SPECIAL FOCUS

Photo by Kim Harrison, Streamwood Park District aquatic supervisor.

... and then ill teach my dog to sing! adventures in pool staff care BY RICK MISSING, CPRP

It's probably the most important extended and ongoing process that pool managers face: training and educating their staffs. Often confronted with a high turnover rate, lack of work experience, youth and well-meaning but inexperienced people, pool mangers have their work cut out for them each day, month and season.

In 1999 at the Buffalo Grove Park District, we examined our staff and began an internal review to change the way we worked and how we approached our staff with the goal of improving our relations with the pool staff. After five years, our staff retention is high and our return rate is outstanding. For example, in 2004, 96 percent of our staff returned, and those that left either got married or graduated from college and now have full-time jobs. Staff morale is terrific, and our staff skill proficiency is high. Our pool staff has a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the pool, and they know our expectations are high for customer service. Additionally, they understand that we believe that they are our most important people involved in ensuring the personal safety of our patrons. How we handle our staff may not be perfect, but it has worked for us. We still struggle with personal issues and might not have all the answers, but we try as hard as we can to meet the individual needs of our staff as often as necessary.

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The Itosca Park District's lifeguard team competes in the "Two-Person Rescue Relay" at the 2003 Lifeguard Games. Photo by Maryfron Leno.

Let's set the table. Most of our pool staff is under the age of 18. For many of them, lifeguarding for the park district is their first job. Most of them don't have to work, and many of them don't understand what the job is all about. Some of them quit by the end of their orientation session, and those that don't only want to work in the summer. Most weigh between 80 and 150 pounds, yet will be trained to rescue patrons who weigh twice that. Most lack maturity, have no sense of responsibility and question authority.

So, how do we train and keep staff? One approach is to keep a "human" element present when we teach and supervise our pool staff.

One thing I've noticed about training staff is that boredom sets in rather quickly when it comes to introducing or reviewing issues and procedures. Even for facilitators, the process becomes monotonous, grueling, trench-mouthed and frustrating.

The key to successful training is to keep the process fresh and lively. But how? Since 1999, we've used a variety of training "games" as part of our inservice activities. A great resource for us has been the Recreation Sections' own "Lifeguard Games." Using some of the team concepts straight from the summer games has added a fresh approach to guard training. The competition sharpens our guards' attention on the tasks presented to them, improves their communications and refines their life saving skills.

Need to find a leader? Look closely at the efforts during these team events. Next summer's manager may be right before your eyes, building skills and maturing without any training.

We play head games, too: word search puzzles, quizzes, crossword puzzles and now game shows. Our first attempt was Pool Jeopardy! Categories were on such subjects as "training manuals," "PDRMA," "The Illinois Beach Code," "Famous People," etc. We even had our own version of Final Jeopardy! (Do you know the origin of swimming pools? If you guessed ancient Rome — you are correct!) It was a tremendous success. A contagious excitement mounted as the game progressed. Managers were initially excluded from participating, but by the second round they were jumping out of their seats to play. We have played other game shows like Pool Family Feud, and most recently Tic-Tac-Toe. Each and every game has been fun and worth the time it takes to prepare.

Of course, it's not all fun and games for the sake of fun and games. Each

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The Lombard Park District team strikes a pose at the 2003 Lifeguard Games. Photo by Maryfran Leno.

element of staff training has the underlying intention to educate and reinforce policies, safety, communication and awareness to all staff. It's true that conditioning and skills training are crucial, but adding some fun increases attention and retention levels.

Another element that we encourage is participation from seasonal managers and coordinators. Having them plan and organize training segments has been rewarding for everyone involved. It allows the managers to prepare a presentation in an area where they feel staff needs special attention. We wanted to make sure that managers take a greater role than simply showing up. This allows them to use their experience and expertise. (They also get to feel the frustration of a well-planned exercise gone bad.) It pushes them to find better ways to relate or demonstrate skills and principles. They are part of the process, not spectators. It's a realized opportunity for them to demonstrate responsibility and to test them. Our staff has not disappointed us with their results.

PIER stands for Performance, Improvement, Evaluation and Response (PIER).

We developed this program to help us train our novice staff. We recognized that 90 percent of the time staff members were receiving negative comments (write-ups or other discipline). But why? These constant negatives were overshadowing the positives. Staff morale flagged. We asked ourselves how could we change this and make our work environment more productive. How could we create a work environment where potential employees would hear good things and want to come to work for our district?

We had to build trust and take a new course.

PIER was developed on these four principles:

Performance: See how people work. Record both good and bad.

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The Belvidere Park District brought its own cheering squad to the 2003 Lifeguard Games. Photo by Maryfran Leno.

Improvement: Train and then re-train. Not all employees are perfect, and we employers needed to take age, maturity and ability into account. We can re-train bad employees and make them better.

Evaluation: By keeping a database of work performance, employee evaluations are more objective and less subjective. Increased documentation has eliminated the guesswork from our reviews. We take time to evaluate all employees four times per year. The feedback helps us make them better guards, instructors and managers. With a large staff it is difficult to remember all the little things, but because we have PIER reports, the evaluations are specific and clear.

Response: Employees get to respond to the PIER report and they always know where they stand.

