“When you step into the workplace, it’s not about you — it’s about how you can serve others,” says LoriKay “LK” Paden, an academic advisor and trainer/consultant at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “If you take the time to think about the people you’re serving and who you’re there for, and also about the people you work with, everyone’s going to have a better experience.”
Paden regularly does training sessions for local park and recreation agencies, whether it’s customer-service training for full-time staff or to kick off the start of summer camp seasonal staff training. And she’s finding that the “it’s all about me” mentality held by many incoming staff members isn’t just confined to Gen Y or Millennials.
“I see it from people of all generations,” Paden explains. “Negativity spreads like wildfire.”
This sense of entitlement doesn’t work well in a service industry like parks and recreation. Departments everywhere are “starving for good customer service,” Paden says. But agencies can turn this mentality around by showing employees the impact that they’re having on people’s lives. One exercise involves staff inventing their own job titles, like “role model,” “superhero,” “friend” or “coach.” This strategy shifts the focus from “me” to “others” and also plays into two strengths that Paden sees in today’s seasonal staff: first-person experience with local recreation programming and a strong desire to learn new career skills.
“I would say about 80 percent of seasonal staff I see coming into work grew up in these programs,” Paden says. “They were positively impacted by a camp leader or coach, and they want to emulate that. You need to remind them, ‘Why are you here?’ People also want to build their skills in order to help them in their future careers….I call it wanting to be a lifechanger and a memory maker. That’s the positive part, and they’re receptive to it.”
One concept that can help build the customer-service culture from the top down is the “servant leader” model. According to Paden, servant leaders build their following by leading with integrity, honesty and compassion.
“Many think they’re becoming leaders, but they’re missing fundamental parts,” Paden says. “It’s more than telling people what to do and where to go, but wanting them to follow you.”
Managers need to set the standards for customer service and evaluate staff based on those same standards. And rewarding and thanking employees should be planned in advance, just like reprimands and discipline.
“It’s about building them up and letting them know they’re doing a good job, or calling them out when a mistake has been done and not just pushing it under the carpet just because you’re busy,” Paden says. “Being consistent throughout your season requires a plan, whether it’s midseason evaluations, a newsletter to call people out for doing things right, or equipping your lead staff with notecards and candy bars so they can write a note on someone’s timesheet that they’ve done a good job. If you do that on the front end, it will create a stronger and more positive culture.”
To keep seasonal staff engaged and focused, traditional training methods are being replaced with more participatory activities, sophisticated audio-visuals and “commercial breaks” where staff can play games to get fired up.
“People need to stop using PowerPoint!” Paden exclaims. “Or if they do, don’t read each slide word for word. It’s about being real and being lively. No one wants to be talked to.”
One obstacle to getting the customer-service culture ingrained in employees is simply the workload. Paden notes that staff are often immediately pigeon-holed into their positions because agencies are so busy. She recommends that every new staff person be assigned to a mentor for their first year. But hiring the right people in the first place is still crucial.
“You can teach anybody almost any technical skill, but you can’t teach people to be nice or be caring or choose to serve. You’ve got to do that in the hiring process.”
Elizabeth Beard is the Managing Editor of Parks & Recreation.