On-the-job training is broken. Companies are paying a steep price.

Getty Images; iStock; Natalie Ammari/BI

The first day at a new job is always weird. You have no idea what you're supposed to be doing, who to talk to, or how to even really be. The theory is that over time you get the hang of it — but lots of workers make it months into their jobs and feel like they're still kind of winging it. It's not that they don't want to learn; it's that nobody's teaching them. In many pockets of corporate America, on-the-job training mostly amounts to "figure it out." Workers are struggling to get a handle on their jobs, and this failure falls on everyone — companies, managers, human-resources departments, and, in some cases, the workers themselves.