Innovations in Employee Training Can Keep Everyone Up to Speed

Ray Foxworth, D.C., FICC, MCS-P

If your clinic trains employees by flopping down a stack of papers to read, or by forwarding them a list of not-so-updated documents to pore over, you may be thinking, “There’s got to be a better way.” You’d be right.

As we prepared to open a second practice last year, I was surprised to see how much of our employee training was not taking place. Years ago, when we were a much smaller business, I was responsible for training each new employee. Over time, that responsibility was delegated to other long-term employees. What I discovered was that a lot had changed over time, and some critical information was no longer being shared or taught to new staff. In some cases, it had not been taught to anyone. I was left wondering how long it had been since we stopped using certain processes. After speaking with our team and digging a little deeper, I discovered that there were some major challenges in our current training. I knew there had to be a better way to maintain consistency to ensure the success and compliance standards of our practice. Additionally, I had to be sure that the training would stand the test of time and turnover in the practice. Subsequently, I spent a lot of time researching various types of online training.

The online training space is constantly evolving these days to address one unavoidable fact: your employees are all different, complex people with their own motivations, their own personalities, their own schedules, and their own attention spans. What works for one will not work for all. That realization led us to develop a new Learning Management System (LMS) to help train our new employees and yours. This new virtual help and training platform helps make training more effective for anyone ranging from your longtime employee, who might be a bit tech-averse, to your 20-something new hire, who might be bored and put off by anything short of a modernized, techy onboarding experience.

“There are lots of options for learning in non-traditional ways these days,” says Penni Wells, Associate Director of Professional Programs at College of Professional Education, California State University Long Beach. “The options are almost endless in how to get people up to speed. And it doesn’t have to be expensive.” Since we are also a provider with ChiroHealthUSA, we knew that ease-of-use and affordability were a top priority, which is why our LMS is available to you at no charge as a provider benefit. The model for training our employees and yours came about from a couple of persistent questions. How do we fit training into employees’ tight schedules? How do we keep them engaged in the process of learning?

Here are some answers that are fast becoming standard best practices for companies large and small.

1. Just-in-time learning: This is simply delivering quick nuggets of info when employees need them, not when they have an hour to work through a training module. For instance, your clinic puts in place a new billing procedure. You want the training to occur right before the change takes place so it is fresh in your employees’ minds, not when they can find the time for a lengthy formal training session.

2. Micro-learning: As Wells puts it, “Micro-learning is an emergent learning strategy known for quickly closing skill and knowledge gaps. It seems to be an ideal instructional approach for many situations because information changes quickly.” Focusing on targeted learning modules that last from 3 to 6 minutes, this type of training occurs within social interactions but outside of formal training environments. And it is what people expect in a world where you can Google the information you need whenever you want.

How to get started on reworking your training process

In the coming months, you will receive an email with information to access the LMS. The first modules have been created, and more are on the way. To ensure the success of you and your team, we recommend that you spend time walking through the different modules. Review the LMS with your team during an upcoming meeting, assign modules to complete and monitor their progress from the dashboard. Each module is segmented into short, 2-3-minute videos with a quiz to make it easy for you and your staff to fit training into your already busy schedules.

As our network of providers (over 4,700) and the patients we serve (over 700,000) continues to grow, we continue to work hard to live up to our promise as “the network that works for chiropractic.” That commitment has allowed us to provide our clinics:

• Access to our new Virtual Help and Training Center with video modules and additional resources designed to help you and your employees be more successful
• Ways to take compliance to the next level with ChiroArmor and CHUSAdefense™
• Exclusive discounts on services and new products to help grow and build your practice.

Thank you for being part of the network. We welcome your feedback on the new LMS system and can’t wait to hear from you and your team.