opportunities.
