New Employee Onboarding suite of courses!

Jump start your New Staff training!

Park and recreation agencies are always hiring new staff-either seasonal, part-time or full-time staff. The first 90 days are crucial to successfully ‘onboard’ new employees. When seasonal staff start, often less than a few weeks prior to starting work, orientation to the agency and job can become hurried, difficult, and sometimes just plain ineffective.

Bringing on new employees, or onboarding is a critical process for helping new employees understand your organization and expectations to help them “hit the ground running.”. Research shows that effective onboarding, improves employee retention, performance, and morale among all staff significantly; especially seasonal and part-time staff.

The Eppley Institute’s New Employee Onboarding Training can reduce training costs and time while bringing an effective, consistent and comprehensive approach to existing new employee training. The suite of e-courses included in the online training were designed by agency leaders in the field as a powerful onboarding tool for parks and recreation agencies.

Easy to use, appealing to those comfortable with technology, agreeable with technology challenged learners, and verifiable by learning assessments, the online training is self-paced, reducing the time spent in massive orientation meetings, and maximizing the effectiveness of face-to-face time when there are training meetings. Additional benefits include:

• The online training can be given to employees prior to their first day at work, right after hiring and before more important in person training is conducted.
• The online training also provides critical health and safety information that park and recreation agencies can build on with a companion trainer-facilitator guide for use in conjunction with the online training.

Available for a limited time at $9 per employee, the Basics courses include:

Foundations of Parks and Recreation

It’s important for your seasonal staff to be able to relate to visitors why parks are important and how recreation benefits the community. This course will help them convey these concepts in ways that align with your agency’s mission, values, and goals.

Soft Skills and Professional Development

Helps your employees learn to effectively work with teammates, volunteers, and supervisors at your agency; mitigate and address interpersonal conflicts with your coworkers and visitors; and engage with the public and your agency’s users in a professional manner.

Health and Safety in the Workplace

Seasonal staff are often the first to identify a health or safety issue in your parks. Knowing how to deal with these situations protects both visitors and staff and reduces potential liability for your agency.

Worker Awareness and Protection from Opioid Waste and Associated Infectious Diseases Suite

Misuse of and addiction to opioids continues to be a national emergency and a danger that park employees are frequently exposed to. Knowing how to identify and manage an encounter with a person in crisis or associated waste products is essential for the safety of your staff and visitors and may save a life.

An Add-on Package can be purchased for an additional $20 per employee (total cost of $29 per employee) and includes:

Active Shooter: What You Can Do

Guidance to employees and managers so that they can prepare to respond to an active shooter situation. Developed in conjunction with the National Park Service using Department of Homeland Security experts, this module helps you prepare for the potential disaster that active shooter situations can create.

Foundations of Accessibility Micro-Learning Series

This series will help your seasonal staff consider the varied experiences of individuals with or affected by disability in order to treat everyone with respect and ensure equal access to parks and recreation opportunities for everyone.

Foundations of Human Health & Natural Environments

Outdoor environments can have a profound effect on human health. This course will help your employees understand the benefits of being outdoors and promote those benefits and your agency’s parks to your public.

Interpretation Training

Interpreters have a valuable role in connecting visitors to your agency’s natural, cultural, and historic resources. This mini-suite of interpretation basics courses will help seasonal employees effectively navigate contact with visitors and provide orientation, information, and interpretation. Courses include:

Companion Facilitation Guides

Once you enroll, you will have free access to companion facilitation guides and short training courses to help you use them. Each guide has tailored, trainer-led activities to help engage staff in ACTIVE LEARNING and DISCUSSION.

As a trainer of staff, you will have the flexibility to select one or more of the activities to reinforce the materials covered in the e-courses. The activities serve the following purposes:

• Provide an opportunity for peers to learn from each other,
• Assist staff in retaining the information presented in the e-courses,
• Engage staff in active learning through group activities
• Provide a sense of connection to YOUR agency mission, and
• Enhance seasonal and part-time staff morale.

The facilitation guides are specifically designed for small groups (of less than 10) or large groups (of more than 10).

Getting Started

Getting started is easy. Click Enroll. You will then enter the number of learners who will have access to the training. After you complete the transaction, you will receive an invitation to the program page so you can register your employees for the suite of courses. Click here to enroll.

Since this is a limited time offer for 2020, agency purchasing is only available until July 1, 2020. Once your employees enroll in the suite of courses, they have up to 90 days or September 1, 2020 (whichever comes first), to complete the training.