Problem of the Week: How to Train New Network Technicians Without Losing Time for Other Tasks

On the job training is important for any position, but perhaps none more so than for new network technicians. After all, the functioning of your network and success is dependent upon hands-on experience with setup and installation, troubleshooting, and repair. Training new technicians often presents novel challenges and takes current critical people away from the many important tasks needed to maintain a network in its entirety and bring someone new up to speed. 

Normally, the new technician will shadow colleagues with the same role to gain a better understanding of the day-to-day functions and learn the workflow processes of the position. Periodically, trainers will assess a new technician’s progress through the use of questions, assessments, and completion of troubleshooting tasks. Once a new technician has proven themselves ready to work autonomously, supervisors intermittently review work for quality and accuracy. This process can take up to 3 months as systems are different and complex and new technicians need to become acquainted with the one your company or organization utilizes. This causes the number of staff available to work on other tasks to become limited. The addition of new technicians to your team does not detract from your organization’s need to keep the network running like a well-oiled machine, and while they will eventually be beneficial to the overall workload, the training process can be a challenging time.

Wyebot’s Wireless Intelligence Platform™ has helped organizations on-board new techs faster and decrease the load on other team members. It removes the complexity from the network, helping new technicians learn and become independent more quickly. WIP also monitors the network while experienced staff are training new technicians. This helps ensure that there is continuity in coverage of the network. Lastly, it lets experienced staff focus on other critical tasks while the platform is proactively running tests, analyzing data, and reporting issues and solutions. By shrinking the on-boarding and training schedule of new techs and increasing the monitoring and visibility of the network, WIP keeps your team efficient and networks up and running.