Cutting Training Waste

Summary Many positions in industry require extensive periods of training. In one such job in which new employees reached acceptable production rates after periods of training ranging from six to fifteen months, study of fast and slow learners showed that these two groups could be differentiated as early as the end of the second week of training. Separations or transfers at this early stage could be made with 20% better than chance accuracy. By the end of the sixth week of training, this advantage over chance had risen to sixty-three per cent. No further increase in accuracy is possible if the results from one group are to be used as standard for action on another.