When Share Organics owner Susan Tychie decided her small business had grown big enough that she needed a training manual, she wanted to ensure it was – like Share's fresh, local produce – good for every body.
"It started out as wanting to just get a few things written down about the way we do things, but we also wanted to pass on the culture of our company, and we wanted it to be easily accessible," Tychie says.
Twelve years ago, Tychie started a buying group with 10 families who shared her passion for local, organic produce. When those families started asking for more frequent deliveries, she knew it was time to expand. "We went from 10 pounds of beets to 250 pounds a week – local farmers now grow crops they know they can sell to Share."
She moved from her small location to a warehouse with a handful of staff, and necessarily has slowly introduced more formal workplace procedures to her 10 employees.
Manager Jennie Duguay agreed to take on the task of writing down every detail of Share's daily operation, from proper storage procedures for garlic to tips on dealing with customer's specific requests on where to leave their fresh produce bins.
"My intention from the beginning was to write a manual for production and office procedures," Duguay says. She soon realized that including sections on bike and truck delivery, new staff training, and holiday procedures would be beneficial to the project.
They got a helping hand in finessing the manual from the SkillsPlus project delivered by the Victoria READ Society and the Community Council. The Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Agreement program provides free training for employees in small businesses in nine Essential Skills.
Even though Duguay was well into writing the manual before Share signed up to participate in SkillsPlus, she says the READ Society's adult educator Helen Thomas helped increase her skills in putting together the complex document.
"Helen helped organize it in a way that's easy to read and gave me lots of tips on how to format the manual," Duguay says.
For Tychie, Thomas provided the opportunity to introduce more commonly used business terms to staff, begin a process of formalizing human resources procedures and improve communications systems between production and office management.
"SkillsPlus is such an amazing service for people in a business like ours," says Duguay. "We have passionate, driven people who care deeply about food and health but do not necessarily have the formal skills and training."
And it offers an unexpected bonus: Tychie might get to take a holiday now that she has a manual that provides both in-depth training and long-term solid footing for managers to work from while she is away.
Local and international research shows that addressing Essential Skills in the workforce helps both businesses and employees. Training helps manage change, retain promising employees, and improve productivity and safety.
SkillsPlus training is offered by the Victoria READ Society and the Community Council, with funding through the Canada-British Columbia Labour Market Agreement (LMA) for small business in the Capital Region with less than 50 employees. Currently seven businesses in the retail/wholesale/grocery and tourism/hospitality sectors have signed up and others are on a waitlist.
Employers can find more workplace learning tips, tools and resources on READ's website at www.readsociety.bc.ca/workplace.htm and through the Community Council, http://www.qolchallenge.ca/resources/skillsplus.php.
