10 Reasons Structured On-The-Job Training is a Vital and Necessary System for Any Organization

by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.

There are many reasons a deliberate, structured on-the-job training system should be a priority consideration for any employer. For decades employers have felt that having an employee take a few classes here and a few online modules there translates directly to improved worker output and performance. But for decades, as well, employers have continued to talk about a continually increasing “skills gap.” Connection? Obviously yes.

“Employers expend enormous resources – time, effort, dollars – on efforts to improve efficiencies…in some cases without making an appreciable difference or reaching the intended goals. Too often the reason was no resources were expended to train the workers to efficiently implement the efficiencies.”

A deliberate and documented system to develop workers and maximize the return on worker investment should be a “no-brainer.” Employers expend enormous resources – time, effort, dollars – on efforts to improve efficiencies…in some cases without making an appreciable difference or reaching the intended goals. But rather than a philosophical discussion comparing approaches to training, I thought it might be beneficial to just offer symptoms of failed approaches and reasons why any employer should think more seriously about the state of their internal training infrastructure.

According to a Training Magazine article entitled, “Bridging the Skills Gap” by Lorri Freifeld, these revealing points were extracted:

• 49 percent of U.S. employers are experiencing difficulty filling mission-critical positions within their organizations. (ManpowerGroup’s seventh annual Talent Shortage Survey; 1,300 U.S. employers surveyed; positions most difficult to fill: skilled trades, engineers, and IT staff).
• Only 1 in 10 organizations has the skills needed to utilize advanced technologies such as cloud and mobile computing, social business, and business analytics. (2012 IBM Tech Trends Report; 1,200 professionals who make technology decisions for their organizations, 250 academics, and 450 students.)
  • Alarming number of professionals (more than 60 percent), and students and professors (73 percent) feel there is a moderate to major skill gap in these four technology areas.
  • Nearly half of the educators and students surveyed for the report indicated major gaps in their institution’s ability to meet IT skill needs.”
• Even with preventative measures, there could be 20 to 23 million workers in advanced economies without the skills employers will need in 2020 (McKinsey’s The World at Work report).
• Some 38 percent of 1,648 employers reported they currently have positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates (CareerBuilder’s “Talent Crunch” study)
  • One-third (34 percent) reported that job vacancies have resulted in a lower quality of work due to employees being overworked
  • 23 percent cited a loss in revenue
  • 33 percent of employers said vacancies have caused lower morale
  • 17 percent pointed to higher turnover within their organizations
  • Some 41 percent of respondents reported they currently have programs in place to help alleviate the skills gap, including on-the-job training, mentoring, and sending employees back to school.
• Only 17 percent of 516 hiring managers said that job seekers have the skills and traits their organization is looking for in a candidate (Job Preparedness Indicator research from the Career Advisory Board, established by DeVry University)
  • For hiring managers with responsibility for senior-level candidates, approximately one in five (18 percent) indicated that very few job seekers have the necessary skills and traits, compared to only 13 percent of hiring managers who are responsible for entry- or mid-level candidates.
  • The research also found that hiring managers place the greatest demand on big picture traits such as strategic perspective, global outlook and business acumen. However, job seekers are more likely to focus on skills being sought for lower-level workers, such as a strong work ethic and self-motivation.”

For those who are confused as to what “structured on-the-job training” is, it is task-based training based on a thorough job/task analysis, with the data always maintained as the job classification changes due to process improvement and technology advances. Each task is analyzed to capture the “best practice” as performed by the resident expert(s) and validated for high-performance repeatability. If a worker is trained for expert performance on every task for which the employer thought it was hiring, that would make a very happy employer and trainee.

The 10 Reasons Structured On-The-Job Training is a Vital and Necessary System for Any Organization are:

