Essay on Training of Employees

Read this essay to learn about the Training of Employees. After reading this essay you will learn about:- 1. Meaning of Training 2. Need for Training 3. Importance 4. Methods 5. Process.

Essay Contents:

1. Essay on the Meaning of Training Employees
2. Essay on the Need for Training Employees
3. Essay on the Importance of Training Employees
4. Essay on the Methods of Training Employees
5. Essay on the Process of Training Employees

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Essay # 1. Meaning of Training:

Training improves skills of a person on the current job. It is given to managers and non-managers; new and old employees. It increases human and conceptual skills of managers and technical skills of non-managers. It is necessary as new employees learn their jobs and old employees update their knowledge about changes in job requirement, technology and structure.

Training is “a planned effort to facilitate employee learning of job-related behaviours in order to improve employee performance.” Training needs identify the attitude, knowledge, skills and behaviour required by the employee to do his job efficiently.

People perform a variety of jobs in the organisations. There is constant movement in vertical (level) and horizontal (department) directions in the organisation. Handling a variety of jobs requires training of people. Training should be planned Planned training is a deliberate intervention designed to bring about the necessary learning to improve performance on the job.

Planned training includes the following:

1. Training objectives:

Why training is to be imparted and what the employees should do after getting the training.

2. Planning the training programme:

It determines the process of training.

3. Methods of training:

These methods should relate to training objectives and can be provided on-the-job or off-the-job.

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Essay # 2. Need for Training:

Training makes the employees aware of the technicalities of the job and imparts the knowledge and skills to perform them. This is done by carrying out a need analysis. Need analysis is “assessment of an organisation’s training needs that is developed by considering overall organisational requirements, tasks associated with jobs for which training is needed, and the degree to which individuals are able to perform those tasks effectively.” It identifies the job requirements, training needs and standards against which performance is measured.

Training is needed for the following reasons:

1. It improves knowledge and skills of a person to perform the job efficiently.

2. It helps employees settle in the organisation. It helps them know the company’s structure, culture, rules, policies etc. so that they can blend their personality with that of the company.

3. It updates the knowledge and skills of employees. Technology is changing at a fast rate and organisations are automating their systems to keep pace with changing technology. Training helps to learn new skills to work with new technology. Learning of computers, for example, became necessary when computers replaced typewriters.

4. It promotes employees to higher posts. Training prepares people to hold higher positions by pre-identifying the jobs and increasing their skills to perform them when the opportunity arises. It, thus, increases their skill and prepares them to assume jobs of higher level.

5. It identifies the needs of individuals to understand the job requirements and learn the skills to perform them.

6. It matches job description (skills of a job) with job specification (skills of employees to perform the job) by making employees fit for the jobs.

7. It reduces labour turnover and absenteeism by keeping people satisfied on the job.

8. It increases employees’ knowledge about different functional areas (production, marketing, finance and personnel) and promotes their movement from one job to the other.

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Essay # 3. Importance of Training:

Training is not an option. It is a necessity. With increase in technological advancements, business complexities and human relations, it becomes necessary for organisations to train their employees in order to maintain the market share and cope with the changing environment. Training benefits the organisation and contributes to empowerment of employees.

The following points explain the importance of training:

1. Increase in skills:

Training increases skills of employees to perform their jobs. This helps to increase organisational output both in terms of quantity and quality. Training, thus, allows people to have grip over the requirements of the job. This leads to job enrichment and reduces waste at work.

2. Motivation:

Trained employees are competent to perform the work. This brings them rewards, job satisfaction and motivation to work hard. Training is a non-financial incentive that brings financial gains to business organisations. Motivation promotes recognition, identification with jobs, willingness to cooperate, enthusiasm, and rewards following the acquisition and use of skills.

3. Reduced turnover and absenteeism:

As training promotes job satisfaction and morale to work hard, employees improve their performance on the job. This reduces labour turnover and absenteeism. This also saves money on recruitment of new staff and their re-training.

4. Less supervision:

Trained employees know their jobs. They maintain discipline and control their activities. This reduces the need for supervision. Less supervision saves time, efforts, money and promotes performance. Trained employees enjoy the freedom of work.

This relieves managers of taking remedial or corrective efforts, thus, focusing more on important matters. A manager can, thus, increase his span of management resulting in less number of levels and considerable savings in cost to the organisation.

5. Concentration on important (strategic) matters:

By training employees, managers need not provide them continuous guidance. They concentrate on more important organisational matters resulting in growth and diversification of the enterprise.

6. Optimum use of facilities:

Trained employees know how to use scarce organisational resources. Optimum utilisation of resources results in low cost and high profits for the company. Value related to quality and customer services are disseminated to employees hoping that they will generate commitment to work.

