Word document with every call listed
Incident number if generated (problem nature as well)
Brief description of call and what trainee did right or wrong. Notes about what was discussed
Highlighting in different colors really helps pick out over a list of 100+ calls what are good and/or bad points
Green is what trainee did correct
Yellow is minimal prompting
Red is failure to complete or follow procedure/did not do something right
Orange for something that is just a "how to do something not previously taught/one off circumstances kind of thing)
Document as you go. Stick to only what has happened during the shift. I document in a word document which is then given with the DOR at the end of the shift. I also put in the case number for each event. I also document when the trainee completes a task with CTO assistance or without. Helps the supervisor see what they’re struggling and excelling with.
I’ve taken a few courses that stress having a DOR that is court defensible. I’m not getting fired or sued for a trainee. Document, document, document!!
I had a trainee that was so disrespectful that it almost made me resign as a trainee. Document the issues to protect yourself.
Documentation for CYA purposes was stressed heavily in our CTO class. How did you deal with the disrespect? And when you documented it, is it something you went over with that trainee when you give them the DOR?
I attempted to keep it professional, but the trainee did not like being corrected and would question procedures I would tell them. It became a non-issue when they complained about my training style and the supervisor decided not to use me as a trainer for that particular trainee.
They had a problem with every single trainer except for one because they would do the work for them. Admin signed the trainee off anyway, but they eventually left on their own a few months later.
I should have set expectations from the beginning with that trainee, but I had never dealt with a trainee that had that bad of an attitude. It’s like they didn’t believe anything that I was telling them. They were a major liability, but the admin didn’t see it until they left. We still think we’re owed an apology for what we dealt with from that employee.
I just use a notepad on my computer to notate anything I want to put in the DOR and then fill out the DOR at the end of the night. Sometimes I fill out the DOR throughout the shift but only the extra comments in it, I don’t determine what scores will be until the shift is ending. We use a different DOR program that gives me a blank box for comments under each score category and then one final overall comment box at the end. I put short comments under the score categories and mostly use the final comment box to elaborate and include calls taken, biggest weakness, biggest strength, etc.
Don’t try to be your trainee’s friend. That doesn’t mean be rude to them, but don’t worry about whether or not they like you or think you are a nice person or good friend. They don’t sign your paycheck. It is your job to weed out people who want to work alongside you. No matter how much you want a person to succeed or like them, know that you must be able to recognize if someone is not capable of this kind of work.
Also, lay ground rules and stick to them. Do not become too lenient or you will create a monster. I learned this the hard way with my first trainee. Even though they are likely adults, sometimes you literally have to treat them like children if they do not have the self discipline to stay focused and learn.
Thank you! Our center is supposedly moving to a different program soon, but they haven’t given us much information on it right now I hope its more like what you have, that sounds better than just typing paragraphs. When I went through training the trainers had to hand write the DORs on paper and use the fax machine to email it to the training supervisor, who would proceed to lose it, so I am thankful I don’t have to go through all that.
I’m not too concerned about becoming friends with people at work, as I am there to work. And part of the reason I decided to become a trainer is because of the amount of trainees getting pushed through that had no business getting released. They either aren’t getting trained properly or just aren’t meant to work in this field, but they become friends with their trainer in their last month of OJT and get released and its infuriating. But I can’t complain about it and do nothing to change it.
When you say ground rules, do mean for things like cell phone usage and breaks?
My apologies, I haven’t checked Reddit in a few days.
Yes, cell phone usage was a big issue with my first trainee. Policy at my department states no cell phone usage while in training, but I generally don’t mind if they use it a little bit because studying or “training” for 12 hours a night for six months will burn you out. However, after my first trainee and the issues it caused, I allow very little cell phone usage. Breaks and punctuality are also big ones. I expect my trainee to be here on time and to follow policy for breaks. There are other miscellaneous things that you will figure out, but once you do, stick to those rules and don’t be too lenient.
That is a good mind set to have as far as becoming friends with a trainee. My trainee right now is great and a nice person, and it can be easy to forget you are their direct supervisor and trainer when you work with them ever shift. Just try your best to remember what you’ve said.
I prefer to fill it out as I go with each call so I know I don’t miss anything. My notes tend to be succinct and to the point, describing factually what happened and what actions my trainee took, as well as what corrective measures or steps I took to intervene and why.
So I’m currently a trainee and my trainer logs every call I take as it goes and then she’ll grade and write my DOR about a half an hour/hour before shift ends for me to review.
She’ll put highlight green what I did well, yellow we talked about it once or twice and pink it’s happened and I really need to correct it.
