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622 Forklift Competent Person
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The 7-Step OJT Process

Step 1: Introduction

The first step in the OJT process is to introduce yourself and welcome the students.

  • Give students a little background about your position, experience, and training.
  • Tell students what you're going to train. "Today we're going to learn how to..." You might be training a:
    • process (a number of procedures);
    • job/procedure (containing a number of tasks); or
    • task (part of a job/procedure - how to put on a harness).
  • Discuss the acceptable standards of knowledge and performance. Generally, students must achieve at least a 70% score on tests. For dangerous tasks that could result in an injury if not performed correctly, your students should be able to perform at the 100% skill level. There's no room for error.
  • Discuss the consequences of performance. Let them know what the consequences of their performance will be. This is especially true when training dangerous tasks. Tell them you're going to have high expectations for their performance (that's being tough) because you care about their safety. The most effective OJT occurs when students know you care about their safety.
  • Tell them why it's important. Emphasize the importance of the procedure to the success of the production/service goals. Again, when students know why the task is important, they're more likely to follow safe procedures when not being directly supervised.
  • Invite questions. Questions are most likely to come later during the training. Emphasize personal accountability and discipline (leadership). Discipline is using the correct procedure each time and every time, even when you don't feel like it.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

6-4. At what skill level should students be able to perform for general safety training and for dangerous tasks?