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Building a Successful On-the-Job Training Program for Cross Generational Workforces

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IntertekAlchemy.com© 2020 Intertek Alchemy

Table of ContentsIntroduction 3

STEP 1: Identify Your Experts 4

STEP 2: How to Capture the Institutional Knowledge of Your Workforce 7

STEP 3: Keep All OJT Materials & Records in One Platform 10

STEP 4: Digitize Your Work Instructions / SOPs 12

Voilà! On the Way to Greater Success 14

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Many regard on-the-job training (OJT) as

the gold standard of training for a reason:

workers learn by doing, rather than just

being told how to do it. That’s empowering,

and an empowered workforce is one that

drives productivity and profitability.

But OJT also has its pitfalls. It can be dangerous

if an unqualified person is teaching others.

Bad habits and non-standardized training

can pass from person to person quickly

without anyone aware it is happening.

A successful OJT program meets

these three essential criteria:

• The training is accurate, and follows

company-sanctioned protocol

• The training is consistently delivered,

and only by approved personnel

• The trainee is observed performing

the trained skills correctly, and

that validation is recorded

These are straightforward on paper, but

implementation in a large, busy factory brings a

few challenges. But they’re not insurmountable!

Below, this eBook outlines best practices

to help you leap these hurdles in stride.

Right out of the starting gate is an aha moment

for many: you’ll need to develop actual courses

for effective on-the-job training. Too often

OJT is delivered off the cuff. And herein lies

the root of inconsistency, inaccuracy, and

omissions. Luckily, these days companies can

leverage mobile technology to both create

and deliver these courses on the floor.

Before delving into expert tips, keep it top-

of-mind that the solutions you build should

succeed equally across every generation of your

workforce. Your OJT program must meet the needs

of all employees, from experienced, edge-of-

retirement workers to young, tech-savvy workers

and everyone in between. It will significantly

impact and even improve your culture of safety.

High-quality training also matters to your

employees when it comes to job satisfaction.

A recent study by Price Waterhouse Cooper1

revealed that a majority of workers believe that

training directly influences whether they stay or

look for new employment. Further boosting the

notion that high-quality training is essential, 74%

of participants from a university study2 believe

that a lack of training is the biggest obstacle

to reaching their full potential on the job.

Sounds daunting, right? It’s actually not! We

have easy-to-follow, easy-to-implement

step-by-step instructions for you.

1 Price Waterhouse Cooper. “Millennials at Work”, 2011.

2 The Learning Wave, “Survey Shows Employees Want More Workplace Training”, 2012.

Introduction

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STEP 1

Identify Your Experts

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The Star PerformersThe first step you want to take in strengthening

your cross generational team is identifying the

star performers. They might be workers who not

only know how to do the job well but know the

nuances of the machines; the particulars that

can affect operation and output. These are the

people you trust to train other employees; the

ones not spreading bad habits and misinformation.

They’re the ones who others turn to for help

or insight on equipment and processes.

Most importantly, these are the people you

are going to use to help build your on-the-job

training. It might be a different person for each

process, or it might be your single standout.

Ask each staff member who they regularly

seek out for help or insight on a machine. If

you notice the same few names popping up,

you know the first people to make a beeline

for! They are the ones you will want to work

with to develop specific on-the-job training,

and whose long-earned wisdom you’ll want

to capture, before they leave your facility!

Keep in mind star performers aren’t always

the ones others turn to. Some standout

performers may keep more to themselves and

aren’t actively sharing their information or

experience. Look for these job task experts as

well as your visible leaders to capture all the

best process knowledge that assists with faster

turnaround times and in-depth troubleshooting.

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The RetireesYou will also want to approach those

employees who you know are planning

to retire in the near future to schedule

some one-on-one sessions with them.

A sobering thought: 10,000 baby boomers

reach retirement age every day3. How many are

employed in your company? Even if only one or

two, their departure can be a sonic boom: after

all, when an employee retires after a long period

of service, an enormous amount of practical and

informative information leaves with them forever.

