For new hires, there is no better way for employees to learn other than through the experience of hitting the ground running. That is why HR practitioners swear by the effectiveness of on-the-job training (OJT).

Markus Tanner, managing director of head education & development, market strategy & development in UBS cites, “It is common knowledge that 70% of learning takes place on the job.” This is the reason why UBS banks so much on OJT within the organisation, he adds.

But implementing an OJT does not come about without its challenges. On top of their daily jobs, line managers are often being responsible and accountable for training their employees. HR practitioners say one of the challenges they face is in ensuring a consistent and standardised OJT delivery amongst their various line managers.

Lynn Chia, HR director of Singapore Marriott Hotel says: “Not all line managers are good trainers.”

Thus, if line managers are to be given responsibility for training, managers must also be provided the support tools to accomplish the task effectively.

Adding to the gravitas of OJT, HR practitioners also realise the quality of trained employees plays an impact on the business bottomline. For a service-oriented company like Marriott where the success of the business rides on its brand name, guests who check in at any of Marriott’s hotels expect the same standard of service across the board. So if employees are not trained well, service standards will dip and this will have an impact on the overall business in retaining customer loyalty, Chia says.

Whose responsibility is it?

But even before HR practitioners can implement any form of training for the company employees, interviewees Human Resources spoke to agreed that it is important for senior management to be fully supportive of employee training, and OJT as well.

However, this poses as a challenge in the engineering-based industries, as OJT often takes a back seat to other technical programmes such as Six Sigma, says Dr Alvin Oh, director of corporate learning & development for STATS ChipPAC.

Chia is saying that despite its training efforts, HR cannot work alone but has to work with line managers to take ownership of ensuring a standard training programme.

“If the company sees training as important, and makes it part of its values and cultures, then naturally people will not look at training as a burden but as a priority,” she adds. As a reflection of that belief, part of the key competencies Marriott managers have to strive towards are in people development and in how managers fare as organisational learners.

UBS even goes one step further by setting KPIs for line managers. Citing an example, Tanner says leaders who manage a team client advisors have people-related objectives in their assessment. “At the end of the year, they are evaluated against these people objectives – one of which is coaching.”

But for detractors who do not view training as a priority, Tanner says UBS incentivises the importance of training by highlighting successful teams who have succeeded through training. Hopefully, these success stories would convince other detractors to see how training can boost the business bottomline.

Classroom learning complements OJT

While companies may use a blended learning system, HR practitioners say OJT provides a different dimension to learning compared to classroom training.

An average UBS employee undergoes eight to 10 days of training each year in modules like investment, finance, risk management and UBS business strategy. Managers also undergo leadership and management training in addition to these classes.

Even though OJT is useful, classroom learning still has its part to play, Tanner says. In fact, OJT should be complementary to classroom learning, as it puts into practice basic skills employees acquire in the classroom through case studies and role-playing, says Tanner.

“In the classroom you can build up the basic skills. But the most important thing is you have to do is practice, practice and practice on a daily basis,” Tanner says.

Chia agrees, saying that due to the “simulated and controlled” environment of classrooms, associates are not exposed to real working situations and the demands of working with guests. While Marriott harnesses e-learning tools and requires its employees to undergo a certain number of classroom training hours each year (20 for general associates and 40 for management), Chia says OJT training is still most effective for acquiring skills necessary in the actual work environment.

Oh also gives another reason STATS ChipPAC chooses to fuse its OJT learning with its employee induction programme. Due to the rapid changes in manufacturing technology, OJT is the quickest way of bringing new hires up to speed. By fusing OJT as part of their new employees’ induction programme – HR can ensure employees are “fully and quickly” inducted into their role.

Into the scheme of things

For STATS ChipPAC, coaching line managers on how to implement an OJT programme at its manufacturing plant is administered by SPRING SINGAPORE.

Line supervisors at the manufacturing plant would training new hires, about three to five each time, for eight hours each. While line managers are given some leeway on how they want to break up the training sessions, new hires will undergo technical briefings, demonstrations and hands-on application sessions during the OJT session.

STATS ChipPAC also has a “Training the Trainers” module, whereby associate trainers are taught how to faciliate a session, following a certain structure provideded by the company for their training.

The semiconductor company also provides a blueprint for their line managers, who are given the title of associate trainers when they take on the role of teaching employees. There are also supplementary guidelines on softer skills – which include how-tos on becoming an effective facilitator, and motivating employees during training sessions.

The use of structured tools is not just for heavy industrial companies alone. During OJT sessions, Marriott provides a tool titled Passport to Success. The guidebook is given to associates who are acquiring new skills by providing a checklist of essential skills associates have to learn in order for them to become competent in their roles. This is particularly useful for employees who wish to move up the career ladder or make a switch in their job functions.

