Tips for Establishing Your Company’s Training Strategy – Practical, Measurable, Extremely Economical and Scalable
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
For most companies, an in-house training center doesn’t have to be brick and mortar, and doesn’t necessarily require additional equipment and personnel to support it. It is about focusing the resources already available to develop workers faster and to a much higher level of capacity. This does not happen by throwing dollars or classes at the problem; if that were the case many employers who did so would have solved the “skills gap” problem. It takes a more deliberate approach than that to achieve the outcome that has been out of reach, for many, for decades.
In previous articles, such as in the May, 2016 issue of the Proactive Technologies Report, “A Simple Solution to Skill Gaps – New-Hires and Incumbents” I described a simple, easy to implement strategy for developing new-hires and incumbent workers to full capacity. I emphasized that by focusing on the outcome, the proper inputs become clearer. But by focusing on the inputs, the connection to the outcome may not necessarily be clear. Any use of irrelevant, improper or ineffective worker development inputs means unnecessary costs with low or no return, wasted time and additional opportunity costs.
click here to expandStructured On-The-Job Training Programs for Salaried Personnel
by Stacey Lett, Regional Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
It is not just the hourly workers that, once hired, run into the “Bob, this is Sally. Why don’t you show her around” form of “training.” In environments where no structure exists to deliberately train hourly workers, supervisors and managers are similarly shown their desk and wished “good luck.” Yes, the company may offer a series of management courses that explain contemporary management theories, but often the most overlooked training is for the tasks against which performance is ultimately measured.
We frequently hear anecdotal stories about supervisors who are “thrown into the mix” of not only having to lead their workers to measured levels of performance, but concurrently learn their own job from their surroundings as best they can. Other supervisors and managers may be under the same pressure to focus on output, so they may be rarely available to mentor a new manager. Most likely, nothing was ever written down. Even worse, supervisors or managers who are new to the entire operation may have to learn what it is their employees do by observation before they can attempt to lead them to better performance.
click here to expandReducing an Employer’s Turnover Rate in a Practical, Efficient Way
by Frank Gibson, Workforce Development Advisor, retired from The Ohio State University – Alber Enterprise Center
I recently attended a local economic development meeting at which one of the structured on-the-job training (“SOJT”) projects I have been following was a subject on the agenda. Two members from Custom Glass Solutions LLC (“CGS”) human resources department presented a short update on the SOJT programs underway at their Fostoria, Ohio and Upper Sandusky, Ohio facilities.
These projects began in the latter part of 2019, right at the beginning of the Covid – 19 experience. Their lead technical consulting company, Proactive Technologies, Inc, focused on setting up for SOJT programs for nine job classifications at the Fostoria facility and 10 job classifications at the Upper Sandusky facility. This included 320 incumbent workers and many more new hires.
click here to expandStructured On-The-Job Training for Non-Manufacturing Job Classifications
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Although the PROTECH© system of managed human resource development was designed for manufacturing and there has extensively proven its effectiveness, the approach is just as effective for jobs in any industry, and level of the organization. Proactive Technologies, Inc.’s job/task analysis methodology is rooted in those used by the U. S. Departments of Defense and Energy – modified for use in the private-sector world with private-sector budgets and time constraints. The development and use of the job data is based on those practices that seemed to be working in human resource management, human resource development, technical writing, quality control and workforce development – modernized to an ever-changing and challenging world.
When it comes to the analysis of the job, which is the center of all instruments and activities developed from it, the common factor of all work is that it can be defined in discrete units called “tasks.” Nobody is ever hired and expected to be very knowledgeable about a subject, or be very aware, or be strong. These attributes do not become useful until applied in the performance of a meaningful recognizable unit of work. If correct performance of the task, the “best practice,” requires these attributes as either a necessary to learning to perform the task or needed in the performance of the task, they become prerequisite, but not the outcome.
click here to expandRead the full May, 2022 Proactive Technologies Report newsletter, including linked industry articles and online presentation schedules.
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