Explaining Your Process Training to Auditors, Prospects 
and Clients
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
For most organizations, the general notion of training is going on in every corner of the organization, for every worker at any time of the day or night. One person is showing another person how to perform a process, operate a piece of equipment or software, fill out a form or, yes, make a copy using the new copy machine just installed. Have you ever walked by a copy machine and seen someone standing in front of it, staring at the control panel…then the sky as if seeking divine intervention.
Someone who is familiar with the new copy machine might wander by, and then an informal training process starts. There is probably no training record generated for this transaction, but neither are so many of the things workers learn on-the-job. Somehow, the organization gets by. In this case, like so many, it may sound like an insignificant example of training, but not to the person who needs the copy and for whom it is an important task of the job.
click here to expandSame too are the more critical and complex tasks of the job, requiring compliance with so many factors such as engineering specifications, quality control requirements, safety requirements and company policies. Without a deliberate task-based training infrastructure in place, training might be ad hoc, informal, unstructured and rarely documented. Add to this the periodic worker cross-training that allows workers to train in, and master, tasks in multiple job areas and the amount of critical, but undocumented, training can be tremendous.
In the event of an audit by by an internal department, a certifying agency, a client or a prospective client, explaining how a worker is trained to master a task critical to a repeated high level of quality might be difficult to impossible. And answering how a worker, who is thought to have mastered a task, is updated when the process is improved, redesigned, affected by changes in technology, changeover of product line or part of an orchestrated improvement program might be even more difficult.
Management may try to explain who is trained, who trained them and what exactly the training consisted of by pulling out time cards with training entries, loose training or attendance rosters, an Excel spreadsheet or a pie chart. A smart auditor or concerned client might not be so impressed.
This might have been the impetus of the enhanced requirements announced for ISO 9001:2015 (promulgated to AS 9000 and TS 16949 quality models) concerning the “capture and management of legacy knowledge.” An organization now must comply with the requirements to capture and manage the process knowledge, identify gaps between the job knowledge needed to perform in the job and the employee’s consistent performance of the tasks of the job, and to provide documented evidence that the gap was found and closed.
This has been a routine component of the PROTECH© system of managed human resource development since its creation over 35 years ago. The many tools, reports and benefits ensure that the approach to all job classifications, all employees is consistent – even though the jobs and people are not. The OJT Tasks Mastered Report can be proudly posted on the Gemba boards of each department to show ISO/AS/TS auditors, and clients and future clients, the level to which each worker is traine
d to perform the detailed work. By itself, this would be impressive. But additionally, the average worker’s capacity (i.e. percentage of the tasks required of the job that have been mastered and documented) is maintained for each worker, in each department, at much higher levels than normally found in organizations. Task mastery gaps are clearly displayed for the employee and supervisor to see, ensuring that opportunities to drive each incumbent, new-hire and cross-training worker to full job mastery are not missed.
For each “X” representing mastery of that task, a training record is filed to record the event and Read More
STEM Programs are Good, But No Substitute for Employer-
Delivered Structured On-The-Job Training
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
STEM learning is all the buzz these days. From coast-to-coast, high schools, career centers and community colleges are trumpeting the promise of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math to employers and future workers. Some see this as the cure-all to the pervasive and persistent “skills gap” dilemma. Some emphasize that STEM merely represents a reversal of the policies in the 1990’s that emphasized preparation for college over preparation for work and society (some even say History and Civics should have been left in the curricula as well). This realignment with industry will take years to bear fruit and to bring workforce preparation back to where it was before the decision was made to change focus…that is if politics doesn’t take it off course again before it can produce.
While STEM represents a good start at building a better foundation upon which career paths can be developed, it is important to keep it in perspective and not oversell the promise as often happens. It is understandable that educational institutions who are delivering the STEM classes are enthusiastically marketing it as the cure, but care should be taken not to over-market the product and crowd out other necessary components of proper and effective worker training that make it possible to obtain and retain a job with an employer in need. Too much focus on building the foundation can lead to lost years for a potential worker, lost opportunity for an employer, and lost support for workforce development as interest and belief wanes.
click here to expandThis movement is reminiscent of the 1990’s and early 2000’s single-mindedness of educational institutions and states that assessments were the cure for deficient workforce skills. As with core skills represented by STEM, assessments are only on part of a workforce development process. In this case, it was to identify skill deficiencies. Solutions like this are not meant to be delivered randomly out of sequence, nor are they meant to the focal point of all available resources and efforts.
