How to Coach Yourself and Others How To Perform On The Job Coaching

On-the-job training 1. General Introduction Author: Jim Riley On-the-job training, also called on-the-job coaching or skills coaching is training that takes place while employees are actually working. It means that skills can be gained while trainees are carrying out their jobs. This benefits both employees and the business. Employees learn in the real work environment and gain experience dealing with the tasks and challenges that they will meet during a normal working day. The business benefits by ensuring that the training is specific to the job. It also does not have to meet the additional costs of providing off-the-job training or losing working time. 1.1 The main methods of one-the-job training include:  ‘Sitting next to Nellie’ or ‘Following Joe Around’ - this describes the process of working alongside a colleague to observe and learn the skills needed for a particular process. This can be a faster and more useful way of learning a job role than studying a written manual. The colleague is always on hand to answer any questions or deal with any unexpected problems. However, a completely unstructured training may not be meeting current training needs. Worse, it may perpetuate bad habits and create “trained” employees who are not given the same information or evaluated to the same standards. Wiehagen et al. comment that, “Success in using unplanned OJT is usually dependent on the luck of the draw, that is, whether the informal trainer is competent at the task he or she is teaching, is motivated to teach, can organize the job into logical components, and knows something about good practices in teaching and evaluating” (2002, p. 27). It is only through planning a structured OJT program that consistency can be created and maintained. At the least, all trainees who have successfully completed such a program can be expected to perform at an established level—they will know what they must do to be successful.  Coaching - an experienced member of staff will help trainees learn skills and processes through providing instructions or demonstrations (or both).  Mentoring - a more intensive method of training that involves a close working relationship between an experienced employee and the trainee. each trainee is allocated to an established member of staff who acts as a guide and helper. A mentor usually offers more personal support than a coach, although the terms ‘mentor’ and ‘coach’ are often used interchangeably.  Job rotation - where the trainee is given several jobs in succession, to gain experience of a wide range of activities (e.g. a graduate management trainee might spend periods in several different departments)  Projects - employees join a project team - which gives them exposure to other parts of the business and allow them to take part in new activities. Most successful project teams are "multi-disciplinary" 10

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