August 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 64

Operations
Customer Service
Is Always in Season

Tips to get the most from your seasonal staff training
By Elizabeth Beard

" W

hen you step into the workplace, it's not about you - it's
about how you can serve others, " says LoriKay " LK " Paden,
an academic advisor and trainer/consultant at the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. " If you take the time to think about the people you're serving and who you're there for, and also about the people you work
with, everyone's going to have a better experience. "
Paden regularly does training sessions for local park and recreation
agencies, whether it's customer-service
training for full-time staff or to kick
off the start of summer camp seasonal staff training. And she's finding that
the " it's all about me " mentality held
by many incoming staff members isn't
just confined to Gen Y or Millennials.
" I see it from people of all generations, " Paden explains. " Negativity
spreads like wildfire. "
This sense of entitlement doesn't
work well in a service industry like
parks and recreation. Departments
everywhere are " starving for good
customer service, " Paden says. But
agencies can turn this mentality
around by showing employees the
impact that they're having on people's lives. One exercise involves staff
inventing their own job titles, like
" role model, " " superhero, " " friend "
or " coach. " This strategy shifts the
focus from " me " to " others " and
also plays into two strengths that
Paden sees in today's seasonal staff:
first-person experience with local recreation programming and a strong
desire to learn new career skills.
" I would say about 80 percent of seasonal staff I see coming into work grew

Parks & Recreation

up in these programs, " Paden says.
" They were positively impacted by a
camp leader or coach, and they want
to emulate that. You need to remind
them, 'Why are you here?' People
also want to build their skills in order
to help them in their future careers....I
call it wanting to be a lifechanger and
a memory maker. That's the positive
part, and they're receptive to it. "
One concept that can help build the
customer-service culture from the top
down is the " servant leader " model.
According to Paden, servant leaders
build their following by leading with
integrity, honesty and compassion.
" Many think they're becoming leaders, but they're missing fundamental
parts, " Paden says. " It's more than telling people what to do and where to go,
but wanting them to follow you. "
Managers need to set the standards
for customer service and evaluate
staff based on those same standards.
And rewarding and thanking employees should be planned in advance,
just like reprimands and discipline.
" It's about building them up and letting them know they're doing a good
job, or calling them out when a mistake
has been done and not just pushing it
under the carpet just because you're

| AU G U S T 2 0 1 3 | W W W. N R PA . O R G

busy, " Paden says. " Being consistent
throughout your season requires a plan,
whether it's midseason evaluations, a
newsletter to call people out for doing
things right, or equipping your lead staff
with notecards and candy bars so they
can write a note on someone's timesheet
that they've done a good job. If you do
that on the front end, it will create a
stronger and more positive culture. "
To keep seasonal staff engaged and
focused, traditional training methods
are being replaced with more participatory activities, sophisticated audio-visuals and " commercial breaks " where
staff can play games to get fired up.
" People need to stop using PowerPoint! " Paden exclaims. " Or if they
do, don't read each slide word for
word. It's about being real and being
lively. No one wants to be talked to. "
One obstacle to getting the customer-service culture ingrained in employees is simply the workload. Paden
notes that staff are often immediately
pigeon-holed into their positions because agencies are so busy. She recommends that every new staff person
be assigned to a mentor for their first
year. But hiring the right people in
the first place is still crucial.
" You can teach anybody almost
any technical skill, but you can't
teach people to be nice or be caring or
choose to serve. You've got to do that
in the hiring process. "
Elizabeth Beard is the Managing Editor of
Parks & Recreation (ebeard@nrpa.org).

August 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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