Cost-effective Talent Development: On the Job Training vs. Traditional Training Methods

When you have new hires, what’s the most effective and cost-efficient training method for your company? No matter the industry, there are many options available, but two approaches tend to take center stage: On the Job Training (OJT) programs or traditional training methods that are off-the-shelf or hosted by external trainers. Even if a company has an internal new hire training process, it may provide a generic training experience rather than targeted, job-specific skills training. When evaluating OJT programs versus traditional training, here are key distinctions to consider.

Cost of Training

OJT is customized to fit a specific role and leverages existing resources within the company. It relies on experienced employees or supervisors as trainers, which presents a cost savings compared to hiring training vendors or sending new hires to an offsite training program. There are also OJT incentives, including partial wage reimbursement of up to 50% reimbursement for up to 10 weeks or 400 hours, which helps offset the cost of training. Workforce Solutions can help you determine if your company is eligible for OJT reimbursement.

On the other hand, traditional training methods can be cost-intensive. They may require hiring external trainers to come in and present a workshop over days or weeks or sending employees to specialized training facilities. Costs can include acquiring training materials, paying travel expenses, and even securing a suitable facility if the training team doesn’t have a dedicated training space. For organizations that hire groups of workers at once, these costs become significant and can impact the operational budget.

Downtime Impact

OJT programs are designed to minimize downtime. They seamlessly integrate training into the regular workday, allowing employees to learn skills while performing their job tasks. This reduces the negative impact on daily operations and helps maintain productivity levels. If a company already has an internal training program that’s working for them, an OJT consultant can help structure the existing training into an OJT framework that minimizes downtime and qualifies for wage reimbursement.

Even when traditional training methods are used in-house with existing staff, new hires usually take time away to attend off-the-shelf workshops or courses. There’s a training ramp-up where they aren’t yet working with the team on the tasks they were hired for. This downtime lowers productivity and can create expenses like hiring temporary staff or paying overtime to maintain operations while new hires are onboarded and trained.

Training Customization

Customization is a strong suit of OJT. It allows you to tailor training content to a specific department or role, so these training experiences address specific challenges. A hospitality employee and a machinist have very different training paths, and even within a company one machinist role will differ from another. An OJT partner like Workforce Solutions works with you to create custom training programs that don’t waste resources. If you have existing training programs, we help shape them into more efficient hands-on training experiences.

Customizing the training materials found in traditional, off-the-shelf training methods can be costly. Modifying content takes away staff time and delays their other, more important, responsibilities. Many training program vendors will charge high customization fees to align with your requests, and this adds to the cost and time to implementation. Even if a training program has been used in-house for years, customizing it for different departments or purposes adds time and cost to the project.

Employee Support

OJT provides tailored, hands-on learning experiences that help employees immediately apply their new knowledge. It helps them build confidence quickly and become fully productive in their new roles. With Workforce Solutions’ OJT, they also get dedicated employee coaching to help them excel and keep them motivated during the first 90 days of employment. There are formal check-ins at 30-, 60-, and 90-days, plus employees can contact their coach any time in that period. Employers can also contact employee coaches to provide feedback and enlist them in helping new hires develop their skills further.

Traditional training often involves teaching broad skills that may or may not have immediate application to the job. The employee could get bored, lose interest, and ultimately leave the company shortly after being hired. Very few employers or management teams have time to provide one-on-one dedicated coaching and feedback to new hires, especially if large groups are hired at once. OJT provides a framework for success and employee support that traditional training lacks.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Customized, relevant OJT programs reduce training costs, minimize downtime, and support new hires so they become confident team members who are motivated to stay with the company. Between these cost reductions and higher retention rates, OJT offers a higher ROI than off-the-shelf training and the expense of new hire turnover. In addition, partial wage reimbursement offsets the cost of training. The Workforce Solutions OJT program will also help with candidate search and placement, so you reduce the cost of talent acquisition.

Traditional training methods can also be effective, but they don’t provide the same level of ROI. There are higher upfront costs whether you’re using a training vendor or building out your own plan, plus there is the cost of lost productivity during training and the inevitable turnover when new hires get discouraged and leave. Even if companies provide a “training buddy” or mentor during the traditional training period, new hires may fail to see the relevance of the training and stop showing up to work.

OJT programs can be designed for any sector, and people can learn and earn on the job while performing relevant skills. This keeps them engaged, and it doesn’t have to be resource intensive. Workforce Solutions consultants take you through the process from candidate search to successful 90-day review.

To start an OJT program at your company, email talent@wrksolutions.com or call 713-688-6890!