Regional Training Program

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

The training and development of employees is very important to Montgomery County, Virginia. However, the cost of offering training programs is increasingly difficult to fit into current local government budgets. In order to reduce costs and time involved in training new employees, Montgomery County and the towns of Christiansburg and Blacksburg within the county began a collaborative effort for orientation training for new employees that has expanded to joint training in other areas. Orientation is a half day and includes topic on Sexual harassment, customer service, hazards communication, right to know, blood borne pathogens, drug and alcohol awareness, workplace violence, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and diversity. All new employees in all three localities are required to attend this training. The Human Resource Directors of each locality share responsibility for teaching and providing refreshments and materials. Building on this success, other classes have now been jointly offered by the regional cooperation of these three localities. The Human Resource Directors meet in the summer of each year to define their training objectives for the coming fiscal year. Plans for the classes held jointly include location, content, instructors, length and cost of the classes. Each locality then publicizes classes to their own employees through flyers catalogs and e-mail.