On-Job-Training (OJT) is probably the most common form of training used by most employers for the new recruits. While OJT is commonly practiced by most organisations, some studies have suggested that it can be problematic. Describe the system of OJT and discuss the possible drawbacks of OJT techniques and suggest possible solutions to overcome the drawbacks that you have identified.
Introduction
"If all I do is hear, I will forget If I hear and see, I will remember
If I hear, see and do, I will understand".” (Confucius, 2005, April 17)
It’s proven and well tested! Experience is definitely the best
teacher. Every employee may have experienced some kinds of on-the-job training (OJT) in their careers. An employee probably learns 80 to 90 percent of his/her job knowledge and skills through OJT (Carnevale and Gainer, 1989).
On-the-job training has a general reputation of its effectiveness for vocational work. Its expediency is a major reason for a company to adopt it. However, many companies may only notice its benefits, like few costs and can be implemented quickly, but neglect its limitations.
On-The-Job Training
Normally, this type of training is to transfer knowledge from a skilled and experienced worker to a new-hire; in other words, someone who knows how to do a task shows another how to perform it. Trainees are learnt through training in an actual work setting, to the processes, work tasks, tools and methods of a specific job or group of jobs. So, it is especially appropriate for developing proficiency skills unique to an employee’s job, which are relatively easy to learn and require working with equipments or facilities.
Different Manifestations of OJT
On-the-job training has evolved into a diversity of manifestations. There are several general types of on-the-job training. Job rotation is one manifestation of OJT. In job rotation, the employee is assigned to different positions and possibly different departments for pre-arranged periods of time. The combined evaluation of the different work experiences determines the employee’s final job assignment.
A second form of OJT is coaching. In coaching, the trainee must already possess some level of skills and knowledge at a job. The trainer acts as a coach to facilitate learning and guide learners rather than instruct or train them (Sullivan, 1998).
Mentoring is very similar in that it calls for a higher level of initial skill and job knowledge, as does coaching. The mentor is generally a supervisor or manager rather than a co-worker. The intention of mentoring is to support the employee, help orient them to the job and work environment and “prepare the employee for increasing responsibility” (DeSimone and Harris, p.145).
participates in the work of another employee. Job shadowing is an excellent approach to the job training of employees who provide back up for jobs such as payroll. Job shadowing is also perfect for an employee with an interim assignment resulting from an employee termination.
Job Instruction is also known as training through step by step. Under this method, trainer explains the trainee the way of doing the jobs, job knowledge and skills and allows him to do the job. The trainer appraises the performance of the trainee, provides feedback information and corrects the trainee.
Under the committee assignment, group of trainees are given and asked to solve an actual organisational problem. The trainees solve the problem jointly. It develops team work.
Structured vs. Unstructured OJT
As the history of OJT suggests, it is found in every workplace to some degree of formality or informality. As soon as one employee asks another, “do you know how to…” OJT is about to occur. What most people think of however, when they think about OJT, is the less structured job shadowing or “sit by Joe” type of training (Rothwell and Kazanas 1994). According to Sisson, unstructured or traditional OJT has four telling characteristics. It is focused on the work- the trainer is primarily a worker and the work is the first priority. Training is lower on the list of priorities and often no allowance is made for the implicit slowdown of production that must inevitably come with training.
The second characteristic is that the only structure for the training is the work itself. The sequence of job tasks learned depends on the flow of work in the area. Since the work provides the structure, some tasks may get lost if they do not happen during any of the training sequences.
The third characteristic is that job skill and experience are generally the factors used to pick an employee to do training. Job skill does not necessarily mean training skill and few OJT trainers are given any types of materials or standards to use for training, making it a random and haphazard affair at best, and ineffective and non-productive at worst.
The fourth characteristic of unstructured OJT is that the instructor chooses his or her own methods for teaching the skills inherent in the job. Generally this is showing and telling. Some may do a lot of telling and then leave the trainee to his or her own devices. Some may do a lot of showing and never allow the trainee an opportunity to practice the job skills.
trainer rather than influenced; inefficient because the process of learning is disorderly since it is controlled by available work; and ineffective because in the majority of situations, there is no way to measure what the trainee has learned or how well they can perform.
