FORT RILEY, Kan. - Supervisors and managers from Fort Riley's civilian workforce met, discussed and learned about retaining employees.
Representatives from each garrison directorate participated in a two-day class dubbed The Employee Retention Boot camp, taught by Larry Midgett, Ph.D., from Overland Park, Kan.
"We had the gamut of employees," said Kathy Bassett, workforce development chief for Fort Riley. "We had a director here. We had people who are mid-level managers and down the line."
The course was part of the third and final phase of the Excellence in Leadership program which began in January.
Bassett said that Midgett was exceptional.
"He is probably one of the best instructors I have ever hired to do anything in my career," she said. "He has got a wealth of experience. He's got lots of real-life stories to tell that are very pertinent to the people in this room. He has former military experience, and so he's really the perfect fit for teaching one of these classes."
Midgett, who has taught the same course for NASA, Boeing Aerospace and other military branches, taught about the cost of losing valuable employees and suggestions on how to make employees feel valued and not want to leave Fort Riley, Bassett said.
"Leadership and management should be a walking, talking example of what they want to see, rewarding employees when they go above and beyond, setting standards that are workable and measurable and differentiating standards from goals - standards being the minimal qualifications and the minimal acceptabilities and goals are striving for that A-grade," Midgett said.
Ken Mansell, chief of Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation's financial management branch said he's sure he's going to experiment with some of the things he learned in the class.
"Delegation of authority and things like this - we'll probably start doing more of that," Mansell said. "Communication skills and staff empowerment, some of those I already practice, but I'll probably intensify my effort because of this class."
Midgett said that the class was very receptive and open to discussion.
"I thought it was exceptionally interactive," he said. "I really enjoyed them. They really moved to a greater depth of understanding than even I had anticipated. We related directly to what's going on with the garrison, what's going on with the command, retention challenges that the military is having these days and also retention challenges they are having especially with the civilians workforces, so it was very timely."
Midgett also said he enjoys teaching classes at Fort Riley.
"It's always a pleasure to come here and talk to people," Midgett said. "I would say that they're always at a very high experience level, which makes it easier to really get in depth into the topic."
Bassett is a big advocate of the Excellence in Leadership program and believes that all supervisors should attend.
"I think that if we can afford to do it, and can do it, we should have as many supervisors on this installation take one or all of these phases as we can, because I think they leave with a toolkit of information that nobody else is giving them. When you become a supervisor, nobody says, 'here's what you need to know.' It's just one day you're a supervisor, and there's a lot of responsibility in being a supervisor. People that go in to it unaware of some of these things can have problems later on."
The first phase is geared towards new supervisors. The second phase is targeted for mid-level managers. The final phase is put together for more experienced managers.
Most of the classes in the final two phases are team-taught by Rockhurst University instructors and Fort Riley subject matter experts, to give participants the best of both worlds, Bassett said.
Bassett said one of the biggest benefits of attending the classes is the classmates.
"They kid around, they joke around, they find out who does what on Fort Riley, because there's a person from each directorate here in this room, because each director got to hand select the people from their organization to attend," she said. "So the whole installation is represented here, and they get to meet each other, network, find out what other people do, what other organizations do and in that respect, it's also been very helpful."
Mentoring and strategic planning classes are scheduled for August, and in September, classes will be taught regarding conceptual thinking, leave issues and an employee assistance program course.
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