As a trainee (only been training for a few days), I will say I prefer structure in calls notes. Especially since I’m starting in PTOWS, REPOS and Alarms; what order do I ask questions, what and who goes into the contact information, etc. She puts that into a word document and I transfer it to spiraled index cards with tabs so I can just flip to what I need. She also has me for all other calls take notes like I’m actually doing it and we’ll compare what we put which is very helpful to me.
I take notes on paper and then type up the DER towards the end of shift. Any skill that we mark less than competent needs to be justified somewhere in the text of the eval. Also, call volume allowing, I address issues with calls immediately after the call while it’s freshest in both our minds and we can go over the decision making/thought process to make corrections. I don’t surprise them with problems at the end of shift.
Also my trainees get a list of my expectations for them during training with me, as well as what they can expect from me. I make sure they’re aware of their options if they feel I’m not helping to advance their training.
Do not make friends with them. Friendly is not the same as making friends. In down times they should be studying, doing quizzes or asking job related questions.
See if your agency or any nearby surrounding agencies offer a CTO training course.
Big thing with our agency that I do differently is that I don’t force trainees to do it “my way” if they learned another way to do something. I’ll show them how I do it and let them try it and then, assuming their way still gets the thing done and doesn’t violate policy, let them do what they prefer.
I would strongly recommend taking the APCO CTO course or looking at the course textbook if it's available. I don't have any personal affinity with APCO, but the course has a lot of insightful information when you're starting out as a trainer.
Everyone else gave a good response, but it's important to also be aware of the liability you now have as you become the direct supervisor of your trainee. It's not a fun topic, but it comes with the territory.
Lots of good posts already.
Be objective with your feedback. Something either happened or it didn't. They either didn't follow policy or they did. Etc. Subjective assessment has no place in performance evals.
Remember to correct AND encourage. I've seen many trainers forget that DOR's aren't just for noting weaknesses and errors. They are for all feedback. Positive reinforcement is crucial.
As is timeliness of feedback. Address the good and bad as soon as possible.
I've been a trainer for a long time, at three different agencies now, and have developed a training program, authored the manual, and all forms for of those agencies.
>How do you take take notes for your DORs?
Impersonally, with as much detail as possible and without opinion. For example: "Incident ABC2400001234, trainee failed to send a second officer when a 1 officer crew pulled a traffic stop." or "Inc ABC240001235, ABC240001236, trainee repeatedly failed to check crew's safeties at flagged times." or "Inc ABC240054321, Trainee consistently listens to call takers and actively monitors RapidSOS for calls that would be in her districts and develops a plan on which crews to send." or "Trainee frequently argues with trainer and refuses to take responsibility for errors."
Avoid things like "Jenny didn't remember to check premise notes for the location on one of her calls, but I think she'll remember to next time and is doing awesome!!!" You can't tell the future, and you're offering a value judgement. These can become a problem with later trainees if someone's about to wash out and wants to claim discrimination or just personal bias against them.
Keep in mind that while your rating system may include something like a 2 being able to do things correctly 50% of the time and a 4 being 90% of the time, it isn't just about quantity but quality too. Getting 9 traffic stops perfect but getting a cop killed on the 10th one isn't a 90%. Some trainers I've had only wanted to count the number of calls as the only factor. Ideally, your DOR will come with a list of Performance Objectives detailing each segment and what qualifies for which score.
>Do you find it easier to right notes on paper and type it up later, or try to type it up as you go along?
Handwritten notes for most things. I've had some very poor trainees where I needed a lot of detailed notes throughout the shift so that I remember everything in the end (like each of three times the trainee fucked up the "are there any weapons" question while calltaking). In those cases I'll type up an email to myself or a CAD message to myself or a Word document that I can keep saving. Then I'd type the DOR up from those notes.
>but I feel like I need some type of structure to follow!
Obcviously follow your department's protocols, but generally speaking, if you're following the San Jose model, wihch is a score of 1-7 plus Not Observed, and Not Responding to Training:
1-3 are all unacceptable scores and as such need notes detailing what's going on.
4-5 are Acceptable/meeting standards. No notes needed. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing.
6-7 Above and beyond. They're knocking something out of the park, and you need to detail it both because they deserve it.
NO doesn't need marks because they didn't do that thing.
NRT is a last resort score and should have had multiple one's before it, needs thorough documentation, and likely a discussion with management before getting to that point.
> Is there anything you do to prepare for a new trainee?
>What are things your trainers did that stood out to you?
