Have you ever heard of ‘on-the-job training’ (OJT)?
If you have not heard of it, it is a training method that helps to familiarise an employee with their working environment and job scope. It teaches skills, competencies and knowledge needed for them to perform their job well.
In a way, it is a period of learning that prepares the employee for their future job responsibilities.
As a business person, a high productivity level is most welcomed. A relatively high productivity level among employees drives business operation much more smoothly which is beneficial for the company to reach new heights.
What exactly are the benefits that businesses can reap?
Saves you money
Compared to the usual onboarding process where some may choose to engage an external party to organise seminars and training, OJT can be considered simple and effective enough.
Your onboarding process can last up to 12 months for new hires to fully integrate into an organisation whereas OJT gives new employees opportunities to learn their role effectively.
Transition period reduced
Through OJT, your new employee is able to learn their role while still acclimating to their workplace. As they are still learning while on the job, it helps them to develop the fundamentals of the role and could start delivering results early in their job.
If you are considering implementing OJT, you may expect the process to be satisfying enough to ensure promising results in the future.
For a favourable result, keep a look out for potential employees who could be a mentor to your new hires. These employees will be the key to getting new hires quickly on track to assimilate into their job roles. They should be patient and experienced in order to impart know-how and motivate new workers to reach their potential at the same time.
Of course, there should also be ample opportunities for your new hires to practice and apply their skills. With the help and advice of their mentor, they would be learning and improving as they go through the on-the-job training process.
Your on-the-job training process should also be well-structured so that it will be understandable to digest the information and apply it to a real-life work situation.
Sounds practical and effective? You may now be thinking; what kind of training process should it be like?
It depends on the level of experience of your new hire.
If they are experienced in the job, it may be useful to expose them to how the company is generally run. There is little in-depth training on the expertise the job role requires and is mostly executed based on the extensive expertise that your experienced new hire has.
On the other hand, if your new employee is a fresh graduate or has minimal professional experience, it will be suitable to aid them through this transition into the company. With instructions and some hands-on learning, it will help them develop and hone the skills required of them. It is beneficial and no one loses out.
By shadowing an experienced employee as their mentor, they stand to gain a more guided practical experience and thus, know what to expect in an ‘actual’ situation.
However, if you require your employee to improve or be trained in a specific skill set, then a training process that maps out detailed methods to achieve the said skill set would be most fitting.
If you are looking to train your employees to perform like in an actual work environment by allowing them to get used to their job roles early, you might want to use OJT as part of your onboarding.
Sometimes, a practical learning experience is much more useful to push your employees’ potential and OJT helps you with that. It also anticipates “just in time” scenarios that are difficult to predict theoretically.
If all this checks your list, then OJT could be your next method for your next employee induction.
Outside is Singapore’s leading community micro-job platform that creates micro (l)earning opportunities for students, homemakers and seniors.
As a two-sided platform, Outside provides an all-in-one outsourcing management platform for businesses, assisting in breaking down jobs into smaller simpler pieces and improving operations efficiency. For job seekers, Outside provides flexible job opportunities that users can easily pick up and complete within the Outside app, allowing them to work conveniently and earn reliably.
Download our app on Apple Store and Google Play to find out more!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OutsideApp
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/outsideapp
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outsideapp