Pacific Business News

February 24, 2006

Easter Seals U offers valuable training lessons

by Sally Little

Management training contributes to greater efficiencies in the operations of a nonprofit and reduces staff turnover.

Making mistakes and replacing employees can prove costly and detract from the organization's ability to fulfill their mission.

Recognizing that management training is a critical component for a nonprofit's success, Easter Seals Hawaii has established Easter Seals University.

“When our managers are successful, we all win,” states Naoi Yuen, Vice President of Human Resources for Easter Seals Hawaii.

Emphasizing the importance of developing leadership and management skills and blending compassion with accountability, Easter Seals Hawaii has developed a model that other nonprofits may wish to adopt to meet their staff development needs.

The following tips are based on lessons learned in creating and coordinating Easter Seals University.

* Make a commitment to staff development. Human resource development is at the core of the strategic plan approved by Easter Seals Hawaii's board of directors. The board has appropriated the necessary funds to finance the project and actively support the efforts of the coordinators.

* Clarify your objectives. Make sure you know what you want to accomplish. Have a focus. As Easter Seals Hawaii has grown from 110 to 330 employees, so has the diversity of staff in terms of age. As a result, the most recent Easter Seals University focused on the challenges of leading and managing staff from different generations.

* Start small. Over the past seven years, Easter Seals University has grown from a one-day program once a year to a two-day program twice a year. This has allowed the senior leadership team to refine the program as it has grown and insure that it is meeting the organization's specific needs.

* Schedule strategically. Easter Seals University is scheduled during late fall and early spring. These are historically less-busy times for their managers. The coordinators have also found that potential speakers are more available during these times.

* Solicit continual feedback. Many workshop planners wait until the end of the day to request feedback from the attendees. At Easter Seals University feedback is solicited every one and a half hours and recorded on a white board. This insures that training materials are relevant and that the managers are processing and assimilating the information.

* Find presenters who connect-the-dots. Make sure the presenters you hire are very knowledgeable about the work your managers do. In addition, the presenters should be familiar with the mission, your customers and the strategic direction of your organization. For example, a trainer on customer relations should know the customer service issues of your agency and how the managers can meld this newly acquired knowledge into their own situations. Otherwise the training is irrelevant.

* Stay in the big picture. Easter Seals University is not about teaching managers how to fill out forms and the other technical requirements of their jobs. It is about helping them become better leaders and managers. Topics include critical thinking skills and helping managers understand the process of decision making.

* Manage the content. During any staff development session it is easy to overwhelm the participants. Make sure your managers do not suffer from information overload. They should walk away from this learning experience with three or four distinct messages.

* Group your managers. As the number of managers has increased at Easter Seals Hawaii, the coordinators have segmented Easter Seals University in to two components. The spring leadership training is for those managers with greater experience in management and a higher level of responsibility. The fall session is designed for direct line and emerging managers.

* Hire a full-time training manager. Since its inception Easter Seals University has been coordinated by the CEO and Vice President of Human Resources. As the number of employees and managers has grown, a staff dedicated to Easter Seals University and other training opportunities has become necessary.

Not only is Easter Seals University meeting the strategic goals of the organization, it is also immensely popular with the management staff. The skills they have learned have helped them in both their personal and professional lives.

Linda Guess, a 26-year veteran program manager with Easter Seals Hawaii said Easter Seals University “gives me a new energy and allows me to see my job with a different set of eyes and the vision to keep me going.”

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