Structured on-the job Training(SOJIT) - How Does it work?
Parag A. Parikh
Technical Product Manager CES International
11675 Rainwater Drive Suite 500 Alpharetta, GA 30004
Abstract
It is essential for an organization investing millions of dollars acquiring the latest technology to train
and educate the employees who will become the end-users. Today most organizations are taking the
approach of tightly integrating their geospatial applications to enterprise applications such as Outage
Management Systems (OMS), and Customer Information Systems (CIS). Unlike in the past, when an
end user needed to know only one system because the systems operated in an isolated island
environment, the new paradigm of tight seamless integration between applications and data sharing
requires end users to learn about more than one complex system. Due to the lack of structured on-thejob
and classroom training for integrated systems, often money invested in acquiring complex systems
does not bring the desired productivity and Return-on-Investment (ROI).
This paper presents the new approach of team-driven Structured On-the-Job Training (SOJT) in the
context of integrated geospatial applications. SOJT could empower users to acquire skills effectively
in a shorter time, which could benefit the organization as well as the employees. It explains the
benefits of using SOJT, which is inexpensive, simple, fast and relies on practical case studies, by
utilizing the knowledge of Subject Matter Experts (SME), experienced employees and training
professionals.
Introduction
The days are gone when training was considered as an occasional necessity; required only when a new
enterprise application was deployed. Lately the rise of new Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
strategies has made it possible to bridge the gap between various departments in an organization,
which shifts the focus to the end users to take advantage of integrated systems. The integrated systems
have a steep learning curve, so nowadays organizations consider training as a continuous necessity to
maintain their competitive advantage and increase productivity.
Managers are reluctant to “pull people away” from their daily tasks to engage in training due to the
toll it takes in daily work pressure and the cost involved in off-site training. A slower economy, the
rising cost of business travel, and productivity loss because of classroom training are the reasons to
look for an alternative, which focuses on structured and well-managed “Just-In-Time” training
delivered on-site.
Electric Utility's Integrated Application Architecture
Most major electric utility enterprise solution vendors provide a classroom training to train the endusers
directly or via a train-the-trainer program. The classroom training provides an overview and
introduction of a new system to users but often fails to provide in-depth knowledge about real world
situations. In the days of big budget custom enterprise applications, it was possible to devote a good
amount of time and allocate a big budget to formulate custom training sessions for end users. This
approach worked well when applications were not tightly integrated.
Figure 1 shows various enterprise applications used by a distribution utility and the desired data flow
between applications. [3] Traditionally, these applications were used by various departments with little
or no application integration. As the focus shifted to application integration due to the obvious benefits
of sharing data, utilities opted for rudimentary data exchange using relational databases with island
tables or point-to-point interfaces. Some utilities preferred to use a suite of applications from the same
vendor in hopes that it would provide a tightly integrated system, which prevented them from using
“best of breed” solutions.
The recent standardization efforts undertaken by the MultiSpeak specification and IEC Working
Group (14) standards will enable utilities to integrate applications more easily. It will not be exactly a
“Plug-N-Play” approach but the cost of system integration or changing the vendor for a specific
system application will drastically reduce. An Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) technology
sets the framework for seamless integration between major systems in an organization. For example,
GIS to OMS, CIS to OMS, and OMS to SCADA can be tightly integrated, and the data provided by
one system can drive another system. For the end users, real-time seamless integration blurs the
distinct boundaries between two systems. As integrated systems become more prevalent in the utility
world, end-user frustration will increase unless companies come up with a better plan to provide
training.
Often multiple vendors and utility company departments are involved in EAI projects. The team
defining integration and design requirements could be well familiar with the different aspects of the
integration, but a little training and reference documentation may be available for end users. end up having to decipher the technical interface document in order to learn more about the integrated
system and features, which decreases their productivity and increases their learning curve.
The EAI approach enables co-op and small investor-owned utilities to deploy integrated software
systems in the organization, but due to budget constraints resources are shared resulting in cases where
cross functional teams maintain integrated applications, but often not every team member receives
classroom training to use the integrated system. The lack of thorough classroom training leads to
unstructured and informal on the job training, increasing the frustration of end users.
Traditional On-The-Job Training
Most utilities claim to have on-the-job training programs, which typically are not well structured, yet
more than 90 percent of an employee’s skills and knowledge are learned through on-the-job training.
This training occurs in one of two ways: a Buddy System, where old habits, short cuts, mistakes,
confusion, inconsistency, and bias pass from employee to another; or, Traditional On-the-Job Training
(OJT), a disciplined and well defined method, which often takes no input from real end users and has
little to do with the way people “really” perform their jobs. It may work well when there are
experienced people who have used the software applications for a number of years and provide
training to new people on the team. However, when utilities acquire new applications or integrate
existing enterprise applications, this approach is not effective because it puts novice and experienced
people in the same category.
Problems with unstructured and informal ojt
After deploying enterprise-wide integrated systems, utility companies face the dilemma of how to get
workers up-to-speed quickly. After the introductory classroom training and orientation for each
specific system, end users may not feel proficient in using the complex integrated system.
On-time completion and implementation of new software applications could be a major milestone for
a company’s strategy to improve efficiency and worker output, but if the users are not trained
thoroughly to use the implemented system, then on-time implementation of the integrated system will
not bring the desired results.
Often the end users count on supervisors, co-workers, and SME’s for additional help and use informal
OJT to move forward. New employees or a new person in the project team gets help from the team
lead until the employee is up to the speed. If the team lacks an organized approach to developing the
skills of new employees then their abilities will be inconsistent. Long after a new application is
implemented some employees may not feel comfortable with it, which could affect productivity as
well employee job satisfaction. Possible scenarios where Structured OJT could help to empower users
are:
- You have deployed new GIS and OMS systems in your organization, your end users are
trained to use the individual system, but there is no training provided to support the data
integration between two systems. You add a new resource to expedite the data migration
process, but due to lack of formal training the new resource depends on technical design
documents written for developers or experienced co-workers.
- New resources are added to a project team, which is behind schedule, but instead of meeting
the target, the project falls behind further and productivity goes down. After analyzing the
cause of this problem, you realize that the experienced employees’ productivity is low due to
their use of work time to correct the work of new members on the team.
Team-Driven Structured On-The-Job Training(SOJT)
This paper introduces a third approach to OJT: team-driven Structured On-the-Job Training (SOJT),
which is gaining popularity lately and is very well suited for utilities where complex enterprise
applications are integrated. The SOJT could be the method of choice when specific tailored classroom
training is not available for integrated enterprise.
SOJT is one-on-one on-the-job-training that occurs at or near the actual work setting and is delivered
by a designated trainer. The designated trainer is an “experienced and successful employee” who uses
training material that follows specific guidelines, provides observable and measurable performance
objectives. The trainer uses a company-standardized checklist of tasks and performance criteria to
train and certify new employees. With SOJT, any experienced employee given minimal "trainer
training" can train new employees. In a well-implemented and monitored SOJT program, all new
employees receive consistent, effective, and efficient training, regardless of the trainer assigned to
them.
SOJT is not a silver bullet or universal cure-all medicine, but it is one of the most cost-effective ways
to provide job-task training for employees. Instead of using unplanned, unorganized and ineffective
OJT programs, an organization can benefit greatly by implementing SOJT.