Full-time, year-round park district supervisors had to learn to be better hands-on managers and better motivators. We had to dedicate ourselves to help develop "life-skills" for our younger, temporary staff. We had to recognize that telling them to "take what you learn now and build on these skills for real-life situations" is an important aspect of their employment experience, just like building communication, problem-solving and decision-making skills are.

We committed to the fact that we would allow our staff to grow and learn We learned to coach and develop. We may have hired inexperienced workers, but we dedicated ourselves to be willing (without fail) to continue to train these young adults as long as they work for us.

PIER reports are just that - reports. Managers and coordinators fill them out as they recognize accomplishments and errors. Because there is no possible way for a pool supervisor to be present 24/7, this was a great way to remain aware of staff workings. Old managers initially used these reports for only negative reporting because that is how they were taught. Eventually they started seeing good things. The staff is also starting to do work without being told. They have started taking ownership, showing independent thinking and problem solving — without supervision. Managers have also begun working differently. They "feed" off the positives. Many of them step right in and offer those elusive "beyond the call of duty" job tasks.

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Yeah, all right, we all do them. They are a pain — always have been and always will be. But we decided to expand the current form to include space for quarterly evaluations. This way, for each year, we can track improvement for each individual. Up to three managers/coordinators are included in this process. It is up to the administrative staff to follow up with comments and suggestions for each individual. The key component to this part of the process is that the individual always knows his or her status, and nothing is hidden. Staff members can add suggestions and comments as needed. Some employees are grateful for negatives because they know that we will be working to make them better and improvement is just around the corner.

Recognition is the most important element that we've found to work. It's nothing you can budget for or put your finger on. It's just a simple and effective technique that we put a lot of effort into. "Managing by walking around" is a concept that we've been using more and more. The concept is brilliant, but time consuming. It forces managers to get to know their staff. There are no papers, no pencils, no reports and no documentation. It's face-to-face conversation with employees. It's asking questions unrelated to work. It's asking about homework and school and prom and boyfriends and girlfriends and college and planning and the future and careers. It's creating a bond and relationship with staff. It's breaking down barriers with communication and learning about each individual, discovering their strengths and weaknesses and what you can do to train them to be better. It's commitment and challenges. Promises made and kept are part of this process, and with each promise made and kept, trust grows. It's treating each person as an individual. It's straightforward and frank discussions. It's where under-trained employees are re-trained to be better, and they know it. It's asking young workers to mature beyond their years and be progressive and aggressive while on the job.

We have found that it's also important not to smother them with supervision. Reality tells us that we don't have the time, so why waste that time? Although we've always had time to discipline employees, we now make time to praise them: "Thank you,"; "You've done a excellent job,"; "You handled that situation like a pro,"; "What a nice thing you did." It seems the more you praise employees, the more they start working with you, not for you.

Let them make mistakes, but only once, and let them grow. Our goal is to coach and mentor each person. When something goes wrong, we don't assume we've hired a bad person; we

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The Woodridge Park District's guards cautiously do their duty in the "Spinal Injury Relay" at the 2003 Lifeguard Games. Photo by Maryfran Leno.

figure we've just under-trained him or her.

Of course, no amount of training can ever prepare young staff members for each situation that may happen while on the job. They need experience and they need time. As their confidence grows, the park district and our patrons benefit. Staff competence grows each season and new hires soon see that they have a voice and are part of the process and become very productive employees.

And we have to remember that there are other compensations besides the paychecks. We reward staff members with excellent PIER reports, sometimes with a personal note or an 'attaboy' meeting, a gift certificate, candy or other small tokens of appreciation. (It's amazing what you can pick up at conferences.) The point is to recognize staff achievements. The staff members respond and build better work habits. Pavlov had it down: Rewarding good behavior leads to advanced learning. It works for dogs and it works on people.

The short-term results have been very encouraging, but also very dangerous. With barriers broken down and communication encouraged, the staff begins to feel free to voice opinions. The more authority you allow them to assume, the more aggressive they become. They become outspoken on pool policies and issues. They are not afraid to comment on pay scales or raises or criticize other employees. They do not understand the implications of an ill-spoken word at the wrong time. They have to be reminded that there is a time and place for everything, but on the deck during lessons is not the place.

When senior staff meet with heady young staffers, we encourage them to take into account the employees' age and maturity. Coaching these newer staffers in the areas of tact and diplomacy is part of the investment we make. And it's tough. The younger workers may not like what they hear, but if you have established trust and understanding, they will respond to you and learn.

Has this more open approach compromised safety, work performance or professionalism? No. It has made our staff eager and receptive to education, and has enlightened them on their purposes and responsibilities while on the job. As supervisors, we should all find better ways to reach out to our staff to help them grow and develop. At our facility, we've dedicated ourselves to constantly changing, evolving and improving our PIER review process, our reward systems and the way we add fun to our training sessions. Our new philosophy of pool staff care has created a delightful change of pace and continues to provide everyone with a work environment that benefits all.

Rick Missing, CPRP is the recreation supervisor for aquatics for the Buffalo Grove Park District. He is a past recipient of the IPRA Presidents Award and was recently named 2001 Aquatics Managers of the Year. He extends his thanks to Lori Magee of the Buffalo Grove Park District for helping prepare this article.

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