Improving first time fix rates with in-field technician assessment at Comcast

The problem with field technician training

It’s a problem facing businesses reliant on field technicians everywhere — time. Or rather the lack of it. With pressure to get new field technicians up to speed as quickly as possible, new hires often go through an intense period of classroom learning where they are expected to absorb vast amounts of information quickly. They then go into the field to apply this knowledge which is finally tested in a written exam. There are several glaring problems with this approach to field technician training:

• for hands-on field technicians, classroom learning isn’t necessarily the best way to impart knowledge.
• with such an intense period of learning without application or reinforcement, new hires often struggle to retain and recall what they’ve learnt.
• written exams test memory recall but aren’t always a reliable measure of whether a new field technician knows how to apply learning in practice.

Comcast chooses a new approach

Comcast, with its fleet of thousands of field technicians, wanted to drive greater experiential learning in their onboarding process, involving new hires in the application of knowledge and skills much earlier in the process. They also wanted to assess competence via evidence and observation in the field rather than through written exams. Finally, they wanted the development process to be accessible via a smartphone, for easy use in the field.

The On.Board solution

On.Board empowered Comcast to realise each of their onboarding objectives. Firstly, learning was chunked and broken down into daily to-dos using the platforms user-friendly content builder. This included experiential activities to ensure learning was applied in the workplace as it was acquired.

On.Board’s Performance Hub facilitated in-field technician assessment by connecting learners to their managers. Managers were responsible for providing timely, contextualized feedback on completed activities and were prompted to do so via instant notifications. In fact, over the course of 2 and a half years, one manager approved a staggering 2530 activities.

As for ease of use in the field, the platform was accessible via any smart device, with the added bonus of their built-in photo and video capabilities. New field technicians captured evidence of their work and submitted it for approval and feedback from their manager. Evidence of application of learning was also tracked and recorded using online reflective forms to qualify learners. Together this made in-field technician assessment quick and easy.

The resulting increase in speed to competency meant first-time fix rates saw a healthy boost too. As a result, customer relationships improved and money saved.