On-the-job training is a hands-on method for teaching the skills and knowledge needed for a specific role. It’s one of the best ways to attract, retain and upskill employees. It usually takes place in the course of an employee’s day-to-day environment, often while they perform actual tasks.

On-the-job training is a specific initiative that intertwines day-to-day activities with learning new skills, attitudes and competencies. It’s an important form of training because it’s easily and immediately applicable, cost-effective, flexible and lends itself to social learning. It also saves time which increases productivity.

Some approaches to on-the-job training are more structured than others. The most popular and applicable methods include:

• Coaching: Coaches, usually managers or team members, offer a positive, team-based and goal-based approach to training that is delivered one-on-one. It’s best used to acclimatise new employees into an office culture and boost their confidence.
• Mentoring: This is a reciprocal form of training that typically involves a senior employee imparting knowledge and technical training to a newer employee. It works best when the mentor and mentee communicate regularly and are matched on role, skills, career path, aspirations and personality.
• Job Rotations: The practice of moving a new employee through several different roles. This gives new recruits an array of experience, trains them in a variety of skills and helps both sides realise where the new recruit’s strengths are best utilised.
• eLearning: Training that is delivered via online modules, quizzes, and assessment tasks that are often designed to complement an employee’s current role and aspirations. Best used for those with limited time and resources to deliver one-on-one or F2F training.
• Shadowing: When an employee “understudies” or closely observes a superior.
• Secondment: A more formal type of job rotation where an employee is temporarily assigned to another organisation.
• Committee Assignment: Where a group of employees are given an actual organisational problem to solve, developing their teamwork.
• Internship: An individual undertaking of paid or unpaid learning experience in a workplace as part of their tertiary study.
• Apprenticeship: Similar to an internship, but rather the beginning of a career for those in skilled trades as opposed to a unit of study.

An inherent quality of on-the-job training is that the trainer needs to have a unique knowledge of the job role in question. This is what makes your managers key figures in on-the-job training. There are almost no disadvantages to having a manager train employees. Not only does this increase the effectiveness of internal training, but coaching and mentoring then becomes a natural part of a manager’s role.

Don’t discount employees, either: They’re familiar with the inner workings of an organisation, giving them a distinct advantage over an external trainer with the added benefit of strengthening employee dynamics.



If you implement on-the-job training with no purpose, no measure for success and no clear idea of how it will benefit employees, you’ll likely find enthusiasm and engagement low. Designing a training program is easier than it seems, and should typically start with a few questions:

• What skills do we need? A skills gap analysis helps you ascertain what your employees already know and what they need to know. Without knowing who you’re addressing and what you want to achieve, your program will have no guiding star.
• How will we administer training? Not all forms of on-the-job training will be applicable or even feasible. You might be too small for mentoring or lack the budget for eLearning. Aligning the delivery of on-the-job training with the skills needed will help answer this question.
• What training materials should you use? As it’s an ongoing process, different training materials will be relevant at different points of an individual’s training. Handbooks, internal systems, industry resources and even external programs can all complement on-the-job training.
• When does training end? It should never truly ‘end’, but you can certainly set an endpoint for a current delivery cycle. This lets you take a step back and determine if the program was successful and what needs adjusting.

For a more in-depth look at on-the-job training, have a read of the full article.