But is the use of structured tools been proven to be effective? Oh says there are two schools of thought as to whether the blueprint provided by STATS ChipPac actually works.

On one hand, new managers who do not have any teaching experience find the structured outline useful, saying the tools helped employees quell their fears over whether they are doing the job right.

But for veteran trainers, the blueprint may make them feel confined by a rigid structure. Veteran trainers would prefer to have deviations from the programme structure – which the company allows for, Oh admits.

Oh says, “At the end of the day, it is at their comfort level to carry out the programmes. But at the same time, we wouldn’t want them to deviate so much that it misses the essence of what an OJT should be.”

On the softer side

There are also daily opportunities for HR practitioners to implement OJT – that is not required as part of a structured curriculum.

At Marriott, managers conduct daily 15-minute training sessions which are held immediately after their daily briefing sessions. While the HR department is responsible for providing the timetable, Chia says even though these daily 15 minutes may not seem like much, it eventually snowballs into slightly over 90 hours a year.

But the largest source for constant learning and improvement is by obtaining continuous feedback, as learning takes place “everywhere and everytime”, whether it be through feedback from line managers or from other parties says Tanner.

“Feedback is free-of-charge consulting. Feedback can help improve your skills and experience on an ongoing basis, and that has to be in the DNA of the organisation,” Tanner says.

But how can HR help line managers provide constructive feedback? For one, HR needs to provide line managers with training on how to coach employees, say Chia.

Furthermore, Tanner adds that line managers need to learn how to pose the right questions to employees so as to help them learn how to derive a solution to work challenges for themselves.

Tanner says by posing questions such as “How would you solve this problem?” and “Do you see any other opportunities?”, it can help employees think in unconventional ways when solving their work problems.

Chia adds it is important companies train their managers. “When you give feedback, it has to be specific and measurable. And you have to work with associates to be pinpoint specifically what went wrong, lead them and correct them and make sure they are able to perform effectively,” Chia adds.

The evaluation

OJT doesn’t simply stop once the knowledge has been imparted from the line manager to the employee. But how do HR managers measure the results of the training effectiveness?

For Oh, he says it is almost physically impossible for HR managers to go down to the Yishun plant itself to monitor how line managers conduct the training sessions. Instead, STATS ChipPAC hands out survey forms which employees are then asked to fill after they have completed the programme. These survey forms are then used by HR practitioners to see if line managers have covered the essentials of the training programme.

If employees say they have not learnt much from the programme, it raises “a red flag” with HR, Oh says. If the lapse occurs three times or more with a trainer, HR would then sit down with the trainer to assess the reasons as to why the trainer could not conduct proper training, giving the trainer an opportunity to air his point of view, and to re-examine if he would want to train future inductees.

In Oh’s opinion, there are several reasons as to why line managers could be underperforming their training responsibilities. As managers are already bogged down with manufacturing work that they may face time constraints in training employees well.

“Most of the line supervisors are bogged down by day-to-day operations, as there is a lot of firefighting and troubleshooting. As a result, it makes it difficult for them to adhere strictly to the structure of OJT,” Oh says, adding HR needs to be careful line managers “do not deviate so much that they do not lose the essence of OJT”.

At Marriott, there are ways for employees to gauge the level of training associates receive from their line managers. One of it is through a web certification tool on its intranet, which new hires have to complete before they are confirmed in their positions. It is an online assessment which quizzes associates on their technical knowledge. By providing instantaneous feedback for employees, Marriott’s HR is able to check on the progress of the associates’ web certification success.

For UBS, the organisation chooses to conduct regular pulse checks with its new hires, line managers and HR. Part of this is a readiness check, which new hires and line managers fill in together. HRD then looks over the evaluations and follows up with training to cover any skill gaps that the employee may require. New hires also have to sit in with HRD and their line managers at their 90-day and 180-day mark to garner feedback on how their training and development during the first few days have been like.

However, ensuring a standard and consistent delivery of OJT training is an ongoing event which has to be reviewed constantly. For instance, Oh says, new inductees could join the company with a higher level of sophistication, making aspects of OJT redundant.

Whatever means an OJT is carried out, Tanner says employee training needs to support the business and the company’s talent development goals by plugging employees’ skill gaps so that they would be able to progress within the company.

In order to motivate employees to undergo training, Tanner says it is important that HR sends a message that it is not about assessing their job standards, but more of developing employees so as to plug their skill gaps.

“Everybody has strengths and weaknessnes. Now based on your job role, we have to either make your strengths stronger or we will work on your weaknesses to close that gap.”