We Have Enough Evidence: Without Employer-Based Structured OJT, Worker Development Falls Way Short

by Dean Prigelmeier, President of Proactive Technologies, Inc.

As a nation, we have become accustomed to kicking the can down the road. Maybe not deliberately, we appear to be locked into that mode with regard to worker development. It is not for lack of resources – billions are spent each year by federal programs, state governments and employers. If one backs away and looks at the big picture, the will is there but it seems more that the resources just are not properly aligned and focused.

Employers have been struggling with the “skills gap” since the 1980’s. Every manner of solution has been tried, but the gap seems to linger and grow. This is due, in large part, to disproportionately more emphasis being placed on preparing future workers for work and not enough on the employer’s vital role in providing the task-specific training once hired, and “upskilling” them through change.

Employers have been led to believe that the solution lies solely with education. While laying the strong foundation upon which to build strong workers is an important part of the solution, if the employer does not immediately begin building on the foundation, the foundation degrades relative to the continually evolving job requirements, and the opportunity is lost.

For nearly all firms, training a worker for the tasks they were hired to perform, once hired, is a mixture of uncoordinated efforts. Sometimes an expert worker emerges, but it is hard to explain how it happened let alone repeat the process. In reality, worker development and worker performance are inextricably linked. In practice, they seldom are. Most employers have no way of measuring how much under-developed capacity is on their payrolls or they would act immediately.

“Transfer of knowledge” is often confused with “transfer of expertise,” and employers are frequently disappointed when class attendance doesn’t produce noticeable improvements in performance. The misspent expenditures and missed opportunities associated with this can be substantial for any organization. The collateral effects on the organization – such as turnover costs, costs of malperformance and under-capacity and non-compliance with mandated standards and regulations – is a risk no organization should bear.

Manufacturing processes and products are more unique to each employer than common to industry. And so are the changes that occur. Local community colleges and career centers can, and should, focus only on providing entry level workers with what we consider to be “core skills and competencies” plus “industry-general skills.” The specific skills and competencies required by the client employer’s business model and environment can, and should, only be taught by the employer, using their own subject matter experts, their equipment and facility. In order to close the skills gap, both parts of the equation must be present, deliberate and measurable.

It is a tragedy that after 30 years, with all the money spent, the nationwide attention and effort, generations of opportunity lost and lives kept from soaring, when this same solution with a different ribbon produces the same results we blame the student for not aspiring and the worker for not trying or caring. To ad insult to injury, those with jobs and have the microphone keep telling those left behind that everything is working as it should – institutionalizing the malaise for millions who are really just waiting to be developed to their full potential realized.

The Structured On-The-Job Training Program

In the “old days,” jobs did not change very rapidly. Technology was introduced, but not at all like we experienced when the first commercialized microprocessors entered the picture beginning in the late 1970’s. After that, not only were the core skills required of a particular job rapidly transformed, what employers did with the technology shot off in all directions. Larger and larger portions of traditional apprenticeships became obsolete and/or irrelevant, as did vocational training taught by educational institutions.

The employer, who is closer to the change and, in actuality, engineering the change to their vision, is the logical agent to make up gap, but few really did nor do today. In fact, as the gap grew employers seem to have cut their in-house training budgets and staff more an more. There seemed to be a growing and shared naïve assumption that anyone should be able to learn their work; all they needed was the willingness to learn and the desire to succeed. As work became more complicated and the core skills taught in schools less job-relevant, the gap grew to a “Grand Canyon” proportion.

Employers need to invest in a structured on-the-job training infrastructure to get back on track and adapt to whatever the future brings. The quality and consistency of the structured on-the-job training program determines the success of entry level workers in obtaining and maintaining a job with the employer, and to improve the incumbent workers’ chances of retaining a job. The Proactive Technologies, Inc. strategy sets-up and supports the implementation of the structured on-the-job training programs for targeted job classifications (e.g. vital to future growth including managing the underlying labor cost structure, maximizing quality yield and productivity levels from labor, ensuring safe job performance and the continual improvement of product/service quality).

The process begins with a detailed job/task analysis of each task’s best practice procedure and precise job requirements to create highly detailed, task-specific, content-valid worker development programs (content valid for “legal defensibility” in support of state and federal employment mandates and a collective bargaining agreement, if relevant). Each job data set is reviewed by the employer-designated subject matter experts before any tools are developed from it.

The PROTECH © system of managed human resource development and software are the centerpiece that allows Proactive Technologies, Inc. to provide a wide array of services as a full-service support organization. These services include a “rapid response” approach to worker development, utilizing the PROTECH system to analyze the job classification, then automatically create an entire set of immediately usable materials: for human resource selection, training, certification, support documentation and performance appraisal (unique to each job, each individual). A program can be established in as little as one week.

