4.2 Standardization of work practices
OJT make sure every employee is trained in the same way to perform the jobs or tasks. It provides a basis for high work standards in working areas. Thus, same standard can be applied to all employees. (Jacobs & Jones, 1995) It also allows new employees to be integrated into the company more easily and quickly by avoiding unsuitable skills for their specific roles. They can learn standard skills approved by the employer.
4.3 Real taste in the working environment
Employees are actually working as they are learning under OJT. They are trained in their own working environment where they can use the equipments which they have to use for their specific duties. This can reduce employees’ fears and anxieties about learning a new task with familiar equipments and people. The opportunities to practice in real working environment can increase employees’ confidence. Employees become more productive as they are more familiar with their job duties.
4.4 Increase communication between employees and departments
OJT provides an opportunity for employees to communicate with staff they seldom talk to. Discussion will be increased among employees about the best way of performing a task. OJT also enhances the transfer of specific job information between different departments. (Jacobs & Jones, 1995)
4.5 .Easy to monitor
Managers and supervisors can easily observe and assess the employees through OJT. They can assess the progress and improvement over a period of time. It is easily to identify a problem and solve it quickly.
4.6 Flexible training progress
Training can be delivered in flexible time as it is decided by the company. OTJ skills can be learned in one day, two weeks or three months, which is depends on the company schedule.
- Limitations of on-the-job training
5.1 For employees who participating in on-the-job training:
In the hotel industry, the receptionists will always be the position under the on-job training as its works suit the requirement of the on-job training, routine work for the job position.
5.1.1 Pressure on the employees
The on-job training may add pressure on them. On the job training will have a trainer to monitor their work during their working hours. With the strict supervision over the employees, employees may feel that they are under great pressure as their work is always under the eyes of others. If receptionist’s work will always be under supervision of senior staff, they may have pressure and affect the quality of work.
5.1.2 Different outcome resulted from different trainers
There will not be only one trainer in the organization. Different trainers may have different standard toward the training, this may lead to different outcome. And different standard employees will be trained up. In the hotel industry, different standard receptionists may create different value toward the organization.
5.1.3 Improper planning bring fragmented picture to employees
As the on-job training requires proper planning before, the improper planning may lead the employee to have fragmented picture of the organization. This may affect their understanding toward the organization. If the receptionists do not have a clear picture of the organization, they may feel confused to the core value of the organization and affect the loyalty of the receptionists.
5.1.4 Overload the employees
On-job training is a continuous process throughout the employees’ working hours. The training time is long and employees need to learn a lot on a day. So it may overload the employees. For the receptionists, their working time is long and they will further add workload on their original work. Overloaded receptionists may prone to have the mental health problem.
5.1.5 Not immediate feedback abandoned employees
On-job training will require immediate feedback to ensure the effectiveness of the training. If the trainers do not ask for immediate feedback after the training practice, employees may feel abandoned. Receptionists always have to maintain a good mood to ensure their quality of work, once they feel abandoned, the mental health may be affected, the loyalty of the employees may be affected.
5.2 For trainers practicing on the job training:
5.2.1 Increased workload of the trainers
Not just the employees, during the On-the-job training, there are also some limitations of trainers. First of all, the workload of the trainers, or the supervisors will be increased a lot. As we know, there are huge amount of tasks which a supervisor have to do, such as making thousands of decisions, managing the daily operations, supervising other employees and so on. They are already extremely busy, if they are needed to train employees during their work. We think the supervisors may unable to afford the high level of workload.
Additionally, if there is one more task is added to the supervisors, the responsibility of them will be increased respectively. Since the salaries will not change, but more workload is needed. The trainers may refuse to do the job, and say “This is not my job!” However, their complaints cannot change the fact. They still need to do this job. So, we think that more workload causes more responsibility of the trainers. More responsibility causes more pressure. Finally, the morale and the quality of work of supervisors may be affected negatively.
