Estimating the Costs Associated With Skipping Processed-Based Structured On-The-Job Training
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
It should go without saying that if the employer has no deliberate strategy to train workers for the tasks they were hired to perform, the employer will probably never realize the maximum output possible from a worker. Multiple workers operating under-capacity can create exorbitant, and unnecessary, costs to the employer – bleeding from profits and often leading to sweeping and irreparable reactions from management as they try to “fix” all but the obvious.
The effect of worker capacity on any business strategy is the least understood of factors, but one as important as innovation, process improvement and zero defect strategies. After all, fundamental to each of these strategies is the worker’s ability to competently carry the intended actions to maximize those efforts efficiently.
Employers need to seriously consider the human factors, not ignore them and focus on everything but this. After decades of neglect, supported by workforce development institutions that have no tools to address this stage of worker development and often unknowingly promulgate distractions in their efforts to claim they do, management has come to simplify the human factor into a cost that can be easily eliminated or replaced by a lower cost alternative in another location. Lacking in this reaction is the underlying fact that moving operations to lower-wage labor markets with even more need for training (e.g. new challenges such as language, culture) only appears to be adding to profits short-term; the same problems exist, but the lower cost of labor makes it more tolerable even if greater challenges to worker performance now exist. As wages rise, these challenges become more pronounced and management becomes more critical.
click here to expandTotal Cost of Ownership formulas, such as the one used by the Reshoring Initiative, try to capture the hidden and overlooked costs of off-shoring operations, with labor challenges being one factor considered. But even so, the factor’s significance is understated.
Here is a simple formula for estimating the cost/benefit of a worker’s contribution to the organization for consideration: Read More
How Start-Ups and Joint Ventures Can Benefit From Structured On-The-Job Training
by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations – Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
A article in a previous issue of the Proactive Technologies Report™ entitled “Enterprise Expansion/Contraction and Worker Development Standardization” explained the process of standardizing training for expanding, contracting, merging and acquiring enterprises. It discussed how to take inventory of incumbents and new-hires in training, and how to standardize multiple worker development strategies. But what about standardizing tasks that are in design, have just been designed or are evolving in their design? Or the importance of this component in creating an enterprise to perform the tasks meant to lead to profit from an innovation? If the goal is the repeatable high-quality performance of tasks once they have been formalized, then standardizing and documenting the procedural steps is necessary, though often an afterthought.
Entrepreneurs and engineers that design and fine-tune a production process or service strategy are immersed in it until they feel confident it is ready for scaling. Whether through “expert bias” – the overconfidence that results with satisfaction in discovery leading to the opinion that everyone should understand their innovation – or through mere oversight, a brilliant idea can fail in proliferation during efforts to transfer the processes and techniques without a formal structure.
The solution is simple. It takes an understanding that a structure to transfer the standardized task from the expert to the task performer is vital to ensuring that all aspects of the innovation are maintained and repeatability of the highest quality of performance is certain.
click here to expandWhen standardizing best practices, the process Proactive Technologies follows to establish any task-based, structured on-the-job training program is the same for existing, evolving and newly released production or service processes. Repeatability of process is just as important for any stage and type of enterprise. Start-ups and joint venture programs are even more vulnerable to failures in accurately transferring the procedural certainty needed for repeatability. A delay in transfer, or failure to completely transfer, of innovative processes can lead to the abandonment of potentially successful products or services when start-up funding evaporates. Read More
Classes Alone Will Not Close the “Skills Gap,” But Structured On-the-Job Training Can…Every Time!
by Proactive Technologies, Inc.® Staff
Proactive Technologies. Inc. works with many employers, a large number of them manufacturers, to set up structured on-the-job training programs designed to their exact job classification(s), built to train incumbent and new-hire workers to “full job mastery” – still the most elusive goal most employers face and the key to” closing the “skills gap.” Under-capacity of workers is an enormous source of untapped value and unrealized return on worker investment.
The accelerated transfer of expertise system™ approach can help any employer quickly and completely train the skilled workers they need AND realize an increase in worker capacity, work quantity/quality and compliance (ISO/IATF/AS and Nadcap, engineering specifications and safety) while reducing the internal costs of training. New-hires and incumbent workers are driven to full job mastery and higher levels of return on worker investment (ROWI). The task-based, structured on-the-job training infrastructure is perfect for apprenticeships; instead of marking the calendar for “time-in-job,” job-relevant tasks are mastered and documented. AND, unlike classroom or online training, the cost per trainee decreases with each added trainee once set up.
This approach makes a worker’s mastery of the job the focus, integrating into the company’s existing systems and standards by building structure around the loosely arranged worker development activities already in place. By structuring the unstructured worker training to make it work effectively and efficiently, this approach maximizes the use of resources already in place.
click here to expandProactive Technologies is confident that, once your firm experiences the PROTECH©® system of managed human resource development™ you will recognize its capabilities to maximize your workforce and cut your training costs. That is why PTI is willing to let your firm find this out at the pace and investment level that you are comfortable first, then work with you to scale up within your budget to reach your goals. Read More
Maximizing Worker Capacity Maximizes Shareholder Value…If Done Right
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
To many, “maximizing shareholder value” has become synonymous with layoffs and short-term cuts that will typically have harmful effects on long-term operational capacity. An often overlooked, but more productive, goal is “maximizing worker capacity” and should be a priority for every organization – publicly traded or not. Leaders of an organization are quick to say, “our workers are our greatest asset.” Yet, efforts to maximize returns on this asset are often hard to recognize or understand.