People understand mission statements and corporate objectives and relate their skills and other resources with the organisational values. Besides resulting in cost saving for the organisation, this promotes skills to use the resources judiciously by promoting their analytical, problem-solving and presentation skills.

7. Career advancement:

Training helps employees know their jobs better and equips them for promotions to higher positions resulting in career advancement.

8. Human relations:

Not only jobs, people also know each other better which promotes interpersonal and inter-group relations amongst them. This enhances the quality of human relations at work. Trained people understand the social and psychological nature of human beings besides understanding the nature of work.

Conflicts are resolved through mutual understanding rather than judiciary measures. Satisfied, understanding and cooperating employees is a positive sign of organisational strength.

9. Organisational growth:

Training helps in growth of individuals and also the organisation. Organisations with trained employees can anticipate and adapt to changes in the environment. They can compete in the market and grow their operations.

Training promotes organisational viability in terms of its ability to survive in the changing environment and organisational flexibility in terms of coping with change with its employees’ commitment to practice the changed management techniques. Training creates attitudes to equip people to cope with change. It builds confidence of people to participate in the change programme.

It helps people to understand:

1. Why change is necessary, and

2. How they will benefit from it.

Training creates the greatest organisational strength as people are equipped to manage emergencies and convert non-productive assets into productive quality and quantity parameters. It helps in replacing old methods of working with new methods, thus, helping the organisation to sustain its competitiveness in the market.

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Essay # 4. Methods of Training Employees:

From pre-employment orientation to pre-retirement stage, training prepares people to become more skilled at work and assume positions of higher importance. Training can be provided through a variety of methods.

Methods of training can be broadly classified into two categories:

I. On-the-job training methods and

II. Off-the-job training methods.

1. On-the-job training methods:

On-the-job training is learning while working. Employees are trained while performing the jobs. Training may be provided on a specific job or different jobs through job rotation. People learn how to perform the job over a period of time.

Special training programmes are not organised. Superiors train the subordinates. Though these methods save the cost of training, this slows the speed of work. Employees may also damage the equipment’s or disrupt the normal work activities. These methods are suitable where work is not complex and number of workers is not too large.

Some of the common on-the-job training methods are as follows:

1. Job Rotation:

Employees are rotated on different jobs. This exposes them to variety of tasks and enhances their knowledge to perform the jobs. It develops employees’ capabilities and creativity, innovativeness and exchange of ideas to perform different jobs, People move around different jobs in a systematic basis to broaden their experience and learning about interdependence of jobs. Job rotation may be in the same functional area like movement from marketing to sales or advertising to sales promotion or different functional areas like movement from production to marketing or human resource departments.

Merits of job rotation:

a. It promotes links between different departments or sections within the same department.

b. People know the intricacies of different jobs and how they are related to each other.

c. It develops flexibility to perform different jobs. Organisations do not suffer on account of shortage of manpower as people are equipped to perform different jobs.

Limitations of job rotation:

a. People spend limited time on a job and, thus, do not acquire the complete range of skills to perform that job.

b. Errors may arise because of transfer of people to different jobs. It promotes generalists rather than specialists.

2. Apprenticeship:

Apprentice means learner. Under this method of training, the employee who is an apprentice works under skilled guidance of his trainer or co-workers. The trainer provides instructions while he is performing the job. The apprentice learns by observing his senior. Trainer spends major time on the job or the assignment given to him for which he may be paid some stipend also.

The trainer provides instructions throughout the period of training which helps in building trained people who become technically proficient to perform those jobs independently. Carpenters, plumbers, computer operators usually adopt this method of training.

3. Internship:

Employees learn job skills while working on-the-job. In addition, they attend classroom lectures to enhance their job skills.

4. Brainstorming:

People with different backgrounds work on a common problem. This enhances their ability to solve the problem by using their intellectual and conceptual skills. People participate in decision-making processes by forming committees, task forces, groups etc. These groups deal with problems of different nature in different functional areas and, thus, learn from experience on the jobs.

5. Delegation:

Managers delegate work to subordinates along with authority. Allowing subordinates to make decisions increases their knowledge, leadership and decision-making skills to manage the tasks alone.

2. Off-the-job training methods:

Training is given outside the work place. Emphasis is more on learning than doing. Employees do not learn while working but learn in conditions more or less similar to actual work place. Training is provided by experts who arrange special training programmes at a place other than the work place. Employees do not disturb the work schedule during the training period.

