Learning And Development On The Job Training Management Essay

When you are going to perform any task in your work or personal life, you will need to train at the best you can and try to gain the knowledge that will enable you to handle the work or the task properly. Training will help to improve your performance and get ready to handle something you were not aware how to handle but in this case you will have to choose the appropriate technique and method for your training.

Human Resources Management includes different activities like, planning how to recruit the staff that you need as per what your organization needs, interviewing and selecting them, making sure they have the right skills and the knowledge to perform the job they are selected for with the best they can so they increase the work’s performance and meet with the company goals and objectives, managing their benefits and compensation, planning for their bonuses and motivations periodically, managing and keeping their records, and the most important aspect which how to train them using all the training methods and techniques in order for them to capture the appropriate information, knowledge and skills related to their new job that will lead to developing the personnel who will be working in the company therefore developing the organization. We are going to speak into depth on one of the most effective and most frequently used types of training “On the job training”. On the job training does have so many advantages that helps meet the expectations of the training, but it can also have few disadvantages if it is not properly planned and executed.

“The bottom-line: You need to train people, you need to train them quickly, and you need to find a low-cost, yet effective way to do that. You also need to improve morale and develop responsible, loyal, high-performing employees. And, you know that the old way of training people on-the-job – i.e., the degenerating buddy system, “follow Joe around”, or unstructured OJT – simply does not work…” (Team OJT, HPA, 2008)

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On the job training is one of the best methods of training. For most of the employees, On the job training forms the most important part of their learning and development when they first join the company. It will keep them in a close contact with their colleagues and that will help forming a strong spirit among the team.

Usually, this type of training is planned by the supervisor or manager, it’s their responsibility to use the available resources and benefit from their best existing staff experience and skills to develop their new employees. To successfully organize it, they need to assign one the best performing employees to be the coach for the new joiner. The trainee will be using the same equipments, materials and tools that he will use when performing his real job. It’s an effective way where the trainee acquires the knowledge and skills at the actual work place. The trainee will learn by watching and observing someone very well experienced doing the job in the real work location. Most of the trainees find it more practical and more effective when learning directly from their colleagues instead of learning through materials in training classes.

This training is effective as it is delivered before the new employee starts performing the actual and real job in the workplace like that, the trainee will be able to practice the real job in the workplace he will be working in and he/she will be having an immediate feedback on the challenges that he/she will be facing. Also, when one of the colleagues is coaching the new member this will help him integrate into the team.

On the job training is also a benefit for the organization as it is generally cost effective since they don’t have to organize a special and separate training for the new joiners. The new employee will be joining the team and using the tools and equipments they are using and no extra equipments will be needed. It works very well for the organization as the On the job training will be held in the same working hours and no training periods is dedicated for training the new employees and that usually have a training allowance which may be lower than the regular pay scale for the job. And the trainee might not have to travel to another location for the training. He or she will be in the same work place as the manager and that will enable the manager to give an instant feedback leading the new employee to grow faster in the job.

“…OJT is regularly low-cost as no particular tools are required other than from what is usually applied on the job” (Gubman, 1998)

The new employees will have more confidence when they are being trained in their actual work location among their colleagues or team members, they will live and feel the real work environment, getting to know more the people they will be working with and the manager they will be dealing with, building expectations and getting motivated by how fast they can prove themselves and build a good relation and trust. They will feel more comfortable and at ease when they are trained with people they know rather than strangers who are holding and teaching a training course and do not know much about the work challenges more than an colleagues performing and facing real challenges every working day. It’s an interface between the learning and work environment, like a transition from university to work. On the job training is productive as the employees will be working while they are learning and they will allow them to have more confidence hence working on a high standard.

On the other hand, when the On the job training is not planned properly, It can not be executed properly. And the trainee will get a vague picture of the company as he will be receiving missing or wrong information. It may sometimes overload the trainee with so much information when too much information is provided in the training session.

The trainer should have the knowledge and experience to train someone else. Providing the new comer with the knowledge that he/she will refer to when they are actually working is very important and critical. The trainer should have the teaching and coaching skills to provide the correct and most accurate information to the new joiner and prevent providing any misleading information or bad habits. Having someone from the existing employees coaching a new employee is very critical as the supervisor or manager who assigned this person for this task should ensure that this assignee does not have bad habits to avoid passing it to the trainee. The trainer might provide instructions based on how they feel and what’s important to them. But what is important to them, it may not be important to another or for the work of the organization. Also, if the trainer does not have a structured plan, he/she might miss or forget to cover some important points which may lead the trainee to incomplete information.

While attending On the job training, sometimes the trainer will miss out covering in details and accuracy some theories of the operation and the trainee will be missing very important information. As the new employee is having a lack in his knowledge base which will lead to a poor decision making and it will be difficult for him facing some daily challenges when things are not going exactly as they learned.

If the trainer was not the right person for the job, he might lead the trainee to bad habits and attitudes as the new employee will be adopting the same habits in work, safety, customer service, and even his relationship with the management or colleagues.

One of the major problems the trainer will be facing while holding the training, is being able to manage his job and tasks properly and at the same time being able to give the appropriate time to the trainee and giving him the attention he/she needs to be able to attend his queries and provide him/her with good knowledge base and experience as required, it’s very difficult to find the right person among the team to perform both the tasks equally and assigning the right time they need for each activity, they should be really careful not to pass the bad work habits and teach the learner accurate, relevant information and methods.

“Each employee requires more learning in order to improve his /her skills, no matter how best a candidate is, he/she can not be 100% percent qualified…” (American Society, 2007) “…Thus, OJT is important both to the organization and the trainees who are being trained. OJT is beneficial to the organization in the manner that it offers cheap to carry out as the main resources required is time only. After which it offers the organizations with trained employees who understands well the organization culture objectives and goals. And thus able to achieve the much required high production and effective working. To the trainees, OJT offers them a practical and easy way of learning while they are working giving them a unique opportunity to practice what you have learnt. According to many scholars this is the best way of learning since offers the right tools and environment for learning…” (Ruffini, F et al. 2000).

The trainer may not have sufficient knowledge or skills then On the job training may be inappropriate and if it’s not done effectively, it can damage the work objectives. It’s about finding the right person to perform this task. Leaving aside these disadvantages, On the job training can give benefit for both the company and the new employee. Since On-The Job Training is performed at the work place, the trainee will be focused on performing real job tasks and gaining real experience. Although On-The Job Training is often the most practical training method when you only need to train a couple of employees at a time but another training methods and techniques will be complementary to provide the new employee all the required skills and knowledge base about the products, services and systems in the organization.