A Training Approach That Should Make the Bean Counters Happy
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Whether out of indifference or lack of awareness, it is an unspoken truth that more and more employers have been neglecting their role in worker development lately. Investments in related technical instruction are being pushed to the back burner by ever growing emphasis on meeting quarterly numbers; the push for greater output and profits to meet shareholder expectations which seems to perpetually increase. Classes and online content have always been seen by accounting as costs that can be put-off for a later date that, now, never seems to come.
The more important on-the-job training (the informal transfer of task best practice and expertise) is squeezed in if and when time allows (which is in short supply) by whoever is available – this in an age of Lean and continuous improvement. If employers are waiting for someone else to train their workers to 100% mastery of their unique tasks, on their unique equipment for their unique processes, well that is just wishful thinking.
The contradictions are alarming, and many times middle managers and upper management of corporate-run or private equity managed enterprises are caught in the middle. They know the risks of neglecting training and they see the results first-hand, but have little say in the matter or are afraid of getting caught up in a “cost v. benefit” discussion with people that seem to live in a different world and have made up their mind before the discussion begins. When capacity deteriorates or the siren’s call of cheaper labor markets prevails, someone makes the decision to move the entire operation to a location where training is even more difficult but can be absorbed due to offsetting wage discounts – that is until wages rise and total cost of ownership is understood. Read More
Cross-Training Workers After Lean Efforts Builds Capacity Using Existing Staff
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.
Lean activities to redesign processes for better efficiency in a department, or between departments, sometimes result in “surplus” workers – partially or in whole units. It is the subjective priority of Lean practitioners since it is a tangible illustration of a successful Lean improvement. Processes that previously needed 3 people to complete may now only need two, if the efficiency were discovered. So what happens to that one person that has valuable acquired expertise, representing a significant investment by the employer? Would the wise outcome of Lean efforts be to just cut that person from the lineup?
The short answer is most likely not. Any efficiency and cost savings brought about by the Lean redesign would be offset by the loss of the expertise for which the investment has already been made. Most likely the reason for the Lean was not in reaction to no return on worker investment, but rather a desire to increase the return on worker investment.
If the worker is reassigned to another department, and no task-based training infrastructure is in place, that reassignment may lower the efficiency there which, again, reduces the gains made by the Lean effort. So part of the Lean effort must be the deliberate cross-training of workers in temporary assignments or longer-term reassignments to other departments that seem to have the need for increased staffing, perhaps as a result of the increased throughput achieved from the Lean effort in the upstream department in the chain.
click here to expandAnother outcome of a lean effort may not include moving personnel, but either equipment or processes out of the Leaned department into another department up or downstream, often without structured training to absorb the new activities and maintain efficiency. Here the loss of gains made are similar if no training on how to perform the processes or run the equipment is provided.
In an efficiently run organization, every department has detailed, documented best practices and training materials that are always maintained, and training tracking systems to ensure cross-training occurs quickly and to the necessary level of performance and capacity. In an organization that does not have these systems, any gains and efficiency expected from Lean efforts may be unnoticeable or, worse yet, non-existent or negative. Read More
Explaining Your Process Training to Auditors, Prospects and Clients
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. – Staff
How much time, energy and resources are expended by your firm when someone comes to visit and wants to “kick the company’s tires?” When it comes to training your workers to internal and/or company processes, a structured on-the-job training program that operates smoothly and completely in the background may have the answers your clients are looking for.
For most organizations, the general notion is that 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. How effective is that informal form of training? 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. Now, think of the more complex tasks!
When the resident expert masters a task and it becomes routine, there is a tendency for them to marginalize the task as so easy that the next trainee should learn it by osmosis. If not, maybe the new-hire “just doesn’t seem to want to learn.” Somehow, the organization may get 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 who may be judged if a meeting is waiting for it.
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. Read More
Proactive Technologies’ Turnkey Package Offers for Prospective and Returning Clients – Discount Expiring Soon
by Proactive Technologies, Inc. – Staff
The world has been through a lot in the last few decades. Employers finding themselves making decisions and changing their mind for the most unexpected reasons. Proactive Technologies, Inc.® wants to accommodate and support those workforce development decisions in the best way it knows how. This introduction for new and returning clients of its turnkey worker development package is one example.
Now, for a limited time, on top of that opportunity PTI is offering a 10 – 30% discount on projects (depending on number of job classifications targeted and scope) until October 15, 2023!
click here to expandNew Clients:
If you are interested and would be willing to schedule a brief, 45-minute live online briefing on the PROTECH® approach to worker development and how PTI would make establishing and implementing a training system easy, efficient and with low-to-no investment for your organization, PTI is willing to schedule a free follow-up session to dig deeper into what it would look like considering a job classification of importance to your firm. Simply put: Read More
In Times of Uncertainty and Change, Realism is Important
In business, the aftermath of any transformational event such as the Dot.com Crash of 2000, the Crash of 2008, the Covid-19 Pandemic of 2019 – to name only a few of the recent upheavals – makes it often difficult to get one’s bearings let alone see through the fog clouding the path to the future. It makes one question one’s judgement, sometimes being too afraid to make critical decisions and sometimes too quick to hop on the next bandwagon seeking safety in numbers. How long the fog lasts depends on the depth and scope of trauma incurred. How long it takes to emerge from it is determined by how transparent the fog has become and if any discernable patterns are forming upon which to build a strategy forward.
This applies to all workers, as well. Any disruption to employment is followed by a uncontrollable backward slide erasing any gains made to that point. Then the dreaded wait while the economy finds bottom before any future plans can be contemplated. Will the prior job still be available, what changes were made by the employer that may require additional training or education that has a substantial lead time before employability? And can education and training for these changes be accessed by someone who has depleted their funds trying to survive?
Chris Rock, popular comedian, director, actor and self-made philosopher, said something very appropriate and very applicable to moments such as this, “in America, you can do anything you want…if there is a job opening for it.” Profoundly honest, this statement implies both positivity about the future and realism about what we all know of today’s form of American capitalism.
click here to expandThere are many definitions of “realism,” some apply to art, philosophy, and politics, but it generally means a focus on reality; facts over imagination, ideals and unsubstantiated trends and predictions. In practical terms, an appropriate definition is “the attitude or practice of accepting a situation as it is and being prepared to deal with it accordingly.”
In troubled times, it is not enough to provide optimistic notions to terrified workers. Read More
Read the full September, 2023 Proactive Technologies Report newsletter, including linked industry articles and online presentation schedules.
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