The Challenge

The Idaho Youth Ranch (IYR), a non-profit organization providing therapy, counseling, and residential care for youth and families, wanted to create training materials to support new-hire youth specialists in following a menu, preparing a snack/meal, and cleaning up the kitchen/eating area after the snack/meal in the residential facilities. This training must integrate elements of kitchen safety, sanitary food preparation and handling, behavioral management, and best practices in workload management as the specialists complete theses tasks.

More importantly, key to IYR’s mission, snack/meal time should occur in a safe and nurturing “family like atmosphere” where specialists and the youth develop supportive relationships.

The subtle nuances of preparing a snack or meal and clean-up can be overwhelming for new-hires. How can we standardize this task so the important items are completed in the correct order and to the minimum standard every time? How can we make it easier for the youth specialist to complete these tasks? What support can we provide youth specialists in terms of job aids so they are not overwhelmed and can access important information when they need it?

Work Description

A structured on-the-job flow chart/job aid was developed using a learner, task, and performance analysis to proceduralize tasks before, during, and after the snack/meal. This job aid was paired with on-the-job training (OJT) using a Facilitator and Participant’s Guide that allowed for instructional demonstration, coaching, guidance, and feedback to  develop task performance.

It is impossible to standardize all parts of a task – each snack/meal will be different. Thus, it was important that the training  support youth specialists as they developed their decision making skills and confidence to depart from procedures when needed. Guides and job aids were created using MSWord and MS Powerpoint.

Prior to arriving to the OJT, youth specialists would complete a self-paced training module. This short training module was created using Adobe Captivate with narration and closed captioning providing the youth specialist with a working knowledge of safety, sanitation, and food preparation/handling guidelines. The training module also introduced the Menus, Meals, and Kitchen Flow Chart.

This self-paced training module also provided youth specialists time to reflect and formulate questions prior to arriving for OJT. This self-paced training module remains available so specialists can review as often they would like.

Alignment!

It was important to identify what IYR wanted youth specialists to do and why in meal/snack preparation and clean-up. This “end-goal” drove the design of job aids and training materials. A building block process was used to provide youth specialists with important background information through self-paced online training and instructor led on-the-job training/coaching. To provide organization, the task and materials were organized into things that occur before, during, and after the meal/snack.

Specialists were provided with the background information to understand why they were doing what they were doing and then job aids they could use on-site to complete tasks successfully and meet the desired outcomes.

Without having clear goals that helped align the content and the schedule of instruction, it would have been easy to get lost in providing too much information (info dumps) overwhelming youth specialists before or during on-the-job training.

Samples

Self-Paced Training Module

Note: The Captivate self-paced training module is a prototype based on storyboards created during the design process. The project ended before final presentation-ready materials were constructed.

OJT Facilitator’s Guide

Menus, Meals, Kitchen_OJT Facilitator’sGuidePrototype

Job Aid – Before the Meal

Work Flow Job Aid Prototype – Before the Meal