These workers have years — decades, even — of

knowledge surrounding the nuances of their

facility, some of which aren’t documented in

any SOP. In fact, oftentimes corporate trainers

and operations leaders aren’t even aware these

nuances that keep a certain line running smoothly

even exist. You’ll want to move on collecting

this info now, and making it accessible digitally.

Younger workers now entering the workforce

aren’t accustomed to having to rifle through file

cabinets and dig through piles of paper. They’re

digitally oriented, so these ways of the past

are not only outdated but will be even more

ineffective with this “new wave” of workers.

3 United States Census Bureau. By 2030, All Baby Boomers will be 65 or Older.

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STEP 2

How to Capture the Institutional Knowledge of Your Workforce

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Now it’s movie time! Technology can be your

biggest asset here. New platforms and mobile

solutions allow you to record your best workers

performing various tasks throughout the

facility and quickly turn it into an interactive

training course with instructions and quizzes.

NOTE: the quiz concept is important for two

reasons: A) Experts in adult learning agree that

intermittent knowledge checks help learners

actually learn and remember the content. B)

With the right technology you can track these

responses evaluate employee progression

and for audit records when needed.

According to Forrester research, 75% of

employees prefer to watch a video rather

than read an email or web page to learn job

instructions! Furthermore, video helps to preserve

institutional knowledge a lot more effectively than

text, as it allows for experts to fully demonstrate

the processes as it’s being documented.

You can also capture institutional knowledge

through interviews, written documentation,

videos, and photos. By collecting the

knowledge of subject matter experts and

looming retirees, manufacturers can:

• Reduce time and effort spent

onboarding new workers

• Avoid mistakes caused by

lack of information

• Document previous successes,

so they can replicate them

This doesn’t have to be painful or awkward.

You can, and should, conduct this in a way

that is comfortable for everyone involved.

Maybe you have already envisioned a

rollout plan or want to set up a phased

approach. A good way to start is to set

up a structured process to help you

organize your approach and data.

PRO TIP

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Teach with the Best

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Keep in mind that communication styles differ

greatly between generations. The millennial

generation and baby boomer generation, for

instance, differ greatly in the way that they

prefer to share information back and forth.

To over-generalize, millennials prefer to use

smartphones, and utilize social media types of

formats even in the workplace. Whereas baby

boomers prefer computers and communications

that are more long-form, such as email. And since

Gen Xers have an ability to adapt to various

tech channels, they are often referred to as the

bridge between the two groups. This is just to

point out that different people respond better to

different ways of learning and communicating.

Find a method or develop a system to

establish both a social and collaborative

way for generations to enjoy a free flow of

information back and forth, ensuring effective

collaboration. And in the spirit of OJT, since

some of the best learning takes place on the

job, make sure to help establish ways for your

workers to share their knowledge informally.

Some of your best workers and/or subject

matter experts might be years from

retiring, but there is always a chance they’ll

leave the company due to a new job, life

event, or geographic change. So make hay

while the sun shines — talk to them, now!

PRO TIP

Employee-led “lunch and learns,” round-tables,

“Ask the Expert” forums and mentorships are

great ways to draw out even more institutional

knowledge than a scripted interview could.

And don’t spend too much time fretting about

those workers nearing retirement at the neglect

of your younger star performers. Gen-Zers who

are nimble digital natives can offer valuable tech

and digital training to their older counterparts, so

don’t forget about “reverse knowledge transfer.”

Mentoring can happen at — and for — any age!

Now it’s time to turn your collected materials

into a course with text instructions that align

with what’s being visibly demonstrated. You’ll

also want to add quizzes throughout to validate

that information was not only taught but

understood. Experts in adult learning agree that

intermittent knowledge checks help learners

actually learn and remember the content. And

with the right technology, you can track these

responses to evaluate employee progression and

for audit records when needed. Ultimately, this

also helps prevent bad practices from spreading

due to non-standard on-the-job training.

Now your course is ready to be viewed!

