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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Client Participation Expectations


Establishing expectations for participation will set your clients up for a more engaging and meaningful eVolve experience. It will also offer facilitators and clients clear entry points for conversation if clients are not able to participate as per agreed upon expectations. Consider the following strategies:

Set Clear Start and End Dates – It is important for clients to have a clear understanding of the start and end times of their eVolve session. This will allow clients to manage their time to complete all work within the time period provided. While it is necessary to allow enough space for participation and completion, often less time (weeks) is better than more (months). For example, for our current EPBC customers, we recommend one week of access for every 2-3 topics, with each topic taking a client approximately 2 hours of time spread over the week.

Encourage Frequency of Participation – Whether completing only a couple of eVolve topics or a bundled program, frequent participation is key to create space for meaning making and dialogue through reflections and the group discussion forums. Encourage clients to set aside about 1-2 hours each day to participate online, which can be at any time of the day. Also consider requesting specific tasks to be completed each day (ie. complete 1 Personal Application Activity and 1 Reflection Question each day Monday to Friday). This will give clients a goal to work towards and help set pace and momentum.

Share Facilitator Response Time – At the start of an eVolve session, inform clients of your response time to their reflections, private messages or discussion forum posts. In most cases, we recommend a 24 hour response guideline, but whatever your internal policy is, let clients know ahead of time. By sharing this expectation, clients won’t always expect an immediate response, and will interpret a 24-response delay as part of regular facilitation flow. It will also encourage clients to log in to their session on a regular basis.

To discuss these and additional client engagement strategies in eVolve, contact us!