Some of the best OJT programs are based on a philosophy of OJT trainer as coach. The coaching-based OJT program strategy is based on a few simple ideas:
The key members of the OJT team are:
The Champion. A champion is an individual who actively promotes the program in the company. The champion is a strong believer in the benefits of the coaching based OJT program and, in essence, sells it to upper management and enthusiastically supports its integration into the company. He or she administers and evaluates the overall program.
The Supervisor. The supervisor manages the action part of the program and is the person responsible for overseeing the progress of the trainee. The supervisor:
The Coach. The coach does the training. He/she is responsible for organizing and planning the training, developing a relationship with the trainee, and teaching knowledge and skills to the trainee.
The Trainee. The trainee is responsible for being an interactive learner, developing a relationship with the coach, and mastering the material taught.
The primary work team in the coaching-based OJT program is the trainee, the supervisor assigned to oversee his or her training, and the coach or coaches who conduct that training. The diagram shows how primary interactions related to the program are expected to progress in a formal program.
The relationship between the coach and the trainee is defined in either a written or verbal agreement. Both individuals understand and are committed to the goals, actions, and timeline of the process and understand their respective roles and responsibilities.
Supervisors play a key role in this OJT program. They select and review coaches. For each trainee assigned to them, they develop a plan with the knowledge and skills needed by that individual in mind. They match trainees to coaches to accomplish the goals set forth in the plans. It is the supervisor's responsibility to conduct an official evaluation to determine when trainees have achieved an acceptable level of performance.
Since OJT is, by definition, taking place at a worksite, even supervisors who are not currently assigned trainees need to understand the importance of quality training and know how to support coaches and trainees. All supervisors should know any legal requirements and company policies requiring employee training before certain tasks can be performed.
Training-related paperwork, even if it is to be completed by another supervisor or a coach, should be explained to all supervisors so they can review it if they ever have a question about the training status of any employee who reports to them.
OJT coaches can not be expected to fulfill their original duties at the same level of involvement while they are engaged in training activities. During that time, part of their job is to teach, not to produce. Supervisors need to understand how this short-term loss will be a long-term gain for the company through increasing the skills of new employees. New employees will become productive more quickly with effective training.
A difficult situation may be created if the new employee will not report to the coach’s supervisor. In these cases, it is particularly important that a supervisor believes a training-related slowdown will not have negative ramifications. Supervisors should be positively reinforced for supporting training that will contribute to overall organizational goals. Supervisors will be overseeing the OJT worksite. They should communicate their support to OJT coaches and trainees and explain the importance of the program to their other workers.
If an OJT program is being formalized for the first time, employees who were trained in less formal ways may not see why a change is needed. If other employees see training as a slowdown or something that negatively impacts their work, they may become resentful. If the supervisor is aware that this can happen, he or she is more likely to recognize developing situations and deal with them before problems become difficult. Regardless of the type of training being provided, supervisors have to manage new employees and employees who are new to given tasks. An effective OJT program will make this part of a supervisor's job easier.
The foundation of the program is its coaches. Coaches must know and be able to perform the jobs they are teaching and also know how to share their knowledge and skills with a novice. Choosing the right people to be coaches and then giving them the support they need is key to a successful program.
A coach "is someone who helps someone else (a trainee) learn something that he or she would have learned less well, more slowly or not at all if left alone." (Chip R. Bell)
Although no one seems to question how important technical expertise is for the OJT trainer, possessing a high level of expertise can actually hinder one’s ability to effectively share his or her knowledge with a trainee (Johnson and Leach, 2001, p. 426).
OJT trainers are often chosen on the basis of their job experience. However, experts may not be the most effective teachers because they no longer need to think through each step of each task to do the job. Instead, they think of the work in chunks or patterns that they have come to recognize or define during hours of practice. Therefore, they may leave out critical information when explaining a task to a novice who needs to have every step clearly explained. While an OJT coach should be competent in the job for which a trainee is being instructed, the person with the most expertise is not always the best choice.
