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Who Trained You?
That title can be a loaded question. Anyone who has ever been asked it can tell you there are several factors that can make it a compliment or a question of your abilities... Did someone use a “Wow” before starting the question, or a long “Uh” before that sentence? Was there any special emphasis on the word “Who”?
When you read the title, most of us probably focused on the performance of the trainee. Sure, we are asking about the trainer, but the question (and dig) is usually focused on the trainee and something they are doing wrong. Seldom is it “Wow, you are doing such a great job, tell me who I can approach and express thanks for providing you with exceptional training.”
Several months ago, I met with a regional supervisor for a locating company and our discussion turned to the current state of hiring, training, and retaining workers in the locating industry. Having been a supervisor
in charge of training new hires and implementing field training programs, it brought back memories of not just the challenges of who you are trying to train, but the challenges of who trains your people.
Are you lucky enough to have a crew
of highly motivated, exceptional employees with a fantastic work ethic who love training and passing on
years of institutional and technical knowledge to a new generation? Is their goal to provide the best experience possible to make a highly competent, long-term employee who will not
only be productive and SAFE but also committed to the mission and values of the organization and the trade itself?
Or is their desire to train revolving around potential overtime or a pay differential that comes with a trainee? Do they just want someone else to do the work while they “supervise”? Is the person being “forced” to train because you just don’t have other personnel to do it? Or is it who I consider the worst of the worst, the person who trains out of pure ego?
By Marcus Bartholomew
TN811 Damage Prevention Liaison
8 • Tennessee811 2023, Issue 4
Yes, the ego-based trainer. The “Let me show you how it’s done, Kid” person who thrives off having a green, no- experience trainee marvel at them wide- eyed all day in awe at the greatness that is themselves...
I once worked with a fellow trainer who was a combination of many of
the negative traits and motivations
I just described. While we each had differences in experience and time on, we were both made trainers and sent to certification at the same time.
One day I was out in the field when I saw one of our trainees on the street by himself engaged in a very routine, but always potentially dangerous activity.
I was alarmed at the fact that I could see the trainee performing tasks, but this particular trainer was nowhere in sight. When I approached their vehicle, I could see the trainer fully reclined in the passenger seat scrolling through
his cell phone, completely oblivious to what his trainee was doing. I asked why he was allowing his trainee to perform this specific task by himself without any oversight. The trainer’s reply was, “He knows what he’s doing, he’s fine.”
Now I don’t care what field you work in, when do you ever let a trainee take
on a task without supervision? At
a minimum, we would be eyes and
ears and ready for verbal or physical intervention should a trainee’s task begin to go sideways... Even if the trainee had indeed mastered the task at hand, let’s not discount the importance of providing evaluation and feedback for ALL tasks you observe being performed.
It was this incident (along with some other observed issues with this trainer and others) that became one of the reasons I changed how my office recruited, selected, supervised, and retained training personnel when I became the field training supervisor several years down the road.
It is feast or famine in the hiring
and training game. We don’t always have the luxury of having the best or most motivated trainers (burning out
your trainers is a whole other topic) but when I had my way in the “feast years”, I just didn’t accept anyone who volunteered for the position. The old way of putting out a memo asking for people to become trainers was put aside.
Instead, I would go directly to people who I wanted to see in a mentoring role. Sometimes I wanted an exact “clone” of that employee (make this trainee just like you) or I would ask certain employees to concentrate on passing on specific individual skills
and strengths they had that I felt we needed embedded in a new hire. It was shocking how many great people we developed who said they would have never applied to be in a training role because they felt they did not meet the “qualifications”.
It’s obvious from the current rate of
the experienced workforce seeking retirement to the low number of applicants across industries (utilities, construction and locating included) we are in the famine years for employees. Finding good trainers (and being a good trainer) to develop and keep those new employees is more important than ever! Be safe!