Chapter 1

Introduction to Employee
Training and Development
 Cases: Training as a source of Competitive
Advantage
• Competitiveness: refers to a company’s ability to
maintain and gain market share in an industry.
• Some challenges for the companies:
- Customer service
- technology
- Rapid development of knowledge
- Globalisation of business
- Retirement of skilled workers
- Managing talent
- Downturn in the economy
Forces affecting the workplace Make training a
key ingredient for company success

• Boston Pizza International

- A casual restaurant chain recognised that most of its
managers understood Boston Pizza concept but lacked
soft skills needed to be successful managers.
- At Boston Pizza College, managers learn and practise
skills needed for successful store management.
- The reports from secret shoppers and quality
assurance visits have improved, and the chain has
increased retention in an industry in which turnover
can approach 300 percent.
Forces affecting the workplace Make training a
key ingredient for company success
• Seattle City Light
- The city’s municipally owned electric company expects
more than a quarter of its workforce to retire within next 5
years.
- The company is using training courses and interactions with
more experienced employees and mentors to help
employees learn new technologies.
- Final exams and hands-on field tests are administered after
training to ensure that new employees have acquired the
knowledge and skills needed to be successful operators.
Forces affecting the workplace Make training a
key ingredient for company success
• Starbucks
- Believes that the key to company success is its employees or
partners.
- Training is integral for successfully competing in a weak economy in
which customers spend less.
- The attitudes and abilities of the partners who greet and serve
customers are key to creating positive customer service and repeat
business.
- Every new US employee starts his job in paid training called “first
impression”.
- Store managers serve as trainers
- Training courses are frequently updated
- Managers take a 10 week retail management training course.
Forces affecting the workplace Make training a
key ingredient for company success
• US Airways Group
- Provides extensive training for flight attendants and
pilots.
- Newly hired flight attendants receive a 5 week training,
including an intro to the aviation industry, and airbus
cabin simulators include “door trainers” to practice
opening emergency exists under difficult evacuation
conditions.
- Training also includes jumping into a pool and inflating
a life raft and helping passengers into and out of raft.
Forces affecting the workplace Make training a
key ingredient for company success
- Pilot training includes practising skills in a
simulator that presents many different
scenarios, such as both engines failing, and
recreates the feeling and sounds experienced
in flight, including turbulence.
What is Training?
“a planned effort by a company to facilitate employees’
learning of job-related competencies”

(competencies include knowledge, skills or behavior critical for successful

job performance)

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
 Goals of Training:

There are two major goals of training:

1. The goal of training is for employees to master the

competencies, emphasized in training programmes and
apply them to their day-to-day activities.

2. To use training to gain a competitive advantage, a company

should view training broadly as a way to create intellectual
capital.

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
 Intellectual Capital
 Basic Skills – skills needed to perform one’s
job
 Advanced Skills – such as how to use
technology to share information with other
employees) Mc Donald’s, Tesco
 An understanding of the customer or
manufacturing system
 Self-motivated creativity
 Broader perspective of training that
most of the firms have adopted.
 High-leverage training
• is linked to strategic business goals and objectives.
• compares or benchmarks the company's training
programs against training programs in other companies.
• creates working conditions that encourage “continuous
learning”.

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
Broader perspective (cont’d.)
 Continuous learning
- requires employees to understand the entire work system,
including the relationships among their jobs, their work
units, and the company.

- employees are expected to acquire new skills and

knowledge, apply them on the job, and share this
information with other employees.

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
 Role of a manager for training:
 Managers take an active role in:
• identifying training needs.
• ensuring that employees use training in their work.
• Facilitating the sharing of knowledge, by using
informational maps.
- informational maps show where knowledge lies within the company for example,
directories that list what individuals do as well as the specialized knowledge they
posses. (this data could be fetched through JDs and JS)

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
 Recent focus of training

 providing educational opportunities for all employees.

 performance improvement as an ongoing process than a one-
time training event.
 demonstrating to executives, managers, and trainees the
benefits of training.
 training being used to help attain strategic business objectives.

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
Training & Development
Instructor: Sara Aslam
Forces Influencing Working and Learning

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
 Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)
Economic cycles
Provide an opportunity for companies to take a closer look at training and
development to identify those activities that are critical for supporting
the business strategy.

Globalization
Provide training and development opportunities for global employees.
Provide cross-cultural training to prepare employees and their families
to understand the culture and norms of the country to which they are
being relocated and assists in their return to their home country after
the assignment.
 Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)
The value of intangible assets and human capital has the following
implication:

 Focus on knowledge worker - employees who contribute to the

company not through manual labor but through what they know,
perhaps about customers or a specialized body of knowledge.
 Employee engagement - the degree to which employees are fully
involved in their work and the strength of their commitment to their
job and the company.
(Companies measure employees' engagement levels with attitude or opinion surveys)

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)

 Change - the adoption of a new idea or behavior by a company.

 Learning organization - embraces a culture of lifelong learning,
enabling all employees to continually acquire and share knowledge.

Training & Development

Instructor: Sara Aslam
Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)

Talent management
attracting, retaining, developing, and motivating highly skilled
employees and managers.
It is becoming increasingly more important because of:
 retirement of baby boomers.
 skill requirements.
 the need to develop leadership skills.
 Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)

Customer service and quality emphasis Total Quality

Management (TQM) - a companywide effort to continuously
improve the ways people, machines, and systems accomplish
work.
 Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)

New technology

• Is changing the delivery of training and makes training more realistic.

• Allows training to occur at any time and any place.
• Reduces travel costs.
• Provides greater accessibility to training and consistent delivery.
• Provides the ability to access experts and share learning with others.
 Forces Influencing Working and
Learning (cont.)

High performance models of work systems

Work teams - involve employees with various
skills who interact to assemble a product or provide
a service.
Cross training - training employees in a wide
range of skills so they can fill any of the roles
needed to be performed on the team