Training and Development

Training and development are job-oriented education in order to achieve organizations success. A formal definition of T&D is it is 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. The need for T&D is determined by the employees performance deficiency. Training refers to the process of imparting specific skills. Education is confined to theoretical learning in classrooms. Development is less skill oriented but stress on knowledge. Knowledge about business environment, management principles and techniques, human relations, specific industry analysis and the like is useful for better management of a company. The Training Process Organizational objectives & Strategies

Assessment of Training Needs

Establishment of Training Goals

Designing Training Programme

Implementation of Training Programme

Evaluation of Training Results Need Assessment Methods

Group or organizational analysis 1. Personnel or skill inventories 2. Efficiency indices 3. Exit interview 4. Quality circle 5. Customer survey or satisfaction data 6. Consideration of current and projected changes Individual analysis 1. Performance appraisal 2. Interviews 3. Questionnaires 4. Attitude survey 5. Training progress 6. Rating scales Operational Analysis It attempts to identify the content training - what an employee must do in order to perform competently. Training and Development Objectives Once training needs are assessed T & D goals must be established. Without clearly setgoals it is not possible to design a T & D programme and after it has been implemented there will be no way of measuring its effectiveness. Goals must be tangible, verifiable and measurable. Designing T & D Programme Who are the trainees? Who are the trainers? What methods & techniques?

What should be the level of training?

What principles of learning?

Where to conduct the programme?

Methods and Techniques of Training 1. On the Job Training

The training is received while the real job is performed. This method is used for training both managerial and non-managerial workers. Some of the widely used methods are given below. Demonstration is the technique of telling or showing trainee how to do a job and then allowing them to get on with it. Coaching is a person-to-person technique designed to develop individual skills, knowledge and attitudes. Mentoring occurs when an older, more experienced person helps a younger employee grow an advanced by providing advices, support and encouragement. Job Rotation is the shifting an employee from job to job or department to department with the aim of broadening his or her experience. Assignments are specific tasks or investigations in which trainees do at the request of their trainer or manager. Projects are broader studies or tasks in which trainees are asked to complete, often only very generalized guidelines from their trainer or manager.

2. Off the Job Training Training is given away from the real job. This method too can be used for training both managerial and non-managerial workers. Some of the techniques are given below. Lecture is a talk with little or no participation except a question and answer session at the end. It is used to transfer information to an audience with controlled content and training. Discussion is a talk with an active participation of the audience. Case study is a description of an event r a set of circumstances that is analyzed by trainees in order to diagnose the causes of problems and work out how to solve those. Role Playing: in which participants act out a situation by assuming the roles of the characters involved. Simulation is a training technique at which trainees learn in an artificially created work environment. This can be used with case studies and roleplaying to obtain the maximum amount of realism in classroom learning. Group exercises: in which the trainees examine the problems and develop solutions to them as a group. Distance Learning enables trainees to learn, often in their own time and at home, from instructional material prepared and presented elsewhere. E- Learning is a form of distance learning whereby the learner and the trainer connect to each other through internet facility. What should be the level of learning?

There are three basic levels at which these inputs can be taught. At the lowest level, the employee or potential employee must acquire fundamental knowledge. The goal of the next level is skills development or acquiring the ability to perform in a particular skill area. The highest level aims at operational efficiency. This involves obtaining additional experience and improving skills that have already been developed. How effectively they are learned depends on several principles of learning. Conduct of Training The decision comes down to the following choices: 1. At the job itself. 2. On site but not the job 3. Off the site. Implementation of the Training Programme Implementation is beset with certain problems. Most managers are action oriented and frequently say they are too busy to engage in training efforts. Availably of trainers Scheduling training around the present work. Programme implementation involves action on the following lines. Deciding the location and organizing training and other facilities. Scheduling the training programme Conducting the programme. Monitoring the progress of trainees. Evaluation of the programme Evaluation helps determine the results of the training and development programme. Criteria for evaluation 1. 2. 3. 4. Measures of reactions Learning Behavior changes Organizational results

Techniques of evaluation 1. Use experimental and control groups. 4

2. Longitudinal or time series analysis 3. Provide questionnaires to the trainees and conduct interviews with trainees to obtain their opinions about the programme. Finally it is important to assess the costs and benefits associated with the programme. This is a difficult task, but it is useful in convincing the management about the usefulness of training. How to make training effective? 1. Ensure that the management commits itself to allocate major resources and adequate time to training. This is what high-performing organizations do. 2. Ensure that training contributes to competitive strategies of the firm. 3. Ensure that a comprehensive and systematic approach to training exists, and training and retraining are done at all levels on a continuous and ongoing basis. 4. Make learning one of the fundamental values of the company. 5. Ensure that there is proper linkage among organizational, operational and individual training needs. 6. Create a system to evaluate the effectiveness of training.