Building Stronger Workplaces Through Relational Skills

New Relational Skills Certification

CoreThink Training is proud to share that founder and lead facilitator Shahina Suleman has recently completed the Master Relational Skills Certification through Workplace Connections — an advanced credential grounded in Canada’s Skills for Success framework.

This certification represents more than professional development. It strengthens CoreThink’s ability to support employers and community agencies in building resilient, adaptable, and high-performing workforces in an increasingly complex labour market.

What are relational skills?

Relational skills are the human skills that enable people to work well together. Often referred to as “people skills” or “soft skills,” they include communication, collaboration, adaptability, creativity, and innovation — the capabilities that shape how teams function, solve problems, and respond to change.

In practice, relational skills influence how clearly instructions are understood, how confidently employees communicate, how teams collaborate across roles and cultures, and how organizations adapt when conditions shift. They are not abstract concepts; they are the daily behaviours that determine whether workplaces run smoothly or struggle with miscommunication, conflict, and inefficiency.

Building on proven Skills for Success expertise

Shahina previously completed the Skills for Success Workplace Practitioner and Relational Skills Trainer certifications. The Master Relational Skills certification builds on that foundation with a deeper, more strategic focus. The advanced training strengthens organizational mapping, systems thinking, and leadership engagement, while providing a validated framework for addressing complex workforce challenges.

For employers and agencies, this matters because it connects training directly to organizational outcomes — not just individual development. The certification builds on CoreThink's expertise when working with leadership teams, supervisors, and frontline workers, helping align skills development with business goals, productivity, and long-term workforce stability.

Addressing real workplace challenges

Organizations today face interconnected challenges:

• Miscommunication across teams and roles
• Language and literacy barriers
• Cultural and generational differences
• Leadership gaps between management and frontline staff
• Retention and engagement issues
• Change fatigue and low adaptability

Relational skills training directly addresses these pressures by strengthening how people relate to one another at work. Clear communication reduces errors and safety risks. Collaboration improves onboarding and integration. Adaptability supports change readiness. Creativity and innovation strengthen problem-solving and continuous improvement.

This is especially critical in sectors like manufacturing, hospitality, and healthcare, where workforce diversity is high, roles are interdependent, and performance depends on trust, clarity, and teamwork.

Inclusion, resilience, and workforce sustainability

The Skills for Success framework, and particularly the Master Relational Skills certification, supports diversity, equity, and inclusion in practical ways. It moves beyond policies and statements to focus on everyday behaviours, workplace culture, and real inclusion — including cultural competence, accessibility, neurodiversity, and psychological safety.

Rather than treating training as a one-off intervention, the approach builds a growth mindset and continuous learning culture, helping organizations develop teams that are resilient, adaptable, and capable of navigating ongoing change.

What this means for employers and agencies

For organizations working with CoreThink Training, this certification strengthens the impact of every engagement. It means:

• Training that is aligned with Canada’s Skills for Success framework
• Programs grounded in real operational realities, not theory
• Stronger integration between workforce development and business strategy
• A focus on measurable outcomes: communication, retention, safety, productivity, engagement, and leadership capacity
• A strengths-based, collaborative approach that builds confidence and capability at every level of the organization

Relational skills are not “nice to have.” They are foundational to workforce performance, organizational resilience, and long-term success.

With Shahina’s Master Relational Skills certification, CoreThink Training is even better positioned to help employers and community agencies build workplaces where people thrive — and where organizations grow stronger through the people who power them.