What kind of information you provide when conducting QMS Orientation?

[qusys]

Hi Everyone,

I am conducting QMS Orientation to all new employees every month. I created a PPT presentation that includes the following information:<snip>

Agree with the others.
I would add something on customer requirements knowledge and customer focus.

 

[Randy]

In addition to Randy's observations, which I agree with , I would get rid of the first part completely, except for moving #4 to part "B." Don't build an "ISO system." Build a quality management system.

Yep, that's about the sum of it. 99.999% of production folks won't get past the being paid for not working during the "Orientation", and in all honesty most of what's said will be little more than meaningless gibberish to the minimum wage/,GED/HS diploma, middle aged, production floor employee, whose main concerns are trying to get some overtime, less expensive medical insurance, and their requested vacation dates on top of worrying about rumors of plant closure or layoffs.

 

[Marc]

That's a pretty pessimistic statement, Randy, and very general. I think you're under-rating/under-estimating a lot of people, and to some degree insulting them. There are a lot of people who are interested in their company and that do want to learn, and are capable of learning. I totally disagree with your generalization.

Rather than to simply say "...what's said will be little more than meaningless gibberish to..." (which is rather insulting to the people in your list) would it not be better to keep the topic "On Topic" and help, rather than to simply say (essentially) that it doesn't matter?

 

[Scott Catron]

most of what's said will be little more than meaningless gibberish to the minimum wage/,GED/HS diploma, middle aged, production floor employee

There are a lot of people who are interested in their company and that do want to learn

The take-home message: Know Your Audience.

 

[Chance]

Good discussion so far. Thank you for all your input.
I would agree with Harry, Amit & Peter I think QMS orientation should be limited and should include the basics. This is not QMS Training that I would elaborate more deeper.
I am a little bit hesitant of removing the first part. I see a lot of new hires that don't have any clue what ISO 9001 is. I guess I would remove the ISO requirements because it is too much info in one setting that they might not be able to retain the message. But I feel good of sharing to them what ISO is all about. It's a new knowledge to them.

 

[Marc]

My suggestion to you is:

Make your training in Powerpoint. Make applicable notes in the "Notes" pane, especially if you have a mixed group and know some things will be applicable to specific "groups" within the group. Make printouts for everyone, BUT - Print them in "Booklet" form and include notes pages. For example, see page 9 in http://Elsmar.com/pdf_files/ISO 9001 - Quality Management (QMS) Implementation.pdf. Obviously this is a big file, but as an example notice how I used many of the "Notes" panes for more specific information which print in the handout. Tell them to use that portion to make notes of their own as well. That way they have something to take with them and, although I'm sure some will throw them away, many won't. Some people *do* want to learn. In many companies where I did training, they would also put the Powerpoint file in their intranet making it available to others as well.

Scott is right:

The take-home message: Know Your Audience.

You want to try to get them the information they need with consideration to the aspect that some things you tell them will be more applicable to some of the group (I'm assuming this is orientation training for a mixed group) than others. This can be addressed to some extent in "Notes" for each page.

I do urge you to NOT pre-judge, as a few here have essentially said no one will remember anything anyway. I believe most will and it is important that you take this on with the idea that while there will be people who won't get a thing out of it. That is how life is, whether it be school or any training/education. But, I believe you know that.

 

[Jen Kirley]

This is a very good discussion.

I think the overall trainer's lesson to take away is that adult (including workplace) education is somewhat different than earlier education. Two basic principles apply:

1) Adult students learn best in small, specific "bites": what they need to know, when they need to know it. Thoughts similar to "I really need to get back to XYZ, I have a deadline" tend to encroach on learning patterns. Relevance is key, hopefully to already-recognized needs. If the need for the knowledge is not yet clear, relevance needs to be established first-thing.

2) Capabilities of students will not only be mixed; they will be unknown. Unlike public school settings, students with special needs will be anonymous and so their intervention needs will be unknown. Given there is no Title 1 help for students in the workplace (unless offered by the Department of Labor or its state offices) the trainer should be very sensitive to competency gains from the training. If gaps are identified, the trainer should be ready to adapt training methods for that student in order to build the needed competencies despite the challenges.

Most organizations do not apply such principles to internal training. They instead point to an individual and say "Go give XYZ training to 123 people."

So, what to do?

a) Develop and deliver your training to groups of people, in accordance with their responsibility and authority to business operations in the standard. This might be divided in as few as three groups to include production-level personnel, supervisory/middle management people, and upper-level managers. Are they tactical (fulfilling process-level orders), supervisory (overseeing the fulfillment of tactical orders in accordance with strategic initiatives) or upper management (creating strategic initiatives)?

b) Prepare your lesson to tell each group what they need to know in real-world, current, and hopefully objective-oriented terms.

c) For those cases in which trainees are not "mainstream" be ready to describe b) in more than one context. That is, visual/verbal/physical example.

Warning: this is a perfect-world scenario. The lack of the above spells out the gap between organized education (public/private schools, and colleges) and workplace training. I'm just bringing the points to light in the hopes they will help you provide effective training.

 

[amit_rd]

Good discussion so far. Thank you for all your input.
I would agree with Harry, Amit & Peter I think QMS orientation should be limited and should include the basics. This is not QMS Training that I would elaborate more deeper.
I am a little bit hesitant of removing the first part. I see a lot of new hires that don't have any clue what ISO 9001 is. I guess I would remove the ISO requirements because it is too much info in one setting that they might not be able to retain the message. But I feel good of sharing to them what ISO is all about. It's a new knowledge to them.

I agree with you, I call it joining hands - QMS can not work if all are not involved, and to some of our friends underestimating others - I DISAGREE.

 

[amit_rd]

This is a very good discussion.

I think the overall trainer's lesson to take away is that adult (including workplace) education is somewhat different than earlier education. Two basic principles apply:

1) Adult students learn best in small, specific "bites": what they need to know, when they need to know it. Thoughts similar to "I really need to get back to XYZ, I have a deadline" tend to encroach on learning patterns. Relevance is key, hopefully to already-recognized needs. If the need for the knowledge is not yet clear, relevance needs to be established first-thing.

2) Capabilities of students will not only be mixed; they will be unknown. Unlike public school settings, students with special needs will be anonymous and so their intervention needs will be unknown. Given there is no Title 1 help for students in the workplace (unless offered by the Department of Labor or its state offices) the trainer should be very sensitive to competency gains from the training. If gaps are identified, the trainer should be ready to adapt training methods for that student in order to build the needed competencies despite the challenges.

Most organizations do not apply such principles to internal training. They instead point to an individual and say "Go give XYZ training to 123 people."

So, what to do?

a) Develop and deliver your training to groups of people, in accordance with their responsibility and authority to business operations in the standard. This might be divided in as few as three groups to include production-level personnel, supervisory/middle management people, and upper-level managers. Are they tactical (fulfilling process-level orders), supervisory (overseeing the fulfillment of tactical orders in accordance with strategic initiatives) or upper management (creating strategic initiatives)?

b) Prepare your lesson to tell each group what they need to know in real-world, current, and hopefully objective-oriented terms.

c) For those cases in which trainees are not "mainstream" be ready to describe b) in more than one context. That is, visual/verbal/physical example.

Warning: this is a perfect-world scenario. The lack of the above spells out the gap between organized education (public/private schools, and colleges) and workplace training. I'm just bringing the points to light in the hopes they will help you provide effective training.

I agree with you - most of the people mistake content specialists as trainers.

To train is a skill and it need to be developed continually. From one of my friend's quote - You start knowing more than the participants only when you have conducted that program for at least five times