At animal shelters, where the cost of a staff member's mistake could be the life of an animal, training is one of the most critical elements of successful operations.
However, in a recent Maddie's InstituteSM survey of companion-animal care organizations across the country, 51 percent of employees rated the quality of initial training as neutral to very poor. Additionally, only 22 percent of paid employees and 18 percent of volunteers reported that their organization had a system for soliciting feedback on training.
How can your shelter turn that around?
Assess the situation honestly. Effective organizations know that it's essential to continuously evaluate areas of need and match them to your training programs.
Survey your team. It's equally essential to actively solicit feedback from the employees and volunteers being trained. And if you want honest information you can act on, let them respond anonymously.
Implement a training program. After you have assessed your organization's status and reviewed your staff's feedback, design and implement a training program.
Assess the situation again. After the training program is in operation, evaluate things in your shelter again. Are tasks being done more reliably, is staff turnover and morale improving, are more animals being saved, are the animals in your care less stressed and healthier? Don't just ask yourself these questions; survey your staff and volunteers again, too.
Revise your program as necessary. Few things are as demoralizing as giving feedback only to have it ignored. Make changes to your training program to reflect your own assessment and the survey responses of your staff.
Need help getting started? Click here for a sample training evaluation survey.
You can see more training and development tips here, and view or download a PDF of the entire survey report here.