Certainly, a logical process starts with developing the core skills. This is the foundation upon which the higher order core skills can be developed and eventually task-based skills (that only the employer can deliver) are developed. Assessments can be used either prior to developing core skills to understand which STEM areas need emphasis, or after core skill development and prior to employment to see if any STEM areas were missed or need additional remediation. But keep in mind these STEM areas selected are industry-general, not employer-specific. If an assessment was designed based on a thorough job/task analysis for a specific employer, it can further screen and qualify candidates for training and mastery of tasks a company needs performed
However, the process doesn’t, and shouldn’t, end there. Each step of a workforce development process should never be considered the end of the journey; only one rung of a ladder. Just because one stage has a higher platform, bigger megaphone and, therefore, access to state and federal funds to sweeten their offer (while overstating their significance) shouldn’t cloud any employer’s vision of what they need this process to produce. And workforce development efforts compensating for falling short of an effective outcome by leading STEM graduates to an “apprenticeship” that looks very much like a 2-year associates degree program – with just an employer’s name attached to lend plausibility – doesn’t seem like a departure from the past at all; just different curtains on the same window.
Employer’s who think that putting all hopes on the STEM graduates to find the skilled workers they need will be grossly disappointed. Read More
Five Most Important Ways Structured On-the-Job Training Can Reclaim Wealth For an Employer
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
In a Proactive Technologies Report article entitled “10 Reasons Structured On-The-Job Training is a Vital and Necessary System for Any Organization,” a few of the many important reasons that structured on-the-job training – at least Proactive Technologies’ version – were explained that should be part of any organization’s operational strategy. Here are 5 ways this approach to worker development that integrates an organization’s existing systems unlocks tremendous wealth and yields substantial returns – just for doing what every employer says they want anyway but most find a reason to avoid it.
Too many employers still, wrongly, believe that they have little in the way of tools and metrics to develop and measure the value of each worker that comes to the organization. No structured training program in place means no one has analyzed the job for the tasks required to be performed, the compliance criteria, the core skills and knowledge necessary to master the tasks, or why a task resides in a job classification. If there is no structure, there is no way to measure what percent of the job a worker has mastered or, if still in development, how well they are progressing to the expected level of job mastery and performance. If no structure or metrics exist, there is nothing to improve or, at least, notice an improvement. And if something goes wrong and worker malperformance is suspected, there is little from which to draw evidence to support a conclusion and proper course of corrective action.
click here to expandAnd then there is the endless number of issues related to how well a worker was developed, on what were they developed, and how well that expertise has been maintained through all of the changes faced in competitive world. Any worker that has been deliberately, or coincidentally, developed to a recognizable high level of job mastery is considered being of “high value,” although the value is not quantifiable. Every employer wants to retain that worker, replicate that worker and relies on that worker to informally share expertise with others. If that worker leaves the organization for any reason, disruption, confusion, chaos and costs can occur.
So, why do so many employers take their role in developing and maintaining each worker’s capacity so lightly? Why do they often embark on proposed solutions that, at face value, seem a stretch? Are they unaware of all the tools out there, or are they relying on voices that may lack the experience and expertise themselves, or have another motive, to propose a credible solution?
When it comes to training workers, there are a lot of ideas floating around – many recycled for decades and no more relevant today than they were back when. Some of the ideas that are backed by a lot of federal and state funding draw a bigger audience and followers who want part of that money. But is the underlying solution credible with all we now know and does it address the true problem? Or is it just a change in packaging, leaving the root problem unchanged? Many of these solutions circulate for 5 – 10 years, then everyone moves on. How much opportunity is lost, costs incurred, companies harmed, lives unimproved and wealth lost or not extracted by this unintentional neglect?
Here are five areas that the PROTECH© system of managed human resource development can help any employer extract untapped and under-developed wealth from any worker, any job classification, in any industry. Each has been previously written about and links are provided. They are: 1) The Capture Worker Wisdom and Expertise; 2) The Accelerated the Transfer of Expertise™ and Increased Worker Capacity ; 3) Driving Every Worker to “Full Job Mastery;” 4) The Increase Work Consistency, Quantity, Quality and Compliance; and 5) The Decreased Internal Costs of Training and Worker Turnover. To summarize each point’s significance: Read More
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