Archive for August, 2017

TargetSolutions makes continuous platform enhancements to improve the user experience. The latest upgrades streamline event planning for public entities.

TargetSolutions is the leading computer-based system for all facets of training management and your feedback is crucial in our efforts to improve the platform. The latest enhancements modernize the Events application with a more user-friendly design and greater functionality.

New upgrades to the Events application include the following:

• Manage Events in the Administration Section
• Search Bar and Sorting Functionality
• Supervisor Rights for Platform Managers for Event Management
• Improved Enrollment and Attendance Records

More Convenience for Platform Managers
Manage Events in the Administration section significantly improves the application’s usability for creating and organizing events. Now, rather than having to switch between the Home and Administration tab, administrators can oversee events from the same platform page they use to coordinate training courses and activities.

Greater Search and Sorting Capabilities
The new search bar and sorting functionality will save you time by simplifying navigation between current and past events. Users and platform managers can find a specific event by searching for its name or sorting the table values in the event list according to a category – such as a date or location.

Distribute Responsibility to Streamline Management
Supervisor rights grant event editing abilities to individuals, other than the original event creator. With access to these new rights, multiple platform managers can edit event details such as attendee enrollment, recording attendance and canceling an event. Enabling supervisor rights for several people distributes responsibility to streamline adjustments for easy event planning for public entities.

Using the new Event History, you can oversee these changes and track who edited information and when the edits were made.

Easily Access Event Registration Information
In addition to simplifying event creation, approving or denying attendee enrollment is now painless with the ability to approve or deny multiple attendees at once. This usability upgrade makes the enrollment approval functionality more practical and efficient.

Attendee information also provides valuable data for compliance purposes. Once at the event, training officers can take attendance and view the attendance record in My History and completions reports.

“Enhancements to TargetSolutions’ Events application make creating, managing and reporting events easier for organizing hands-on training or event planning for public entities. You can now manage all event communication and report attendance with TargetSolutions’ all-in-one training management system.”

Misty Pratt, Product Manager, TargetSolutions

For more information about the updated Events application, please visit TargetSolutions’ online Help System or contact us today at (800) 840-8048!

Implementing an online training system for your city and county has never been easier with TargetSolutions’ powerful records management software. 

More than 4,000 public agencies across the country use TargetSolutions to streamline training compliance and manage valuable records. In doing so, organizations are experiencing massive benefits, including saving money, reducing claims and liability, and boosting employee efficiency and productivity.

If you’re still learning about what TargetSolutions does, here’s a recap: TargetSolutions is a learning management system (LMS) and a records management system (RMS). The innovative, easy-to-use online training system is built to handle the heavy workloads of training administrators and to consolidate the ever-turning kaleidoscope of records management into one centralized hub.

Fully customizable to your organization’s needs, TargetSolutions’ online training system prides itself on being a jack-of-all-trades/master-of-many solution. The reason is simple: TargetSolutions provides public entities with the technology to oversee compliance and individual agencies with the autonomy to manage their training programs.

Here’s a rundown of the benefits that TargetSolutions’ online training system has to offer:

SAVE TIME & IMPROVE EFFICIENCY

TargetSolutions allows your organization to operate more efficiently by automatically streamlining completion of training and compliance tasks so you don’t have to. With TargetSolutions you can unlock your organization’s full potential with a revolutionary recordkeeping application guaranteed to save you time and boost efficiency.

TargetSolutions’ fully customizable system allows you to deliver what you want when you want and allows you to easily disseminate organization-specific content including training videos, presentations, policies, and anything else that needs to be delivered and tracked. Rest easy with alerts, so licenses and other important renewals never expire unexpectedly. Whether it’s the license for a driver, an instructor, or an EMT, TargetSolutions won’t just track it but will send you notifications as the deadline approaches.

“It used to take days to compile and record training information for the month. Now, I can gather the same information in about five minutes.”

Kristopher Shrader, Deputy Chief, Martinsville Fire Department & EMS

ACHIEVE COMPLIANCE & INCREASE SAFETY

Struggling to achieve compliance is like locking your keys in your car. Can you imagine a situation where you can’t locate vital records that would allow your organization to meet compliance requirements? What would you do? It’s a helpless feeling. Fortunately, with TargetSolutions, roadside assistance will come in the form of powerful recordkeeping tools that will ensure your files are up-to-date and fully meet compliance requirements. Proceed with confidence knowing that whenever you need documentation, it will be there.

A compliant organization is a safe one, and TargetSolutions’ mission is to elevate both. With more than 1,000 online training courses for all types of government agencies, including fire departments, police departments, public works agencies, and school districts, TargetSolutions is your answer for a smarter strategy that alters unsafe behavior and provides a safe working environment. OSHA training, driver safety training, and HR courses are all available with a few clicks of the mouse.

“As new legislation develops, we need to be able to react and address the change in requirements and TargetSolutions has helped us do that.”