1. Opportunity Costs Associated With of Unstructured, Haphazard and Ad Hoc Training:
   1. For every new-hire, the longer it takes to bring the worker up to full capacity (i.e. mastery of each task for which they were hired ) the longer the employer is paying for wages of the trainer and trainee to be marginally productive while in training;
   2. For every new-hire and incumbent, the longer both are operating at less the full capacity the more the employer is paying for unused capacity.
2. No Matter How Much Time and Money is Spent on New-Hire Recruitment and Selection, Without Structured On-the-Job Training The ROI May be Small or Negative:
   1. Without a deliberate, recognizable plan to train new workers, those who have the skills to leave will not stay;
   2. The cost of unnecessary turnover due to perceived insecurity (e.g. lack of opportunity to develop themselves in the job and to increase their value to the employer) leads to unwarranted repetition of recruitment and selection costs.
3. Keeping Wages Low Attracts Candidates With Fewer Transferable Skills; Skills That Need to be Developed or Those Low Wages Yield Low Return:
   1. Workers with less wage negotiating power due to less transferable skills require a deliberate strategy to develop the needed core skills to learn and master the required tasks;
   2. Failure to maximize a worker’s skills, no matter how daunting, means wages paid for little return.
4. One Incident of Non-Compliance With One Process Due to Lack of Proper On-The-Job Training Can Cost Many Times That Worker’s Annual Wage:
   1. The cost of one act of process non-compliance due to inadequate task training can lead to costs 5 to 10 times the investment of that to have trained the worker properly in the first place;
   2. The cost of one act of safety non-compliance due to inadequate task training can lead to costs and liability 10 to 20 times the investment of that to have trained the worker;
   3. Multiply either scenario times the number of employees at risk and it can be a staggering aggregate risk every employer should want to avoid.
5. ISO/IATF/AS Certification Requires Standardized Processes, Training to Match the Processes, Records Showing the Worker Trained to the Process and System to Ensure All Three Stay in Sync:
   1. ISO/TS/AS certification requires that the certified manufacturer have standardized processes, training of the worker to perform the processes, current documentation that the training has occurred and a system to ensure that it all is kept current to changes in the work;
   2. Although some certifying agencies have offered a lot of latitude when it comes to this provision, one significant incident can expose the inadequacy and put certification at risk;
   3. Having structured on-the-job training and records on each employee’s development to back it can impress any client or prospective client.
6. The Best Way to Retain a Worker is to Keep Them Engaged; Structured On-The-Job Training to Drive All Workers to Full Job Mastery Builds a Career Path:
   1. Every worker starts with a fundamental need for the job security that being good at one’s job can provide;
   2. Not given that opportunity can drive skilled workers who feel vulnerable away, and drive those workers that feel they cannot leave to find ways to mask their inadequate value;
   3. Millennials, especially, need to be challenged by learning new things and improving on their capabilities to stay engaged in their own development;
   4. Workers might assume that the employer is comfortable with perceived lower than reasonable performance.
7. Full Job Mastery = Full Worker Capacity = Full Return of Worker Investment (ROWI):
   1. Employers seek maximization of all equipment, processes and technology, but are often willing to accept what labor can provide;
   2. Implementing stricter metrics for worker performance without ensuring they are capable to deliver is a waste of time and resources, and does not address the fundamental issue;
   3. The best technology or most innovative practices are of little value if the workers are not trained to deliver masterful use of them.
8. Structured On-the-Job Training for All of the Organization’s Job Classifications Makes Cross-Training Easy, Efficient and Certain – Furthering Each Worker’s Value to the Organization:
   1. Once the structured on-the-job training system is set-up and operational, the cost for each additional employee trainee declines (unlike online, onsite or offsite courses which are repetitive costs);
   2. Structured cross-training continues the development of worker value after the initial job is mastered.
9. Efforts Such as Six Sigma, Lean and Kaisen Seek to Improve Process Efficiency That May Not Be Realized if Workers are not Trained on the Updated or New Processes and Metrics:
   1. Often process improvement activities move tasks and equipment around to maximize efficiency;
   2. Without updating the training that trains the workers how to achieve the new efficiency, on the new processes and/or equipment, the efforts might not deliver to expectations.
10. It Just Makes Sense:
    1. Given the choice between a fully trained worker and a worker who’s level of job mastery is unknown but suspected insufficient, every employer should want the former;
    2. Not having a structure in place to train every worker to the same level of the recognized resident expert leads to a group feeling of having to accept this decline in organization effectiveness without options, which is untrue;
    3. Having a worker training “system” that is unrecognizable, non-measurable and unable to improve with change in a manufacturing facility has to be a barrier to growth;
    4. The accelerated transfer of expertise™ lowers the employer’s Internal costs of training while increasing worker capacity, work quantity and quality, compliance, employee engagement and morale.

Learn more about the Proactive Technologies Inc. and the PROTECH© system of managed human resource development and the hybrid approach to worker training.