Home Health & Hospice Week

Be honest: Do new pieces of equipment get more attention than brand new supervisors in your organization? If you answered "Yes," you're not alone.

Most new managers and supervisors are required to hit the ground running, which often results in as many failures as successes. "Just consider the detrimental effect of letting the supervisor learn to supervise by making mistakes: fewer results, confused direction, poor work assignments, problems ignored, or solutions applied to symptoms instead of root causes," points out business strategist

Michael Lee Smith.

But you don't have to sink or swim -- and neither do the employees you promote. A regular training program will prepare everyone for the inevitable problems that creep into the work day.

Here's how to get started:

The timing of when you offer training to new managers is the most crucial element of your training program. If you overload them with too much information too soon, they'll likely walk away frustrated and overwhelmed. On the other hand, give them too little information and they could make serious mistakes, costing your agency.

Best: Break up your training into small, practical chunks so that new supervisors can process it. For instance, if your organization reviews staff benchmarks at the end of each month, schedule benchmark training for the day before you start. That way, your new supervisors can focus on what they must do and then immediately apply their new knowledge.

Don't: Be careful not to schedule your entire training for one week or several long days.

This back-to-back training will likely cause your new supervisors to lose focus.And, by the end of the training, they'll probably have already forgotten what they learned on the first day.

Try this: If you're worried that new supervisors won't get the training they need quickly enough, you could print a "survival guide," Smith suggests. Customize the guide by position and tasks.

Then fill it in with all the on-the-ground information supervisors will need during their first month.

Once you've established your training schedule, you must determine the order to introduce new tasks and skills to your new managers.

Consider this: During your first phase of training, focus on the skills your supervisors will need in the next three months. These topics include basic company strategies, management skills, and employment laws. Also use this time to set up a network among experienced and novice leaders.

In subsequent training sessions, you can tackle more in-depth topics, such as how to delegate tasks, manage employees' stress and time, and encourage everyone to work as a team.

Best: Once you've laid a foundation for management, move on to the second phase, where you use your training to emphasize leadership development.

This "soft skills" focus will help new managers provide direction, learn to give feedback, motivate subordinates, and communicate effectively.

Try this: During this phase of training, ask employees for their input. This way, you can find out what they need help with and what challenges they face. You can also allow time for open questions.

If your training doesn't produce results, it isn't worth doing. You can use formal and informal ways to evaluate your program.

Formal: Ask trainees to fill out a survey immediately after the training session. Then give them a different survey to fill out after they've had time to implement their skills. You could also ask an experienced manager to mentor and monitor newer leaders to determine how well their training is working.Informal: While surveys and reviews are helpful, anecdotal evidence can be just as revealing.

You can ask new managers what they liked or disliked about the training, what skills they've put to use, and what challenges they've been able to overcome.

This can help you hone your training program while preparing better leaders.

Good idea: Keep your program current and relevant by asking experienced managers to attend the training at least once each year. This will help any problems rise to the surface.