A person currently in the position is usually chosen as the trainer, and that person is generally expected to teach all aspects of the job. However, a supervisor should consider whether another employee could (or even should) teach some things to those new to a given job. For example, a mechanic who understands how a machine functions could teach equipment operators. The mechanic might be in the best position to explain how to do proper inspections and to advise the new operator about what should be done to keep the machine in good working order. In addition, using other coaches for parts of a trainee’s experience can lessen the workload on one coach and give a trainee different perspectives on new tasks.
Job expertise should not be the only consideration when selecting a coach. Personal characteristics are also important. James Leach (1996) reports that successful trainers will have “enthusiasm, humor, flexibility, and tolerance.” In discussions between coal miners and NIOSH staff about what makes a good trainer, the characteristic of patience was brought up often. Miners also said excellent trainers care about their trainees. It will be these kinds of qualitative differences that will set excellent coaches apart from adequate ones.
Some of the characteristics that make a good coach are (Leach, 1996)—
In addition to expertise and personal characteristics, he or she must also know how to coach. Often this requirement is overlooked in OJT programs. While selected employees may become great OJT coaches by trial-and-error, they will become effective more quickly if given assistance in learning and mastering teaching skills. One way to do this is through 1-day workshops that incorporate adult education principles and allow teaching/coaching skills to be practiced.
Employees selected as OJT coaches should be told what is expected of them and what they will get in return for taking on this role. Teaching can be intrinsically rewarding, but it can also be stressful. Since the OJT coach is a productive employee, he or she may feel pressured to continue producing at the same rate even when activities are being added to a workday. It is not possible for the individual to do both things at the same time with 100% efficiency and attentiveness. The production rate for the OJT coach will decrease when they are training, and they should be reassured that the coaching job is important and worth spending time to do well. It is likely, however, that OJT coaches will continue to be productive employees in terms of their original jobs as well as in their new roles. It is appropriate that they be given recognition and/or rewards for their extra efforts. In an effective OJT program, coaches know they are respected and appreciated.
One way to reward coaches is to institute an OJT coach certification. Certification would identify individuals who have been selected and prepared to conduct training. Preparation would include the content of the given job along with teaching and assessment skills. If the organization certifies employees as coaches, then training is less likely to become a “follow Joe around” experience. Once certified, however, the individual must be offered resources and support to be successful. They should also be given opportunities to improve their skills through additional education or refresher sessions. Another advantage to certification programs is that supervisors will know a certified OJT coach is qualified to prepare an inexperienced employee for a new task.
Trainees must be active participants in a coaching-based OJT program. They need to understand the importance of coaching and how it will benefit them. For the trainee-coach relationship to succeed, the trainee must be ready to learn, open to communicating honestly, and respectful of his or her assigned coach. Trainees who commit to the relationship and see training as an opportunity to increase their skills will be most successful. Supervisors should communicate trainee roles to each of them before training starts.
Some level of basic knowledge, and sometimes skill, is required before learning any new job. The prerequisites to the job should be determined and documented as part of the OJT program. Formalizing the prerequisites will give everyone an understanding of what is minimally expected of someone new to a given job. Trainers will be provided with a starting point, and trainees feel more confident knowing they have met certain standards. If trainees do not meet the prerequisites, what additional knowledge or skills they need before OJT begins will be clear.
It is important to have some system in place to determine whether trainees have gained the knowledge and skills required to do the new job. Such a system should be thorough enough to gauge trainee success accurately, but not too cumbersome to use with ease. One method is to design checklists including each important task and/or subtask that should be reviewed. Checklists can be compiled while training content is being defined. It can be used as a guide to key points to be made during training, as well as an evaluation tool as training progresses.
One caution when setting up an evaluation system is that coaches and trainees must not think that "fully successful" is the only acceptable level of task performance. If that becomes the norm, trainers are likely to conduct an evaluation only when they are sure this goal will be met. A successful evaluation system allows trainees to learn from less-than-perfect performances and progress to eventual success in each task or subtask.
