Search Results

The race among global firms to launch their respective products and services into the market sooner than the competitors creates pressure to equip employees with job related skills at the pace of business. Traditional training models used by some organizations result in a very slow speed at which employees gain an acceptable level of proficiency in the targeted job skills. The authors argue that business organizations need to explore new training models and strategies that could reduce the time an employee takes to reach target proficiency in complex skills without compromising effectiveness or outcome. A comprehensive review of the literature shows a very limited amount of academic or practitioner research on this topic. This doctorate research study aims to find various training strategies that have proven successful in organizations for accelerating proficiency of employees in complex job skills.

This paper presents the preliminary findings and the conceptual model of major training and learning strategies discovered in this study that leverages the workplace to shorten time-to-proficiency of employees. The paper also discusses the implications for practitioners and academicians. Research findings suggest a pattern of three workplace training and learning strategies that are more successful in reducing time-to-proficiency: (1) manufacturing and structuring on-the-job experiences; (2) sequencing activities in a lean learning path; and (3) providing performance support systems and resources.

Edited excerpts from publication. Show less