Assistance is the process of providing specific cues or other types of help to which the employee responds. Assistance helps an employee respond appropriately to changes in the tasks with any given job.
The amount of assistance is determined by the new employee with the workplace trainer and will vary depending on the new employee’s skills and needs. Most employees will ask for help when they need it, and decline unneeded assistance when they do not. Using assistance strategies to train your new employee will be more effective if you keep the following steps in mind:
- Find out how much help the person needs. Make sure you start with the least amount of help that is necessary.
- Make sure that the person has a chance and time to learn the task.
- Use the type of assistance that will best help the person learn the task.
- As the person begins to learn the task, decrease the use of assistance until he or she can do the task.
- Give the person a chance to perform a task with less help before you offer more help.
There are a variety of types of assistance that can be offered when training a new employee to learn a job. These include physical cues, verbal cues, demonstrations, samples, picture cues and physical assistance.
