Staff Training

[John Childs]

Usually, we take on an extra body because we are busy, therefore we don’t have time to mess about with making work for them.

We let them make normal jobs.

[Nicola McIntosh]

after having the staff for a few weeks, i always threw them into jobs more difficult, just to see how confident they were, it gave me a better idea on what they could tackle alone when i wasnt around, used to waste a bit of material, but that goes with the territory. Getting them to think with you too is helpful, especially when things need tidying up after jobs, but basically weeding and general applying tape etc, dont let them on the pc until they are used to the "daily routine" of the workshop, keep that an incentive 😀

nik

[James Langton]

Agree with john, unless you are working in the early hours morning to late at night for at least 6 months then you know it may be time to think about employment.

Don’t be worried about rushed of your feet when things pick up because if you think like that it will never come and you will find time to train even if you are busy or if your super busy get someone in with experience .

[Joseph Helm]

Yeah… things are quite at the moment because I’m working on our website and sorting out the marketing.

So I thought it would be a good time to do some training as well.
Rather than being too rushed to really go over how to do things, or worry about first time mistakes.

She finished off about 3 quarters of this today:

And that’s really only the third thing she’s done… so she’s picking it up quick.

Thanks for the advice!

[Joseph Helm]

quote James Langton:

Agree with john, unless you are working in the early hours morning to late at night for at least 6 months then you know it may be time to think about employment.

We have a 2mx6m flatbed cutter which we are doing contract work on… so shes there to also help with that (frees me up for office work and other stuff)

We are also expecting a lot of sign and print work to come our way soon, so a third person is on the cards as well 🙁

[David Rogers]

I give them (initially) all the massive repetitive weeding jobs…the 1000 URL labels that aren’t due for weeks so no big deal if a few get screwed up. Is a great learning process & gets their eye / hand / knife co-ordination up to feel & speed.

Then a session on stripping vehicles and left to it with periodic visits to check progress / offer advice / comment (praise or otherwise).

Lessons in tea making & duty of housekeeping (tidying up the workshop).

My ‘lads’ have varied between fastidiously neat and everything put away (couldn’t find anything if I was there on my own), to utter slob…so i couldn’t find anything period…and tools were being chucked out in the boxes of rubbish…

I wouldn’t waste your time or money (even scrap) on pointless non-jobs.
Use them for real work and instill a set of values of ‘getting this right means we don’t waste money…and you can continue to get paid’.

Avoid at all costs letting them ‘play’ – or making stuff for themselves as you run the risk of that becoming the norm and no sense of urgency or deadline can be developed. Lunch time is play time…not when your wages are being paid.

Like Nik said – keep the PC out of bounds at the start. To much too soon…it’s something to aspire to.

Depending on age – some power tool work. Nothing liable to chop appendages off (18+) though. Instill good safety procedures with knives especially!

Give them an area to specialise in. A favourite of mine was to assign the printing & construction of ‘canvas prints’ to them. That way them learn about printing, accuracy, material cleanliness, accuracy of measurement etc. Some others have been good at design work…set a time limit per design though. 20mins no more. If a no parking sign is taking an hour to design…you’ll have problems in the future.

Out of 4 or 5 I’ve only ever had one that could work a tape measure right…and I’d trust the sizes. I even bought ones with digital readouts to idiot proof them…but the +/- case button would always get pressed…so that was out the window. So measuring skills and flipping between inches & mm (neither of which schools like..it’s all cm) is a bonus.

Laying comes into it’s own on repetitive small jobs, later as a second man on vehicles & long signs.
Stress absolute cleanliness & accuracy again…if an "it’ll do" attitude is shown it’ll filter through into the high end work too…that’s how cowboys are made.

Be a boss, not a mate. You can’t be both. Friendly boss yes….best mate…no.

After a few weeks start a non-conformance sheet for the big screw-ups that shouldn’t be getting made (crap under the vinyl / cut wrong sizes). Basically detailing the fault, time to rectify & cost…the fact that MAJOR screw-ups are noted…I’m not talking about the dot off an ‘i’ missing in a paragraph of text…I’m talking entire words missing!

Hope that helps a wee bit.

Just be fair and keep good practice & methodology.

[Gill Harrison]

quote :

Out of 4 or 5 I’ve only ever had one that could work a tape measure right…and I’d trust the sizes. I even bought ones with digital readouts to idiot proof them…but the +/- case button would always get pressed…so that was out the window. So measuring skills and flipping between inches & mm (neither of which schools like..it’s all cm) is a bonus.

David you’ve just reminded me of my very first day at Smiths, 15 yrs old and straight from school, I was told to find out exactly how many mm in 1" as I had never used feet and inches. But it was such a valuable lesson and it was always one of the first things I covered when training any new staff.

Gill

[Robert Lambie]

first lesson… do NOT allow them mobile phones during working hours. remember phones can also vibrate. 😉

[David Rogers]

quote Gill Harrison:

quote :

…David you’ve just reminded me of my very first day at Smiths, 15 yrs old and straight from school, I was told to find out exactly how many mm in 1″ as I had never used feet and inches. But it was such a valuable lesson and it was always one of the first things I covered when training any new staff.

Gill

At least that’s better than an engineer of maybe 10 years experience asking another in an engineering firm I worked at in the early 90’s "How many thou’ are in an inch?" when told " a thousand" he replied…and I kid you not "Really…I thought there was maybe a couple of hundred."

[Shane Drew]

quote David Rogers:

Be a boss, not a mate. You can’t be both. Friendly boss yes….best mate…no.

Very well said David and spot on IMHO! But this advice is pure gold, and should be the basis of any employer/employee relationship in my opinion.

Also why employing a friend is always going to be harder than employing a stranger. Laying out the ground rules is a must in this situation.