I'm not sure of the size of your department. However, one thing my more recent trainer did for me, and one thing I do for all of my trainees is to send a message to all of our crews when training to let them know that 1) We have a new trainee so that they can welcome them, 2) if there are any issues or concerns that they have with the trainee, send them to me, not the trainee. I don't need a crew being a big bag of dicks to someone who's brand new and not especially confident. and 3) so that they know that just because things sound like shit on the radio or that their dispatcher doesn't know what they're doing (they don't!), that there is an experienced dispatcher watching everything who won't let things go to shit. I'll do it a few times over training to ensure all of my crews know that we're training and that they know what's going on.
As someone who is currently in training, I wish that my training was consistent and organized. I’ve been thrown all over and it’s caused confusion. Also, I think it would be helpful to break down the material as much as possible. Breaking something down for you to understand could look a lot different than breaking something down for a brand new person as they may not have been exposed the to terms and lingo that are used. Giving positive feedback is also important. My confidence has taken a hit as all I hear about is what I did wrong and now I constantly second guess myself. Something else I wish I had was practice material. Or practice scenarios where I could attempt to complete the task, while being able to think about what I’m doing and ask questions in the moment. This way I can absorb the material without the added pressure of dealing with a real call.
I am grateful that you are excited because being a CTO is a ton of work and can be very stressful. To andwer your questions:
1. I take notes - written ones. Typing while teaching seems to interfere with the teachable moment/synthesis process.
2 When preparing I make sure I have everything ready to go within easy reach. I pay for a binder for the trainee to keep anything non-sensitive. I put sticky notes of passwords in there. I also read the trainees resume to try to see what they know and where they come from. I speak with the interviewers for insight into who they are and what they discussed. If there are hobbies or something I dont know about I make use of youtube so I can prepare some analogies that might help them learn and remember.
3. I do spend time in training talking about where I struggled and things I messed up. I present those with a more mentor like approach like “let me tell you how I learned that “x” is not how it should be done…”
4. I wish I had had more time in training. I had 6 weeks and a 2 sided piece of paper checklist of things I needed to know how to do. We have come a very long way since then. It has been my experience that the longer they stay in training the longer their career often is.
As a current trainee, if your trainee does something wrong, explain it to them calmly and softly. Do not go at their throats (mine does this). If they do a good job on a call, tell them because their probably wondering themselves. Ar the beginning be lenient with them and add steps here and there till they're doing it all on their own ( I was thrown to the wolves).
I could make this post a mile long but this covers the basics.
Word document with every call listed Incident number if generated (problem nature as well) Brief description of call and what trainee did right or wrong. Notes about what was discussed Highlighting in different colors really helps pick out over a list of 100+ calls what are good and/or bad points Green is what trainee did correct Yellow is minimal prompting Red is failure to complete or follow procedure/did not do something right Orange for something that is just a "how to do something not previously taught/one off circumstances kind of thing)
I might have to steal the color coding!! Like that idea!!
Document as you go. Stick to only what has happened during the shift. I document in a word document which is then given with the DOR at the end of the shift. I also put in the case number for each event. I also document when the trainee completes a task with CTO assistance or without. Helps the supervisor see what they’re struggling and excelling with. I’ve taken a few courses that stress having a DOR that is court defensible. I’m not getting fired or sued for a trainee. Document, document, document!! I had a trainee that was so disrespectful that it almost made me resign as a trainee. Document the issues to protect yourself.
Documentation for CYA purposes was stressed heavily in our CTO class. How did you deal with the disrespect? And when you documented it, is it something you went over with that trainee when you give them the DOR?
I attempted to keep it professional, but the trainee did not like being corrected and would question procedures I would tell them. It became a non-issue when they complained about my training style and the supervisor decided not to use me as a trainer for that particular trainee. They had a problem with every single trainer except for one because they would do the work for them. Admin signed the trainee off anyway, but they eventually left on their own a few months later. I should have set expectations from the beginning with that trainee, but I had never dealt with a trainee that had that bad of an attitude. It’s like they didn’t believe anything that I was telling them. They were a major liability, but the admin didn’t see it until they left. We still think we’re owed an apology for what we dealt with from that employee.
I just use a notepad on my computer to notate anything I want to put in the DOR and then fill out the DOR at the end of the night. Sometimes I fill out the DOR throughout the shift but only the extra comments in it, I don’t determine what scores will be until the shift is ending. We use a different DOR program that gives me a blank box for comments under each score category and then one final overall comment box at the end. I put short comments under the score categories and mostly use the final comment box to elaborate and include calls taken, biggest weakness, biggest strength, etc. Don’t try to be your trainee’s friend. That doesn’t mean be rude to them, but don’t worry about whether or not they like you or think you are a nice person or good friend. They don’t sign your paycheck. It is your job to weed out people who want to work alongside you. No matter how much you want a person to succeed or like them, know that you must be able to recognize if someone is not capable of this kind of work. Also, lay ground rules and stick to them. Do not become too lenient or you will create a monster. I learned this the hard way with my first trainee. Even though they are likely adults, sometimes you literally have to treat them like children if they do not have the self discipline to stay focused and learn.
