By Dean Prigelmeier, President, Proactive Technologies Inc.
The good news for employers is that there is a tremendous amount of wealth yet to be harvested under the very noses. For most companies, it is one of the most overlooked assets and last to be maximized as with any other assets of the organization. Strangely, it is the asset that employers usually recognize as the organization’s greatest.
Sadly, accounting practices still classify labor, as an “expense” while classifying the purchase of equipment the “expense” is expected to operate as in “asset” or “investment,” which is commonly defined as the “commitment of resources to achieve later benefits.” Little is known about the value of the so-called expense nor the return on worker investment, accumulating value throughout the lifespan of the worker. Historically there have been few ways to account for it. Consequently, a general manager has very little data to present to the board when told to cut expenses – the easiest being headcount.
Every employee who is hired encounters the same scenario. Once hired and through whatever screening available to make sure that the known pre-hire skills are sufficient to learn the unique tasks that make up the job, the blank-slate employee is most likely matched-up with somebody who has already demonstrated they can perform the tasks to the employer’s satisfaction. No structure, no training tools, no documentation, just an informal experience that differs from informal trainer to informal trainer, shift to shift, for every employee that goes through the ritual.
The number of variables that affect the quality and outcome of an informal training process are numerous. Every time a person is trained to perform a task upon which a worker’s performance is measured, albeit subjectively, they rise in time to become the next trainer. Often is heard debates between individuals on different shifts questioning how well my person mastered the task, and if the person on the shift who did the training was doing the task right to begin with.
Counting this as one example of one experience of hiring one person, multiply this by the number of people being hired over a period of time and you can get a picture of the growing gap between a worker’s capacity and the capacity the employer expects. It is not uncommon to find average worker capacities hovering around the 30 to 40% levels. The underproductivity, missed opportunities and opportunity costs can be substantial for an employer and drive them to acts of desperation. It can amount to a significant drain on the operation and a barrier to adaption and expansion!
It doesn’t have to be this way. Once the gap between the employee’s pre-hire skill base and the tasks that make up the job classification is identified, a structured on the job training program can close the gap very rapidly and increase the employer’s return on worker investment substantially. Often, this can preclude the need for additional hiring and extend workers capacity through cross-training to cover other staffing gaps that might have existed or emerged.
So much of manufacturing is driven by a “systems approach,” why should worker development be different?
If you recognize these challenges and have shed your fear of even looking for other solutions, check out Proactive Technologies’ structured on-the-job training system approach to see how it might work at your firm, your family of facilities or your region. Contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. A 13-minute promo briefing is available at the Proactive Technologies website and provides an overview to get you started and to help you explain it to your staff. As always, onsite presentations are available as well.
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