Institute Training

Training on the job

“Most managers seem to feel that training employees is a job that should be left to others. I, on the other hand, strongly believe that the manager should do it himself.” ~ Andy Grove[1]

There are only two ways for a manager to improve the capability of an employee: motivation and training. Therefore, training should be the most basic activity for all managers.

Training is one of the highest-leverage activities a manager can perform[1].

A lot of companies think their employees are so smart that they require no training. They understand “on-the-job training” as synonymous with “sink or swim”. As the engineers are assigned tasks, they figure out how to complete them as best they can. That often leads to inconsistencies in the user experience, performance problems, and rework.

Rework is more expensive than training.

The biggest obstacle to institute a training program is the perception that it will take too much time. Indeed, no organization has time to do optional things. Therefore, training must be mandatory.

When in need to hire new engineers at a rapid rate, companies neglect to train the new engineers properly. For example, a junior engineer is given tasks, and it is up to her to figure out how to deliver. Then she in turn, after a few days on the job, helps to train somebody new. After a few days on the job, the newcomer helps to train another newcomer. Newcomer training newcomer in succession.

Therefore, the first training managers need to develop is for the TBH, “To Be Hired.” It can be as simple as training a new employee on your expectations for them. It could be a multiweek engineering boot camp to bring new recruits completely up to speed on all of the historical architectural nuances of your product. Present your expectations about what their role and the company's role is in making the customers successful. It should be clear what piece of the puzzle they are and how that could influence the customers' satisfaction.

Training is the best place to start setting expectations.

If you want to have a world-class organization, you must set a high and clear standard for performance. It is not nearly enough that someone on your staff can do the job better than you can. Be careful not to set a low bar because you have not done the work to know what good is. How could we know what standard for performance to establish? By using all the reporting functionality KEDEHub provides us with.

Use KEDEHub to determine what standard to set.

Next is to train your people how to do the things you expect. Start with training for the knowledge and skill that people need to do their job. Training should be tailored to the specific job and provided by the best experts on the team as well as the manager. Take your best people and encourage them to share their most developed skills. There is no investment that you can make that will do more to improve productivity in your organization.

Training also helps with employee retention. Managers can use training not only to help people to develop new skills, but also to provide guidance, career development, and feedback.

If you don't train your people yourself, you establish no basis for performance management.