Gaining skills at work vs academic education
You might hire an employee based on their academic education and/or relevant qualifications. However, they will more than likely need to have specialist training to complete some tasks, depending on their field. This might involve learning how to use information and communications technology, team apps or video conferencing software. It might also involve using simple machinery, or other equipment relevant to their workflows such as printing, scanning equipment or filing systems. That being said, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), employees with a higher level education are more likely to complete in-work training, as are younger employees. This may be to do with these employees being comfortable with a range of different learning techniques.
What is team leading?
Team leading involves guiding teams through tasks via instructions, directions and appropriate support. A team can be a group of individuals working together to achieve a company target or goal. A strong team leader should ideally have the following attributes:
- be able to see a situation objectively;
- be a senior, experienced member of staff who is highly familiar with department processes;
- have good problem-solving abilities;
- be a good verbal communicator;
- be able to motivate others with ease;
- be positive;
- have strong conflict resolution skills;
- have personal integrity and understand your company’s values;
- lead by example.
Good team leading requires people skills as well as expertise in your employees’ fields. It is important to consider this when choosing a leader for one of your project teams, or promoting a staff member to a leadership position. A strong team leader is essential to making sure that on-the-job learning is part of the everyday corporate culture of your business. They can provide hands-on experience to employees, which may otherwise require expensive, time-consuming off-site training. Team leaders should help your employees to feel empowered in learning new tasks. They are also there to effectively assess competency levels in individuals, recording and evaluating their progress on a daily to yearly basis. They then can use these evaluations to help plan further on-the-job learning outcomes.
What are the benefits of on-the-job learning?
As opposed to off-the-job learning, learning on-the-job has many benefits. These include advantages such as:
- it is quicker for employees to learn on the job;
- it is cost-effective;
- it can involve senior employees in the training process without having to hire outside experts;
- your employees do not have to travel off-site to reach a training course.
Although gaining skills at work has its benefits, you may wish to combine this form of learning with off-site training courses to give more advanced employees more theoretical grounding in their field. Off-site training is more consuming and expensive. So you may wish to save this option for employees who are looking to progress to a more senior role in your business. Consider that they may need a slightly different set of qualifications for a more senior role in your business. However, both forms of learning are an excellent way to invest in your employee’s career trajectory in the long term.
Disadvantages of on-the-job learning
On-the-job learning can be dangerous in some cases if this involves heavy machinery. This might also be the case if the role involves handling chemicals or issuing medication. In some cases, it might therefore be more appropriate to have a qualified instructor for certain tasks. Team leading is of strong benefit here. This is as your less experienced employees will need instruction from a senior employee who is good at communicating step-by-step processes. There may also be legal implications surrounding whether it is permitted for an employee role to learn more advanced tasks in your business. It might not be permissible for certain employees to give out medication or handle certain kinds of machinery without the required qualifications, training and theoretical background to do so safely. Therefore it is important to evaluate what skills need to be learned first and whether it is both safe and legal to learn these on-the-job without prior training or qualifications. It is recommended that you conduct safety assessments before on-the-job learning and put any necessary safety measures in place.
How to integrate on-the-job learning into your corporate culture
Gaining skills at work can be part of your employee’s everyday experience and is especially integral as part of your onboarding process. This is where mentoring and buddy schemes can be especially useful. These schemes allow your employees to pair up with more senior employees, who can help them troubleshoot issues, and are ready to guide new employees through more complex tasks on the job. Including on-the-job learning as part of your onboarding process is a great way to ensure a positive corporate culture. By teaching new hires during the onboarding process, they are more likely to become confident in their role. They are assimilated more quickly into their team, making them feel useful.
Using on-the-job learning to develop soft skills
As well as practical, hands-on tasks, you can use on-the-job learning to develop soft skills. They are just as crucial to your employee’s development as hard skills like practical training. You might think that soft skills are fixed traits that employees bring with them to the role. This may be partly true, but it is possible to develop or enhance these skills on-the-job as well. Soft skills development may already be part of your employee’s core onboarding training. Consider coaching or mentoring employees in leadership, time management, communication and conflict resolution skills. Employees working in customer service can be shown new communication or conflict resolution strategies on-the-job by dealing with real-world customer scenarios. You may have to accompany a new employee as they troubleshoot a customer enquiry over the phone, suggesting new ways of handling the issue. Some employees may take to this kind of troubleshooting more easily than others, depending on their natural preferred communication style. On-the-job soft skills education is useful for any industry regardless of what specialist skills are required by your employees. Some employees may have a natural aptitude for these soft skills already, and others may need more help grasping concepts like time management. With diplomatic and emotionally intelligent guidance, however, you should be able to teach these skills to most of your employees on-the-job.
How does on-the-job learning contribute to employee improvement?
Learning on-the-job can improve employee attainment and retention as well, because they see clear opportunities to develop and learn more about their role. This is especially of benefit to younger employees, who are looking to acquire real-world experience on top of their academic experience or qualifications. Gaining skills at work can benefit employee salaries too. An ONS survey states that in-work training may be associated with higher wages for employees. This is most beneficial for machine operatives, skilled trade occupations, technical and administrational professions.
On-the-job learning encompasses a wide range of approaches which enable you to teach your employees while they are working for you. Building on more theoretical knowledge or qualifications, on-the-job learning is especially useful for younger employees who are looking for more hands-on, practical experience. These will make up your main learners for on-the-job training, but regardless of age it is worthwhile making sure that all of your employees have the opportunity to learn new skills in their role. This will allow employees to feel empowered and comfortable with the more challenging, specialised areas of their workflow.
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