They concentrate on training and pick the job skills faster when they actually perform the jobs. However, this method is costly as experts, programmes and situations (simulations) have to be arranged. This method is, therefore, suitable when job requirements are complex and number of employees to be trained is large.

Some of the common off-the-job training methods are as follows:

1. Vestibule Training:

Working conditions similar to actual conditions are created outside the work place and employees are trained in those conditions. They learn job skills in similar job conditions without disturbing work on-the-job. Training is provided in training centers both theoretically and practically.

Lectures are given on theoretical principles about the job followed by practical exposure to work in workshops based on theoretical learning. This method of training is suitable where large number of employees have to be trained.

Merits:

a. Training does not affect actual work conditions.

b. Training is provided by experts so that people learn intricacies of the job.

c. Managers are relieved of training the workers. They concentrate on important organisational matters.

Limitations:

a. Actual work conditions are different from conditions created for training. Employees may not feel confident with actual jobs.

b. It is expensive as special training facilities are provided by organisations.

2. Lectures/Demonstrations:

Without working in same or similar work conditions, training is provided through lectures in class rooms. Demonstration through tapes and computers are the common forms of training under this method. The trainer displays the working mechanism and the series of operations to complete the task.

This method is particularly effective in explaining mechanical operations. Lectures and coaching are combined with demonstration to facilitate interaction between the trainer and the trainee.

In coaching, the trainer gives personal instructions and guidance to the trainees along with demonstration. Doubts are cleared, corrections are made and feedback can be immediately obtained. In lectures, knowledge is imparted on theoretical concepts and theories.

It aims at one-way communication for transmitting knowledge to trainees relevant to their disciplines. In a broader version, lectures can be converted into conferences which provides two-way or open communication where group members can freely interact with each other. Ideas are presented by trainers followed by discussions on how to translate those ideas into actions.

Merits:

a. Learning is directly related to the job.

b. Display makes training effective by relating it to actual operations.

Limitations:

a. The trainer is usually an experienced staff member who works actually with the operations. He may not be able to emphasize with the trainee. Performing the actual operations and explaining them may not be easy for the trainer.

b. Demonstration is only theoretical through display. Learning may be different from actual work operations.

3. Simulation:

Artificial situations similar to actual work conditions are created and employees learn skills of the job in these conditions. Training to airline pilots and computer programmers is provided through simulation models. It is like a mock-set up of the real situation where training is provided in a deliberately created learning environment which replicates the organisational situations.

Though simulated situation cannot be exactly similar to real-life situation, it is attempted to present the important characteristics in order to make it as close to the real situation as possible. Trainees perceive the simulated situation similar to real situation and perform the assigned roles as if they are actually working in the formally designed organisation structure. The trainer does not interfere while the trainee is performing but provides feedback on how he can improve his performance after the exercise.

Thus, the trainees learn to work independently with time-to-time evaluation of their performance by the trainers. This helps them overcome their weaknesses and perform near perfection when they are actually transferred to the formal official positions.

This form of training is provided through the following methods:

(a) Case studies:

A case describes problem to be solved. The problem may relate to the whole organisation or a part of it. It may cover all or some aspects of the part under study. A case similar to actual working conditions or organisational problems is prepared and presented to trainees. The trainer presents the facts of the case to trainees.

Trainees analyse the case, use their judgment and initiative and arrive at alternative solutions. Through a careful comparison of costs and benefits of each case, they arrive at the best solution to the problem. This method develops trainees to deal with actual organisational problems.

Though case represents a real-life situation, it generally does not give complete information about the problem to the reader. Complete details will make the case very long to read and analyse. A case represents a real life situation and in real life, managers do not have complete information for making business decisions.

Complete information is not available, it may not be available at the right time and obtaining complete information is costly too. Managers make satisfying decisions on the basis of whatever information they can gather on the basis of availability and value judgment. Some of the information they collect may not even be useful to the decision-making situation.

Similarly, a case provides enough information to understand business situations but not complete information. Collecting information cannot be possible and, therefore, a case provides the reader real-life business situations to deal with. It helps in understanding the real business situations in which managers work and make satisfying and practical decisions rather than optimum decisions.

A case can be structured or unstructured. A structured case has questions that follow to determine the direction in which case will be discussed. An unstructured case does not have questions for discussion with respect to issues related to the case. The reader analyses the problem and focuses on the relevant issues. This is how they learn to deal with real life business problems.

Objectives of Case Study:

Learning through case study has the following objectives:

1. It helps to know the problems that managers face at the work place.

2. It helps the trainees to use managerial concepts and theories into management practice.

3. It enables them to diagnose and analyse the problem, frame alternatives and formulate working action plans.

4. It converts theory (classroom instructions) into practice (realism).

5. It trains people to analyse the business situations and find solutions rather than depend upon outside help.

6. It exposes trainees to a vast variety of business problems which would otherwise take them years to experience personally.

