In house training

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westelectric

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westchester county, NY
Anyone do any in house training with their employees? Have some of their experienced guys teach the newer guys some of the basics. Mostly residential work, service calls, jobbing, new construction, renovations. Short training sessions. Ex: How to do a 200amp service upgrade. How to wire a 4way switch system. How to enter a customers home and treat it like its your own, set up drop clothes and clean up properly. How to fill out work orders. How to wire and install ceiling fans, recessed lights. I think everyone may benefit from this and the guys may even enjoy sharing knowledge and techniques with each other. Any ideas or anyone actually have a program in place like this?
 
It's always wise to have training like this, you need to have standards and procedures that all techs should adhere to.
It's called being an effective manager.
 
I know it helps, one of the first places I worked they had certain ways they did things, (not really mandatory or code that was a given) but the manner in which they did ran circuits and such. It was their way so that if a crew of guys went out on a job and for some reason someone else had to go out and work with them from another crew or during a finish and there was an issue, it was a no brainer that x was fed from y and so on. Definitly was nice and it worked. They did not have a specific in house training prorgram but if a guy wanted to learn something they would take the time to teach them in the shop or put them on that type of job. I actually got to work with the Fiber Guy (as we called him) do some testing and splices and what have you. This has helped me win a few jobs over the years.

I think its a great attitude for a company to have .
 
I agree with everyone and thanks for the responses. We're putting this program into place, once a month a 1 hour training session. Trying to think of some basic topics to keep the guys interested. Any thoughts?
 
westelectric said:
I agree with everyone and thanks for the responses. We're putting this program into place, once a month a 1 hour training session. Trying to think of some basic topics to keep the guys interested. Any thoughts?
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I would say ask the people getting the training as well as look at up coming projects and see if training in certain areas may help to increase productiviy. Maybe you have a certain installation that always comes up over the time budgeted, touch on that.
 
I'm going to break with the pack, and argue against 'in house' training.

There are two related reasons: documentation and portability.

Simply put, you need to be able to documnt that your guys are qualified. Your simply saying so doesn't really count for much, when the customer is looking for OSHA or BICSI or EPA or whatever form of certification.

The second is that your guys can't take your training with them. They may be the most qualified guys in town, but they walk out the door with only their hat in their hands.

While that might sound like a plus ("I'm not training guys who will only leave me"), the handicap works both ways; you can hire a well qualified person- and still need to 'train' them.

So, yes, train your guys- but do it in a manner that counts. That's one advantage of trade associations; they often sponsor courses at discounts.
 
renosteinke said:
I'm going to break with the pack, and argue against 'in house' training.

There are two related reasons: documentation and portability.

Simply put, you need to be able to documnt that your guys are qualified. Your simply saying so doesn't really count for much, when the customer is looking for OSHA or BICSI or EPA or whatever form of certification.

The second is that your guys can't take your training with them. They may be the most qualified guys in town, but they walk out the door with only their hat in their hands.

While that might sound like a plus ("I'm not training guys who will only leave me"), the handicap works both ways; you can hire a well qualified person- and still need to 'train' them.

what your saying So, yes, train your guys- but do it in a manner that counts. That's one advantage of trade associations; they often sponsor courses at discounts.
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I understand what your saying but I do not see that as completely accurate.The type of training the OP asked about can go with you (be protable)and it can count for many things just depends on where your at and what they require. Documentation of a persons qualifications is only as good as the people documenting them and that is the same thing as someone saying so, they just put in on paper.

While I do agree that things like NEC, OSHA, Arc Flash are better off left to those that specialize in that. Having some areas set up for guys to wire devices, bend pipe or sitting around discussing real life code issues found on site is an invaluable training tool. Sure, its an hour of unproductive time so to speak , but in the long run it will pay off...IMHO
 
wireguy8169 said:
I understand what your saying but I do not see that as completely accurate.The type of training the OP asked about can go with you (be protable)and it can count for many things just depends on where your at and what they require. Documentation of a persons qualifications is only as good as the people documenting them and that is the same thing as someone saying so, they just put in on paper.

While I do agree that things like NEC, OSHA, Arc Flash are better off left to those that specialize in that. Having some areas set up for guys to wire devices, bend pipe or sitting around discussing real life code issues found on site is an invaluable training tool. Sure, its an hour of unproductive time so to speak , but in the long run it will pay off...IMHO
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Many EC's make the mistake of trying to train someone on their own, they leave the employee with no more then a promise and nothing they can take with them, and they will be called a tech for years to come, they will never be an electrician without completing the full 8000 hours reguired by the Labor department courses, they after that it is a good idea to teach new areas of intrest, but please stop calling your employees a tech, a tech is a term usually reserved for a person trained in some unique area of a techinical field, an Electrician is someone usually well trained in every all areas of the trade.
 
