How can your Communications Training Officers help you keep new employees?
In a perfect world, employee retention would no longer be an issue in most 9-1-1 Communication Centers. In reality, retaining employees is a real struggle. Sometimes, this could be due to retirements, job stress, or family dynamics; but what if inadequate training was another reason? None of us want to believe our training programs or trainers are flawed; however, it may be the truth. After extensive research on 9-1-1 dispatch training, it is apparent the lack of consistent training may be a significant contributing factor to the loss of new employees.
Ask yourself a few questions:
- When was the last time you had the opportunity to really review your agency’s training program?
- Is it outdated?
- Does it need to be revised?
Why not start with one of the crucial members of your training team, the Communications Training Officers (CTO), by giving them the tools they need to be successful? If CTO’s received training to better understand their role and the essential components of a training program, would they not be more eager to be trainers? Possessing this understanding would lead to more confident, reliable, and positive trainers who, in turn, create confident, competent, and optimistic employees, who are more likely to stay with the agency long term. Ultimately, adequately trained CTO’s working with a good training program could result in employee retention. Trainers experience fatigue, stress, and emotional breakdown, so it is vital to continually recruit new trainers to train new employees. Experienced and new trainers could have the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of their role by attending a P.O.S.T. certified CTO course. They could learn how to document appropriately, what facts need to be in an evaluation, how to use a training manual effectively, and, most importantly, the liability of being a CTO. Taking the time to train your CTO’s is the first step to their success as well as their trainees.
Tami Grammer-Director of Communications Training @21 CLETS, LLC
