On-The-Job-Training: 6 Strategies To Implement Your Training Plan

Disengaged employees, high turnover rates, and low-quality work. Sounds familiar? According to Lorman, 70% of your employees might leave your company for an organization known to invest in learning and development. 

So, you need to step up before that happens.

On-the-job training (OJT) is a cost-efficient strategy that helps employees develop the necessary skills to do quality work.

It improves engagement, increases satisfaction, and supports company culture.

In this article, we'll discuss what OJT is, its pros and cons, how it works, and how you can integrate it into your overall training strategy.

🏢 What is on-the-job training?

On-the-job training (OJT) is a hands-on learning experience that helps employees acquire the skills, knowledge, and competencies they need to succeed in their roles. 

The training happens at the workplace, where a manager or an experienced employee shows the trainee how to perform a task and then supervises the trainee doing it themselves.

The trainer then gives immediate feedback, making room for correcting errors and for the employee to learn their new responsibilities faster.

HR Expert Jennnifer Hartman sees OJT as a way to increase an employee's chances of success:

"Implementing on-the-job training can help employees learn new skills, become more engaged, and improve their performance. This type of training allows employees to learn in a practical setting, which can help them develop better job skills and increase their chances of success."

For example, experienced floor workers teach new employees to assemble, inspect, and pack parts in manufacturing companies. Then, the experienced employee supervises the recruit until they gain the skill and knowledge to do it independently.

Another example is the succession of a management position. Often, when a department or organization leader decides to step down, they enter a transition period where they'll mentor their successor to ensure a smooth transition to their new position.

🆚 On-the-job training vs. Off-the-job training

The main difference between on and off-the-job training is that while on-the-job training happens at the workplace and has a practical approach, off-the-job training takes place in a classroom and focuses on knowledge acquisition.

They also differ in:

• The methods they use
• Who carries out the training
• How much it costs
• How fast you can see results
• The impact on productivity
• How the employees learn

So which one is better?

It depends on what you want to achieve. 

On-the-job training is better if:

• Your employee needs to learn a practical skill 
• Someone in your company knows how to do it
• The expert employee knows how to train others

Off-the-job training is better if:

• Your employee needs to understand a new concept
• There is no expert in the company that can train your employee
• Your employee needs their entire focus on the training

➰ Structured OJT vs. Unstructured OJT

OJT happens in one of two ways: structured and unstructured. 

Unstructured OJT occurs when an employee asks for help when someone informally teaches them how to perform a task or when they observe one of their colleagues doing their jobs. 

While uncostly, unstructured OJT is not effective because:

• The training produces inconsistent results.
• The content is inaccurate or incomplete.
• The trainer might pass on their way of work instead of the standard.
• The experienced worker isn't trained and can't express what they know.

On the other hand, structured on-the-job training (S-OJT) is designed to teach everything the employee needs to know and has a strategy to back it up. 

With S-OJT, both trainer and trainee know what's expected of them. At the same time, managers know how their employee is doing, and they can track, measure, and improve the training.

A successful S-OJT strategy needs:

• Experienced employees or managers trained to train.
• A list of skills and competencies the employee needs.
• Determining what proficiency looks like for each task.
• Establishing a timeline for the training.
• Assessing the training outcome.

➗ What are the benefits and disadvantages of OJT?

On-the-job training helps new employees ease into their new positions and adapt to your company culture. It also allows you to create a job enrichment strategy to encourage established employees to learn new skills and grow within the company.

Nina Pączka, Community Manager at Zety, explained how training increases productivity and improves the perception of employees about the company:

"[Training] should engage, motivate and create bonds. Nothing boosts employee productivity like relationships with the company and other employees. Employees feel valued. And if they see that the company cares about them, they care about the company. It's a simple quid pro quo in its positive sense."

Well-rounded development plans also need off-the-job training to supplement on-the-job training, bring new ideas to the workplace, and clarify concepts in formal training.

