I’ll admit it, I’ve fallen off the wagon a bit with my exercise plan. Ok, more than a bit, I’ve practically been run over by the wagon at this point. Thankfully I have an awesome support network, and one of my friends is willing to be my accountability buddy as I attempt to box jump my way back on again! I have milestones set up with her, with smaller action steps along the way, and I’m feeling way more energized to jump around in my basement again (thank you workout DVDs!).
This got me thinking about how accountability takes many forms depending on the environment. No matter what goals you set for yourself, studies have shown that you have a “65% [better chance] of completing a goal if you commit to someone.” And if you set a specific accountability appointment with someone, that increases to 95%! Mind-BLOWN. Basically, you are giving yourself a much better chance to achieve overall when you add in the accountability aspect. And guess what? On-the-Job Trainings (OJTs) are centered around this concept of accountability through training.
By introducing a workflow to your OJT process that includes a record of documentation and conversations, and allows for sign-off and confirmation that training has taken place, you’re making it easier to introduce accountability and validate that training is truly taking place. And setting all that up is still way less work than doing burpees for a minute straight. Probably. Anyway…
Here's how we added a workflow to OJTs in our Learning & Development Platform Cognition:
Let’s go through some benefits of OJTs and how you can incorporate OJT experiences into your own training to better support your team.
OJTs = Formalizing Informality
The 70:20:10 model in Learning & Development states that “70% of learning happens through experience, 20% is from colleagues and friends and the final 10% from formal training experiences.” So if you look at training in that light, then basically 90% of learning comes from more informal, On-the-Job-style training! The fluidity of OJTs allows for training to happen as it’s needed in the moment, but it still gets documented to record the outcome and validate that training is in fact, happening. And you don’t need your employees to have PhDs in adult learning theories for it to be effective, either. By using a documented OJT workflow like this, it gives everyone a structure to follow and record their observations. Instead of just saying "Hey, go train this person!" and your employee goes blank because they have nothing to work from, the OJT provides a starting point so they don't just teach the first thing that comes to mind. They can still add in their own tips and tricks along the way, too, for that informal perspective that can be hard to duplicate through more formal training. Voila! You've just empowered your employees AND achieved training consistency at the same time. Nice.
Get Invested… In Investment
Chances are you and your company have invested quite a bit of time and resources into your employees. By identifying an employee as an “expert” capable of leading OJTs, you’re showing them that you trust and believe in their abilities to help train the next shining example employees! The investment you made in them gets instilled in all of those that they trained, and now you’ve made sure every employee has someone to be accountable to for added support.
Just how do you identify your employee experts and make sure they’re being given the support they need? Best believe there’s a Model to follow for that! It’s called the “Train-the-Trainer Model.” The premise is a group of employees are taught content for the specific purpose of them teaching others that content, with one of the main benefits being its effectiveness of utilizing internal resources to scale training delivery. This model is advantageous because, when you’ve identified your high-performing employees through methods like performance reviews or even feedback from customers/fellow colleagues, they can help you train the next group of employees to be rock stars, too!
Accountability - The Gift That Keeps On Giving
Using an OJT format allows the entire one-on-one training session to be documented, so there is record of what was performed and accountability around next steps. Within your LMS, you can set up an OJT to be automatically sent to a reviewer (in this case, your high-performing employee trainer extraordinaire). They can then review the documented OJT, provide feedback, and set up a time to touch base with the employee they trained and check in on how they are doing. AND because you have a record of the details of the training through the OJT form, the trainer themselves can be held accountable by their own Supervisor or higher-up to ensure the training they facilitated was effective! What did the trainer do well, and where can they improve for their next OJT session? Feedback given to the trainer can be based on what was reviewed in the OJT, and can then be implemented to make the next OJT even better.
So, no matter if you’re trying to achieve fitness excellence, or amazing professional goals, one thing is clear – accountability is better when you have someone else rooting for you! I want to hear from you, how you are using OJTs to enhance your own training goals? Or how do you think you’d get started? Share below!
More from our OJT series:
On-the-Job Training Pt 1 - Repeat to Remember and Remember to Repeat!