Structured training is differentiated from unstructured in a number of ways. The obvious difference is the structure, manifested by standardized training materials, OJT processes, selected and trained trainers, and performance checklists. (Levine, 1995)
Other characteristics of structured training include consistency and accountability. The training materials provide some of that as do the performance checklists, based on clear objectives built into them. Further consistency is provided by the fact that those doing the training are specifically selected and trained trainers, who have expressed an interest in training and completed training in one-on-one training skills. Accountability is inherent in the system because trainers and trainees follow checklists and initial or sign for completed training- eliminating the excuse that the operator was never shown how to perform a certain task or aspect of a job. Accountability is also provided in the tracking and record system that is part of structured OJT. This also helps meet ISO standards. The formal documented processes detailing how OJT is structured, implemented and tracked also add to accountability by delineating areas of responsibility for training throughout the organization. Components of Structured OJT
The significance of each may be different in different organizations (Levine, 1996).
1. Management Support
2. Formal trainer support process 3. Checklists
4. OJT Training Materials 5. Train the Trainer Program
6. Tracking and Report generation
Management support is critical to the success of any OJT system. Without management backing, in terms of budget as well as priorities, the best OJT system is bound to fail, as other priorities will take precedence.
The climate and priorities they establish will overshadow any other priorities. “Training takes time; if supervisors do not allow enough time for preparation and training, they will thwart any structured OJT effort. If you cannot gain internal support from the organization’s managers and supervisors, don’t waste time trying to implement structured OJT” (Levine, 1995, p. 1).
Checklists are also an important and necessary component in an OJT system, along with OJT training materials. The checklists and training materials are a means of gaining consistency in training between shifts and also between trainers. If all trainers are using consistent, standardized materials and checklists, the training will have more consistency as well. Checklists are “the foundation of any OJT system” (Levine, 1994, p.6). They list the tasks that need to be trained as well as administrative information such as dates of training, trainee and trainer names and employee numbers, and certification dates. The checklists, whatever final format they may use, are based on a thorough analysis of the job, and include performance objectives for each task. The performance objectives state the intent condition and level of performance. A lesson plan should be developed to outline how the lesson will be taught and what will be included (Chase, 1997). According to some experts, the most important components of OJT are checklists with task lists, performance objectives, references, and a training schedule (Levine, 1996, Kelly, 1995, Rothwell and Kazanas, 1994). Another document included by some training experts is the lesson plan, a document intended to give direction in the training and improve the trainer's ability to instruct the trainee (Broadwell, 1986).
be highly process oriented, rather than lecture based, because the trainers are learning new behaviors rather than just new knowledge.
The last component is tracking and report generation. This is an essential element for business reasons as well as for managing the training function. Many businesses are investing time and money in their training organizations for business reasons such as customer requests or to fulfill ISO 9000 quality requirements. An effective tracking and report generation also provides valuable information to the stakeholders as well as providing a means of accountability.
ON THE JOB TRAINING – ADVANTAGES
A sound OJT system in the organization introduces the following advantages for different groups of people:
For employers:
Instructors (supervisors) and managers are able to utilize available resources to train, qualify, and develop their employees skills;
economic reasons for employers to improve the skills of all their workers –more flexibility and improvements in productivity.
For employees:
less “downtime” for employees as they do not have to travel, the learning can be delivered around their shift if needed and can be shown to be directly relevant to their job;
offers the chance to improve their skills in an environment with which they are familiar and feel secure;
For self-motivated employees this is a possibility to improve their skills and to raise their opportunities for a higher position.
ON THE JOB TRAINING –DRAWBACKS
Drawback 1: Incomplete Training.
Without a structured lesson guide, OJT trainers often forget to cover important information. What is learned is likely to be based on what happened that day rather than on what a new employee needs to know to be safe and productive.
Solution: Here is where the importance of the OJT Training Plan really becomes apparent. The training plans assists the employer and on-the-job training (OJT) provider by outlining the specific skill requirements for an occupation, the trainee’s skills gap for the occupation, and the training necessary to obtain the necessary skills for that job title. Developing a good training plan will help to assure the OJT meet all requirements of the job.
