Rich Description of Workplace:
Observations: Who, What, Why, Where, How
The last several weeks have been real difficult around my
workplace. A couple of times a year
timing, testing, training, and out-of-town trips for various personnel really
throw a wrench into our normal work schedules and deadlines. Two of the last three weeks we have had
between 40%-70% of our personnel out of the office for various reasons. So observations of the atmosphere have been
sparse.
What I have observed – It is difficult to overcome the
technology constraints that are upon us due to the nature of our work. We have several persons tasked with various
similar and over-lapping jobs tasked with doing various parts of testing and
installing software in a variety of environments. Difficulties can be seen in the varying
degrees of experience when one person is tasked to perform a job that someone
else normally does. Specifically, some
persons may be great in one area, yet lack knowledge in another and this
creates great encumbrances when personnel are treated as interchangeable. Additionally, this appears to cause a lot of
time that isn’t being used well (for example when one tries to troubleshoot a
problem and spends 3-7 hours doing, while another person with more knowledge
may spend 2.5 and achieve the same outcome).
Training materials for those we train primarily consists of
PowerPoint presentations containing step-by-step guides on how to operate a
software system. This is for the purpose
of easy portability as we can send them electronically as needed. These presentations though, need to be
updated as software builds and changes occur to the mechanics or methods worked
through in the slides. This introduces
confusion as software builds are evolving all the time.
While addressing the overall training level of everyone in
the office is a complex issue (because it will change in the near-term),
focus on training materials is equally important.
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