I work for a large state facility that employs over 1600 people and among the many jobs that I have held at this facility over the last 25 years, being an instructor was the most curious. On average, 15-20 new employees come to work here every two weeks. As an instructor, it was our job to orient and teach new employees about the facility and the various responsibilities that they would be responsible for as well as the policies, procedures and laws for which they would need to abide, as well as provide continuous and updated training and instruction for all other employees. Unfortunately, there are merely four instructors assigned to this large facility, so we relied heavily on computer based training for new and existing employees. The advantages of computer based trainings are clear; you can access a larger number of employees at one time, it’s self-paced, and the information given is consistent across the facility. I found that most employees, especially those that have been with the facility for a few years, preferred computer based training. When asked why they preferred this training style compared to instructor based the answers were the same across the board: ‘I can complete it on my own time, in intervals if I want, and I finish quicker because I’m not waiting on someone who asks a lot of questions’. Great, right? Or so it seemed, a questionnaire given to current employees (who have been with the facility 2 years or more and receive training yearly) touching on priority job responsibilities found that nearly 45% of employees were unable to answer a majority of the questions correctly.
The same survey given to new employees (who have been with
the facility 6 months to a year and at this point only have had one training
period) touching on the same priority job responsibilities had 15% rating of
those unable to answer the majority of the questions correctly. So what is the difference? New employees receive more face to face
training with instructors than the current employees. New employees stated that they connected the
material to real situations given by instructors, had the opportunity to ask
questions if they were unsure and knew that they had someone to go to face to
face and ask for assistance. With the
advancement of technology we can become more efficient and provide endless
information to large populations of people, but at what cost? Learning doesn’t end when we enter the
workforce, it is constant throughout our lives.
Shouldn’t we have the best possible teaching practices in order to
provide the best possible services to our customers? I believe there is a greater learning
possibility with a mixture of instructor based and computer based training when
it comes to our workforce.
Ann Wester - dig2000
I think you really hit the nail with this post. I spent twelve years in the military and way too many things were being taught through Computer Based Training due to manning and money. I think there are a lot of times where face to face is imperative. Its hard to get the right mix, but it is possible.
ReplyDeleteTrevor Petersma
I too am an instructor that teaches courses via powerpoint presentations and assist in computer based training. So, this post was an interesting read, and I thank you for thinking of it.
ReplyDeleteIn my field like yours new hires go through the initial training for the job with an instructor lead course; however, throughout their tenure with the agency they're provided countless supplemental computer based training. In order to improve retention the workforce has to go through these same courses every year, and at time it's provided quarterly.
It's always best to provide new hires with a NHTP (new hire training program) that's instructor lead, so that they can ask questions and get feedback. Facilitation by the instructor as you put it allows them to gather ideas of what to expect from when the unexpected happens with the instructor sharing personal experiences. After that initial course, the work itself does the teaching by experience.
V.Nguyen - GCSC Media
This is a very interesting post, I never thought of training this way. I do training at my job and most of it is on the computer. I tend myself to like computer based training better but I think it depends on how the person learns the best. I also believe there has be some kind of face to face training on the job because people are going to learn how that certain job works watching and learning from someone who has been there awhile.
ReplyDelete_Lindsey Ivey