TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT 

Another thing an HR consultant could help you with is creating and scheduling training sessions. As we all know, training is essential when an employee is newly hired. This is to teach them more about the position and learn the values and rules of the business. This is also to enhance the potential and polish the skills they have, which could really help when they finally start doing the real job.

 

But, training is not just intended for the new hires, it’s also helpful also for the tenured employees of the company. Employees who are already working in your company for years may need new skills and knowledge to perform better in your developing business. It could also be for reviewing existing processes especially if the performance of the team or individual might not be up to par.

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INTERNAL & EXTERNAL TRAINING FOR EMPLOYEES

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When undertaken properly, an effective training process enhances the skill levels of a workforce, raises morale, and increases the versatility and adaptability of employees. The four phases in the HR training process are assessment, development, delivery, and evaluation.

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What are the 4 processes of training?

The steps engaged in the training process include identifying training needs, preparation, performance tryout, and evaluation. Therefore, identification of training needs includes the improvement of actual performance to a standardized performance.

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01.  TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT:

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A tool utilized to identify what training courses or activities should be provided to employees to improve their work productivity. Focused should be placed on need of employees or participants.

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Why conduct a training needs assessment

• To determine whether training is needed;

• To determine cause of poor performance;

• To determine desired training outcomes;

• To determine scope and content of training;

• To provide a basis of measurement;

• To gain management support.

 Broad areas of assessing Training Needs

• Organizational analysis;

• Individual/person analysis;

• Job analysis/ Task analysis.

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1. Organizational Analysis:

Organizational analysis deals with the study of the entire organization including its mission, vision, goals, resources and environment. Analysis of achievement of the organizational goals, external and internal environments, and the indices of insufficiency indicate the clues to training needs of the both individual and group of employees.

2.Person Analysis

 Person analysis is concerned; first, with determining how well specific employee is carrying out the tasks which constitute his job, second, it is concerned with determining what skills must be developed? What knowledge acquired? and what attitudes engendered if she/he is to improve her/ his job performance. It may also include determining what new skills, knowledge and attitudes are required if an individual is to perform a new or different job?

Person analysis is the most difficult phase of determine training needs. Human behavior is complex. Yet this complexity becomes even more evident when an attempt is made to obtain accurate measures of a person’s skill, knowledge or attitude.

3. Job/ Task Analysis

Job/Task Analysis deals with the collection of data about the specific job or group of jobs analyzing each steps of the job by questioning about its necessity and thereby deciding the most effective way to its performance. It also explicit by discloses the performance requirement in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude both level wise and job wise. Deviation of actual level of knowledge, skills and attitude from that of the required of slandered indicates the training needs.

Method/Tools to assess the Training Needs

• Performance appraisal,

• Management request,

• Questionnaire method,

• Interview method,

• Skill test.

Three major domains of training at employee level i.e. knowledge, skills and attitude need to be checked.

Knowledge:

• Organizational goals/ objectives/ Policies/ procedures

• Work responsibilities

• Problems on the job/ possible solutions/ problems regarding organization

• Education/ professional training undergone/ experiences

• Likes and dislikes on the job.

 Skills:

• Employee’s perception regarding institutional capacity & willingness to promote system

• Perception regarding skills needed to advance in career

• Education/ Training needed to advance in career.

 Attitude: 

• Satisfaction regarding physical environment of the organization

• Satisfaction/ dissatisfaction regarding salaries, allowances etc.

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CONDUCTING OF A SIMPLE TRAINING NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Development of an organization is directly linked into the development of the employees of the organization, so, when the employer want to quickly learn the trainings needed for a group of employees who have similar jobs. In this case, the training needs assessment works best in small to mid-sized organizations. It will give you a quick assessment of the training needs of a group of employees.

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This training need assessment helps to find common training programs for a group of employees.

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Below described steps show you the ways to conduct :

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1. The facilitator gathers all employees who have the same job in a conference room with a white board or flip charts and markers.

2. Ask each employee to write down their most important training needs. Emphasize that the employees should write specific needs. Communication or team buildings are such broad training needs, as an example that you would need to do a second training needs assessment on each of these topics. How to give feedback to colleagues or how to resolve a conflict with a coworker are more specific training needs.

3. Then, ask each person to list their training needs. As they list the training needs, the facilitator captures the training needs on the white board or flip chart. Don't write down duplicates but do confirm by questioning that the training needs that on the surface appears to be a duplicate, really is an exact duplicate.