Benefits of on-the-job training

1. Speeds up the learning process – because of the hands-on nature of OJT, employees immediately apply what they learn, helping them develop their new skills faster as they don't face a gap between knowledge and practice.
2. Helps new employees adapt – when a new employee trains on the job, they learn about the company and the culture. They also develop relationships with their colleagues, leading to a better onboarding experience.
3. Increases employee retention – 94% of employees reported they would stay longer in a company if it invested in their learning and development. OJT helps you train, engage, and retain employees.
4. Saves you money – OJT is significantly cheaper than off-the-job training. On top of not paying for the employee's day off, it cuts trainers, courses, and travel expenses.
5. Cultivates company culture – employee collaboration creates relationships, improves company culture, and encourages team building.
6. Provides basic knowledge management – when a senior employee passes on their knowledge to a more junior employee, it prevents that internal knowledge from being lost.
7. Flexibility and adaptability – OJT is easier to schedule and adapt to your employee's needs because it doesn't depend on the availability of external trainers or their training program.

Disadvantages of on-the-job training

1. Not everyone can teach – not every subject matter expert (SME) can communicate what they know. Moreover, some SMEs fear losing their competitive advantage, so they are unwilling to become trainers.
2. Lacks foundation – OJT often lacks foundational knowledge, making it hard to grasp why things are done a certain way. To avoid this, we recommend creating a development plan with a 70-20-10 approach that closes the gap between practice and theory.
3. Unlikely to bring new ideas to the workplace – what employees learn in OJT is existing knowledge within the company. New ideas or concepts rarely come up in internal training.
4. Risk of accidents – if there is unstructured OJT in your company, experienced employees might forget to mention safety information while showing a new employee how to operate a machine, exposing them to unnecessary risks.
5. Possibility of errors – with unstructured OJT, trainers might not pay close attention to how the trainee performs the task, causing them to make mistakes without getting feedback.
6. Lack of consistency – unstructured OJT also leads to inconsistent training results because there is no methodology, training materials, or clear guidelines on how the employee should perform each task.

⚙️ On-the-job training methods

There are many methods to deploy on-the-job training, such as:

1. Coaching
2. Mentoring
3. Job rotation
4. Apprenticeship
5. Understudy
6. Job instruction
7. Committee assignments
8. Internships

While they have different approaches to training, all of them involve the employee performing tasks they'll use in their job and receiving immediate feedback on their performance.

Here's how they work.

Coaching

In coaching, a training manager analyzes how an employee performs their job and provides feedback. This one-to-one strategy helps the employee develop and improve their competencies while gaining confidence and learning to take responsibility for completing the task.

Mentoring

Unlike coaching, mentoring is an informal training method. It focuses on developing a relationship between the trainee and the manager or expert employee. The mentor supports and guides the mentee to learn the skills they'd need to assume the mentor's position when they retire, change roles, or leave the company.

Job rotation

During job rotations, employees work at different departments or workstations within the company, intending to understand how the company operates as a whole. This method helps manufacturing companies and apprenticeship programs.

Apprenticeship

Apprenticeships are long-term programs that combine OJT with classroom training. It helps inexperienced employees learn the skills they need to perform a specific position that the company needs to fill. The employees earn a certification or license to perform the job without supervision. 

Understudy

Understudy programs prepare an employee to take on the role of their supervisor, making it a key method in succession planning. The trainee learns how their supervisor performs their job while observing and assisting them and develops relationships with employees that support the role they'll assume in the future.

Job Instruction

In job instruction—also known as the step-by-step method—the trainer demonstrates how to perform a task step by step to the employee. Then, the trainer observes the employee performing the task, provides immediate feedback when they make mistakes, and recognizes good practices.

Committee assignments

Committee assignments usually involve many trainees. The trainer assigns the trainees a real company problem and asks them to solve it. This kind of training encourages teamwork, promotes company culture, and helps the trainees develop new skills and relationships with their co-workers.

Internship

Internships are short-term programs where trainees get exposure to a new industry and gain general knowledge about it. It helps the trainees become familiar with the activities they would perform if they pursued a career in that field.