Drawback 2: Inconsistent Training.
she may forget to explain important steps or use technical words that the trainee does not understand.
Solution: The issue of who will be doing the training should be addressed during the employer orientation session. The employer may have a clear idea about who will be doing the training, but it may still be useful for OJT staff to discuss with the employer the characteristics of a good instructor: the desire to teach; knowledge of the subject(s) to be covered and skills required; the ability to get along with others; and, perhaps most important, the ability to teach the knowledge and skills to others. Teaching or coaching is a specific skill in itself. If the trainer lacks the skills, knowledge, and desire to train, the training is unlikely to be done to meet the employer’s standard. If during the orientation the employer and OJT staff are not comfortable about which employee might be best suited to conduct the training on-the-job, OJT staff might help the employer locate relatively inexpensive ways to identify the best trainer among those potentially available to complete the training in the OJT contract.
Drawback 3: Understanding the Underlying Principles.
The hands-on aspect of OJT may be appealing to the practical learner, but often in training that occurs on-the-job the underlying theories of operation are not covered in sufficient detail or accuracy. Without this fundamental knowledge, trainees often learn what to do, not why they are doing it. This can result in poor decision making when things do not go exactly right.
necessary to supplement the OJT with classroom training if the job entails comprehending extensive theoretical elements.
Drawback 4: Bad Habits.
The trainee observes and may adopt the trainer's habits and attitudes about all aspects of the job including safety, quality, customer service, and relationship with management. Poorly selected trainers can have many unintended consequences. The trainer may possess bad habits and pass these on to the trainee. A new employee potentially has years to learn all the bad habits and shortcuts themselves, without them being enshrined in the course of their training! For example the telephone switchboard in one large organisation was very complicated dealing with different sites, hundreds of external telephone lines, over six thousand internal telephones and many emergency procedures. The department was a large one with forty telephone operators. B, M and C usually trained new operators and they were very good at doing so. L the telephone manager decided that G would train the next few workers. G was constantly late, lazy, spent most of her day on private telephone calls, was rude to callers, continually bent the rules and was not a good worker at all. G duly trained the next few operators. For years afterwards, anyone could pick out the operators trained by G just by watching, and listening, to the way that they worked.
Drawback 5: Time to Do the Training.
One major drawback of on-the-job-training can be finding the right time for it. The person responsible for giving and evaluating the training most often has to be sure that his or her other job responsibilities are being met. Too often, the trainer may not be given the time to spend with the new employee to teach them properly, which could mean substandard on-the-job training will be achieved and learning will not be accomplished at the level the employer wishes and the trainee needs to succeed.
Solution: Providing sufficient time for the trainer to deliver the contracted training is another issue that should be specifically addressed in the employer orientation session. OJT staff can emphasize the need for the employer to provide sufficient time for the person or persons training the OJT participant, and can even suggest that successfully completing the training become a part of the trainers’ job performance measures, if it is not already in the performance standards. Further, OJT staff should be monitoring the progress of training early in the course of the contract period, and should probe to determine whether the trainer is spending sufficient time with the trainee, and giving sufficient attention to the training process. If there are problems, the OJT monitoring staff should work with the employer to assure any required changes.
Drawback 6- Time to adjust.
Solution: A better strategy is to allow a trainee some time to mingle with the other co-workers and get familiar with new surroundings.
Drawback 7- Using customers as guinea pigs.
While some long-time or well-known customers might enjoy the chance to help “break in the new guy” and would be happy to be met or served by someone undergoing on the job training most customers hate being used as training tools, and will quickly get annoyed at being used as such, especially if the new employee moves too slowly or makes too many mistakes. Even new employees who are being passively trained via job-shadowing can be annoying to customers, who do not really want some acne-pocked kid looking over their shoulder while they conclude a five-figure deal with a long-time personal associate.
CONCLUSION
On-the-job training is of theoretical significance because it represents a form of education that stands in sharp contrast to schooling. Learning in school is divorced from practice. On-the-job training programs offer an array of formats for relating learning to practice that may very well be useful in settings other than the workplace. In probing teaching and learning when they are
embedded in work, we are challenged to broaden our conceptions of the kind of social processes and activities that constitute
education.