Supervisors should evaluate the performance of trainees and have final sign-off responsibility. Successful training cannot take place, however, without the coach assessing performance either formally or informally as training progresses. Additional people who might evaluate trainees are other employees who have expertise in the job for which workers are being trained or safety department employees. However, no matter who evaluates trainees, the same method should be used each time. Trainees should always know who will be evaluating their performance and what knowledge and/or tasks will be reviewed.
Certification can be a means of identifying employees with given knowledge and skills. Certification is useful when a quick assessment of people who can do certain tasks is needed. If a company certification system is put in place, however, a decision must be made as to whether individuals currently in the job will be certified or whether those individuals should be evaluated in the same manner as new workers who are taking specific training.
If a certification program is put into place, then OJT coaches should become certified before teaching others. Coaches then have the experience of going through an evaluation from a trainee’s perspective and a chance to become familiar with the training process. In addition, certifying OJT coaches demonstrates to trainees that the coaches have proven their abilities in the job being taught.
Teaching guides give coaches and trainees road maps for activities. Guides also increase the consistency of training between different OJT coaches and document what is being taught. The guides should be selected and/or developed with the input of OJT coaches, supervisors, maintenance personal, and safety professionals (or representatives) and tested to confirm they are appropriate for a specific workplace.
"To keep things simple, [the] trainer [coach] and trainee guides should be, for the most part, identical. They should both list all of the tasks addressed by the structured OJT program" (Blair, 2001).
While the basic information in coach and trainee guides should be the same, some different information should be added to each one.
An additional item I recommend including for each task in the trainer [coach] guide is a statement, or paragraph, listing areas to cover, or stress, when teaching the task. This is also a good place for any other task-related suggestions you might want to add. Corresponding items can also be placed in the trainee’s guide to help them concentrate on the same salient points as the trainer (Blair, 2001).
The job is not over when the training material has been developed or selected and is in use. Periodic review will ensure that the guides still match the organization’s training needs. Coaches, trainees, and supervisors should be asked to report their suggestions for changes or updates to the guides. If they individually make changes, their ideas will not be shared with other company OJT coaches. The result will be inconsistent training across the organization. Training guides also need to reflect changes in equipment, procedures, regulations, and policies.
Evaluation should be integrated into the program as it is designed and implemented. No matter how confident anyone is in the program, some form of ongoing review is needed to confirm what is going well, what is not going well, and what improvements can be made. The evaluation process does not have to be costly or formal, but it should be comprehensive. The table shows some types of information that can be included in a program evaluation.
Everyone with knowledge about the program and a stake in its success should be included in the review to some extent. Key sources of information about how the program is working include trainees, coaches, supervisors, and employees working with individuals who have completed the training. The simplest technique is to talk informally to people about the program. More formal methods, such as questionnaires or group interviews, are also worthwhile, but depend on the resources of the program and the importance of the skills being taught.
Even when a program is evaluated and found to be highly successful, it should continue to be reviewed over time. New people become trainers, new supervisors are hired, and the subject matter itself can evolve as changes take place in the work environment and/or the worksite. Thus, training materials and processes should be reassessed and revised periodically so the OJT program continues to be successful.
A coaching-based OJT program requires commitment from all levels of the organization— trainees must be open to learning; coaches must be interested in teaching and trained to do it well; supervisors must coordinate and review the activities of their assigned trainees and the coaches working with them; and all managers must support the goals and methods of the program.
Each program will improve over time. Today’s trainees will learn about coaching relationships and be trained using methods that adhere to adult learning principles. These employees will have a head start when it is their turn to take on the roles of supervisor and coach in the future.
ReferencesPrimary Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, DHHS (NIOSH) Publication No. 2005-146, Information Circular 9479, Aug: 2005
Copyright ©2000-2019 Geigle Safety Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Federal copyright prohibits unauthorized reproduction by any means without permission. Disclaimer: This material is for training purposes only to inform the reader of occupational safety and health best practices and general compliance requirement and is not a substitute for provisions of the OSH Act of 1970 or any governmental regulatory agency. CertiSafety is a division of Geigle Safety Group, Inc., and is not connected or affiliated with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), or the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
