Excellence - New Zealand Aged Care Association

Feature
HEALTH ED TRUST
Five Ways to Motivate
your Staff to Complete
Education Programmes
How important is education to your organisation?
Health Ed Trust recently conducted Assessor Workshops
in ten locations from Auckland to Invercargill. The first
session each day was ‘How to Motivate Students’.
The following is the combined wisdom from about
300 attendees.
Number One
Fostering a great education culture in any organisation starts at
the top. If Management and Assessors expect achievement and
qualifications then this expectation flows through to all staff. A
combination of enthusiasm, recognition and rewards backed up by
company policy appear to set the culture that is the main contributor
to high achievements.
Allowing paid time for the Assessor to run classes and mark
papers sends a message to the whole facility. A survey of
attendees showed that paid time allocated for training activities
varied from a challenging one hour a week to a generous one day
a week. Of course, the size of the facility has a huge
bearing on the time required.
Number Two
Recognition can be a powerful motivator; some students craved
this more than rewards. Suggestions include the following.
• Ceremonies where badges, certificates or flowers are
presented are always appreciated. Morning/afternoon teas
in front of other staff and residents, or BBQs with all the family
invited give the caregivers a real sense of achievement.
• One Assessor told of students being handed certificates
as they arrive, without any presentation – this is a huge
recognition opportunity wasted. This also devalues the
achievement.
• The Health Ed Trust Honours Board is used with great effect in
many places. One facility puts the student’s name on the
Board, without any of the coloured achievement squares,
as soon as they start the programme. This motivates the
caregivers to finish so their names can have the tags added as
soon as possible. If your facility does not have an Honours
Board, then frame the certificate and hang it in the foyer.
• Only allowing caregivers to work in sought-after areas if they
have completed education to a certain level.
• Talking about how good the qualification will look on their CV
and how the qualification is recognised throughout NZ.
• Replacing the caregiver’s uniform with a different coloured
uniform, to show that they are a trained staff member, is a
recognition technique that works well at another facility.
• Status symbols. One facility gives out an expensive-looking key
ring to staff that have completed the programme. These are
valued and carried with pride. Others give graduation bears.
• Some Assessors reported how some caregivers like to set an
example for their children.
Number Three
Rewards each time a programme is completed – suggestions
include the following.
• Pay increments. Varied from 10c to $1 per hour.
• A paid day off.
• $50 bonus.
• One facility pays the caregiver 30 minutes for every hour they
attend an education session.
Number Four
Peer Pressure. Taking small groups through the education
programmes at one time can be used as a motivating factor.
(Small groups were considered to be the best way to run an
education programme onsite.)
• Students love to receive their results quickly and see how they
are progressing with each module. One Assessor refuses to mark
any of the students’ modules until the whole group’s modules are
handed in. If one student dares not to have papers in on time, the
rest of the group applies pressure to the miscreant student.
• Create a waiting list. Only take a few students through at a time.
Take special interest in this group – everyone wants what they
can’t have.
Number Five
Although only to be used as a last resort when nothing else
works, a possibility is to include achieving the education
programme as a requirement in the caregiver’s employment
contract. When continued requests and encouragement do
not produce any results, the issue can be managed as a
performance issue.
Why don’t caregivers want to complete programmes?
It is always handy to know these reasons so objections can be
overcome from the beginning.
• Fear: This was first on the list at almost all locations. Mainly
this was fear of failure, as caregivers had not done well at
school, had English as a second language or thought the work
would be too difficult. Suggestion: start with an easier Module.
Encourage, encourage and encourage. Thousands of caregivers
have completed ACE Courses.
• Too busy: Well, can’t we all say that?! Break the assessment
down and ask the caregiver to complete one or two questions
each night.
• Know it all: Caregivers who have been employed for a long time
say they don’t need to do this course. The best answer to this:
“You will fly through it, then… You can help teach the others in
the group.”
• Too expensive: convince Management to at least go halves
in the cost. Many more facilities are now paying all the
processing fees for students.
• Too close to retirement: Health Ed Trust has had several
caregivers who are over 70 complete this course. It has been
proven that it is very good for the brain cells to learn new things!
Any other suggestions would be gratefully received.
By Julie Sparks
General Manager
Health Ed Trust
Ph 03 3798519
Email Julie@healthedtrust.org.nz
11. Excellence in CARE APRIL 2013