Can you believe it, the days are beginning to get longer and before you know it, a brand new season will be upon us. Most people get grey and gloomy during January and February. I guess it is a mix of a biological and a psychological stew of sulkiness that comes upon us. I’m a bit different; I look at this time as a renewal and a time to begin executing on those things that will make the New Year a success. One key thing that I enjoy is all of the training events that I participate in during the winter: IAAPA Events, NAARSO, NWSC, Gibtown, PA State Safety School…the list goes on.
So, I was thinking that this is also the time that as owners and operators you should be sending your key people to the same training sessions. Most of you do, some of you don’t. It’s a great time to brush up on your craft and learn new ideas or strategies for keeping your operations safe. It is also a time to work out the kinks in your own internal training programs!
In a matter of a week or months your team will begin gathering and preparing for the spring season. What training do you have planned for them? Maintenance? Inspection? Accident management? Ride operations? Hopefully, you are checking off all of those as sessions for your entire staff, new and old alike.
Consistent training helps to re-enforce ideas the concepts and tasks we learn and apply to our daily roles. We cannot rely on training we had a year ago and expect to be able to pull from it completely. It needs to be constantly re-enforced and re-imagined. You have a whole year between last year and now. What examples may have occurred during that year that you can use as ‘teachable’ moments for your staff? What did you learn as you talked with colleagues at various conferences or at training events you attended? How can you transfer that knowledge or those experiences to your staff? This is a critical time to make sure that your in-house training program is set up and ready to roll.
Training and education are on-going. Make the most of this time to prepare and fine tune your employee training programs so that once it is time to open, your staff is prepared, invigorated and ready to keep your guests and fellow employees as safe as they possibly can.
As always, should you need any help with any of these concepts or suggestion on training formats and content, please feel free to reach out to me at any time.
Enjoy the winter and prepare for the amazing 2019 season that is just around the corner.
Be Safe – Drew
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