February 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 52

To p F ive Over lo o k ed B es t Prac t ices

Staff Training and Development

The Exergaming Studio in Peoria makes exercise fun
while offering lifestyle and nutrition skills as well.

1. Your training and development programs should be strategic in
nature and structure. Evaluate whether your training program allows you to maximize your strategic business model or plan. Your
training initiatives should be clearly aligned with the business results you want to achieve. Focus on your core services, organizational values, key strategies, plans, performance management,
and succession planning, to mention a few. Many organizations allow employees to provide valuable input into their own training
and development plan. All employees should have an individual learning plan, and they should be encouraged to identify what
they think they need in terms of what is critical to the business.

2. Agencies with a strong, capable workforce are those who continue to invest in training even during lean budget years. These organizations know they will have the competitive advantage when
the economy has bounced back. Smart executives understand they
must find creative ways to strengthen their workforce and that
their continuous efforts will be to their competitive advantage.

3. Smart organizations use different types of training methods. Methods range from the obvious classroom training to e-learning, co-workers
sharing through train-the-trainers, self-directed and self-initiated training by staff, computer tutorials, and so on. You must understand that
each employee has his or her most effective learning style. Some people are more auditory, and some are more visual. You must also keep
in mind that some of your employees are not native-English speakers and might need appropriate translations or visual demonstrations (e.g., how to change a cup on a golf green). Don't forget about
your volunteer workforce; sometimes we tend to forget about them.

4. Effective organizations have " on the job " training programs.
These should be carefully monitored and managed by supervisors, with specific proficiency skills to be developed and the expected dates the skills should be achieved. Also, each job classification
should have different levels within the job class. For example, if you
-begin your job as a recreation coordinator, the skills you should bring
to the position and the skill, knowledge and abilities that should be
acquired while at level 1, 2, and so on in that position are specified.

5. Effective training programs should include not only initial training programs, but refresher training as well. If you don't use it, you
lose it. Good training and development courses also should evaluate the true content and relevancy of the learning outcomes. How
do you know if you achieved what you intended to achieve? Can
the employee do what you intended for him or her to master?
BY Carolyn Bray, Director of Equipment and
Building Services for the City of Dallas, Texas.

50 Parks & Recreation

FEBRUARY 2011

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the ExerGaming Studio with their children, which also
includes education sessions in lifestyle changes, nutrition, and healthy habits. The program is the subject of
an ongoing University of Illinois College of Medicine
clinical research study, providing continuous testing
and retesting.
Meanwhile, the local community helped in establishing many of the operating practices at a new
recreation center in Lee's Summit. " We do design
charrettes and operational charrettes, " Lovell says.
" For a multi-generational center that we built a couple years ago, we did an operational charrette-the
people who were actually going to be using the facility came in over two nights. " Once the community members saw the floor space available and were
briefed on the actual costs involved in offering certain programs, there was more buy-in on the price
points, Lovell explains. All of Lee's Summit's recreational programs are financially self-sustaining,
with a citizen-supported " Angel Fund " assisting
with program fees for those who can't afford them.

Team Practice
Once you have determined the best practices that
will be suitable for your agency's situation, how do
you incorporate those practices into not only your
day-to-day operations, but into your department's
standards and culture? Ramsey suggests that it is always a work in progress. " You need to consider the
personalities and work within a given time frame. "
Part of accommodating diversity is also recognizing
and respecting new minds among the staff, he says.
The Gurnee Park District in Illinois uses a team
environment where the values and standards of the
organization are created by a core group of staff
members-and then communicated throughout the
organization, according to Executive Director Susie
Kuruvilla. " We have a lot of fun. We laugh a lot-we
work so efficiently, we encourage people to have
fun. One thing research has shown over and over
again is that you really have to care for your staff-
you have to be a caring environment. No matter

February 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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