Maximizing a worker’s capacity maximizes worker value. Collectively, maximizing each worker’s capacity maximizes an organization’s value, and that of the shareholders. It is as simple as that.
Publicly traded companies and privately held companies – some getting ready to go public – seem preoccupied with increasing quarterly earnings per share above all else. A consistently high level of earnings per share over the long-run no longer seems adequate for some. If the market is slack, an organization might carve costs out of the company from even a lean operation rather than disappoint investors. When labor is viewed as a “cost” rather than an asset, the temptation might be to cut benefits and wages. This may prop-up numbers for the short-term, but a demoralized workforce might not produce the same levels of output and quality yield as before. Sadly, a decision might be made in following quarters to cut benefits and wages even more, followed by workers if needed to make the magic number. All the while, worker and operational capacity, along with enthusiasm and loyalty, are eroding.
click here to expandHow does this erosion happen? When workers are cut, the work they used to perform gets transferred to the remaining workers. If there isn’t a mechanism to quickly “transfer expertise” to the worker expected to take on the new responsibilities, capacity drops until the trainee comes up to speed. For as long as the transfer takes, one well-paid subject matter expert trainer is being paid to train the paid trainee, yet productivity improvement may be negligible. And further complicating the process, perhaps no one thought about capturing the exiting workers expertise before they left the building, so some “reinventing the wheel has to occur.” Multiply this across all affected workers and the labor and opportunity costs may wipe out any anticipated gains by cutting worker payroll.
Proactive Technologies Report has presented many articles about the value of workers, how structured on-the-job training increases the worker’s capacity to perform more tasks to a level of mastery, the high cost of worker turnover, and more. It is a concept we feel strongly about. Yet we are continually surprised how this topic is avoided by company’s accounting departments and upper management when they feel inclined to trim costs here and there, avoiding cultivating the enormous wealth before them – waiting to be harvested. What would be the value of just a 10% increase in worker capacity, operational capacity, quality and quantity of work, and worker compliance (safety, ISO/AS/IATF, Nadcap,etc.) to any operation? Read More
Worker Compliance With Quality Initiatives; Avoid Worker Quality Audit Without Worker Training/Certification
by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.®
When attempting to comply with the worker training provisions of ISO, AS, IATF, or Nadcap, it is important to keep in mind the intent of the requirement. The goal should include avoiding an “overshoot” with unnecessary additional work and/or creating an infrastructure that is hard to manage and prone to noncompliance. Often interdepartmental rivalries interfere with logical discussions of how to meet the requirement without creating an internal institution to manage it.
Typically, the guidelines for each of the major quality initiatives listed contains a section that provides a fairly open requirement for worker training to make sure the worker component of the “quality system” is sufficient to ensure that process-based tasks can be performed as designed. If they cannot, the effectiveness of the rest of the quality assurance system will be thrown into doubt. The framework below provides guidance but places the responsibility on the registrant to end any past practices that were inconclusive and open to questions:
A. PERSONNEL DEVELOPMENT AND CERTIFICATION
A.1 Training and Certification
A.1.1 Has all work performance “knowledge” been captured for use in developing and maintaining a consistently compliant workforce?
click here to expandA.1.2 Are there structured, consistent training procedures that assure personnel performing critical tasks and associated quality and test functions are competent to perform assigned tasks?
A.1.3 Do records exist and indicate that training and certification is conducted in accordance with procedures?
A.2 Evaluation of Personnel
A.2.1 Do training procedures require periodic evaluation to ensure that approved personnel maintain proficiency in their assigned tasks, which might have changed since employee certification?
A.2.2 Do records indicate that the evaluations are performed at documented frequencies and the results reviewed with employees in a program of continuous improvement of personnel?
There are two parts to this process of worker training represented by sections A.1 and A.2. Section A.1 addresses the underlying training of and certification of workers to the processes they are expected to perform and comply. Structured on-the-job training, designed exactly to the written processes, safety requirements and quality standards and/or from an analysis of the best practice performance by subject matter experts, will provide the necessary task-based training and documentation for a compliance framework. It also satisfies the “knowledge capture” requirement of the certification program. A “Workforce Development and Training Policy” should be developed (or amended if already in existence) to clearly guide a more formal implementation, enhancing support for ISO, AS, IATF, and Nadcap.
In addition to the robust improvements this approach provides for developing a worker to comply with processes, procedures and policies in the performance of work, it is the most effective and efficient method of maximizing each worker’s value to the organization.
“An audit checklist is not a training tool nor a training record in the literal sense. Furthermore, written processes are not training tools or tests.”
Section A.2 addresses the requalification of employees which, again, the infrastructure established for section A.1 compliance can cover thoroughly. This can be formalized in a section of the Workforce Development and Training policy to establish requalification schedules, which can be more frequent for the more critical job tasks and job areas and should include the time a certified employee is away from the tasks for which they are certified, such as job reassignments, personal time off, sick leave. For most quality initiatives this will more than suffice and be easy enough to manage. In this approach, the enterprise does not create too much criteria that may lead to disqualification in the event of “training program neglect,” but enough to ensure compliance. Read More
Read the full September, 2025 Proactive Technologies Report™ newsletter, including linked industry articles and online presentation schedules.
Proactive Technologies, Inc.®; PROTECH®; Human Resource Management for Tomorrow...Today!® and logo; PROTECH©® System of Managed Human Resource Development™; Accelerated Transfer of Expertise System™; Certificate of Job Mastery Program™, Certificate of Task Mastery Program™ are all trademarks of Proactive Technologies Inc.®;