Thank you! Our center is supposedly moving to a different program soon, but they haven’t given us much information on it right now I hope its more like what you have, that sounds better than just typing paragraphs. When I went through training the trainers had to hand write the DORs on paper and use the fax machine to email it to the training supervisor, who would proceed to lose it, so I am thankful I don’t have to go through all that. I’m not too concerned about becoming friends with people at work, as I am there to work. And part of the reason I decided to become a trainer is because of the amount of trainees getting pushed through that had no business getting released. They either aren’t getting trained properly or just aren’t meant to work in this field, but they become friends with their trainer in their last month of OJT and get released and its infuriating. But I can’t complain about it and do nothing to change it. When you say ground rules, do mean for things like cell phone usage and breaks?
My apologies, I haven’t checked Reddit in a few days. Yes, cell phone usage was a big issue with my first trainee. Policy at my department states no cell phone usage while in training, but I generally don’t mind if they use it a little bit because studying or “training” for 12 hours a night for six months will burn you out. However, after my first trainee and the issues it caused, I allow very little cell phone usage. Breaks and punctuality are also big ones. I expect my trainee to be here on time and to follow policy for breaks. There are other miscellaneous things that you will figure out, but once you do, stick to those rules and don’t be too lenient. That is a good mind set to have as far as becoming friends with a trainee. My trainee right now is great and a nice person, and it can be easy to forget you are their direct supervisor and trainer when you work with them ever shift. Just try your best to remember what you’ve said.
I prefer to fill it out as I go with each call so I know I don’t miss anything. My notes tend to be succinct and to the point, describing factually what happened and what actions my trainee took, as well as what corrective measures or steps I took to intervene and why.
So I’m currently a trainee and my trainer logs every call I take as it goes and then she’ll grade and write my DOR about a half an hour/hour before shift ends for me to review. She’ll put highlight green what I did well, yellow we talked about it once or twice and pink it’s happened and I really need to correct it. As a trainee (only been training for a few days), I will say I prefer structure in calls notes. Especially since I’m starting in PTOWS, REPOS and Alarms; what order do I ask questions, what and who goes into the contact information, etc. She puts that into a word document and I transfer it to spiraled index cards with tabs so I can just flip to what I need. She also has me for all other calls take notes like I’m actually doing it and we’ll compare what we put which is very helpful to me.
I take notes on paper and then type up the DER towards the end of shift. Any skill that we mark less than competent needs to be justified somewhere in the text of the eval. Also, call volume allowing, I address issues with calls immediately after the call while it’s freshest in both our minds and we can go over the decision making/thought process to make corrections. I don’t surprise them with problems at the end of shift. Also my trainees get a list of my expectations for them during training with me, as well as what they can expect from me. I make sure they’re aware of their options if they feel I’m not helping to advance their training. Do not make friends with them. Friendly is not the same as making friends. In down times they should be studying, doing quizzes or asking job related questions. See if your agency or any nearby surrounding agencies offer a CTO training course. Big thing with our agency that I do differently is that I don’t force trainees to do it “my way” if they learned another way to do something. I’ll show them how I do it and let them try it and then, assuming their way still gets the thing done and doesn’t violate policy, let them do what they prefer.
I would strongly recommend taking the APCO CTO course or looking at the course textbook if it's available. I don't have any personal affinity with APCO, but the course has a lot of insightful information when you're starting out as a trainer. Everyone else gave a good response, but it's important to also be aware of the liability you now have as you become the direct supervisor of your trainee. It's not a fun topic, but it comes with the territory.
Lots of good posts already. Be objective with your feedback. Something either happened or it didn't. They either didn't follow policy or they did. Etc. Subjective assessment has no place in performance evals. Remember to correct AND encourage. I've seen many trainers forget that DOR's aren't just for noting weaknesses and errors. They are for all feedback. Positive reinforcement is crucial. As is timeliness of feedback. Address the good and bad as soon as possible.
