Supporting on-the-job training (OJT) with Totara

On-the-job training (also known as skills-based training) is hands-on training for employees in the workplace, typically with coaching or mentoring from an experienced colleague or manager. This type of training is common in industries such as construction, manufacturing and healthcare.

You can use Totara to standardise, automate and report on your OJT, making it easier to comply with your industry's regulations and create a robust paper trail for skills-based training. Using Totara for OJT allows you to:

• Identify and address skill and knowledge gaps
• Easily create dynamic reports
• Improve compliance across your organisation
• Be confident that your organisation is in line with regulatory standards

You can achieve this using a combination of Totara features, such as competencies, achievement paths, reporting, dashboards, and more.

See our OJT webinar for more information:

Define achievement levels

The first step is to set out scales you will use to measure proficiency. You will need to agree on two or more proficiency levels, and which of these levels are considered proficient in the relevant skill. For example, you could have a scale with four values:

• Needs improvement
• Below expectations
• Meets expectations
• Exceeds expectations

In this example, you would consider a user at the Meets expectations and Exceeds expectations levels to be proficient. When establishing these scales, you may want to provide a definition for each achievement level to ensure that users have a clear understanding of what is required for each level.

You can make a single competency scale to use across your organisation for the sake of simplicity, or you could create a variety of different scales for different use cases. For example, the competency scale might look different for entry-level employees when compared to senior employees.

Once you've decided on your achievement levels, you can set up competency scales in Totara.

Map your competencies

The next step is to map your competencies to specific job roles or career paths. The OJT for each role within your organisation will aim to impart specific skills, which will need corresponding competencies. Firstly you need to analyse your job roles and their associated training, then create a matrix of competencies based on those roles.

You can then break these competencies down into logical groups and set them up as competency frameworks.

Set up competencies

Depending on how many competencies you need to set up, you can do this manually or in bulk. If you prefer to have granular control (and don't require too many competencies), you can create each competency individually.

If you require a large number of competencies, you can instead add all competencies for each competency framework in bulk.

Alternatively, you can use HR import to import your competencies, which must be set up in a CSV file or external database.

Set up achievement paths

For each of the competencies you set up in the previous step, you can now configure an achievement path to determine how users will achieve the competency. This can be a manual rating, or it can utilise learning plans, course completion, performance activities, or a combination of these features.

For OJT, one approach would be to set up performance activities structured around employees' workplace training, giving the users and their managers a chance to assess their progress on practical skills and update their competencies.

Assign your competencies

Finally you need to assign your competencies to the users on your site. You can assign competencies to individuals, to groups of users via audiences, or based on departments or positions.

You can save a lot of time by assigning competencies based on dynamic audiences, so that competencies will be automatically assigned to users as they're added to the audience.

Monitoring progress

Once you've started using competencies to track OJT there are a few ways to keep track of users' progress against their OJT-related competencies and monitor compliance. You can use the competency profile and the performance overview page to review a user's competencies, identifying areas and skills in which that user isn't yet proficient and ensuring they get the training they need. Additionally, there are several report sources you can use to create custom reports about competencies. Finally, you could consider creating a reporting dashboard for managers to see their team's progress against their training and competencies at a glance.