On-The-Job Training Just Got Better

Sometimes online training is not the best way to ensure employees have mastered specific procedures or tasks associated with their job requirements. On-the-job training can be a better option - if the employee needs to demonstrate mastery of safety precautions when using heavy equipment, or if an employee needs to show mastery of a specific technique used to evaluate specimens in lab setting.

Tracking Competency

Establishing an individual’s competency with a physical procedure such as learning to operate a Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) lathe or the harvesting of organs from a cadaver requires instruction, training, observation, and repeated experiences performing the task both with and without assistance. Depending on the task, this process can include multiple instructors and mentors over a prolonged period of time.

Tracking this process is often handled via a spreadsheet with supplemental sign-off sheets which can be unwieldy to manage. There is no consistent format among different departments within an organization. These documents are usually physically stored in the individual’s Human Resources folder - so online reporting is non-existent. The documents are not searchable either - which increases risk and decreases compliance.

Job Competency Checklist

In order to better manage and detail user competencies TrainCaster LMS recently added the ability for clients to create their own competency checklists. Each checklist can have any number of competencies (currently referred to as prompts).

In order to promote checklist consistency throughout the organization, create drop-down lists for the data fields you need to track. So instead of managers data entering a status field with various ad-hoc responses like “Watched” or “Done well”, they select from a defined list of responses: “Assisted”, “Incomplete”, “Observed”, and “Unassisted”:

Completion of the checklist can be by the User herself or by the Preceptors (observers). For each competency you can select which users can sign-off as Preceptors.

Once the checklist is competed and all tasks are marked as “Proficient”, the checklist can be signed-off. There can be up to three levels of sign-off: the end user, the Checklist Supervisor also referred to as the Preceptor, and the Checklist Monitor who is typically the person in charge of verifying overall corporate competencies. When all required electronic signatures are collected the job competency checklist is set to completed status.

With a few clicks you can report on which competencies are assigned to whom, how far along someone is through a particular competency, who has completed the competency, and who has signed off.

Tracking on-the-job training in the LMS just got easier! And it gives you another way to ensure that employees are well trained to perform their jobs.

Want to see this in action? Sign up for a demo today!