This approach allows Proactive Technologies to do great things with a fraction of a big consulting firm’s budget. This infrastructure provides the client a complete system and technical implementation support for the “accelerated transfer of expertise™.” Worker development programs can be created for job replication, relocation, consolidation and/or efficiency improvement to accelerate the transfer of worker expertise from skilled incumbents to incumbent workers still in training, incumbent workers in cross-training and/or new-hire workers.

Once the structured on-the-job training program is set-up, an inventory is taken of each incumbent worker in the job classification against the job hierarchy that the subject matter experts agree upon to find “gaps” of unmastered tasks. A customized structured on-the-job training program is developed for each worker – focusing only on tasks that have yet to be mastered. An inventory of “prior learning” and “prior work experience” is taken at the same time and all worker/trainee data is setup in the PROTECH system’s employee file database as a baseline upon which to build as the program goes forward.

Once in place, the employer can put through the program as many new-hires and incumbents as needed, with a declining cost per trainee. The “return of worker investment” is significant and easily measurable. Once proven for the employer, the employer typically continues and expands implementation. One client employer in Ohio, in particular, started with a pilot program of 5 job classifications and has been implementing and expanding their programs for 19 job classifications since 2000. Employers in many other states are growing right behind them.

This approach includes the training, certifying, monitoring and upgrading of in-house on-the-job trainers – subject matter experts in their job area – to use the materials developed (based on their expertise) to train their peers. Supervisors managing workers in the targeted job classifications are trained to manage and support the accelerated workforce development strategy. They are taught how to ensure training occurs, they review all documents signed by the certified in-house on-the-job training trainers and are accountable for the collection and transfer of completed task-records for input and archive.

These structured on-the-job training programs are not only welcomed by clients, but the programs help to support process improvement, Lean Manufacturing changes, safety training, and quality program compliance such as with ISO 9001:2015/AS 9100/IATF16949 and NADCAP certifications. Clients who have used this approach, and have been through several recertification audits and audits by their clients, have effortlessly passed with regard to worker training, certification and records. This “systems approach” to worker development provides the structure for cross-training, reporting and system audit. With a collective bargaining agreement, bumping “occurs” and workers are reassigned to job classifications routinely. This program keeps track of each person’s development while they journey from one classification to another, maintaining records of every task mastered. Workers can earn multiple certificates of job mastery.

Concurrently with structured on-the-job training, workers can attend job-relevant courses taught onsite and online as “Related Technical Instruction” to increase the level of industry-relevant and employer-relevant base skills, or to keep these core skills up to date.

The Certificate of Job Mastery™ and portfolio (reports containing all core skills developed through related technical instruction, all tasks mastered and skills demonstrated) details the accumulation of each worker’s skills and value. These reports facilitate an easier identification of transferable core skills, abilities and general competencies and employer-specific/general industry applicability – enhancing an individual’s mobility within the company, within the industry and to other industries should worker dislocation occur. The Portfolio contents are reviewed by partner educational institution (if engaged) for completeness. The Certificate is signed by the delivery partners, the portfolio delivered for the client employer’s management signatures and conveyed to the trainee.

Combined, the structured on-the-job training and related technical instruction meets all three model requirements as defined by the US DOL – Bureau of Apprenticeships and State Apprenticeship Boards, in particular a “hybrid” apprenticeship model. Many of our structured on-the-job training programs have been registered as apprenticeships for compressed, but thorough, apprenticeships – although not a requirement to reap the benefits of this accelerated apprenticeship approach.

Most importantly, this focused approach to worker development is what has been missing from most employer’s business model. Employers have to get back in the game, develop and manage each worker as the asset it is and share their job information real-time with educational institutions and workforce development agencies in their community so that they can provide the most relevant services and develop the best job candidates possible.

Alignment with Grant Funding

For companies that meet the requirements for WIOA training reimbursements, the structured on-the-job training fits the category of allowable costs: Instructor/trainer salaries (including the company’s in-house trainer);
And the costs that may count toward the employer match, but are not reimbursable, can be documented as well, such as trainee wages.

This is an additional incentive to the employer to establish and host a program, knowing that their investment to setup the program can be recouped in part, or in whole, by actively implementing it. Furthermore, quite possibly the investment to set-up the structured on-the-job training program required of the employer may qualify as an employer match or reimbursable in some cases as “curriculum development.”

Conclusion

A combined program of related technical instruction (e.g. credit and non-credit coursework, certificate programs, remedial programs, related services) provided by educational institutions, workforce training agencies and training providers PLUS an employer-based structured on-the-job training program built and supported by Proactive Technologies, Inc. is the most effective and efficient approach to worker development. The model offers the best chances for rewarding outcomes for the trainee, the employer, the educational institution, the community and state. It is the best use of scarce resources. Furthermore, experience shows the probable sustainability and longevity of these partnerships in each case.

If you would like to know how this approach might work at your firm, how it can enhance an education-employer partnership, and how a pilot project may be the best way to introduce this approach to your organization, contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can 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 this approach to your staff.