4. When all training needs have been listed, use a weighted voting process to prioritize the training needs across the group. In a weighted voting process, you use sticky dots or numbers written in magic marker (not as much fun) to vote on and prioritize the list of training needs. Assign large dot 25 points and smaller dots five points each. Distribute as many dots as you like. Tell participants to place their dots on the chart to vote on their priorities.

5. List the training needs in order of importance, with the number of points assigned as votes determining priority, as determined by the sticky dot voting process. Make sure you have notes (best taken by someone on their laptop while the process is underway) or the flip chart pages to maintain a record of the training needs assessment session.

6. Take time, or schedule another session, to brainstorm the needed outcomes or goals from the first 3-5 training sessions identified in the needs assessment process. This will help as you seek and schedule training to meet the employees' needs. You can schedule more brainstorming later, but generally find that you need to redo the needs assessment process after the first few training sessions.

Note: the number one or two needs of each employee that may not have become the priorities for the group, try to build that training opportunity into the employee's performance development.

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 02.  SETTING OF TRAINING OBJECTIVES:

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 Training objectives are statements that describe what the trainees/participants will be able to do upon completion of training or at any designated point during the training program. In other words, they represent the goals which you aid to reach once you have clearly decided where you want to go, and then it will be reasonably easy to determine how to get here.

 

Why Objectives should be clear:

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• The trainee will have a clear goal during the training.

• You, as trainer, will have a definite idea of what you want the trainee to be able to do after the lesson or training program.

• Both trainer and the trainee will have measure with which to evaluate whether or not the objectives have been achieved.

• You will have a sound basis for selecting appropriate content method & material that will help accomplish the goal.

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Considerations for writing training objectives: In writing training objectives we should fulfill SMART ?

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S          Specific (Does the objective reference a discrete achievement?) 

M         Measurable (Does the objective have a measurable outcome with an identified metric?)                                                                                              

A         Attainable (Is it possible to achieve the objective given constraints?) 

R         Relevant (Will the objective lead to the desired results, meet the desired  goals?)                                                                                                              

T          Time bound (Is there a date by which the objective will be reached?)

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Types of Objectives: Training objectives can be classified into 3 broad categories.

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1. Cognitive objectives: Cognitive objectives deal with the recognition of knowledge, understanding, and the development of intellectual abilities. Examples (to define, to describe, to interpret, to explain)

2. Effective objectives: Affective objectives pertain to feelings or emotion depicted by words as motivation, value, attitude, interest and appreciation. Examples (to respond, to value, to demonstrate willingness, to defend)

3. Psychomotor Objectives: Psychomotor objectives refer to the development of motor or manipulative skills. Example (to drive a car, to change a tire, operate a machine, to computer.

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03.  DESIGNING OF TRAINING PROGRAM:

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Training design or instructional design is the process of creating a blueprint for the development of instruction. Whether the training is to be conducted in a classroom, delivered using an electronic format or using some combination of methods, the design process sets the stage for the development of a program that produces results.

Viewpoint: One key factor in designing training is viewpoint. The designer must consider the training from the viewpoint of the learner.

Elements: The design phase of developing training includes establishing learning objectives, planning the steps to achieve those objectives, sequencing and structuring the steps to be taken including projects, lectures, videos, assignments, presentations, readings or other activities, and determining evaluation procedures.

Considerations: In designing a training program, the designer considers a variety of factors that will impact the training, including the current knowledge level of the audience, availability of various technologies, time frames, available resources and how the training may complement or conflict with existing programs.

Benefits: The benefit of good design is effective training that engages learners with various methods, flows logically for better learning, uses resources wisely and meets learning objectives.

Model: A common model used by training professionals, includes the design step. Steps in the model are training needs analysis, setting of objectives, design of training course, implementation and evaluation.

04.  IMPLEMENTATION:

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After the course content is finalized and approved by the business owners, the training is ready to be launched. This occurs during the implementation phase. Facilitators must review and understand the curriculum as well as the testing process. Books, manuals and copies of software should be obtained if necessary to be distributed during the training. Course scheduling and student enrollment are completed during this time. Any necessary travel arrangements are made for facilitators or participants during the implementation phase.

05.  EVALUATION:

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During the evaluation phase, feedback is generated by the participants of the course. This can be done by surveys, either paper based or electronic. Receiving participants' feedback is important for the development of future courses. The evaluation process will allow the instructional designers to find out if learning objectives are being met and how well the course is being received. Long term evaluations may be necessary to determine whether material was retained or if workers' behavior changed in the workplace. This type of evaluation may be done several months after the training has occurred. These types of evaluations are summative and are completed after the training. Formative evaluations are ongoing during each phase, which allow for errors to be caught early in the process.

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