Definitely leave the important stuff to the pro's, we do. We're all osha trained, have had arc flash training, attend code change seminars. What we want to do is exactly what wireguy said, the basics and just hold a forum after work to get guys talking about real job issues. Just dont know where exactly to start, so we dont bore the heck out of evryone the first time around. Keep up the suggestions please.
 
westelectric said:
Anyone do any in house training with their employees? Have some of their experienced guys teach the newer guys some of the basics. Mostly residential work, service calls, jobbing, new construction, renovations. Short training sessions. Ex: How to do a 200amp service upgrade. How to wire a 4way switch system. How to enter a customers home and treat it like its your own, set up drop clothes and clean up properly. How to fill out work orders. How to wire and install ceiling fans, recessed lights. I think everyone may benefit from this and the guys may even enjoy sharing knowledge and techniques with each other. Any ideas or anyone actually have a program in place like this?
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Well, lets see if we can get this thread back on topic and answer your question without alot silly opinions and pointless comments. Ooops, did I just say that?

We do in house and off premise training every week. Yes, many times we have the more experienced guys do some teaching. Lots of times we have the new guys do the teaching. You learn very well the things that you teach.

Start training right away. I guarantee you, once you start, between safety, customer service and technical you will never run out of material.

If your worried about them leaving with all the training, I would suggest you should worry about why they left you instead.

Oh yeah, we've been in business 25 years and have been conducting training every week for 19 of them. I consider it a respondsibility to my co-workers career paths and our commitment to excellent customer service to do it.

Flame Suit On...
 
flyboy said:
We do in house and off premise training every week.

Oh yeah, we've been in business 25 years and have been conducting training every week for 19 of them.
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Do you pay you people to attend these training sessions? If not, what are the consequences for the employee if they don't attend?

If you pay them, how do you book that expense? Straight payroll or some other line item?
 
Jupe Blue said:
Do you pay you people to attend these training sessions? If not, what are the consequences for the employee if they don't attend?

If you pay them, how do you book that expense? Straight payroll or some other line item?
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Not looking to pay anyone and i personally will frown upon those chosen who choose not to attend. Its free training from our experienced guys. They can take that with them if they choose to leave us. We're not worried about wasting our time. We dont want to waste their time. Thats why i'm looking for good ideas to start. I think 1st class will be talking about wiring a simple kitchen. How many required cirs? recept placement etc.
 
Jupe Blue said:
Do you pay you people to attend these training sessions? If not, what are the consequences for the employee if they don't attend?

If you pay them, how do you book that expense? Straight payroll or some other line item?
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I pay them for technical training. I do not pay them for customer service training because the training increases their bonus potential.

If you pay them you make it mandatory. If you don't pay them it's voluntary. Either way, if they don't show up they probably don't belong here and are usually gone soon after. Create the right culture and it usually isn't a problem. When it is a problem, it was a recruiting error.

Straight payroll (regular pay), just like they were in the field.
 
wireguy8169 said:
I would say ask the people getting the training as well as look at up coming projects and see if training in certain areas may help to increase productiviy. Maybe you have a certain installation that always comes up over the time budgeted, touch on that.
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If you have a multi three ways (or four ways) switchs in a 2 or 3 or 4 compartment box never use 2 conductor fitting (I'm thinking MC - metal boxes). Land and use the hole over the proper device space.

I've seen this before where they used these 2 circuit conductors fitting and I have to ring-out wires, they were nice enough not to label anything either... It's all just time up front to help someone out later, whether ones labels the box, the wire, just something, anything will be a big plus when devicing out...
 
The company I worked for used to pay us for these classes in pizza or subs.
Worked for me and 98% of the other guys as well.:grin:

The during dinner shop talk would also help provide new topics for future classes.
 
Perhaps my own personal example will illustrate the point I made about documented training.

This year the state began requiring proof that every contractor, and each employee, had received the OSHA 30/10 safety training. The trade association sponsored the seminar, and that save me mucho bucks.

At the same time, I took a job in a mill. This employer paid me to sit in class for two weeks of safety training. While the material closely paralleled the OSHA curriculum, there was no certificate issued.

In the second example, the training is documented only in the employers' files. It does not fulfill my requirement for the OSHA training. If I change jobs, I get to start all over again. Even if I request a copy of my personnel file, that will not meet the OSHA requirement.

This year the same situation arises with lead abatement training. Ours is a trade where we 'journey' from job to job. (Why do you think we're called journeymen?) Can you take your lead certification with you?

Ditto for asbestos.

In many situations, there is no such thing as 'employer certification,' either. Do you hire journeymen on their word alone? Data work that requires 'certified' work want that BICSI certificate.

On the flip side .... I know certain contractors that expect someone else to train their people. I even know of one "Big" franchise operation that promises to make your business a huge success - yet has zero involvement in training the 'techs.'

Personally, I believe that the employer has a duty to train his people, I also accept that simply trusting a piece of paper isn't enough. From the employees' viewpoint, though, if I can't take it with me, I don't have it at all.
 
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