I have been thinking more (a lot more) about training and development and the areas I find interesting. One such area is the on-job-training (OTJ). OTJ is very common, can be formal or informal, dominant form of training in many organizations. For a brief overview, see On-the-job training .
From my experience, OTJ has occurred something like this:
Supervisor: “Mike, go talk with Steve, he knows how to do the process X.”
Mike: “Hey Steve, our supervisor wants you to show me how to do process x.”
Steve: “okay, here is how you do it……done”
Mike: “okay, I think I got it. Thanks.”
My guess is that this is a typical scenario in many organizations. From a training and development experience, there are few things wrong here and few ways for improvement.
First, the wrong. There was:
- No baseline assessment to see if Mike knew how to do process X
- No evaluation of whether Mike could execute process X after the demonstration
- No documentation or job aide (step-by-step/how-to guide) was done
- No verification of learning
Second, the fix:
- Explain context
- Demonstrate to learner
- Explain steps
- Document process (note taking)
- Have learner demonstrate process
- Check-in with learner to ensure that they are doing the process
Following a few simple steps with OTJ can make it more effective for the learner and organization.
Salesforce, Security, and Technology 