Suzanne Dillman, Member Services Manager, North Bay Schools Insurance Authority

SAVE MONEY & REDUCE RISK

TargetSolutions offers an armory of liability-reducing titles designed to minimize risk. The versatile online training system features more than 1,000 digital training courses, including popular risk-mitigating lessons like Bloodborne Pathogens Safety, General Office Ergonomics, and Slips, Trips, and Falls and much more. Studies show that a significant portion of all lost workday injuries and illnesses are job-related, making ergonomic education critical to a healthy and efficient workforce.

Echoing previous sentiments: a healthy workforce is a productive one. Claims, sick days, and health costs are reduced across the board when companies implement a wellness program. Establish organizational goals and create a customized combination of activities and courses to educate employees on a healthier lifestyle, then monitor weekly progress through electronic tracking reports.

“If we’re going to be working together on the emergency scene, we darn well better be training together. What TargetSolutions does is it allows us to train much more effectively and much more cost-efficiently.”

Rick Vogt, Deputy Chief, North Zone Training Group

IMPROVE PRODUCTIVITY & PERFORMANCE

Quality training is important to your bottom line. We get that. That’s why as the ultimate online training system, TargetSolutions is proven to educate employees, boost productivity, and enhance performance. Explore what the digital frontier can do for your organization with tools designed to simplify training and recordkeeping tasks while fully empowering your users.

Start employees on the right foot with an effective onboarding process that eliminates unnecessary paperwork and streamlines efforts while saving you valuable time and money. From the get-go, employees will enter a corridor of efficiency with policy reviews, resource reviews, orientation videos, and online training courses that specifically cater to new hires.

From there, TargetSolutions’ powerful recordkeeping software will serve as a virtual office administrator ready to handle any task, anytime, anywhere.

“TargetSolutions has given us the ability to quickly and effectively deliver training to the organization. The platform gives us the ability to automate employee registration, credentialing and recordkeeping.”

Oscar Ramirez, Safety and Security Specialist, Otay Water District

Simplify training with a round-the-clock solution that’s available 24/7 and mobile-ready. If you ever encounter an issue, TargetSolutions’ world-class support team is happy to answer any questions that may arise. This is the future of training. This is TargetSolutions.

To learn more about how TargetSolutions can elevate your city or county’s safety with an online training system, please contact us today at (800) 840-8048. 

The new TargetSolutions-sponsored webinar “Step Up and Lead” features Deputy Chief Frank Viscuso discussing effective fire service leadership characteristics and how they can shape you and your employees for the better.

Packed with firsthand knowledge for capturing the essence of what makes a strong leader, the brand new TargetSolutions-sponsored webinar “Step Up and Lead” is one you don’t want to miss.

Presented by Deputy Chief Frank Viscuso of the Kearny (NJ) Fire Department, the 73-minute webinar dives into the fundamentals of effective leadership and demonstrates how to apply those characteristics to the fire service. Quality leadership extends beyond mere occupational titles and instead roots itself deep into twelve specific character attributes, which Viscuso outlines as the acronym L.E.A.D.E.R.S. T.E.A.C.H.: Loyal, Educated, Adaptable, Determined, Enthusiastic, Reliable, Selfless, Tough, Empathetic, Assertive, Courageous, Honorable.

From there, Viscuso infuses the presentation with firsthand accounts of a career spanning 26 years which serves as his inspiration for developing future leaders. Leadership 101 doesn’t start with a digital thesaurus of proverbial terms and phrases; instead, it starts from within, where it takes a positive can-do approach and an open mind to sufficiently harness the proper growth and development of your battalion. A leader will find a way to make it happen and sometimes it’s as simple as creating something out of nothing.

“We have to have the mentality of finding a way or making one,” commented Viscuso. “If you can’t lead yourself then you’ll never lead other people.”

Adorned with engaging illustrations, Viscuso dissects each of the twelve characteristics as they pertain to the fire service leadership and life in general. Most importantly, strong leadership is about adapting to new situations and setting your people up for success.

“My strategy was to put the right person in the right position and get out of their way,” stated Viscuso. “There’s something to say about finding what people are good at and putting them in the right position so you can have the most effective, efficient team possible.”

Watch the “Step Up and Lead” presentation by clicking the “Watch Webinar” button above. For information about how TargetSolutions can help formulate a solid fire service leadership presence for your department, please contact us today at (800) 840-8046.  

TargetSolutions is excited to announce a brand new seven-part TS Academy webinar series designed to transform platform managers into experts of the system.

Created with the needs of clients in mind, TargetSolutions is proud to announce the upcoming TS Academy seven-part webinar series. The TS Academy is designed for training administrators and supervisors alike to master TargetSolutions’ basic functionalities with the goal of optimizing their organization’s day-to-day platform utilization.

Each weekly webinar will highlight different aspects of the training platform for a comprehensive overview; from managing user profiles to creating training plans for your organization. After completing the seven-week series, administrators will receive a certificate of completion.

