Training Industry Quarterly - Spring 2009 - (Page 30)

MEET DALE TOWERY PEER REVIEW W hen it comes to training, Dale Towery has one of those “best of all worlds” type backgrounds. Now director of training for Medical Staffing Network, a national leader in healthcare staffing, Towery earned his stripes in training from some of the toughest teachers available. First up was the U.S. Army, where Towery spent eight years as an Infantryman, moving up the ranks to sergeant while being posted in places like Bosnia. Anyone who’s ever spent time in the military has learned the same thing Towery did. “In the Army, you’re always training,” he said. “It’s one of those things you spend a lot of time doing.” After leaving the service, Towery immersed himself in another training-rich environment, college, where he studied for and received a degree in computer information systems, a gift that’s kept on giving as technology continues to fuel corporate education. Towery’s next step was the hospitality industry, where turnover is high, customer service is key, and processes and systems change rapidly, all making training mission-critical. Working with La Quinta Inns, Towery moved upward through the organization, with a concentration on training. Finally, Towery took his first position where training, arguably, operates at its highest levels: healthcare. Working first with NationsHealth, a medical supply company, Towery eventually took a position with Medical Staffing Network, where he’s now responsible for training for the per-diem side of the business, staffing nurses and allied health professionals for daily work at 120 branches in 40 different U.S. states. Towery and his colleagues are responsible for about 800 employees at those branches, including managers, HR coordinators and payroll teams. “It was sort of a natural transition for me, with what I’ve learned in the military and what I learned working in the hospitality industry and in the medical industry,” Towery said. “It was a natural transition from understanding and being able to put it together in a way that others are able to understand it.” In his more than two years at Medical Staffing Network, Towery has also overseen the company’s learning management system, which tracks about 200 courses and sees about 200 employees logging in daily. Some of the courseware ranges from basic onboarding information to training built around healthcare knowledge, helping to create agile employees who can discuss healthcare issues with potential clients seeking staffing assistance. That leveraging of the LMS helped earn Medical Staffing Network a 2008 customer excellence award from GeoLearning, for best overall use of the learning management system. Towery and his colleagues were able to increase learner usage of the LMS by more than 2,000 percent. Towery is enjoying the challenges of training in a busy industry, and has even worked on gaining better understandings of individual learning styles, in order to make education at Medical Staffing Network the most effective. “What’s the most appealing for me and the most rewarding is seeing it click for someone,” Towery said. “Seeing them be able to take what we taught them and apply it in the business world, in a real environment. That’s what motivates me.” 30 Training Industry Quarterly, Spring 2009 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Spring 2009

Training Industry Quarterly - Spring 2009
The American Heart Association: Learn and Live
Contents
Index
Winning Organizations Through People
The Business of Learning
Learning Technologies
Best Practices for Certification Training
7 Strategies for Employee Self-Development
Learning Today: Collaborative, Social and Learner-Driven
Driving Corporate Performance through Learning Partnerships
Meet Dale Towery
Meet Milynda Weis
The American Heart Association: Learn and Live
Closing Arguments

Training Industry Quarterly - Spring 2009