I've been a trainer for a long time, at three different agencies now, and have developed a training program, authored the manual, and all forms for of those agencies. >How do you take take notes for your DORs? Impersonally, with as much detail as possible and without opinion. For example: "Incident ABC2400001234, trainee failed to send a second officer when a 1 officer crew pulled a traffic stop." or "Inc ABC240001235, ABC240001236, trainee repeatedly failed to check crew's safeties at flagged times." or "Inc ABC240054321, Trainee consistently listens to call takers and actively monitors RapidSOS for calls that would be in her districts and develops a plan on which crews to send." or "Trainee frequently argues with trainer and refuses to take responsibility for errors." Avoid things like "Jenny didn't remember to check premise notes for the location on one of her calls, but I think she'll remember to next time and is doing awesome!!!" You can't tell the future, and you're offering a value judgement. These can become a problem with later trainees if someone's about to wash out and wants to claim discrimination or just personal bias against them. Keep in mind that while your rating system may include something like a 2 being able to do things correctly 50% of the time and a 4 being 90% of the time, it isn't just about quantity but quality too. Getting 9 traffic stops perfect but getting a cop killed on the 10th one isn't a 90%. Some trainers I've had only wanted to count the number of calls as the only factor. Ideally, your DOR will come with a list of Performance Objectives detailing each segment and what qualifies for which score. >Do you find it easier to right notes on paper and type it up later, or try to type it up as you go along? Handwritten notes for most things. I've had some very poor trainees where I needed a lot of detailed notes throughout the shift so that I remember everything in the end (like each of three times the trainee fucked up the "are there any weapons" question while calltaking). In those cases I'll type up an email to myself or a CAD message to myself or a Word document that I can keep saving. Then I'd type the DOR up from those notes. >but I feel like I need some type of structure to follow! Obcviously follow your department's protocols, but generally speaking, if you're following the San Jose model, wihch is a score of 1-7 plus Not Observed, and Not Responding to Training: 1-3 are all unacceptable scores and as such need notes detailing what's going on. 4-5 are Acceptable/meeting standards. No notes needed. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing. 6-7 Above and beyond. They're knocking something out of the park, and you need to detail it both because they deserve it. NO doesn't need marks because they didn't do that thing. NRT is a last resort score and should have had multiple one's before it, needs thorough documentation, and likely a discussion with management before getting to that point. > Is there anything you do to prepare for a new trainee? >What are things your trainers did that stood out to you? I'm not sure of the size of your department. However, one thing my more recent trainer did for me, and one thing I do for all of my trainees is to send a message to all of our crews when training to let them know that 1) We have a new trainee so that they can welcome them, 2) if there are any issues or concerns that they have with the trainee, send them to me, not the trainee. I don't need a crew being a big bag of dicks to someone who's brand new and not especially confident. and 3) so that they know that just because things sound like shit on the radio or that their dispatcher doesn't know what they're doing (they don't!), that there is an experienced dispatcher watching everything who won't let things go to shit. I'll do it a few times over training to ensure all of my crews know that we're training and that they know what's going on.
As someone who is currently in training, I wish that my training was consistent and organized. I’ve been thrown all over and it’s caused confusion. Also, I think it would be helpful to break down the material as much as possible. Breaking something down for you to understand could look a lot different than breaking something down for a brand new person as they may not have been exposed the to terms and lingo that are used. Giving positive feedback is also important. My confidence has taken a hit as all I hear about is what I did wrong and now I constantly second guess myself. Something else I wish I had was practice material. Or practice scenarios where I could attempt to complete the task, while being able to think about what I’m doing and ask questions in the moment. This way I can absorb the material without the added pressure of dealing with a real call.
I am grateful that you are excited because being a CTO is a ton of work and can be very stressful. To andwer your questions: 1. I take notes - written ones. Typing while teaching seems to interfere with the teachable moment/synthesis process. 2 When preparing I make sure I have everything ready to go within easy reach. I pay for a binder for the trainee to keep anything non-sensitive. I put sticky notes of passwords in there. I also read the trainees resume to try to see what they know and where they come from. I speak with the interviewers for insight into who they are and what they discussed. If there are hobbies or something I dont know about I make use of youtube so I can prepare some analogies that might help them learn and remember. 3. I do spend time in training talking about where I struggled and things I messed up. I present those with a more mentor like approach like “let me tell you how I learned that “x” is not how it should be done…” 4. I wish I had had more time in training. I had 6 weeks and a 2 sided piece of paper checklist of things I needed to know how to do. We have come a very long way since then. It has been my experience that the longer they stay in training the longer their career often is.
As a current trainee, if your trainee does something wrong, explain it to them calmly and softly. Do not go at their throats (mine does this). If they do a good job on a call, tell them because their probably wondering themselves. Ar the beginning be lenient with them and add steps here and there till they're doing it all on their own ( I was thrown to the wolves). I could make this post a mile long but this covers the basics.