If you think training an employee is expensive, try not training them and watching them stay!
The quote comes from a very short, one minute video of a small business owner talking about his experience with training sales staff. He, like many of us, hired the best people he could find for the position. I’m sure he looked for experienced people with a passion for sales. He probably checked references and even did background checks. Hopefully, he hired people who got stellar recommendations and had excellent experience.
And then he put them to work. Perhaps he had them shadow one of his best salesmen for a day or two. They were given the company manual to read, and maybe a few videos to watch.
Does this sound familiar? Does it sound like your orientation and training program? It sounds an awful lot like the one I used for several years as a manager.
What if, with a little more investment in training, you could have a team that really understands your mission?
What if, with more personal, focused orientation and training you could have employees who excel quickly and who grasp, right away, your mission and message?
Who could, with their level of engagement and performance, create a palpable energy inside your building?
According to the researchers at the Gallup organization, you could double your revenue. If you could, as the result, equally engage your clients and their families, you could see a three fold increase in bottom line results.
Wouldn’t that be worth the investment, especially when you could really use the increased revenue?
Don’t you love it when someone recognizes your hard work? In our office we used to have a “Wall of Fame” where we’d print out emails and post letters from our clients.
One of the first ones I posted was from a woman who needed to renew her Administrator’s license and was just a few CEUs short. The problem was, she had just had a baby and wasn’t about to go to a class somewhere. We had just launched EasyCEU.com; she found us and got her CEUs.
In her letter, she described how she worked on her online class while her newborn infant slept in the basket right next to her chair. Sometimes, she said, she’d work on the class at 2 am – she was awake after feeding the baby, and it was quiet and peaceful.
We don’t have the wall of fame anymore as we hear daily from happy clients now.
I did get one email this week, though that made me want to re-establish the Wall. It was from a state regulator, reviewing our newest labor of love, the Caregiver Certification Course:
I was immensely impressed with the direct support provider class I took. I've been trying to find time to do a few more.
It was fun, funny and I was surprised that I was actually moved by the presentation. Just the elements you want for adult learners while conveying the facts. The software was great.
Sometimes when you’ve labored very hard to create something that will make a difference, it’s incredibly gratifying to be noticed.
Do you have a Wall of Fame for your team? Do you give your clients, residents or families a method to say great things about your people?
It’s an easy way to warm the hearts of the people in YOUR community who labor hard to make a difference!
If you’re a front line manager, the focus is on you to take your community through tough times. Owners and investors don’t seem to have much sympathy with, “It’s the economy,” as the reason for decreased census and budget shortfalls.
It’s up to you to sharpen the skills of your team and to find innovative ways to stay on track and in budget.
Just knowing that it is, in fact, the economy doesn’t really help. Knowing that you’re not alone doesn’t help much, either.
So what can you do?
One resource all managers and marketing staff should tap into is the Advanced Marketing Skills online course (it’s good for 20 CEUs, too) from our online administrator training site, EasyCEU.com. This course can help you understand how to maximize your results from every inquiry and build stronger referral relationships, too. It’s a great place to start.
Here are some other ideas – pick those that work for you:
1. Tap into the team’s ideas and energy. Make your team the idea machine. Take time each week to brainstorm ideas. Remember brainstorming? That’s when you come up with harebrained ideas as fast as you can, writing them all down without judgment and then see what jumps out at you as a great new idea after the process.
2. Live out your fantasies. Here’s one activity I do at least two or three times each year: Imagine you have no limits of time or money. What would you do to make things really rock for your company? Write them down. Then explore which of these you can make happen now, without the imagined unlimited resources. You may be surprised at how many of these things you can actually begin implementing right now just by shifting priorities or resources.
3. Train, train, train. Need to spruce up your customer service? Want to start a new program or service in your community? In this economy you don’t have time to lose. You need everyone – on every shift – really on board with the program, and fast. Find a way (we can help!) to train all your staff quickly, thoroughly and repetitively, if needed. When you’ve invested your time and resources to launch new ideas, ensure their success by getting everyone well trained quickly.
Got a great idea to share? Email me and I’ll pass it on!
Whether your job title is trainer, or you’re a trainer by default (usually because no one else can do it), a New Year is a great time for some new ideas.
OK, so there’s a little bit of hyperbole there, but the goal is one we can all relate to: training that’s fun and effective. Training that we don’t think about and dread…or worse, avoid thinking about at all until 10 minutes before everyone starts to gather. That’s the sort of training that doesn’t build skills and energize people; it has the opposite effect.
It communicates to the people in attendance that providing them with training is the lowest priority you have – not exactly the message you probably want to be sending.
Here are some training ideas from individuals who have taken the online course. Maybe these ideas will spark something in your mind!
From Susan J: I like to use modeling and role playing. I especially like to have each person pair up with a partner and take turns being the resident and the caregiver. Then follow up with how each felt about giving and receiving care.
From Andrew H: I have used "Trivial Pursuit" or some other board game as an opener and used it to transition to my topic that I am teaching on.
I have also used the format of game shows, like we did "Who wants to be a Social Worker?"(Re: Who wants to be a millionaire?) to teach about roles.
From Geoffrey H: Begin the session by having the participants learn each other's names by tossing a stuffed animal and repeating the previous names. To make it interesting each person says their name and creates a nickname using the first letter of their name. For example G for goofy. The next person catching the animal repeats the other names and says his. Game continues until everyone repeats all the names.
From Kym G: I work for a hospice and we use/offer a lot of complimentary therapies, i.e. massage, aroma, pet, music, art, etc. We coordinated a training for our staff with all of these therapies set up so they went from station to station and participated in each. It allowed staff to be better informed about all of these therapies, to experience them, and then better describe them to patients and their families.
Mary C: We had a Safety Fair in which all employees would go to different booths, headed by department heads, to cover mandatory training requirements. Each booth had decorated posters and games/quizzes. For each test with a perfect score, that employee's name went into a raffle for prizes that were drawn later. Lunch was provided for the staff leading the training and paychecks were given out at the last booth.
Cynthia L: As the administrator, I have always done the abuse/neglect inservices myself. I believe that the staff needs to hear the message directly from me. I have a large "Bugs Bunny" toy and have done sessions using "Bugs" as the focus. Everyone, no matter what position in the facility, can relate to character. We have done everything from introducing "Bugs" as a new resident and taught all staff to assess what the new resident needs (everyone knows Bugs likes carrots) to "How to investigate a fur tear." The prop allows for visual keys in addition to a humorous commonality that fosters participation from all levels of staff.
This year, try something new in your staff training. It will be fun, and it may become everyone’s favorite training memory, too!
Try something else new – online staff training – on us! If you’re an administrator or manager, we have 5 gift cards for online caregiver training (each good for one caregiver course) we’ll send your way – no cost or obligation. CLICK here to request your cards (be sure to include your name and mailing address, the facility your manage and the number of employees you have).
