How to Future-Proof Your Workplace CPR Training

You’ve done all the hard work of appointing a team member to run your CPR training program –?or, at the very least, keep track of your employees’ CPR certification status and ensure compliance. But what happens when that person leaves??

Worse yet... What happens when your team experiences high rates of turnover? What happens if your internal CPR training program fizzles out and becomes “unmanned”? And what if the external provider you were working with is no longer available??

All of these headache-inducing “what ifs” can be solved with what we refer to at ProTrainings as “future-proofing” your workplace CPR training. Future-proofing is the process of strategically thinking through the future growing pains your organization is likely to face and then choosing a training solution that can bend, flex, and scale with you.?

The best way to future-proof your CPR certification program is to choose a training platform that offers stability, remote accessibility, scalability, and flexibility to keep your business compliant no matter what staffing changes happen within your organization.?

Read on to learn how to future-proof your workplace CPR training program to save you time and keep your staff up to date on this life-saving skill.?

Insource, Rather Than Outsource, the Experts

Gone are the days of having to arrange overnight stays for staff in faraway training locations.?

In-person training can be administered by an existing member of your team, meaning it can be 100% on-site.

There are many benefits of having an on-site staff trainer:

• You build flexibility and in-house knowledge into your established workforce.
• Employees feel more comfortable asking questions and immersing themselves in the training with someone they know.
• It creates a positive, fun event and shared experience among staff.
• The employer decides how to deliver training to staff, whether it be ad-hoc as each person joins the team or to multiple people at once.

If you choose the blended or classroom training method, training will take place in the workplace and your certified staff member will conduct a hands-on skills evaluation.

Ensure Future Flexibility & Scalability

As organizations grow, there are inevitable ebbs and flows in resources, manpower, cash flow, and profits. One of the most profound ways that you can future-proof your workplace CPR training program is to choose a platform that is guaranteed to scale with your organization.?

As you seek a flexible and scalable solution, look for one that can scale in three critical areas: time, money, and workload.?

Scalable Time Management

People management is one of the most time consuming tasks any team faces. As your organization grows and scales, more people on staff often means more time must be committed to managing them and their certifications.

However, when you choose a CPR training platform that leverages automation, your organization can scale with virtually no additional time commitment from the person managing your CPR certifications and compliance.?

For example, consider how much time you spend emailing, calling, or meeting with your team members to inform them of their recertification deadline, and then reminding them, re-reminding them, and ultimately chasing them for a completed recertification. A modern-day CPR training platform will not only ensure your employees have a positive learning experience, but will also simplify, streamline, and automate the human-management side of your job.

At ProTrainings, in particular, we provide an administrative dashboard that eliminates the need for spreadsheets and constant email reminders. A certified staff member assessment, online training videos, and simple recertification programs keep CPR training in-house, allowing businesses to get on with what they do best.

Scalable Cost Structure

If your organization is using a CPR training program that has a rigid cost structure, your organization’s bottom line – and, therefore, ability to operate effectively – can take a hard hit.?

One of the biggest complaints we hear about in the professional CPR training industry is organizations having to pay for unused seats due to class minimum requirements with some providers.?

It’s also common for organizations to lose money when a training provider requires them to pay for a certain number of class units up front, which often expire before your staff can use them all.?

Instead, choose a CPR training provider that has flexible billing that will scale up or down with you as your organization grows and changes over time. Doing so will ensure that you never pay for more than what you need and your CPR training platform will support your organization’s financial sustainability.

Scalable Workload

As your organization grows –?whether you add more staff, serve a larger population size, add satellite offices, or all three! –?the workload of paperwork and compliance management will increase drastically.?

However, a surefire way to ensure the workload doesn’t become an excessive burden as your organization scales is to find a platform that takes care of record-keeping for you. Choose a CPR training program structure that alerts you to potential lapses in compliance such as expired certificates or new hires who have yet to submit proof of certification.

Additionally, it’s important to have a CPR training program that) reflects the most recent CPR guidelines according to the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation to ensure your team’s skills are up-to-date. Doing so will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks to put your organization at risk.?

