The cover of "Human Performance Improvement"

Monaco Group Inc president Joe Monaco says forklift operator training is sometimes wasted due to ignorance of human performance improvement principles.

Monaco tells Forkliftaction.com News expectations and feedback are commonly conveyed to a forklift operator before he or she has had the time to practise newly acquired skills and knowledge.

"Unfortunately, newly acquired skills are often extinguished as the operator attempts to practise them in the work environment where the supervisor might 'punish' the operator for lack of productivity.

"The operator is [just] trying to practise the new safe operating procedures he or she learned in training."

Monaco boasts that LIFTOR, his company's forklift operator training and management program, prioritises practice over theory and is based on the human performance improvement philosophy.

The program and Monaco's consulting career is featured in "Human Performance Improvement", a professional training book released this year.

Human performance improvement, the subject of the Butterworth-Heinemann book by William J Rothwell, Carolyn K Hohne and Stephen B King, is a field of professional practice drawn from different disciplines including human resources management and behavioural psychology.

LIFTOR applies these principles to training forklift operators.

Monaco explains the program avoids written testing, but incorporates optional classroom instruction, front-line supervisor action and a method for experienced operators to legally "test out" the training.

While forklift training is one of its central components, the program intervenes in all relevant aspects of the forklift operator's workplace through changes in supervisory and management practices and equipment maintenance and engineering.

According to human performance improvement principles, people actively succeed in producing meaningful outcomes if three elements are present: The worker needs "clear expectations" of what a job requires, "sufficient resources" to do the job and "access to feedback" on job performance.

That is why, Monaco says, forklift operator training is wasted when operators are given expectations and feedback before they have sufficient resources to perform at work.

Monaco says most of the companies that are licensed to use LIFTOR are international, but he can't disclose them due to confidentiality agreements.

He adds that many have downloaded materials from his company website and assembled their versions of a forklift operator safety process.

"We are generally happy to see all the download reports from the website and hope our copyrighted materials are used responsibly. The 'free downloaders' come from many different industries, including governments and consulting firms from around the globe."