Designing an effective staff training program begins by
identifying the desired goals. Understanding the outcomes we're hoping to achieve helps us shape the training. It gives direction as we select the content we want staff to learn, design activities to teach that content, sequence our training and upon conclusion, assess how well our training worked. In general there are five key goals for summer camp staff training.
Develop Job Skills
The most obvious goal for staff training is to develop
the job skills of staff members. This is what comes to mind when most people think
about staff training. The focus is on teaching each staff member how to accomplish
the tasks they will be responsible for performing. For a counselor this goal
might include teaching them how lead games, handle inappropriate camper
behavior or manage their personal stress. A frontline supervisor’s job skills
might include setting expectations with counselors, providing feedback or
completing required reports.
Internalize Mission, Values & Culture
Another important goal of training is to help staff
understand and internalize the camp’s mission, values and culture. For staff
members to make the greatest contribution to the camp possible they need to
understand what the camp stands for and is trying to accomplish. The camp’s
mission provides a sense of direction and priority to the staff.
During training staff members need to learn about and
thoroughly understand the camp’s mission. Staff training will hopefully also lead
them to buy into and believe in the mission in a way that generates commitment
and passion.
While the camp’s mission gives staff members a sense of
direction, the camp’s values define how the camp lives out that mission on a
day-to-day basis. Values paint a picture for staff members of what appropriate
behavior looks like.
The values in this example provide clear direction for
the staff in how to carry out the camp’s mission. They provide clues to the
behaviors that support the mission and should be encouraged and those that
don’t support the mission and should be avoided. Like the camp’s mission, the goal
of staff training should not only be to introduce the camp’s values but to help
staff members embrace and internalize them.
The camp’s mission, its values and the norms that develop
over time all work together to create a camp culture. The camp culture is the
collective sense of “how we do things here.” It’s what makes each camp unique
and different even though it may share the same mission and programs as similar
camps. During staff training it’s important to help staff, particularly those
who are new, understand the camp culture. As with the mission and values, it’s
also important to move staff from merely understanding to hopefully embracing
the camp culture.
Understand Expectations
Another key goal for staff training is ensuring all staff
members understand what will be expected of them. During training they need to
learn what the general expectations are for all camp staff members. They also
need to be introduced to the expectations of their particular job at camp. It
is also helpful for them to learn more about what their individual supervisor
is expecting of them.
Develop Community
Given the nature of working at summer camp with its long
hours, close living quarters and challenging demands, it’s important for staff
to have the support of a close knit, caring community of fellow staff members.
Staff training is the place where the foundation for that community can be
built before campers arrive. One of the goals of staff training is to begin the
process of building community and nurturing its development. Hopefully that
staff community can then in turn promote the development of a positive camp community
once campers arrive.
Acclimate to Camp Environment
For most staff members, summer camp is a very different
environment than the one they live in during the non-summer months. Another of
the goals of staff training is to acclimate staff members to the summer camp
environment. Staff members may need to adjust to the time schedule, being outdoors
most of the day or the physical demands of camp. In the case of international
staff there may be a new language, new foods and a host of other cultural
differences to adjust to. Staff training is an opportunity to help staff spend
the time needed to become comfortable with these unique aspects of living and
working at camp.
(Note: This is the first in a series of posts that will be published in the coming weeks to provide an overview of a systematic approach to developing summer camp staff training.)