Diversify Your Training Methods

Sometimes, finding the right training method to suit everyone on your staff roster can be like Goldilocks trying to find the perfect bed to sleep in. How can you make sure workplace CPR training is “just right” for everyone?

The most flexible, resilient, and future-proofed internal training programs know that having a variety of training methods to choose from prepares your organization for any curveball that may come your way. At ProTrainings, we offer three CPR training methods:

• Online training is ideal for those employees who work from home. They can do their workplace CPR training from their living room, using a self-paced video.?
• Classroom-based training offers traditional, in-person CPR training with a certified instructor.
• Blended training is a customer favorite as it combines the online element with a hands-on evaluation using a trusted certified staff member.

People learn differently, so it’s only right to offer different methods to suit each learning style. With ProTrainings, you choose the methods that work best for your staff. This may change over time — and that’s okay. ProTrainings allows you to adapt your workplace CPR training method as your needs evolve.

For example, Indiana-based LittleStar ABA Therapy is an organization that supports children, teens, and young adults with autism. The company, which has five therapy centers across the state, found that in-person classes didn’t support its employees’ schedules without interfering with patient appointments or costing unnecessary time and money.

ProTrainings worked with LittleStar to shift from exclusively in-person workplace CPR training to a three-in-one program that enables each employee to choose the training method that works best for his or her needs.

Create a Standard Operating Procedure

Turnover happens in any organization. It’s a natural part of the professional ecosystem. But that doesn’t mean it should disrupt the integrity of your workplace programs, especially something as critical as CPR training and certification.

One of the best ways to future-proof your organization from staff turnover is to create a standard operating procedure (SOP) for your CPR training program. An SOP is a document, usually enriched with screenshots or videos, that serves as a complete instruction manual for running a given task, project, or program.

Many professionals put off creating an SOP because it can be time consuming and requires a detail-oriented mind. However, failing to create one sets your organization up for greater risk of important programs falling into disarray when team members leave or get promoted.

Block off a day on your calendar to create your organization’s SOP for CPR training so that the next person who is in charge of running the program can pick up right where you left off. (Here are some bonus tips for creating effective SOPs your team will actually adopt!)

Connect Your Training to Existing Systems

One of the issues that decreases utilization of a particular program is if that program exists separate from the tools and systems your team uses every day. If your organization has a CPR training platform but you find that fewer and fewer employees are using it month over month, then you can future-proof your organization by ensuring that your training program is tied into your existing systems, such as your LMS.

The best learning management systems allow for seamless integration so that your team can access everything they need to complete professionally and administratively from one place.

Furthermore, if your LMS also allows for tracking of progress and completion, ensuring that each learner meets the necessary requirements, you as the administrator will have a bird’s eye view of your organization’s compliance status. Choose a CPR training platform that integrates with your existing LMS so that, as time goes on, your team becomes more and more familiar with the resources available to them and the requirements they need to meet.

Combat Turnover with Valuable Staff Enrichment

From using CPR and first aid training as a workplace enrichment and team-building exercise to ensuring all of your staff members have an easy and enjoyable way to complete their mandatory workplace trainings for everything from HIPAA to sexual harassment, workplace training courses can keep your staff informed, engaged, and equipped to handle any situation.

According to Devlin Peck, a leading instructional designer, “45% of employees are more likely to stay in their role if they receive more training.” If high turnover is a pain point for your team or organization, consider offering more training to your employees to increase their perceived value of the role with your company in particular.

Start by thinking through which training programs are mandatory for your staff –?such as CPR, AED, and First Aid training – and which ones would be seen as an internal value add or workplace enrichment opportunities, such as Ergonomics or Self Defense training.

AtProTrainings, we know that life matters. That’s why we’re in it for the long haul. Our platform adheres to all of these future-proofing best practices so you can relax in the knowledge that your CPR training program will be an asset to your organization, not a burden. Browse our courses and training methods to see how ProTrainings can help you build a bespoke program to future-proof your workplace CPR training process.?