📈 On-the-job best practices

Now that you understand what on-the-job training is and what it can do for your organization let's go over some of the best practices that make this approach work.

1. Identify potential trainers and train them

Find the people that show outstanding performance and have a deep knowledge of their job. Then, identify who of them would make good trainers.

Good trainers are willing to share their knowledge, have excellent communication skills, and are interested in training new employees.

Once you've identified who your potential trainers are, you'll need to train them so they learn how to:

• Set goals and expectations.
• Clearly explain and demonstrate how to perform each task.
• Recognize what the trainee does well.
• Give effective feedback that helps the trainee improve.
• Be patient and empathetic.

2. Structure the learning process

For your OJT to be successful, you'll need a structured plan that shows what the employee needs to accomplish and how they'll do it. 

Start by having a detailed view of the employee's role in your organization.

Next, create a list of the tasks, skills, and competencies they need to succeed. Then, assess the gap between the desired profile and your employee's profile to determine what they need to improve.

Pro tip: This step is easier when you have a competency model in place.

From that, work with the OJT trainer to gather and develop training materials and documentation to support the employee's learning experience. Don't forget to create an assessment checklist to evaluate the employee's progress.

Wrap everything with a training schedule to help everyone stay on track and know what they need to work on.

3. Track and share performance metrics

Measure and track the employee's outcomes—such as changes in knowledge, behavior, and attitudes.

Use the assessment checklist you created to measure how your employee is performing in their training. To keep your employee engaged and motivated, recognize what they're doing well and give feedback to help them improve the skills or competencies that don't meet expectations.

4. Get feedback and improve

Talk to the trainer and trainee to learn what worked, what needs improvement, and what doesn't work at all. Create an exit survey that gives you insight into how your employee is doing and how the trainer did their job. 

From that, assess which skills they need to develop further and how you can improve the overall training experience.

5. Set up a buddy system

During onboarding, a buddy system helps new employees ease into their position. A 'buddy' is an employee with outstanding social skills, who shares their knowledge, best practices, and experiences with the new recruit.

A buddy system is an excellent complement to your OJT plan. It has a positive impact on retention and helps the employee become fully productive in a shorter time.

6. Leverage technology in your process

A learning management system (LMS) helps you organize your training materials and create a library your employees can use whenever they need to solve a problem, consult a company policy, or recall a process.

It can also automate tasks such as assigning training, sending reminders, and even assigning 'buddies' to recruits. 

For example, with Zavvy's LMS, you can create an onboarding training journey and automatically enroll new employees on it. Zavvy's system combines learning methods such as spaced repetition, microlearning, and social learning to keep your employees engaged and motivated.

But there's more: Zavvy lets you set up an overall development process, combining competency models, development plans, and feedback to guide both your on-the job and off-the-job development strategies.

⚙️ How to implement on-the-job training

One of the best ways to create a training plan is to use the ADDIE framework. ADDIE stands for Assess, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate.

1. Assess the needs of your organization and your employee. What skills does the position require? What skills does the employee already have? What skills do they need to develop?
2. Design the learning goals, objectives, training methods, and evaluation metrics.
3. Develop the training plan and materials with the help of the OJT trainer.
4. Implement the training according to the schedule.
5. Evaluate the success of your employee, the trainer, and the training process.

By using this framework and the best practices we've discussed, you'll be able to design and implement a successful on-the-job training program.

➡️ Bottom line

Creating a well-rounded training plan may seem daunting, but it doesn't have to be. Start with critical roles and work your way down. Remember that training is not solely the responsibility of People Ops—recruit managers and key employees to help you determine training needs and develop the training programs.

Implementing a structured on-the-job training plan helps you and your organization preserve internal knowledge, increase employee engagement, and retain top talent.

Ready to deploy your on-the-job training strategy? With our employee development software, you can create, implement, and measure your training plan. Book a demo and unleash your training potential today.