7. It promotes learning by doing. It promotes managerial skills of trainees by not providing ready answers to business problems. There are no pre-defined solutions to problems. Each situation is different from the other and requires subjective thinking, initiative and value judgment to arrive at novel solutions.

8. It aims to develop answers and not seek answers. The right answer is diagnosed rather than accepted as a ready solution. This develops conceptual ability of the trainees.

(b) Role playing:

Trainees are assigned roles to play similar to those they have to perform at actual work place. They may, for example, be made to act as managers, salesmen etc. in classroom conditions to know how they have to perform their roles actually. Role playing helps in analysing work situations where trainee gets insight about his behaviour in actual work conditions and how it can affect the behaviour of others.

Imaginary business situations are created which depict real life situations (as in movies and theatres) and the trainees play those roles as if they are performing in real business situations. People play roles in groups, understand inter-dependence of roles and analyse how decisions have to be made if similar situations occur in reality.

Reactions to situations have to be spontaneous as the role playing proceeds because business situations cannot be predicted. Dealing with the customer, for example, depends upon the nature of customer and his buying behaviour. This cannot be predicted and planned. Reactions have to be made right at the time when sales persons deal with the customer.

However, role playing equips them to face such situations while they are being trained through simulation models. Trainees can project themselves into different roles through imagination. A critical evaluation is made of the role playing session at the end so that trainees understand their weaknesses and try to overcome them in order to deal with real life situations.

Merits:

(a) Trainees perceive the jobs from different angles and equip themselves to perform them in reality.

(b) It helps in promoting human relations as conflicting situations are largely resolved at the training stage.

(c) It helps to understand business situations as trainees get feedback on their performance much before they enter the real business situations.

This is a suitable method of training at operative levels as higher level managers deal with conceptual problems more than technical problems which require imagination, creativity and intuitiveness more than objective judgment of thinking and planning.

(c) Management games:

For higher levels, management games or business games are used to develop analytical skills and group processes. Management games are organised to acquire different types of management skills like analytical skills, communication skills, team building skills, planning skills etc.

Teams are made which represent different companies and strategies have to be designed to operate in the competitive environment. Each team plans to make win-win strategies in the same environment with the same restraining and driving forces. Decisions are made to deal with problem-solving situations.

These decisions are analysed by the trainers and announced to the team members with comments on how to improve these decisions. This feedback helps in making better decisions in the light of changing competitive environment and strengthen the company’s policies to face competitors’ strategies.

4. Sensitivity Training:

It involves making training groups where members freely interact with each other and express their viewpoints on job conditions. No formal interaction takes place amongst them. Trainer observes this interaction and interrupts only to maintain order and discipline.

This training relates to small unstructured group of people where people learn to become sensitive to others’ feelings. This promotes positive group behaviour. People learn to emotionally relate with each other, perceive the consequences of their decisions on others and vice-versa, relate personal values with business situations and develop behavioural consistency in decision­ making.

Members in sensitivity training can belong to different organisations, different units of the same organisation or same unit of the organisation. Thus, they may be total strangers or acquaintances who gradually learn to behaviourally adjust with each other. This promotes team work and positively contributes to organisational goals. Sensitivity training, thus, aims to develop interpersonal relationships where members are resources to one another in dealing with various policy and decision-making issues.

Sensitivity training should be properly handled because it deals with human behaviour and interaction. It should not be seen as a blow to self-confidence and psychological set back of trainees. Rather than upsetting and frustrating people, it should result in supportive behaviour, open communication, understanding of self and others.

5. Training Institutes:

Companies send the employees to training institutes to learn job skills and apply them to actual job conditions. These institutes have professionally qualified trainers to train people in respective functional areas. Off-the-job training methods should be planned to produce good results. The training course should relate to conditions prevalent in the organisational environment.

It should take care of the following:

1. The objectives of the course should be clear.

2. The trainers should be clear of the culture and practices of the organisations to which the trainees belong.

3. Training practices should take adequate care of the safety issues while trainees are working in simulated conditions.

4. The trainer/trainee ratio should be optimum. Less trainees can increase the cost of training and large number of trainees can be ineffective in imparting the training.

5. Trainees should belong to the same status. If members come from the same organisation but belong to different status, superiors may not be comfortable in front of subordinates if they have not performed well. Subordinates may also show compliance on submissiveness when they are attending sessions with superior.

On-the-job and off-the-job training methods.

