32: The Best Way to Do On-the-Job Training

Apr 9, 2012

Learn how to effectively train others on the job with practical steps like thorough preparation, clear demonstrations, and detailed explanations. Discover the importance of time allocation, resource management, and budget adherence. Focus on skill development, feedback, and continuous coaching to foster growth in employees.

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Introduction

00:00 • 5min

Effective On-the-Job Training for Skill Development

04:38 • 5min

Effective On-the-Job Training for Resource Management and Budget Adherence

09:28 • 5min

Effective On-the-Job Training Strategies

14:02 • 13min

Enhancing On-the-Job Training and Community Engagement Initiatives

27:09 • 4min

Prepare

Estimate how much time you will need in advance – then double it. If you fail to block enough time, either you will sell the person short by rushing, or you will impact other business operations by taking more time than planned. Be realistic with how long things will take.
Coach the rest of the team and remind them that access to you when you are conducing on-the-job training will be more limited.
Be sure to consider the organizational outcome you want to have come out of the new skill or behavior you are working on. It’s not enough just to get the other party good at actions – they need to understand how these actions fit into the big picture.

Demonstrate

You’ll want to fully demonstrate what it is that you want the other party to do.
Suggest that the other person watch and observer – and perhaps take notes on what it is they see you doing in the skill or behavior.
Resist the temptation to explain and train as you go – that will come later. For now, it’s important that they see what the “end result” clearly looks like.

Explain

Ask the other party what they saw. This is beneficial for them since it reviews the process, and beneficial for you because you have a clearer understanding of what they saw and what they missed.
Now, walk through the behavior or skill step-by-step.
Once you’ve had a chance to full explain, have dialogue with the other person on where they can first apply this learning.

Coach

Apply the new skill in a place where they will have the best opportunity to experience success. If possible, avoid situations where their result will be more uncertain.
Set expectations with whoever else is involved with the interaction of how you will be involved and what kind of feedback they might observe between the two of you.
When coaching, make a clear decision to engage in the moment, direct the person as to what they might be differently, and then praise them for the change.

Feedback

Afterwards, review the situation in detail.
Ask the individual for their assessment of what worked and what didn’t work. Again, this will give you insight as a leader on what they perceive to have worked and what they might have missed.
Praise them for accomplishments!
If something didn’t work, discuss it now so that they don’t make the same errors in the future.

Determine which step to go back to, if needed for more development.

Leaders get in trouble when they don’t think through these five steps – and then end up missing big pieces!

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