“The TS Academy is a must for all platform managers who are looking to take their TargetSolutions program to the next level. The training series enables platform managers of all skill levels to become an expert.”

Amy Albanese, Senior Account Manager, TargetSolutions

Here’s a schedule and brief overview for each of the seven webinars:

Week 1 (September 12th) – Managing User Profiles: Leading off, the first installment will cover adding users, modifying user profiles, creating supervisors, defining categories, modifying organizational profiles and more.

Week 2 (September 19th) – Utilizing Resource Applications: The second presentation will explore how to use the File Center, Course Library, Bulletin Board and Community Resources.

Week 3 (September 26th) – Building Custom Activities: The third webinar will dive into how to create new custom activities and how to use them to track compliance-related tasks, offline instructor-led training, and much more.

Week 4 (October 3rd) – Managing Assignments: Section four will be a presentation on how to create, edit, validate, record, delete and deliver assignments through TargetSolutions.

Week 5 (October 10th) – Building Custom Credentials: Week 5 will illustrate how to create new credentials, who credentials are for, and why they are used.

Week 6 (October 17th) – Generating Reports: This chapter will cover the capabilities of TargetSolutions’ powerful Generate Reports application; giving platform managers more information on how to run various reports, including completions, incomplete assignments, credentials, etc.

Week 7 (October 24th) – Blueprint for Success: The seventh and final webinar will analyze best practices for planning your organization’s training, building learning-track templates, handling employee turnover and much more.

For questions about the TS Academy webinars, please contact us today (800) 840-8048!

TargetSolutions’ Top 6 Back-to-School Training Courses aim to address the unique challenges that school districts will face for the upcoming 2017-18 school year. 

As the 2017-18 school year is right around the corner, the “Summer Slide” is not just a concern for students who forgot about school over their summer vacation. School staff also risk falling behind on back-to-school training.

TargetSolutions addresses these concerns by identifying the Top 6 training courses for school districts so they can assign annual mandated back-to-school training and get a head start on the new semester.

These Top 6 training courses for school districts were selected to address the unique challenges school staff will face on a regular basis. With frequent policy updates or new threats to the learning environment, such as cyberbullying, personnel must constantly refresh their training to be prepared.

Incorporating these key courses into your school’s back-to-school training will reduce liability and improve the safety of staff and students alike:

• Mandated Reporter: Reporting Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of Children: Demonstrates what do if you suspect a child is being abused.
• Sexual Harassment Awareness: Provides strategies to deal with and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
• Bloodborne Pathogens Safety: Provides practical information and prevention strategies associated with bloodborne pathogens.
• Avoiding Slips, Trips and Falls: Helps recognition of fall hazards to prevent injury.
• School Bullying: Focuses on programs to stop bullying and create a positive environment.
• Youth Suicide Awareness and Prevention: Familiarizes staff with risk factors and warning signs for proper response and prevention measures for suicidal youth.

With all the back-to-school buzz and stress, these Top 6 training courses highlight essential topics for school staff. Using TargetSolutions, school districts can seamlessly deliver, track and report course completions for annual mandated training.

For any questions about TargetSolutions’ Top 6 training courses for school districts, please contact us today (800) 840-8048!

TargetSolutions’ Community Resources application contains a plethora of fire department training resources and allows users to easily access, utilize and share valuable tools with other community members. 

Are you looking for a training tool to present to your employees about how to improve functionality on the job? There’s a resource for that!

Community Resources is a versatile file-sharing application that allows users to share and download valuable training tools anytime, anywhere. With a rich arsenal of custom content and an encyclopedia of topics, community members are sure to be pleasantly surprised with what they find among the thousands of currently available resources inside TargetSolutions’ online depository.

The types of tools you’ll find in Community Resources’ robust library include:

• Videos: Training demonstrations, tutorials, documentaries and everything in between.
• Webinars: Includes a vast selection of presentations delivered from local organizations, industry websites, and TargetSolutions’ how-to webcasts.
• Policies: Curious about a local policy? Interested in national training standards? Community Resources has it all.
• Presentations: Maybe it’s a video, maybe it’s a webinar, or maybe it’s both. Upload, download, and integrate complete PowerPoint presentations with ease.
• Links: Did you find something useful on another website? Do you think others will enjoy it? Upload it into Community Resources and share the wealth.

Easily download, modify, and assign shared resources with just a few clicks of the mouse. Import any resource into your organization’s File Center and modify if necessary before assigning to your employees through the Activities Builder. Be sure to rate resources so other community members can properly partake in the experience.

Some of the most viewed and highly rated pieces are promoted as a Resource of the Month and featured front-and-center on TargetSolutions’ website. Past monthly selections include a series of videos that focus on stress management for emergency responders, a visual demonstration of educating employees on back safety, and a video presentation of a firefighter suspected of alcohol abuse.

To see firsthand what types of fire department training resources are available, click the “Community Resources” tab inside TargetSolutions’ online training management system. If you have any questions, please contact us today at (800) 840-8048.