Does your on-the job training have structure?

Hi! Welcome back.  I hope you all had a great holiday season and are ready to tackle another new year.  I had a wonderful holiday season but need to get back into a more disciplined lifestyle, cookies, candy and carousing can be fun but a little goes a long way, just check out my waistline!  Last time I wrote about who’s responsible for training and mentioned that I feel that employers have a responsibility to train their employees, I also introduced the concepts of structured vs. unstructured on-the-job training (OJT).  I’d like to expand on this subject today.

What do I mean when I say structured or unstructured on-the-job training?  How does one recognize either method of training? and why is it more beneficial for businesses to have some form of structured on-the-job training?

Often times people see on-the job training as having an inexperienced worker “job shadow” an experienced worker and learn from the experienced employee through some form of osmosis.  Employers seem to believe that “Joe’s has been around here for a long time and really knows what he is doing so having Joe train the new gal will help bring Martha up to speed on how we do things around here”.  But how does the employer know what Joe is telling Martha without some type of plan for her training?  How does the employer know that Joe is the best employee to train Martha?  How is Joe going to train Martha on their operations?  What are the topics he is going to discuss and in what order? 

Sending Joe out to train Martha without first determining that Joe is the best candidate to train her, knowing what he is going to show and discuss with her or how he plans to go about it is like a gossip chain.  You know what I mean-- you’re sitting in a room full of people and you whisper something into the person’s ear sitting next to you and you ask them to pass it onto the next person in the room, discreetly of course.  That person whispers what they thought you said to the next person and around the room your message goes.  By the time it gets to the third or fourth person in the room did the last person who hears the message hear it accurately and completely or did they hear something entirely different?  Chances are your message wasn’t accurately received by those who didn’t hear it from you in the first place why?  The message may have been incomplete, it probably was delivered in an inconsistent manner, and it may have not included your vision or purpose.

Unstructured on-the-job training is like the gossip chain scenario above.  The training (your message) is delivered partially, inconsistently and without a vision.  Let me explain, unstructured OJT doesn’t help an organization improve their effectiveness for the following reasons:

1.      It’s inconsistent – Traditional OJT, unstructured on-the-job training relies heavily on an experienced employee providing the instruction based on what they feel are the most important topics. What is important to one employee may not be important to another. The result is what is learned may vary greatly, depending on who is assigned as the trainer.

2.      It’s incomplete – Without a structured lesson plan, OJT trainers often forget to cover important information. What is learned is likely to be based on what happens that day rather than on what a new employee needs to know to be safe and productive.

3.      It lacks vision – While the hands-on aspect of OJT may appeal to the practical learner, often the underlying theories of operations are not covered in sufficient detail or accuracy. Without this foundation of knowledge, trainees often learn what to do, not why they are doing it, resulting in poor decision making when things don’t go exactly right.

4.      It contains bad habits – The trainee observes and may adopt the trainer’s habits and attitudes about all aspects of the job including safety, quality, customer service, and relationship with management. Poorly selected trainers can have many unintended consequences.

Structured on-the-job training follows a pre-defined format that is consistent, thorough, and has a specific purpose or vision.  An example of a structured OJT appears below:

1.      The coach explains the training to be held.

a.      The goal(s) of the training.

b.      The reason it is being presented.

c.       How it will benefit the participants.

2.      The coach verbally discusses the process.

3.      The coach completes the process.

4.      The coach asks and answers questions.

5.      The participants then complete the process individually.

6.      This action is discussed and questions are answered.  All unclear areas are repeated until understanding is reached.

7.      Correct application is immediately recognized and praised.

If your training is ad hoc with no clear purpose, method or acceptable levels of proficiency it’s unstructured.  If however you know what you want to accomplish with each training session, have a plan to accomplish the training objectives and are teaching to a pre-determined level of proficiency you have a structured on-the-job training program.   

Unstructured training programs just happen and have no method of measuring their effectiveness against a desired level of proficiency.  Structured OJT programs can provide the following benefits to an organization:

1. Reduce the length of unproductive break-in time for new, transferred or promoted employees.
2. Reduce cost related to rework of defective products.
3. Reduce losing customers and goodwill due to poor product or service.
4. Reduce cost of employee turnover.
5. Improve product and service quality.
6. Improve employee/management relations due to competent, timely job-related training programs that teach employees what they need when they need it.

How do you train your new employees?  Do you use a structured or unstructured approach?  What issues are you having in training your employees?  Please comment I’d love to have a dialogue.  I’ll have more on structured OJT next time until then thanks for reading and all my best!  Jer.