National School of Business Management

B Sc in Business Management (Special) Degree Module Name: Human Resource Management Module Title BScHRM 3209 Gajaba Perera-Gunawardena-Management Consultant Training and Development Issues Discussed:
1. Importance and place of training and development in an organization 2. Basic principles of Training and Development 3. The Training Cycle

1.1 Importance of Training and Development (T & D) In the first session on Introduction to Human Resources Management, quoting Edward L. Gubman we observed that the primary responsibility of the HRM Division was to . To acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business.

Training and Development is potentially a powerful strategic function. It can make a major contribution to organizational, group and individual effectiveness, efficiency, growth and success. Thus, we see that a major component of HRM viz., develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business is the responsibility of the training and development function. Major Roles of T&D
Training and Development. This function has two major roles in the performance of the responsibilities of the HRM function. These two major roles are (a) Effective Utilization of the Human Resource (b) Development of the Human Resource and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business to satisfy organization and individual needs. T & D is crucial for organizational development and success. It is fruitful to both employers and employees of an organization. An employee will become more efficient and productive if he is well trained and developed as required.

Training and development describes the formal, ongoing efforts of organizations to improve the performance and self-fulfillment of their employees through a variety of methods and programs. In the modern workplace, these efforts have taken on a broad range of applicationsfrom instruction in highly specific job skills to long-term professional development. In fact, the quality of employees, and the continual improvement of their skills and productivity through training, is now widely recognized as vital factors in ensuring the long-term success and profitability of businesses. Solomon (1999) commented, Employees today must have access to continual training of all types, just to keep up. ..If you don't actively stride against the momentum of skills deficiency, you lose ground. If your workers stand still, your firm will lose the competency race." 1

Solomon, Charlene Marmer. "Continual Learning: Racing Just to Keep Up." Workforce. April 1999.

For the most part, the terms "training" and "development" are used together to describe the overall improvement and education of an organization's employees. However, while closely related, there are important differences between the terms that center around the scope of the application. In general, training programs have very specific and quantifiable goals, like operating a particular piece of machinery, understanding a specific process, or performing certain procedures with great precision. On the other hand, developmental programs concentrate on broader skills that are applicable to a wider variety of situations, such as decision making, leadership skills, and goal setting. (Kim 1997)2 Deseller (2011) defines T&D as any attempt to improve current or future employee performance by increasing an employees ability to perform through learning, usually by changing the employees attitude or increasing his or her skills and knowledge.3

1.2 Benefits of T & D for the Organization and the Individual

Optimum Utilization of Human Resources-Helps the employee to achieve the organizational goals as well as their individual goals by increasing the job knowledge and skills of employees at each level. Development of Human Resources - provides an opportunity and broad structure for the development of technical and behavioral skills in an organization. It also helps the employees in attaining personal growth. Enhancing Productivity and Quality - helps in increasing the productivity and quality of the products or services that helps the organization to achieve higher competitiveness and its long-term goal. Strengthen Organization Culture - helps to develop and improve the organizational health culture and effectiveness. It could help creating the learning culture within the organization by building the positive perception and feeling about the organization. This, in turn, could improve upon the quality of work and work-life and morale of the work force. Profitability combination of the above factors leads to improved profitability and more positive attitudes towards profit orientation.

2.1 Basic principles of Training and Development:

Training focuses on specific job knowledge and skill that is to be applied in the short run. Development focuses on broad knowledge and insights that may be required for adaptation to environmental demands in the future.

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2. Kim, Nancy J. "Continuing Education is No Longer an Option." Puget Sound Business Journal. (August, 15, 1997) (Cited in Encyclopedia of Business 2nd Edition) 3. Desseler, Gary, Introduction to Training and Development 3 Mar 2011 (P 6)

Difference between Training & Development

BASIS Meant for Aim Contents Time period Initiative Developers skills Needed at TRAINING Operatives To develop specific skill personality Technical and mechanical One-short affair From management- external motivation Technical and hands-on skills Operating levels DEVELOPMENT Executives To develop total Conceptual and philosophical Continuous affair From individual himself- internal motivation Interpersonal and decision-making skills Middle levels

Source: Deseller, Gary (2011)4

Though training and development are two different contexts in terms of objectives and purposes, they do have common features in the process. As we have already seen, an organization should attune itself to the challenges impinged on its competitiveness or lose. Remember (Kim 1997) stressed, If you don't actively stride against the momentum of skills deficiency, you lose ground. If your workers stand still, your firm will lose the competency race.5 Therefore, training and development is not an option. However, these could be achieved only if the training/development exercise relates to an identified need of the organization. If it fails to match with an organization need, the exercise would fail to materialize -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4. Deseller, Gary, ibid 5. Kim, Nancy, ibid

objectives of T & D. Therefore, T & D should relate to an identified need of the organization, and not on the desire or a personal need of an employee.