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STEP 3 Keep All OJT Materials & Records in One Platform

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You’re likely to enlist several managers to

help create OJT courseware and tap into

a number of workers to be subject matter

experts. But the central team approving the

training before it is published into the platform

must be a much tighter group. After all, the

goal of this effort is to ensure OJT is always

accurate, and consistent. So final review and

authorization for use must be tightly governed.

This also ensures all training indeed runs through

one platform. This will help your training managers

and floor supervisors know exactly where to go

to access the most accurate on-the-job training

materials. They will no longer need to scour

through a maze of spreadsheets, share drives,

file cabinets, or sticky notes to access what

that they need to deliver the proper training.

Validate When OJT is Completed

It is equally important to ensure all training

activity that occurs is centrally documented

in the same single platform. This should

include observation and validation of the

trainee performing the task correctly before

they are authorized to do the work.

If you’re trying to keep track of employee training

and qualifications through spreadsheets — or

even worse, in mental filing cabinets — it’s not

reliable. Spreadsheets are bulky, error-prone,

and time-consuming, and worker qualifications

are constantly evolving. It’s key for you to

utilize a system that can keep track of that

forever-changing information in a more modern,

helpful, accurate way. In a more sophisticated

system, this validation tracking can even allow

supervisors and plant managers to find an

already-qualified worker for any task when a

gap on the line needs to be filled quickly.

Automate your Requalifications

Each job qualification runs on a different timeline

when it comes to renewing. So how will you

schedule your reminders for everything from

the Big Machines to the Little Things? Once

again, it’s time to say good-bye to spreadsheets.

Utilize tech solutions to help set a reminder

based on the criteria you establish, whether

it’s a full course refresher or a mini lesson.

Keeping it Together

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STEP 4

Digitize Your Work Instructions & SOPs

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It’s not just inconvenient to rely solely on

written guidelines or procedural handbooks but

problematic. The avalanche of paperwork that

companies have to keep up with for training

and auditing purposes have become more

of a challenge in recent years. It’s painful to

document each process in its required step-

by-step fashion. A simple task can become a

four-page document! Add to that the tedious

task of keeping existing SOPs up to date —

something viewed as a chore to most.

Furthermore, version control can be an issue,

starting with trying to keep track of all edits

and keeping everyone on the most up-to-date

documentation. The wrong, outdated version

might be circulating on the production floor

and it’s near impossible to track down.

Before you get overwhelmed thinking that you

must follow the entire course development

process outlined in Steps 1-3 above for

every single procedure, rest assured that it

is not the immediate goal. Rather, prioritize

your most essential OJT needs and plan to

develop the courses and certifications in

phases. For the remainder, take the shortcut

of simply getting all of your SOPs into a

digital platform. You can then verify that your

employees have read and/or received proper

training in a way that is easily accessible and

easy to revise when there’s an update.

Paper Isn’t Practical

Be discerning when digitizing existing

SOPs. Sometimes SOPs aren’t always

in the best shape, so a few may

require some updating or improvement

as you go through this process.

A digital recordkeeping process will

make tracking employees, creating new

content, and recordkeeping a breeze.

PRO TIP

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Voilà! On the Way to Greater Success

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A structured, technology-based OJT program

will open up an entire new world for you — one

that’s reliable, accountable, and whose ease

will transform your processes and courses.

It also can impact your bottom line.

Just think: a minty-fresh, newly improved on-

the-job training program can help you create

successful career-pathing, which in turn can

reduce turnover. And with a platform that

delivers learning the way workers want to

Alchemy PlaybookTM is Intertek Alchemy’s

OJT solution for easily creating, delivering,

and verifying standard work instructions.

Contact us today for more details on creating your On-the-Job Training program.

(866) 463-5117 ContactUs@IntertekAlchemy.com IntertekAlchemy.com

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learn, such as short bursts of training combined

with high-quality video content, you can

increase their confidence in their own work.

An inspired, confident workforce helps to create a

major culture shift when it comes to performing

jobs efficiently, accurately, and safely. Add the

well-rounded, diverse approach that we outlined

above for strengthening your cross-generational

team, and you have a recipe for success.