Newly hired supervisors, newly promoted individuals, current supervisors, and persons on track for career advancement benefit from professional development that follows a structured path. First-Line Supervisors often have little management experience. As a result, they tend to emulate their last supervisor or utilize other life experiences that may not align well with the requirements of supervising staff in an Assisted Living or other Community-Based setting. This course intends to provide a practical guide to managing staff, beginning with outlining the areas where supervisory training is needed. A properly trained First-Line Supervisor can improve care outcomes and lower expenses by decreasing staff turnover.

First-Line Supervisors need to communicate with stakeholders regularly. Supervisors are consistently gathering and sharing information. The benefits of communicating effectively will be examined. A framework of proactive communication strategies will be reviewed to manage efficient and effective communications with key stakeholders. First-line supervisors will develop the confidence to manage challenging communications as well as the skills to convey information to their supervisor. Good communication is the key to being a successful First-Line Supervisor.

Good employee morale is the very essence of a proactive management approach. First-line supervisors will learn to identify what actions they can take to sustain morale. Specific examples of interacting with staff proactively will be explored. A shift structure to ensure care objectives are met in the most efficient manner will be presented. Detailed plans for running a morale-lifting and educational staff meeting will be discussed.