This course is for professionals who provide supported employment services in Kentucky. It is presented by the Kentucky Supported Employment Training Project at the University of Kentucky’s Human Development Institute.
Welcome to the Self-Paced Online Training for Managers: Retaining Employment Specialists! This comprehensive, self-paced course is designed specifically for managers like you who are looking to build stronger, more sustainable teams of employment specialists by improving employee retention. With a focus on practical, research-based strategies, this course will equip you with the tools and insights to create a supportive and engaging work environment that fosters job satisfaction and long-term success.
Throughout the course, you’ll explore key topics such as understanding the factors influencing employee retention, building a positive employee experience, and implementing retention strategies beyond compensation. Each module is designed to provide you with knowledge checks, application exercises, and actionable transfer plans that will allow you to immediately apply what you’ve learned in your work setting.
Lesson Highlights:
- Understanding Employee Retention: Explore the unique challenges faced by employment specialists and the impact of turnover on clients and your organization. Research-based theories like Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory will help you understand the key motivators and hygiene factors influencing retention.
- Building a Positive Employee Experience: Learn how to create an inclusive, welcoming environment with effective onboarding and employee experience models that make your team feel supported from day one.
- Leadership and Managerial Influence: Dive into different leadership styles, such as servant leadership and transformational leadership, and discover how authenticity and vulnerability can make you a more effective leader, strengthening employee retention.
- Enhancing Job Satisfaction: Learn strategies for recognizing and appreciating your employment specialists, using Self-Determination Theory to connect their roles to meaningful impact and intrinsic motivation.
- Retention Strategies Beyond Pay: Understand how to leverage non-monetary rewards, work-life balance, and wellness initiatives to retain your team, based on Job Embeddedness Theory.
- Team Dynamics and Self-Care: Build strong team dynamics through Tuckman’s Stages of Team Development, while also focusing on your own resilience and strategies to prevent burnout.
- Social Media and Branding: Learn how to use social media to highlight your team’s achievements, promote engagement, and build a positive employer brand that attracts and retains top talent.
Each lesson comes with easy-to-use templates, quizzes, and reflection guides that will help you integrate new strategies into your daily management practices. By the end of the course, you will have a comprehensive action plan for continuous improvement and the confidence to lead a motivated, engaged team of employment specialists.
This course provides a wealth of tools and resources to help you succeed as a manager. Whether you’re onboarding new hires, fostering a positive and inclusive culture, or celebrating your team’s successes, you’ll be fully equipped to retain your talented employment specialists and build a thriving, high-performing team.
Take this opportunity to invest in both your growth as a leader and the long-term success of your team—learn at your own pace and start applying these strategies today!
Instructions
Organization: This course is divided into lessons and topics. Each topic must be completed in order to move to the next lesson. You can view an outline of the lessons on each screen.
Embedded Videos: Throughout the course, there are videos from various YouTube channels. Many of these videos must be viewed in their entirety before moving on to the next topic. Usually, this means waiting until the related videos pop up at the end, after the credits. If you encounter a problem with a video, please use the “Contact Us” button below and include the name of the course, topic, and video that you are having trouble with.
To begin the lessons:
- Select Lesson 1 located at the bottom of the course page.
- Once you have finished the lesson, select “Mark Complete”.
- To continue to the next topic/lesson, select the link at the bottom of the page that says “next lesson” or “next topic.”
Quizzes: These are scattered throughout the course to offer you time to think about how the information applies to your work. You must enter responses and will automatically receive credit for your answer. The instructor will read all responses entered and may respond to you directly.
If you have questions about moving through this online course, please use the Contact Us button below.
