Training & Development

Training and development is one of the key HR functions. Most organizations look at training and development as an integral part of the human resource development activity.
The major difference between training and development therefore is that while training focuses often on the current employee needs or competency gaps, development concerns itself with preparing people for future assignments and responsibilities.

Importance of T&D

The following are the two biggest factors that contribute to the increased need to training and development in organizations:

1. Change: The word change encapsulates almost everything. It is one of the biggest factors that contribute to the need of training and development. There is in fact a direct relationship between the two. Change leads to the need for training and development and training and development leads to individual and organizational change, and the cycle goes on and on. More specifically it is the technology that is driving the need; changing the way how businesses function, compete and deliver.
2. Development: It is again one the strong reasons for training and development becoming all the more important. Money is not the sole motivator at work and this is especially very true for the 21st century. People who work with organisations seek more than just employment out of their work; they look at holistic development of self. Spirituality and self awareness for example are gaining momentum world over.
3. Motivation: It is very important to learn new things for new challenges and it always motivate an employee. Time to time training program are organized to motivate employees.

Training
Training may be described as an endeavour aimed to improve or develop additional competency or skills in an employee on the job one currently holds in order to increase the performance or productivity.
Technically training involves change in attitude, skills or knowledge of a person with the resultant improvement in the behaviour. For training to be effective it has to be a planned activity conducted after a thorough need analysis and target at certain competencies, most important it is to be conducted in a learning atmosphere.

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 organisational goal directly or indirectly?

Types of Training program

A good training is a combination of both the training methods. Some of the the experiential training methods are discussed below:

1. On the Job Training (OJT): This training method is used to impart new skills to the employees when they are working on a certain position. Job rotation and apprenticeship training are some ways in which new skills can e developed within the employees.
2. Equipment handling: Every employee in production line required the safely and effective use of equipments. It is a practice based assesment.
3. Equipment Simulators: These are training methods where in real life situations / conditions are created to enable the employee to experience and prepare for the world of work. This type of training is often used to develop physical, behavioural and team building training.
4. Safety & hazards training: It is also important to train for safety rules and using safety equipments with related hazard at production unit.
5. Role Playing: A role play is used essentially to change attitudes and help people see things from the other person’s eyes. It may also be used to practice certain job, behavioural skills or for analysing interpersonal problems. This type of training is more close to reality. The only drawback is that the employees may show hesitation role playing situations or may not even take it seriously.
6. Sensitivity Training: Sensitivity training is imparted to essentially increase the self awareness of the employees. It is aimed to help the employees or trainees see how others see them. Such type of training is used to increase the self worth of the trainees and also for changing interpersonal behaviours. More importantly it can wipe out negativity from the organisation; in fact many organisations in the west use this training method for top management.
7. Case Study: Case study analysis is perhaps the most frequently used tool for developing interpersonal, decision making and analytical skills within the trainees. It is a very good and cheap tool for developing problem solving skills within the individuals. The basic drawback is non availability of updated case studies. Generally one or two cases are discussed every year and there is no updating subsequently.

Special Training Programs

·  Diversity Awareness Trainings - handling workforce diversity is one of the emerging challenges for organisations in the 21st century. They face claims on from coloured workers, immigrants, older people, various ethnic groups, gays and lesbians for harassment at the work place. Also there is a need for addressing the values of various employee groups, for example, the older generation lives by a different set of values and does the younger lot. This leads to a conflict which can only be resolved by providing appropriate training intervention. Diversity awareness training is necessary to increase the competitiveness and the general competency of the organisation. Many firms have accepted diversity as a way of surviving and many that have not often face the charge of discrimination.

·  Sexual Harassment Training - these trainings are mostly conducted in the developed nations and in multinational corporations that function in various geographical locations. These trainings are not very common in organisations in the developing world. Almost all types of organisations, immaterial of what business they are into, what industry they operate in and what kind of people they have hired receive sexual harassment complaints at the workplace. In developing economies they go unnoticed and unreported but in developed economies where the workforce is empowered severely sexual harassment at the workplace is reported, resulting in penal actions and thus the sexual harassment training. Many organisation shave policies on sexual harassment but often they are not communicated!

·  Creativity Training - more and more organisations want innovation and creativity as a way of being and expression which ultimately happens only when its people are creative. Many organisations use experiential learning, brainstorming sessions to compel the employees think ‘out of the box’ and thus bring out the latent creativity in them. There are trainings conducted on the art of creative writing from them to write and express themselves beautifully. Organisations like Frito lay and 3M use creativity training to push their employees harder and make them entrepreneurial. These programs have reported to be successful; Frito Lay for example reported huge profits because of the creativity training!

Training Evaluation Model of Kirkpatrik

1. Reaction of the Trainee - thoughts and feelings of the participants about the training
2. Learning - the increase in knowledge or understanding as a result of the training
3. Behavior - extent of change in behavior, attitude or capability
4. Results - the effect on the bottom line of the company as a result of the training.

Development

Lots of time training is confused with development, both are different in certain respects yet components of the same system. Development implies opportunities created to help employees grow. It is more of long term or futuristic in nature as opposed to training, which focus on the current job. It also is not limited to the job avenues in the current organisation but may focus on other development aspects also.