3.1 The training and Development Cycle

Identification

Evaluation

_Preperation

Delivery

Step One- Need Analysis Training is an expensive process not only in terms of the money spent on it but also the time and the other resources spent on the same. The most important question therefore is determining whether or not a need for training actually exists and whether the intervention will contribute to the achievement of organizational goal directly or indirectly? The answer to the above mentioned question lies in training needs analysis which is the first step in the entire process of training and development. Before training design issues are considered, a careful needs analysis is required to develop a systematic understanding of where training is needed, what needs to be taught or trained, and who will be trained. Unless such a needs assessment has been adequately performed it may be difficult to rationally justify providing training. Such a needs assessment should enable an explanation to be given on why the training activities should be done, and also show that training is, in fact, the best solution for the performance problem or development need. Training needs analysis is a systematic process of understanding training requirements. It is conducted at three stages - at the level of organization, individual and the job, each of which is called as the organizational analysis, individual analysis and job analysis. Once these analyses are over, the results are

collated to arrive upon the objectives of the training program. a. Organizational Analysis The organizational analysis is aimed at short listing the focus areas for training within the organization and the factors that may affect the same. Organizational mission, vision, goals, people inventories, processes, performance data are all studied. The study gives cues about the kind of learning environment required for the training. These needs are identified through the Strategic Plan of the Organization b. Job Analysis Job Analysis is a process to identify and determine in detail the particular job duties and requirements and the relative importance of these duties for a given job. An important concept of Job Analysis is that the analysis is conducted of the Job, not the person. The product of the analysis is a description or specifications of the job, not a description of the person. It is used to determine Training Needs The purpose of Job Analysis is to identify the training gap and the training content. c. Individual Analysis As evident from the name itself, the individual analysis is concerned with who in the organization needs the training and in which particular area. Here performance is taken out from the performance appraisal data and the same is compared with the expected level or standard of performance. Likewise, many organizations use competency ratings to rate their managers; these ratings may come from their subordinates, customers, peers, bosses etc. Information from this analysis, compared with the requirement on the job ascertained from the job analysis, will help determine the training gap at the individual level.

Step Two - Designing

When you come to design your training you need to consider how you are going to achieve the learning objectives that you have set. It may be that a practical session where the learner gets hands on experience of using an instrument or piece of equipment is most suitable. In some tasks a theory session where the concepts relating to the task can be fully understood is appropriate. When designing the training you need to consider the way in which people learn and be aware of the differences in learning styles. In general adults learn well if the training is relevant to what they will do in the workplace so use case studies and realistic exercises in your training. Methods of training that you can consider are: lectures and presentations, demonstrations, exercises, case studies, practical sessions, question and answer sessions, discussion groups and e-learning.Make sure to consider the time and other resources that you have available for the training. You may need to prepare visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations (much maligned but valuable if used well), and handouts to accompany the training. Try to keep it simple and stick to the point.

Step Three- Delivering Training

The delivery of the training is the step that some people can find daunting, particularly if presenting to groups of learners is required. Some key things to remember when delivering training are:

Speak clearly and make sure that all learners are able to understand what you are saying.

Ensure that the learners expectations are addressed early on in the training. Explain the structure of the training at the start. Review regularly to ensure that the material covered has been understood. Try to deal with questions as they arise but if you dont know the answer, dont be afraid to say you will get back to the learner later. Give useful and constructive feedback to learners. Check your timing and have a contingency plan in case some parts of the training take longer than you expected. Deliver the training consistently so that all learners receive the same training.

Step Four- Evaluation: When you have gone to the trouble of designing and delivering training then you will want to be sure that it is working. This is the purpose of training evaluation. A common way to evaluate training is to get the learners to complete a form at the end of the training where they give feedback on whether they thought it was useful, what they thought of the facilities and the trainer, etc. This information is very useful and may be used to improve the training in the future but it does not measure what was actually learned by the delegates. To do this some type of assessment is usually administered. This may be a written test, or the learner may have to analyze a sample by implementing the training that they have received. You need to decide what is most appropriate for your training. To assess long term implementation of learning is more difficult. A number of different approaches are possible but all assess how successfully the learner is completing the task in question. The opinion of the learner, colleagues and managers may be canvassed to obtain a balanced view of how well the training has worked. Review Questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. Define the terms Training and Development and explain its major roles . (3.1) and (1.1) Discuss Importance of Training and Development for the organization and the Individual. (1.1) Identify main benefits of Training and Development to an Organization. (1.2) Explain how effective training could be onsidered a long term investment to an organization.(1.1),(1.2) 5. Identify the basic elements in the training cycle and briefly explain each.(3.1)