Temporary worker within the Organization

[Boscoeee]

My take on this is not where the employee needs to be trained or motivated, are the temporary employees competent in the performance of the job?

Objective evidence from the production lines should prove out whether an employee is competent or not from rejection data both in line and end of line.

 

[Wes Bucey]

I sit here as Devil's advocate on this matter.....

You state that in 9/10 cases you would blame a manager or supervisor for insufficient training (I agree).... what answer do you give when that person states they did give formal and correct training but the 'temp' still got it wrong (or what ever the issue was)?

I have had this many times and not just related to temps either.... just wondered if anybody had a good answer?

My two cents:
Training is not complete until the person being trained has passed a competency test (preferably administered by someone other than the trainer!) It has been my experience that individuals, being individuals, respond differently to different training programs and trainers. If the competency tests (often "practical" exams to determine the trainee can, indeed, perform the task competently) fall short, a different trainer or training program may be necessary.

I do not generally think EVERY individual can become a good trainer, no matter how much instruction they receive, because training also requires a certain amount of empathy with the trainee to determine "in-process" effectiveness of the training. Hence, many "train the trainer" programs fall short of effective excellence.

 

[caversluis]

Colpart youre spot on. Personnel shall be competent!

From my point of view, there are a number of options:

1) Give the temp employees tasks that they can handle. Not all tasks require specific competences.
2) Put the temp eployees under adequate supervision of an experienced employee
3) Make extensive work instructions in order to reduce the demands to competences
4) Train the employees

 

[Ron Rompen]

Just a comment on the previous message where the supervisor/manager/whoever DID provide training, and the employee still 'got it wrong'.

Providing training is not enough; you have to also EVALUATE the effectiveness of the training, not just immediately afterwards, but also later on, to ensure that what you instructed was properly understood, and is being applied in the correct manner.

Too often we fail because we assume that someone understands what we are saying/doing, when in fact they perceive it totally differently than we do. If there is a language (or other) barrier, this effect is only enhanced.

 

[lrowe]

I can certainly relate to all the comments posted here. When I started at this firm, the most common "excuse" for quality problems was "A temp did that job." I made the point (or at least tried to!) on every occasion when this was mentioned that that is NOT the reason for the problem and went so far to find the same errors made by experienced full time bonafide employees. This is one way you can prove the point. Another is as has been commented on already is that proper training is a must when any person is going to perform work that will affect product quality. This statement needs to be given some serious thought since it is not uncommon to have some seemingly small tasks have a big impact on product quality.

It is reassuring the it appears unanimous with the group that has commented on this issue that using the "Temp Card" won't fly with those of us in this field. Three cheers for the Quality Pukes!!!!

 

[Sidney Vianna]

It is reassuring the it appears unanimous with the group that has commented on this issue that using the "Temp Card" won't fly with those of us in this field.

Unless, of course, the temporary employee is wearing the quality-immunity magic T-shirt.

 

[selena15]

Wouawou as you sadi irowe to all of you
thank to all the comments to with i'm totally agreed and commited to.

I wil tell yo, the temp is trained in their tasks, as expected since they are recruited from the technical school ( they got normally around 2 or 3 years after High school, in technical and industries matters). and the organization hire them according their competancy and also its need.

But, as i said in previous thread i think, they don't get an induction when they attend in the first day at work ( i claimed about it several time).

After to read all these feedback, i get the feeling that : despite they get an quality education, as quality controller,

they are freshly qualified adn no expericence, and additionnaly to this, they don't have any motivation to be commited to their task as they are temp.

They are Work instruction, and enough control but in the same time, when this problem occurs,
there try to fix the problem and become tough...etc but they don't try the root cause, as it was done here.

 

[trainerbob]

It looks like we all agree - Temp or permanent, training is a must. and we must show the effectiveness of the training. The problem sounds like it has not gotten to the right part of the system where it can get taken care of.

This situation needs to be found in internal audits and taken to the Management Review meetings. If it is seen and reported often enough your external auditor should see it in your internal audit reports and take it from there.

I have seen it too often where temps train temps and many times that sure raises the possibility of non-conforming product or service going to the customer, which certainly sounds like a major non-conformance to me!!

Our training needs to be consistent and effective regardless of the status of the employee.

Inexpensive, temporary, poorly trained help usually turns out to be very costly in the long run when their actions affect our customers.