Mentor Development

The trainer's job is to integrate the trainee into the organization and build job skills, not simply to show them how a job is done. To develop his or her 'style', the trainer must build coaching skills through a trial-and-error process. When on-the-job trainers learn training skills in this way, they become mentors and coaches, not just trainers.

When teaching mentor skills, it is critical to match the skills to real-life situations in the organization. Through a short but targeted training effort, mentors should learn to provide coaching versus teaching skills in an on-the-job format. The focus is on the process of training and learning. Here, building a relationship between a mentor (trainer) and the trainee is the goal, so that knowledge and abilities are more easily transferred on the job. Developing an appropriate mentor/trainee relationship builds trust and quickens the transfer of on-the-job skills and knowledge.

When seasoned employees train other employees how to do a job, the results are

• Reduced cost of an inadequate transference of skills and knowledge
  
  
• Increased productivity
  
  
• Enhanced learning curves
  
  
• Decreased retraining events
  
  
• Increased interest and/or motivation to learn
  
  
• Reduced frustration levels in the trainer and the trainee
  
  
• Reduced hidden costs
  
  
• Newly trained employees functioning at desired performance levels
  
  
• Consistent performance of the job across shifts and from individual to individual