A Training Vision
Hillary Mundt works tirelessly to ensure quality at Epworth
August 2010
Pictured is Hillary Mundt, Epworth HR Specialist/Trainer holding one of her “signature” sayings. In situations that require a little sarcasm in the day-to-day busy life as trainer, she may be heard saying in a lighthearted way, “seriously?”
Hillary Mundt is adamant that she would, “never create a training to do ‘just because.’”
Mundt takes ensuring that employees are prepared for their positions seriously, and each training counts! The HR Specialist/Trainer organizes an average of 12 to 15 trainings per month, some of them several days in length along with the two-week long New Employee Orientation that takes place nearly every other month and takes a week to prepare for!
“Every training we have is for a very good reason,” she said. “Whether it is a short update or a long Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) class, without them we would not be given accreditation to operate.”
“There are thousands of friends and family members of the children we serve every year who are depending upon us to provide a safe, healthy learning environment to help them through what may be the most difficult time in their lives,” said Mundt. “We need to take this seriously. Every child we serve is someone’s child, often a sibling and sometimes a parent. This is something we should never lose sight of.”
At the heart of Mundt’s daily mission is her core CPR/AED, First Aid and TCI trainings. Mundt schedules, teaches those classes, registers employees for off-site trainings and files the records of all the trainings employees take part in. There are nearly 170 employees certified in TCI alone.
“In the Human Services field, things are constantly changing,” Mundt notes. “The research being done is always teaching us something new and the laws we abide by are always being altered in some way. Our Policies and Procedures must reflect these changes. . . . When we are audited by the state or Joint Commission, they want to see proof that our staff receive enough hours of training, so I keep a database of all trainings done, here or outside of Epworth Village.”
Keeping up with changes that are often times out of the agency’s control can be “discouraging” at times for staff members. Mundt said, “It’s very easy to lose sight of what is important and get bogged down with all the paperwork and meetings. My hope is that staff can help each other remember what we’re accomplishing here and be active participants, using the training time to help each other and to improve their knowledge and skills.”
She added that “blaming and complaining” can sometimes be human nature, but this also lends an opportunity to, “Forgive ourselves for losing sight of what is important, be grateful we have been reminded and hope that we can stay on track better.”
The New Employee Orientation portion of Epworth’s training programming is an extensive process under Mundt’s direction as well. “We hire our direct care staff in groups because there is a lot of training that must be done at once with them and that is one of my bigger tasks. I prepare and schedule the trainings, conduct most of the trainings that are done within that two-week period and help other presenters prepare their presentations. There are unit trainers in the residential units who oversee the ‘On the Job’ training portion of this two-week process and I meet with them before each session to review their duties as well.”
In addition to her “direct training” responsibilities, Mundt has many meetings to attend internally to ensure that she keeps up-to-date with any changes coming down the pike. “I attend Compliance Committee when I can and also serve on the Improving Organizational Performance Committee, Behavior Support Committee and I am called occasionally to review changing of policies. Recent examples would be the Escort/Restraint Task Force and PRTF (Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility) changes. It is also often my duty when changes are made to policies and procedures to meet with different teams of employees that those changes impact.”
While Epworth wants to first and foremost ensure their own staff is adequately trained to meet the needs of the children and families utilizing their treatment services, the agency is also branching out to educate the greater community as well. Mundt has worked with the Public Relations Department to conduct trainings such as “M.K. Mueller’s 8 to Great” training sponsored by the Eunice Harrington Project 4 Empowering Families and they also partnered with CASA to conduct the “Sensory Behavior Connection” training. These programs benefit the public and Epworth staff as well.
“I would love to see us integrate more of the sensory tools into our program. We have done more with this in the last three years, but there is so much more that could be done,” she said.
Mundt, a big picture thinker, believes wholeheartedly in a beloved passage from Proverbs that she shares on each email, “Without a vision the people will perish.” She has a vision for Epworth in terms of training and she believes wholeheartedly that someday she will see it come to fruition as the agency continues to grow.
“I predict that someday we will have a training and conference facility of our own, large enough to accommodate members of other agencies as well as the public, complete with a library full of resources and a computer lab that enables us to provide online and computer-based trainings that staff can complete when it fits into their schedule best,” she began, adding. “I dream of classrooms with technology that brings learning from all over the world to our staff and children and allows us to share our knowledge as well. We’ll have space available for other agencies and organizations to utilize and this will help put our name out there as an agency who is leading the way in providing training and resources.”
With architectural design being one of Mundt’s core hobbies, she has several ideas for this new building and also envisions, “. . . a Hall of Fame wing (of the training facility) to honor the many people who have worked so hard to help our children and families. We will also be able to use the space to do extracurricular activities with our children. We have children and staff who have many great talents and someday I hope we are able to showcase them. We need to have talent shows! A space to encourage the children to get into hobbies such as music, arts, woodworking and other activities is very important and would help them greatly when trying to figure out what to replace their ‘old’ habits with.”
A collaborator as well as a trainer, Mundt said, “We are all responsible for working together to find the answers and share them with each other. All trainings are a piece to the puzzle that improves our ability to help others.”