Training and development

Training and development, components of HUMAN RESOURCES, assure that an organization has employees with the appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform the necessary job duties. Training has the connotation of learning specific job skills necessary to performing the current job. Development, however, has the longer-term goal of educating employees to perform future jobs that have higher knowledge, skills, and abilities requirements. Training needs are identified by examining operational results for performance decrements—instances where the level of performance is less than desired. Performance decrements can be found on either an individual, group/departmental, or organizational basis. Examples of organizational needs are the desire to change the MANAGEMENT style from autocratic to participative or to implement a culture of EMPOWERMENT throughout the organization. A group/department need could be a matter of increasing the department’s educational level in order to be sure that INVESTMENTs in new, highly technical equipment will be justified. An individual need could be a matter of improving a specific employee’s level of production. Before the low-producing employee is sent to a training program, two “quick fixes” should be evaluated. Does the employee know that his/her production level is unsatisfactory? Perhaps the supervisor has not conveyed this to the employee. This quick training fix reinforces the need for honest PERFORMANCE APPRAISALs to let each employee know how he or she is doing, as evaluated by the company. Another question is: Does the employee already know how to do perform the task correctly? If someone has already learned the correct job techniques but does not use them, it may be because the techniques are strange and feel awkward. Reinforcement by the supervisor and others combined with repetition by the employee is the second quick fix. After the needs analysis is conducted and the decision is made to put the employee in a training program, objectives must be determined. The training program must be developed and its content designed for the specific need. Sometimes training programs already exist and can be purchased from outside vendors. These off-the-shelf programs usually teach concepts that are generic to a particular industry or teach widely accepted techniques, such as TIME MANAGEMENT or supervisory skills. Companies will probably decide to design and develop their own custom training program if PROPRIETARY INFORMATION or specialized techniques are involved. To enhance the program’s efficacy, potential instructors may have to learn effective teaching techniques. They must also know their audience and understand the training needs of adults compared to children. The key to a training program’s success is to actively involve the participants. Lecturing is a frequently used technique that dispenses information to large numbers of people in a very cost-effective setting; however, it is the least-effective training method when measured by retention rate. Retention of learned information increases with reading assignments, demonstrations, class discussions, and practice by doing. The most effective training technique, however, is to put the information to immediate use after learning it. The effectiveness of a training program can be measured by a variety of techniques. Having the participants complete an evaluation form after the program has ended is the easiest method, but it also provides the least-valuable information. Responses are often based on initial reactions to the speaker, physical surroundings, and other superficial considerations. Questionnaires do not measure what the training participant has learned; it is tests that measure student learning. A well-designed test procedure would assess the participants’ knowledge before and after training. In test design, this group is known as the experimental group. The experimental group’s results should be compared to a control group that is tested at the same time but does not participate in the training program. The crucial question in evaluating the effectiveness of a training program is: Did the training graduates change their behavior? Another evaluation technique, therefore, is to observe over an extended length of time whether the participants’ behaviors have changed. If behavior change does not occur or if the behavior change is of short duration and the participants revert to their original behavior, then the training was not worthwhile. Finally, if the student has learned, and behavior has changed, there should be improvements in the performance measures used by the company. PROFITs, operational efficiencies, customer-service levels, and employeesatisfaction indices should be examine for improvement. John B. Abbott