Replicating Your Best Performers
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
One project I was involved with sought to establish a structured on-the-job training program for a “CNC Operator” position and establish an apprenticeship. It consisted of around 40 different machines; manual and NC-operated of several brands, controller types and purposes. When I analyze a job – task by task – I first contact the resident “subject matter expert.” It is my experience that in lieu of accurate standard process documents that everyone can use when assigned a machine, each operator keeps their own setup and operation notes. They might be reluctant to share them.
As analysts, we assume that if the subject matter expert is assigned to us, it is a reflection of management’s confidence in the operator’s consistently high level of performance. We also learn a lot about the sub-culture that has arisen at the organization, bordering on “work performance anarchy.” Despite the connotations, this is a useful revelation. This lack of vital information sharing that has been going on can be eliminated. The collective wealth of task-specific information can be screened, validated, standardized and revision-controlled to be shared with all who are asked to perform the tasks.
click here to expandThis highlights several other preexisting issues in addition to the obvious. First, if the company is ISO/AS/IATF certified, an auditor would be appalled and likely “gig” the company for the use of uncontrolled “process documents.” Notes in toolboxes and lunchboxes are not revision controlled. If the company has even questionable process documents that they claim drive their “high level of quality performance” the existence of operator notes are a strong contradiction. A client visiting the site may have serious doubts about the practices, as well.
The next issue is, “what role do these notes play in the training of new-hires and cross-training incumbents?” Does the trainee even know these are available? My experience has been that each trainee is on their own to create their own notes…if they even think it is necessary. So now we have multiple sets of notes for each machine, seldom compared and standardized, AND the company’s process documents if they exist. This is a recipe for incidents of scrap, rework and equipment damage at a minimum. Read Article
What Are You “Turning Over” When You Say You Have “High Turnover?”
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
It is not hard to overhear human resource managers commiserating over the high rate of “employee turnover“ they are encountering and struggling to remedy. In listening a little more closely, it is not entirely clear as to what that phrase, seemingly ubiquitous, means today. Is this a conversation where both parties seem to believe they know what the other is talking about, but underlying each case are different facts?
Not too long ago, turnover meant the rate of loss of employees to replace those who exited the company. It usually referred to those employees in which the employer had made an investment to develop them into an asset. it appears many still see that as a general description, but the source of their struggles seems to address other structural issues.
click here to expandIs important to distinguish between four different types of labor turnover to be accurate. First, there are the individuals that apply for a job, are hired, but do not appear the first day of work. The only investment the company made is the time it took to interview the individual and log them in as an employee.
The second type of turnover concerns the individuals that have gone through the interview process, showed-up for work, stayed for a few weeks and then decided the job wasn’t for them for whatever reason. In this case, the company has more of an investment in developing the employee, but it is still rather insignificant.
The third type of turnover concerns employees that have been hired, who received a significant amount of training and pay while in training and have stayed for several months – almost reaching a recognizable level of productivity and return on the employer’s worker investment. Understandably, the employer has more of an investment in this type of employee and their loss is felt more if they leave.
The fourth type of turnover is more critical. The loss of employees that have been trained, have been with the company for the long-term, in whom the company has made a significant investment and their contribution to the operation is felt more deeply.
When employers are literally trying to find anyone with a heartbeat to interview and hire, and some even skip the interview process, it shouldn’t be any wonder that a large portion of those individuals may not show up the first day of work or stay around very long. Read More
Pairing Structured On-the-Job Training with Related Technical Instruction Just Makes Sense
I have for worked with educational institutions for many years, trying to reach out to employers with the latest and best courses and seminars they had. It is what we did with good intentions, but in many cases this was a difficult sale at best. Their products were often already built…before they precisely knew the needs of the employer. If the employer engaged them for our services, when delivered it was more of an underwhelming experience for the customer than I felt comfortable with. Often it didn’t lead to follow-on work.
An employer’s operation is driven by accounting for the bottom line. Accountants are quick to dismiss core and technical instruction as a cost. That is what they were taught in college, and truthfully there is no evidence that attending a course improves work performance in most cases. Sadly, that level of “job relevance” or content validity was considered less important than the power of the institution’s name that was promoting the products or services.
click here to expandWhen I became familiar with Structured On-The-Job Training (SOJT), I appreciated SOJT because SOJT built from the bottom up. The training delivery structure was designed around the actual tasks the employee is expected to master, for which the employer hired the individual in the first place. Structuring the best practices into training delivery so that workers can learn faster how to perform each task and to standardize the delivery between each shift’s trainers and each trainee gets to the company’s bottom line. It is seen as an investment that can be defended to accountants, unlike core and technical instruction.
There’s always direct evidence that mastering one more task means an incremental increase in worker capacity. Read More
Regional Workforce Development Partnerships That Enhance Economic Development Efforts
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Most area economic development goals are simple; expand the tax base so revenue is available to maintain and sustain the local socio-economic system. Strategies to accomplish this may differ but often include adding to the employment base of the community and/or region, since an effort to expand consumption – mandatory and discretionary – produces a “multiplier effect” as money circulates through the community. This goal can be reached by local and state governments offering tax abatement, cash and/or infrastructure improvements to companies seeking to relocate, or which are in an expansion mode. At lease, that was the simple vision of economists past.
It is fairly a proven fact, however, that in the past three decades the results of these tactics have become mixed as large corporations became larger and used their clout to seek incentives and cheap labor throughout the world. Commitments to local communities providing the incentives often evaporated faster than the ink on the documents dried, and corporations hopped from state to state, country to country, upsetting the stability of local tax bases, economies, communities and regions.
click here to expandEconomic development agencies and government leaders have always talked about helping locally grown enterprises which create an estimated 70-80% of the new jobs in the country. As they start, grow and expand they would hire more, provide more in taxes and be more likely to stay put. As large corporations gained more control of the policies and policy makers of the states and the federal government, the focus drifted away from local small and mid-size businesses and toward policies and strategies that helped large corporations at great expense.
It may be time for an economic development strategy that, out of necessity, focuses on smaller enterprises with solid ties to the communities as more and more large corporations with multi-national ties contribute less and less to local and regional economies and tax bases. It may be time to focus on local start-ups, small and medium size enterprises, and on companies that are bucking the “offshoring of jobs” trend and on to companies that are reshoring, relocating or expanding here from other countries. The cost of investing in economic development may shrink, economies may stabilize and grow, and communities and societies may be driven from despair toward hope and vitality with each new opportunity. Read More
Read the full November, 2022 Proactive Technologies Report newsletter, including linked industry articles and online presentation schedules.
Proactive Technologies, Inc.®; PROTECH; Human Resource Management for Tomorrow...Today!® and logo;