Training is a constant in long-term and senior care. But completing training and building skills are not necessarily the same thing. 

At Forum’s Annual Symposium, this challenge was explored during a session focused on practical ways to engage, empower, and upskill the core careforce, presented by Benjamin Surmi, MSG, Social Gerontologist at Arvo. 

For organizations facing workforce shortages, changing regulations, evolving resident needs, and increasing demands on frontline teams, the question is no longer simply whether employees have been trained. It is whether they can consistently apply what they have learned when it matters. 

As Ben emphasized during the session, that requires shifting the focus from covering topics to building skills. 

Break the Work Down 

One way to make training more practical is to break complex responsibilities into the individual actions required to perform them successfully. 

A Job Breakdown Sheet, for example, organizes a task around three questions: 

• What? What are the important steps required to complete the task? 
• How? What key points help someone perform each step correctly? 
• Why? Why does each of those points matter? 

Consider something as routine as entering a resident’s room. What appears to be one simple task can involve a series of important behaviors: knocking, waiting for a response, entering slowly, approaching from the front, getting to eye level, introducing yourself, and using the resident’s preferred name. 

Explaining not only what employees should do, but how and why they should do it can turn a policy or procedure into a skill they understand and can put into practice. 

Create Opportunities to Learn From the Work 

Effective learning doesn’t end when formal training does. 

An After-Action Review can provide a simple framework for teams to examine everyday experiences: 

1. What was supposed to happen?
2. What actually happened?
3. Why? 
4. What can we change next time? 

Another useful question may be even simpler: What’s the dumbest thing you had to work around today? 

The answers can reveal inefficient processes, confusing systems, or unnecessary barriers that employees have simply learned to navigate. 

Identifying those workarounds creates an opportunity to improve both the process and the way employees are trained to perform it. 

Make the Right Action Easier 

Training is only one part of influencing behavior. The work environment itself can reinforce what employees have learned. 

Simple strategies can include: 

• Placement: Put frequently used items where they are needed. 
• Stickers: Use clear visual cues to communicate important information. 
• Defaults: Make the preferred action the easiest or most obvious choice. 
• Anchor habits: Connect a new behavior to something employees already do consistently. 
• Checklists: Provide a repeatable framework for tasks where missing a step can matter. 

These approaches reduce the burden on employees to remember every instruction in the middle of a busy shift and help make desired behaviors part of the everyday workflow. 

Use Technology to Create More Ways to Practice 

Artificial intelligence and other digital tools are also creating new possibilities for workforce education. 

Instead of using technology simply to deliver more information, organizations can use it to make learning more interactive and accessible. 

Consider technology —– applications that can help organizations: 

• Create realistic video scenarios for discussion and training 
• Turn educational content and research into audio conversations 
• Develop games and knowledge checks 
• Provide interactive learning experiences around documents and other resources 
• Create AI-supported roleplay opportunities to practice conversations and receive feedback 

The value isn’t the technology itself. It is what the technology makes possible: more opportunities for staff to practice, engage with information in different ways, and strengthen skills before they need to use them in real-world situations. 

From Training Completion to Workforce Capability 

For long-term and senior care organizations, workforce development is directly connected to the resident experience. 

Building stronger skills requires more than assigning another course or checking another box. It means helping employees understand what good performance looks like, giving them opportunities to practice it, removing obstacles that make the right behaviors harder, and reinforcing learning in the environment where the work actually happens. 

Technology—including AI—can help. But the larger opportunity is to rethink training itself. 

The goal isn’t simply to teach more. 

It’s to help people do better.

Download the free tip sheet: Engage, Empower, Partner: Practical Strategies for Upskilling Your Core Careforce.