Effective Grassroots Training

At the morning meeting of all management cadres on Oct 14, 2022, Mr. Wang explained how to effectively organize grass-roots training from three aspects: qualified teachers, training in place and results verification.

Two days ago, a strategic customer complained about the color sample LOGO laser again. I asked the Human Resources Department to go to the production workshop to investigate whether the front-line operators knew the quality requirements of the laser LOGO: that is, the LOGO should be clear, the location should be correct, the content should be correct, and whether the employees had done self-inspection during the production process. According to the survey results, one of the employees was temporarily transferred from other positions to engage in laser work. The employee was not clear about the quality standard of deep laser and did not perform self-inspection. When the customer complained about LOGO laser last time, the company required employees to conduct self-inspection during the production process, but the grass-roots cadres did not implement the self-inspection requirements into actual production, which indicates that there is a problem in the execution of the grass-roots. The executive power of an enterprise is reflected in two aspects: one is how fast the information is transmitted from top to bottom; The second is to see how far it is from top to bottom, that is, whether the hierarchical relationship between the decision-making level and the grass-roots employees is flat. From this case, we can see that the cause of customer complaints is that our top to bottom information transmission is not in place, and we have not solved the problem that employees do not know. So, how to effectively solve the problem that grass-roots employees do not know? I think we should organize our grass-roots training from three aspects: qualified teachers, training in place and results verification.

Qualified teachers

On Friday, the data provided by the Human Resources Department showed that Ouhai's management team and core technicians were stable, but the turnover rate of grass-roots employees was relatively high, with nearly 70% of employees with junior high school education or below. Glasses are made by grass-roots employees, who flow so frequently that so many new employees take up front-line production posts every year. So, how to ensure that the quality of products manufactured by new employees is qualified? How to enable employees to "enforce, respect rules and discipline"? How to transform employees from migrant workers into qualified industrial workers? This requires training, guidance, and continuous supervision and correction. If the training of new employees is not in place, there will be hidden dangers in the products they produce. Who should organize training for new employees at the grassroots level with such huge training needs? I think the core strength is our grassroots management cadres, and the team leader is the best mentor for grassroots employees. Because the team leader has the most contact with the grass-roots employees every day, the team leader can find the wrong behavior or action of the employees at the first time, and the team leader knows the psychological dynamics of the employees most. Every grass-roots management cadre should be a qualified teacher, and the team leader is the vanguard of the battle. They are both managers and gun bearers. They should not only master the operation skills of all processes in the workshop or the team, but also have the professional ability to teach the operation methods of grass-roots employees. Just like the sports coaches of the national team, such as volleyball coach Lang Ping, table tennis coach Liu Guoliang, and badminton coach Li Yongbo, they are all selected and trained from the outstanding athletes in the early stage. Because only the competent professional skills of the grassroots management cadres can meet the requirements, meet the requirements and dare to ask. We can't let the squad leaders or platoon leaders of the army only speak and can't shoot. Therefore, since 2016, the company has strengthened the comprehensive quality of team leaders and asked the Human Resources Department and the Standards Office to do a good job in the qualification certification of team leaders. The list system shall be implemented for qualification certification, that is, the detailed content of qualification certification shall be defined according to the responsibilities of each post. During the qualification certification process, both theoretical knowledge assessment and practical demonstration shall be organized to ensure that the team leader is not only a qualified soldier, but also a qualified grass-roots mentor.

Training availability

Employees with different education levels have different abilities to accept and understand new things. For example, people with high education level can understand some professional articles, while people with low education level may be sensitive to intuitive pictures or videos. Therefore, our training methods cannot be the same for different groups. As mentioned earlier, the data provided by the Human Resources Department shows that nearly 70% of Ouhai's employees are below junior high school. For those with low education, we should adopt a relatively intuitive training method that is convenient for them to remember and understand. Therefore, the company requires the following three points for the training of grass-roots employees. First, textbooks and test papers should be illustrated and displayed in kind. It's just like there are safety instructions with pictures and texts behind every seat on the plane; Before the plane takes off, safety knowledge videos should be played, and flight attendants should give safety demonstrations to passengers, explaining the use of safety belts, oxygen masks and life jackets when taking the plane. Second, tell them, show them, and watch them do it. As a grass-roots cadre, when training employees, we should tell them what to do, show them what to do, and watch them do. When we tell them what to do and how to do it, we should speak in plain language. When we tell them what they can understand, there should be no jargon or knowers that employees cannot understand. To show them is to teach the staffs how to do things hand in hand, just like a master with an apprentice. To watch them do is to verify whether the staffs really understand what you say and whether they really master what you teach. Third, don't miss any training opportunity. Our training work is just like the airline does not care whether you are a VIP customer or a first-time passenger, whether you are an intellectual or illiterate, flight attendant must play a safety video and do a safety demonstration every time before the plane takes off. As a management cadre, we should be patient. We should always, every day, every week and every month talk about the training of grass-roots employees, and never miss any training opportunity.

Result validation

The founder of Toyota Motor Corporation, Heiichiro Toyoda, once said, "Never trust an engineer who goes to dinner without washing his hands." Toyota has such a story. The name of the story is: "The guy who walks straight in the workshop can't do anything", or "Never promote a person who walks straight in the workshop". Our company has hundreds of glasses circulating in the production workshop every day, every day there may be new employees, every day there may be new processes, and every day there may be new products. For grass-roots cadres, they should not be asked to arrange troops, ensure resources, or receive entertainment. Instead, they should stick to the front line of production, focus on production and manufacturing, and focus on training grass-roots teams. Let them make more patrols in the production line to verify whether employees really master the operation methods they teach, supervise whether employees work as required, and ensure that every product manufactured by employees is qualified. Just like a chef in a hotel, he arranges other people to do things according to different division of labor. Some people steam seafood, some people cook hot food, and some people cook dessert. However, the chef should always inspect the scene, taste each dish sour, sweet, bitter, hot, salty, and fresh, and taste each dish fragrant, loose, soft, fat, and thick, so as to ensure that the color, fragrance, taste, and utensils are all available. In order to ensure the product quality, the company also requires the Engineering Department and the Quality Assurance Department to formulate the operation guidelines and quality standards in the form of pictures and texts, hang them on each operation post or machine, and include them in the daily process inspection, so that QA can spot check whether the operators work according to the standards and requirements at any time, and supervise the timely updating of the operation guidelines and product standards.

Every grassroots management cadre should be a qualified teacher. They should not only master the operation skills of all processes in the workshop or team, but also have the professional ability to teach the operation methods of grassroots employees. In the face of people with low educational level of grassroots employees, we should adopt a relatively intuitive training method that is convenient for them to remember and understand. Our textbooks and test papers should be illustrated and displayed in kind. Grass roots cadres should talk to, show and watch their employees when training them. They should speak in plain language and never miss any training opportunity. For grassroots cadres, they should focus on production and manufacturing, training grassroots teams, and patrolling in the production line to verify whether employees really master the operation methods they teach, and supervise whether employees work as required. Glasses are made by employees. Only when employees understand the quality knowledge, understand the operation methods, and master the skills to make products, can we improve the quality of our products and improve customer satisfaction.