The following table highlights the main points of difference between on-the-job and off-the- job training methods:

On-the-job training methods:

1. Training is provided at the work place.

2. Training is provided by superiors to subordinates.

3. It is less costly.

4. It is less time consuming.

5. It is used where jobs are simple.

6. It disturbs work schedules.

7. It is suitable for training less number of employees.

Off-the-job training methods:

1. Training is provided outside the work place.

2. Training is provided by experts within or outside the organisation.

3. It is a costly method of training.

4. It is more time consuming.

5. It is used where jobs are complex.

6. It does not disturb work schedules.

7. It is suitable where number of employees to be trained is more.

Methods for Determining the Training Needs:

The following methods are used to identify training needs of the employees:

1. Performance appraisal:

Each employee’s work is compared with the planned performance and if there is deviation in the actual performance, it indicates the need for training.

2. Analysis of job requirements:

Job analysis is done and job description (skills required to perform a job) and job specifications (skills possessed by employees to perform the job) are identified. If job specifications do not match job description, it indicates the need for training.

3. Analysis of the organisation:

Working of the organisation, various functional areas, authority-responsibility relationships, span of control, interaction between superiors and subordinates, rate of labour turnover etc. are analysed and if there is deficiency in any of these areas, training programmes are conducted to reduce these gaps.

4. Analysis of manpower:

Rather than following the directions, employees offer suggestions for improving their performance. Self-analysis and self-assessment help to detect and rectify the problems in carrying out their work and also substantiates the need for training programmes.

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Essay # 5. Process of Training:

The training programme consists of the following steps:

1. Identify the training needs:

The trainer has to first understand himself, his skills, style and the training needs. He should know why it is important to impart training to employees. He can do this by studying their behaviour and discussing their needs for development. Training is a continuous process that focuses on self-development. In the rapidly changing environment, employees cannot rely on their knowledge and skill acquired in their initial qualification.

The starting point of identifying the training needs is the assessment of organisation’s present and future training needs. The corporate plan is analysed in terms of the existing pool of employees’ knowledge and skills required to implement the plan. The broad training programme is broken into specific needs of each employee to have knowledge of the product, methods to convince the clients, maintain lasting relationships with them etc.

Every employee differs with respect to his need for training. A fresh appointee needs more training than an experienced one. Training programme cannot be standardised. It has to be customized to the needs of employees. This helps the trainer focus on the purpose and timing of training and adopt a suitable training method.

Managers identify training needs of employees in the following ways:

(a) They judge their performance in terms of volume of business, expenses, number of contacts with clients etc. and identify the training required to increase their skills.

(b) They hold interviews with employees and identify their training needs. They analyse their job and try to remove difficulties they face in the job by conducting training programmes.

2. Design the training programme:

The trainer understands the trainee’s job and designs the training programme. Managers identify the essential and desirable job skills that may affect employees’ performance and results. They analyse the job description, prepare a job profile and establish a skill set and behaviour set of attributes required for their role. They also identify the priorities of the basic training plan and the training needs.

3. Conduct the training programme and assess the trainee’s skills, styles and attributes:

The manager assesses the trainees’ skills, style, attributes, situation and their learning style to conduct the training programme. He holds interviews and discussions with employees and conducts one-to-one counselling to know and understand them, He explains technical details of the job and involves them in completing the training programme.

4. Break down each skill to train:

The manager breaks down each skill of the employee and identifies the standards of each part. He does this through one-to-one counselling with each employee. He listens to them, understands them and records facts in writing. He collects the relevant reference material (manuals, standards, company documents etc.), prepares the skill assessment sheet and involves them in preparing various documents.

5. Training follow-up:

After the training programme is put to practice, manager follows up the programme. He measures, records and supports the training programme and makes adjustments in the training plan, if found appropriate. If everything goes well, he continues with the training programme. During the course of follow up, he continuously counsels and understands the employees.

The organisation needs to know if the training programme has achieved the intended results. Tangible results (production or sales) can be measured more easily than intangible results (change in culture or value system). However, at the end of the training session, the trainees are asked to fill up a questionnaire specifying which parts of the training were most useful and relevant to their training needs.

The responses can help the trainer to improve the further training programmes. To know whether learning in training sessions has been transferred to the work place or not, the follow-up questionnaire can be sent to the respondents after a lapse of time asking about the extent to which learning acquired during training was used in practice.

Hindrances in transfer of learning may not necessarily be the result of ineffective training programmes. It could be due to inadequate infrastructure or resistance to implementation by other employees. Tests, projects and grading schemes can also be used to evaluate the learning programme. Some organisations appoint behavioural specialists to know whether or not change in behaviour has occurred as a result of training.

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