The Best way to Train New Locator"s

[Chicagoman]

What would you say is the Best way to Train New Locator's?

What works ?

What doesn't work ?

From Classroom to ride alongs.

[yahoo]

a little bit of both is probably the best and cheapest way(classroom and ride alongs)

[beyond help]

Everyone needs to learn the theory and bookwork stuff. But I believe then you should be in a truck with an experienced locater.

[sprayandpray]

I went to an Electric refresher course recently. It was 4 hours long and at least 4 wrongful instructions were given in that time. Now I know why so many of our Newbies are confused when they get to the field.

[Wingfoot]

Everyone needs to learn the theory and bookwork stuff. But I believe then you should be in a truck with an experienced locator.

To be a successful locator, the basics must be the foundation. I believe the best way for a Noob to get the basics is to have a mentor with over 1 year but less than 5 years on the job. These locators, as mentors, typically use the basic techniques most of the time on every ticket.

A Locator with over 5 years experience tends to be too busy for Noobs. Plus, these vets start every ticket with short cuts that will send shivers up and down the spine of any dead weight QA rep. There are many exceptions (myself for one ) to the thought that long time vets make poor trainers. I've got a buddy (and I use that term loosely) with many more years experience than myself that does a fantastic job of training Noobs the right way.

[paintitout]

Time with an experienced tech is the best. If the trainer/ mentor is worth his weight he will ignore the shortcuts he knows that will get a new guy in trouble long enough to get them trained. He will also show them what works that they will never see in a class, hot pairs, cable counts, using the ground on a street light,etc. The stuff that works and we use everyday.
We have a trainer I think that the only thing he cuold locate accurately was the tree to sleep under whe he was milking the clock as a locator, (was caught a lot by another tech before he got promoted)

[Chicagoman]

USIC sent this email out not to long ago. I wonder if there planning to win some major contracts or planning to replace some trainers???

USIC

United States Infrastructure Corporation

13085 Hamilton Crossing Blvd.

Suite 200

Carmel, IN 46032



As USIC continues to develop a best in class training process we want to pro-actively identify those who are interested in future opportunities to become Trainers. No Trainer positions are currently open and not all Districts will have a need for new Trainers in 2009. However, we are pre-screening for future openings that may occur in as training needs develop across the company. Trainers will be expected to travel from time to time to support other markets.

[cablemagne]

The problem with ride alongs is you have to either slow down and do things by the book or they will pick up shortcuts that may work for an exp locator but could get a newbie in trouble.This whole business is a double edged sword.

[carl3572]

I think ride alongs are ok but they didnt help me as a new person. The experienced person I would follow was usually so swamped it wa not fair to him to try and show me stuff yet still get his tickets done in time to make it home to have some sort of evening.

I think for the most part of training there needs to be more hands on out of the classroom training. I am in trouble should I ever really have to start locating something other than electric because our in class training gave us maybe a few hours out in the field for each utility. Too much book work on that part and now I barely ... just barely get by if I have to do phone or something.

Also Print Training. It may seem easy to some of you but as a newbie, when you are working with one type of utility print for so long and then need to access other types if you are helping in other areas, it would help to have had a little more training on understanding them. My print training consisted of approx. 3 - 4 hours on all the prints in our division. Phone types, Electric types, etc. So thats alot to get even a slight feel for in that little time.

In my honest opinion... my trainer was a great trainer, he was someone who knew how to teach people, and that isnt always the case in trainers. Ours definately knew how to keep in interesting and help us with ways to learn the information. But its not his fault there wasnt enough time to go through everything better that the company has him showing us. BUT the company needs to give more control to the trainers to be able to spend more time on the locating training part.

[Chicagoman]

Should we have new locator's ride along with a Supervisor's

[yahoo]

if the supervisor of any particular area is the (trainer) than my answer is yes.....that's how we do things in my office.....this is the best method i think that way the newby gets to know who he is fixing to work under what to expect in most situations and the sup knows if he going to work out or not

[big boots mcghee]

Should we have new locator's ride along with a Supervisor's

No, most of our supervisors schedules are too busy to be adding something like that to their plates. Although I will say that supervisors should provide a little better follow up with each new tech. Too often newbies get thrown to the wolves and are left to fend for themselves.

[Chicagoman]

A Supervisor's are to busy keeping there butts warm at home on the sofa. I have not physical seen my sup in two and half monthes I have not talk to him on the phone in two monthes and he called me to do him a favor. We had a locator who became a Supervisor and after three monthes he gave up his job because he was board to death. What that tell you

[UULC]

It tells me he has a crappy DM who does not care what his supervisors are doing. Everyday I am out doing audits, real ones, not penciled whipped, benchmarks, productivity reports, and on top of that any other reprot the DM ask for. If your DM is letting your supervisor sit at home, then there is nothing you can do, but if he does NOT know he is sitting at home, and you know as fact he is, then you as a locator have a duty to report him to the DM.

CM,

In your case it sounds as if it would be he knows as a locator who moved up and after 3 months was bored. I wish I could say that. Even now, when locators are working less then 8 hrs a day, I am still putting in 11-12 hrs day's.

I will now get off my

[big boots mcghee]

By all means please stay up on that soapbox and preach until something chages! It's supervisors like Chicagoman's that keep their salaries low and uncompetitive, which in turn is partly the reason why tenured & more deserving technicians never move up. It's also the reason why those supervisors lose the respect of their crew, if they ever had it in the first place. And it's just outright stealing.