5.2.2 Threats of trainers’ own jobs
The other limitation to supervisors is they will be afraid if they teach all of their knowledge to the employees. During the On-the-job training, trainers will be the coaches or the mentors to supervise what the employees have done. If there is something wrong, trainers will give the instructions to correct their faults. After a period, the employees will learn all the knowledge of the supervisors. That means the level of knowledge will be the same between trainees and trainers. It will be good news for the trainees undoubtedly. However, trainers may not be happy at this moment.
The reason is that, the trainees are having the same level of knowledge with the trainers. Trainers will think that the stability of their job will be threatened. It is because except the experience, the difference between employees and supervisors is the knowledge about the job. If the employees know everything about the job, the trainers will worry that the employees are cleverer and they will replace the trainer’s job in some day. So, On-the-job training will affect the thinking of supervisors, because it may cause a threat to their jobs. In an extreme situation, employers may hesitate and not to teach all their knowledge to the trainees. Here are the limitations of On-the-job training of the employers.
5.3 For company which practicing on-the-job training:
5.3.1 Lack of experienced staff
To adopt on-the-job training, a trainer is required. Usually, this person is the one who are experienced enough, and most importantly, they can perform the tasks that associated with the role of trainer. However, finding an employee who is experienced and could train others effectively may be difficult, especially for some small or new businesses. It’s because these businesses normally do not have much experienced staff, and at the same time, these experienced staff usually get a lot of job duties and they may not have time to train, e.g. a general manager may act as a front office supervisor and financial controller concurrently. They simply don’t want to be bothered with having to train new staff.
5.3.2 Decrease in job efficiency
As the trainers need to handle the job duties and train at the same time, there may be a loss in job efficiency when training. Furthermore, customers may be dissatisfied by the decreased efficiency. For instance, on-the-job training often practices at the front office, when the time that trainer helps customers check-in and demonstrates the procedures to the trainees, time required for checking-in must be increased, customers may also feel that like being a training tool and think this is wasting their time. In addition, practicing on-the-job training during peak hour would create problems because the queue would become even longer. The company should be flexible when facing this, i.e. stop training when there are queues of customers.
5.3.3 Limited number of employees could be trained by one trainer
Different with having lecture or seminar, on-the-job training normally train only few trainees by one trainer every time. It is because trainees are learnt through trainers’ demonstration of the job duties, assistant of trainers and suggestions given by the trainers. As a result, if company assigns quite a lot of trainees to a trainer, trainer will not be able to know the performance of each of the trainees clearly, and further assistance or suggestions for improvement could not be given to trainees properly. These are due to the problems like trainer could not recognize all the trainees clearly because of the exceeded number of trainees assigned, or lack of communications between trainer and each trainees. Thus, only limited number of trainees will assign to a trainer, as to practice the training efficiently.
- References
Book:
-
Jacobs, Ronald L. & Jones, Michael J. (1995). Structured On-the-job Training, Unleashing Employee Expertise in the Workplace. (1st Ed.) San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers pp. 23-25, 145-146
-
Mondy, R. Wayne. (2008), Human Resource Management, (10th Ed.), Allyn and Bacon, Prentice Hall, Inc. pp. 171-172
-
Carnvale, A.P. & Gainer, L.J. (1989). The learning enterprise. Alexandria, VA: American Society for Training and Development and Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor.
Internet Website:
-
CIPD – On-the-job training. Retrieved March 30, 2009, from
-
In House "on-the-job" Training (2002). Retrieved March 28, 2009, from
-
Information Clerk (1996). Retrieved March 30, 2009, from
-
On the Job Training - Pros and Cons. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from
-
On-the-job training (2008), CIPD. Retrieved March 25, 2009, from
-
On-the-Job Training (OJT) (2007). Retrieved March 26, 2009, from
-
OJT Brochure. Retrieved March 26, 2009, from
by
hatetine (student)
