Can training scale up operations?

“Leadership must be completely on-board and champion the importance of training. An effective training program really comes from the top. Unless you have that it’s very difficult for people to adopt the programs and implement them.”

This is a celebration of an L&D initiative not by an individual but by an organization. Considering the complexity, scale and model of operation, this stands out as a case study worth following for many with similar challenges. Unlike regular hospital businesses, LifeSpring is a commercial venture with a social cause.

It provides maternal healthcare to low-income people in urban and semi-urban areas at low cost. Its values are based on the belief that women from poor financial background also deserve dignified treatment and quality healthcare. The biggest challenge for an organization that operates on this “low cost” model is to invest in training.

We met Tricia Morente who is driving the training process at LifeSpring hospital. She is not the conventional L&D person one expects to meet but when she talks about the training initiative in her organization, she has the enthusiasm of someone who is passionate about talent. Tricia proudly explains how a “low cost” venture like LifeSpring has reaped vital rewards through a stringent focus on training and development. Today, training is the backbone that has equipped LifeSpring to scale-up successfully across the geography.

The Need for Training
LifeSpring is a network of maternity hospitals. It has 6 branches in Hyderabad and 3 in coastal Andhra Pradesh and wants to scale up very fast across India. Since LifeSpring places tremendous focus on processes and high quality healthcare, employees across the organization must practice and follow processes at all levels. “We knew that in order to scale successfully, we would need to focus on talent development and training” says Tricia.

The Training Solution
“We had to train our staff on 100+ processes. We created training modules to teach these processes step-by-step. The biggest advantage is that these eLearning training modules ensured standardized training, are much more efficient, and can be translated in many languages as we scale up.” These eLearning modules are deployed on Moodle in order to be accessible from all LifeSpring locations. LifeSpring received a grant from Rockefeller Foundation to create 50 such videos. Going forward, they developed several in-house videos as well.

The Recipients of Training
At LifeSpring, we have training for all of our employees—doctors, nurses, administrators as well as the corporate office staff. “We even train our outsourced staff, such as security guards and ayahs.

“It’s not enough to train our staff alone – since customers don’t know whether a security guard is a LifeSpring staff or not. They’re the first ones the customers see when they enter our hospital, so training around our mission and customer-focus is very important.”

Deriving Training Needs
“We derive training needs from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective” says Tricia.

For example, as LifeSpring scales up, it will need talented clinical staff. It will not only need doctors, but nurses as well. “We’ve recently developed an advanced nursing training program where nurses are trained to the next level such as midwife training and assisting in the OT (operation theatre).”

Challenges During Implementation

1. Getting people to training is a big challenge in itself. In a hospital there are obviously many unplanned events, which can take people away from training. Some of these concerns were mitigated by self-paced media training videos. People could log on and engage in training at their own time and pace.
2. Convincing people at hospital level that training is important—especially some doctors who had to be convinced that training would add value and help them perform their jobs better.
3. Scaling up training was a big challenge, which was overcome through media training videos.
4. Implementation of training can be a challenge, especially across the nine hospitals. While the use of e-Learning addresses this problem, there may be technology or Internet difficulties as well.

Challenges of Working with External Trainers & Training providers

“The biggest challenge while working with external trainers and training providers was having them understand our business. We had to work closely with them to help them understand our model better.”

In many ways, LifeSpring’s business model is unique and very different from traditional hospitals. “LifeSpring is a social enterprise committed to treating women as ‘customers’ with respect and dignity. However, for example, training providers would develop a video that one would associate with a traditional non-profit organization. We had to work closely with them to help them understand our model better.”

Overcoming the ‘e’ Factor in Training
Most of the staff at the hospital apart from the doctors were new to online training. eLearning was a new mode of delivery of training for many. Here are some of the steps taken to overcome the e-factor in training.

Measuring Efficacy of Training Initiatives
“We used three different tiers to measure the success of training, starting from participant satisfaction and moving to improvement in knowledge and change in behavior. This was done across 6 branches in Hyderabad and 3 in coastal AP.”

Biggest Benefits from Training
Change in culture in the organization: Training is now a continuous activity. It is no longer a one-off initiative. We have seen the results of our audits improve, based on process training.

Our current training initiative is to focus on customer care at the hospitals. We plan to look at the number of customer complaints prior to training, develop training around the most common customer complaints, and measure how the number of complaints change after training.

Innovation in Training for Maternal Healthcare in India by Alissa Pries

Tricia’s message to L&D practitioners
“Leadership must be completely on-board and champion the importance of training. An effective training program really comes from the top. Unless you have that it’s very difficult for people to adopt the programs and implement them.

It is equally important to show the participants what value the training will bring to them directly. They should be able to see the relevance of training and see clearly how it will benefit them – for instance, being able to perform their job better and more efficiently.”

“Leadership must be completely on-board and champion the importance of training. It is equally important to show the participants what value the training will bring to them directly.”

Rapid Fire Round

What do you love most about Hyderabad?
The fact that for a city of 7 million, it feels like a small town

What do you hate most about Hyderabad?
The noise and the traffic

What’s your mantra of success?
Follow your passion

When the chips are down, what keeps you going?
There’s nowhere else I’d rather be!

What’s one experience that you’ll never ever forget?
Opening up our fifth LifeSpring Hospital – we held a big community event and invited everyone to tour our hospital in Vanasthalipuram.

What’s one book that you’d recommend to L&D professionals?
“The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

Tricia Morente is Head Strategy & Marketing at LifeSpring hospitals. She has received her BA from Harvard University, MBA from Columbia Business School, and MA in International Affairs from SIPA and her work experience ranges from North America, Australia, Rwanda, the Philippines, and Thailand to India.

The L&D team at LifeSpring

(Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here and in any corresponding comments are the personal opinions of guests and authors, and do not necessarily represent those of their organization.)