From the course: Converting Face-to-Face Training into Digital Learning

Conduct a quality job analysis

From the course: Converting Face-to-Face Training into Digital Learning

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Conduct a quality job analysis

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- [Instructor] Most of us create training geared toward a specific job. The better we know the job, the better training we create. Which is why I recommend conducting a job analysis before you convert your training to some type of digital blend. As you're probably aware, there are well-accepted models for conducting a job analysis. For instance, the Developing a Curriculum Model, DACUM. I'll simplify things a bit and tell you what I did recently in preparation for designing an onboarding program for field service technicians who repair solar systems. First, I went through all of the existing training material. There was a good size handbook on the specific role, and I read every word of it. I scoured the job aids and the few PowerPoint decks they had. The role didn't have any online training devoted to it, but if it had, I would have gone through that too. Next, I interviewed three groups associated with the job. Managers, supervisors, and those who were working as field service technicians. I asked questions around two basic topics. What knowledge and skills are necessary to be successful in the role? What challenges do field service technicians face? Just so you know, the interviewing can be repetitive as you're asking the same type of questions. But if you want to have a holistic understanding of the role, how it functions in your company, you have to get different perspectives on it. After the interviews, I sent out a survey to those working as field service technicians. The survey questions mimicked the interview questions. I usually get about a 50% response rate, so I sent out double the surveys that I thought I'd need. At this point, I had read all of the training documentation, conducted a number of interviews, and analyzed my survey responses, so I felt I had a pretty good understanding of the most important aspects of the job. Next up was observing actual field service technicians. For me, this is the most valuable part of a job analysis. There's not much value observing workers who are just okay at their jobs. So I asked managers for the needs of field service technicians across the country known for doing quality work. By the time I was finished, the last observation with the technician regarded as the rockstar in that role, I was confident enough to start designing a mostly-digital onboarding program. If you want to learn more about observing or shadowing workers, I wrote a series of articles on the subject on LinkedIn. The training we create must reflect the job. The critical skills and knowledge necessary, the challenges the workers face that so often managers fail to notice. So it's only after we've conducted a thorough job analysis that we're truly ready to design our digital learning.

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