Remember your first job as a teenager when your new boss simply showed you how to do your job? Well, things are much more complicated now. Instead of just scooping ice cream, waiting on tables, or packing boxes, we now have to master many different types of skills to succeed in our professional jobs.
It is usually up to the training department to figure out how new employees will be trained. There are many training strategies to choose from when building instruction. Do we create an e-learning lesson, classroom-based training, or on-the-job training? In this blog, I am going to discuss on-the -job training (OJT) with a focus on the pros and cons of this strategy, how we can minimize the risks, and maximize the benefits.
First, let’s discuss three benefits:
- Employees can practice their job tasks in the real work environment.
- Employees get individual attention.
- Managers get immediate feedback regarding the employee’s progress.
Now, let’s examine three risks:
- Employees could receive outdated or incorrect information from the trainer.
- Training tools and equipment must be made available during the training session which may include extra costs.
- The trainer must put their additional job tasks on hold while they train others.
So, if you think an on-the-job training program makes sense given your training situation, then it is important to prevent or minimize the risks to ensure overall training success. Here are some tips to help you minimize or prevent the three risks listed above:
Tip for risk #1
Write an extremely detailed task analysis on every task that comes with someone’s job to use as a set of job standards to teach from. Be sure to have a subject-matter expert review all of your task analyses for accuracy and also be sure to test each analysis with a novice learner before you use it for real. This way, whether one person or multiple people do the training, standardization will occur and accuracy will be ensured (provided the trainer(s) adhere to the standards!).
Tip for risk #2
If on-the-job training becomes the preferred method at your company, the extra costs up-front for equipment and tools could save money in design and development costs. If it is not feasible to purchase equipment for training-only purposes then perhaps you could use equipment available from an employee who’s on vacation or the trainer can use his/her own equipment for the training session.
Tip for risk #3
This “con” cannot really be prevented but it does not have to be seen as a negative situation. I like to see it as an investment more than a loss in productivity on the part of the trainer. Presumably, on-the-job training was chosen as the most effective strategy; given that choice, the employee(s) receiving the training should not need as much extra help from the trainer once the training period ends because the training was closest to the actual job conditions in the first place.
Certainly there are more advantages and risks associated with on-the-job training than what I have talked about in this blog so what comments do you have about OJT?
Lynne
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