Partnerships help stretch the L&D team of one, improve communication, and cross silos.

Regardless of title—whether it’s training specialist, manager, consultant, or an array of other talent development professional titles—many of us have worn several hats in our careers, often as the only person supporting many employees’ growth and development. At times in my career, I, too, have been the only person (sometimes with an assistant’s aid), supporting a large organizational workforce—doing so creatively, economically, and effectively.

One place I did so was at a major Catholic hospital in Washington, D.C., where I was the director of the hospital education department and oversaw one training specialist position and shared an administrative assistant. A second instance was at a local, private university, also in Washington. In that role, I worked as a health and safety training specialist.

The hospital, adjacent nursing home, and five remote facilities (rehab clinics and senior care facilities) had nearly 3,000 employees. I was responsible for the monthly new-hire orientation and the annual mandatory training for all the hospital’s employees—a daunting task indeed. It helped that the hospital’s mission was spiritually care-focused, one that all the patients, guests, staff, and especially leadership could appreciate and support. I was able to realize success with a leadership-team approach to training.

The solution

New-hire orientation. My department offered an orientation program monthly to approximately 40 to 60 new hires, coordinating closely with HR and the employee health department to ensure that all new employees cleared their pre-employment physicals and screenings before setting foot into the orientation.

As I restructured the orientation program, I asked the hospital’s directors, vice presidents, and the CEO (who happened to be a nun at the time) if they all would be part of a lineup of subject matter expert speakers and commit to greeting the new hires monthly with their set presentation, which I designed with each leader. The CEO kicked off each orientation (unless on travel) with the hospital’s mission. Having employees hear directly from the leadership team was a good way to ensure that the leadership message to new hires was consistent. It also gave employees the opportunity to question the expert on the spot—again, ensuring content accuracy.

I also restructured the program to bring both sides of the house—clinical and nonclinical—together initially for the orientation. Thereafter, they had separate learning paths with varying curriculums depending upon where they worked.

Annual mandatory training. Here, I again took advantage of partnerships with other areas of the organization. My department linked with the nursing education department to meet the hospital’s mandatory regulatory training requirement. For eight years, a team of nurse educators, my one training specialist, and my administrative assistant met at the end of the year to design the subsequent year’s annual mandatory training program for all staff members of the hospital, nursing home, and remote facilities.

Our team of five delivered all 25 sessions with one clinical and one nonclinical instructor tag-teaming each session: The registered nurses, me, and my staff rotated the three-hour training sessions annually. After five years of providing instructor-led training, I changed the delivery method to a poster-board hallway walk-through with a comprehensive quiz submitted at the end, available 24/7 for all hospital shifts.

Regulatory safety training. At the private university, I was the sole person responsible for all the regulatory safety training for the institution’s operations staff (electricians, mechanics, carpenters, groundskeepers, maintenance staff, etc.). Facilities administration had a training person whom I worked with often to schedule the staff training, but this person was not dedicated to keeping the university compliant with Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laws and regulations.

Within the first year, I designed more than 30 regulatory safety training courses, including a new laboratory safety training course that all the university’s researchers desperately needed, and I designed two course examinations on Blackboard for the university police department. I also recruited more than 250 participants and ran the university’s floor warden training program across all campuses in the District of Columbia and Virginia and trained floor wardens annually on emergency preparedness over the course of four years.

Results

The new-hire orientation program came at no cost to the hospital, which senior leadership loved. The format also created an opportunity for teamwork among us—which, again, leadership appreciated. Leaders showed up at every orientation session or sent a designee when they were unable to attend, because they saw it as an opportunity to meet new employees across departments.

Bringing together clinical and nonclinical staff in one orientation program saved duplicative work for the organization and began a bonding process for staff, which yielded great results for the hospital’s patients.

The instructor-led mandatory training brought staff together across silos, again generating teamwork. When the methodology changed to the hallway walk-through, staff could complete their annual mandatory training at any hour of the day with no registration process to complete. Although it was an intensive process to grade all the tests—a task that administrative staff took care of—the solution served as an economical substitute to the e-learning training I really wanted to institute at the hospital.

For the design and development of regulatory safety training at the university, I recruited experts within the safety and security department to help until I became a subject matter expert, which took about a year. They assisted with delivering the newly designed training and the hands-on safety demonstrations. Our leadership encouraged this cross-team education—members of the police department, emergency prep, ambulance services, and the health and safety team (all of whom were part of the safety and security department) taught each other and provided training to the university’s guest groups, including visiting high school students.

In the case of the university’s floor warden training, we not only maximized technology for training delivery (using online tools such as Blackboard, Skillsoft, and Skillport), but we also shared the load with training delivery across departments—which meant we didn’t need to outsource the training.

This success in both instances was possible due to buy-in from leadership and making use of the various skills, tools, and human resources. Doing so maximized cost containment and boosted teamwork. I never felt alone in either of these situations and was empowered to freely approach other leaders and staff for support. Thus, I was able to work across teams to design, develop, and deliver training. And while I led the effort, I made sure to give everyone credit for their contributions. When teamwork, technology, and leadership support are in place, the organization stays strong and you can get by with fewer resources than you think you’ll need.

Benefits for Patients

The hospital recognized better overall patient care due to the teamwork that resulted from bringing together clinical and nonclinical staff for the first part of their orientation.

Organizational Benefits

Breaking down silos and leadership involvement laid the groundwork for improved communications.

Resources Used

Tapping internal subject matter experts enabled both the hospital and university to avoid external consultant costs.