search.noResults

search.searching

saml.title
dataCollection.invalidEmail
note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
SKILLS FOR THE NEW ENVIRONMENT


DEVELOPING IN-HOUSE LEARNING PROGRAMS IS A COMPLEX BUT REWARDING EFFORT


A


s vice president of learning and development at Belmont Village, LP, a provider with about 30 communities, Troy Yates had to work fast to both


strategize and upgrade learning needed during and after the pandemic crisis. Here, he discusses what’s ahead in workplace learning.


Q. Did your approach to learning and training change during COVID-19—and and do you see any of these changes continuing? A. Without a doubt, yes on both ac- counts. During the pandemic, we scaled back our in-person instruction and training, such as human-touch classes/exercises, and increasingly relied on virtual learning. After months of virtual training as the


norm, we were concerned that employee engagement may falter with the reduction of in-person learning. For this reason, we upgraded several of our online courses to make them more interactive, engaging, and fun—a welcome improvement that has been well-received by all. For managers, we created a new skill de-


velopment series in the form of live virtual sessions (primarily via Zoom) that focus on the learning of systems, soft skills, and a variety of other subjects. It has been a win- win, as our managers like having these new learning opportunities available to them. We will continue to expand these learning opportunities in 2021 and beyond. Our COVID-19 Vaccine Educational


campaign for staff members resulted in in- dustry-leading participation percentages in our vaccination effort. To aid in this effort, we put together a learning tool chest com- prised of in-house solutions for both group and one-on-one education. This allowed us to pull together all of our resources and


30 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JULY/AUGUST 2021


systems quickly to maximize the number of educational tools available. We now have a great method to model after in the event of a future crisis. Even with all of the significant online


improvements, our teams realized that they wanted to return to the use of in-person group training sessions. Under the adher- ence of strict safety guidelines, we were able to reinstate them in early 2021.


Q. Did you have to do cross- training during COVID-19, or had you done that before? Why or why not? A. Cross-training has always been structured based on the needs of the community that the employee works for. For example: if a caregiver also wants to work as a food server and that specific community wants to build their pipeline of food servers, management will have them cross-train as a food server. During COVID-19, this practice con-


tinued, but we didn’t see the demand for cross-training increase. This was largely due to our departmental teams having sufficient staff that were, if needed, willing to cover extra shifts.


Q. Belmont Village has a strong onboarding program and in- house certifications. How are these developed? Can you briefly walk through a learning program from concept to execution? A. We’ve had a great deal of success with our certification programs, such as the ones we developed for enrichment leaders, dementia staff, PALs (Caregivers), trainers, and safety. All programs were developed in- house by our corporate training department and in conjunction with experts associated with the subject matter. They are all pilot- ed internally and carefully modified before they are launched company-wide.


For example, to develop our Dementia


Training Certification Program, we re- searched various dementia training solu- tions in the marketplace before deciding to create our own process and content. This program uses a phased approach to cover basic dementia training during on-boarding before transitioning to our advanced de- mentia training process, which is our most popular training with our front-line staff. Our advanced dementia training is fa-


cilitated in-person by our memory program coordinators, who are certified internally as trainers using a rigorous curriculum of learning exercises that are designed to make learning fun. Training is divided into two classes, which allows our staff to absorb the material progressively. Over the years, we have enhanced our


training curriculum and modified the exercises to maximize the learning ex- perience. In doing so, we have created a learning environment that is truly focused on quality competency development, not just compliance. This raises the bar with employee confidence, customer service de- livery, and a variety of other qualities. As we see more new employees who are entering the senior living industry for the first time, it’s critical that we have a rigorous and com- prehensive on-boarding process that allows for some customization for the learner.


Q. Are you still supporting getting to 100 percent Certified Director of Assisted Living certification? Yes! Our executive directors highly value the CDAL program. We will continue to re- quire our executive directors to renew their certifications and have our new executive directors complete it.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56