The importance of Training
and Development for an organization
Definition of Training and
development
Learning and development helps an individual to gain
knowledge, skills, experience and confidence to work more efficiently and
effectively in an organization and advance their carrier developments
(Armstrong and Taylor,2014). Training and development is a systematical process
which helps to gain on the job training and off the job training which mainly
focus of an individual to improve work ethics (Swanson
& Holton, 2001). The process of learning is a difficult task. Change is an
essential tool for learning.
To adopt for a change & to be successful and to move forward as an
organization Learning and development is essential (Wilson, 2005).Training is a tool to educate the employees in
particular skills or helping them identify problems in their tasks abilities
and development is an effort to provide employees with the capacities the
company will require in future (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin & Cardy, 2001). Training is a process through which an individual gains knowledge and
skills which in turn the employer
achieves development of the employees that drives the workforce to reach
expected goals (Sahu R K., 2005).
Training
and development are learning curves that display the employees how to achieve
their day to day and prospective profession productively(Kleiman, 2000). Therefore
based on the above training and development is an integral part of any
organization to move forward and it is an essential tool for the continuity of
an organization which helps to enhance the knowledge , skills, attitude and
confidence level for them to succeed in their present position in an
organization and develop them for future jobs as well.
Process of Training and Development
Dessler’s 5
step training & development process
1. Needs Analysis
2. Instructional design
3. Validation
4. Implementation
5. Evaluation and follow up
The Five steps of
Training Gary Dessler39 is of the opinion that training consists of the five
steps and the steps is illustrated as follows:
1. Need Analysis
Identify the specific job needs and skills and analyse to ensure
whether the specific programme suit the organization.
Develop a research methodology to measure the increase performance.
2. Instructional Design
Identify the activities, cases and exercise to be implemented in
an organization for training and development.
Ensure all the necessary materials / resources the activities
which are needed for specific training and development methods.
Handle each activity and programme and identify who / when/ where/
which are needed for difficult employees.
3. Validation
Prior to implementation of the programme carry out a research on
past similar training and development programme & validate the results for
the top management.
4. Implementation
With relevant resources and material implement the programme at
the correct time and fix the training date on a convenient time for the
employees as well as the organization.
5. Evaluation and Follow
up
Evaluation process should be pre/post evaluation to see whether the
implemented training programme has brought the necessary results which the
management as expected to increase the output of the employee and rise their
motivational levels to the next stage.
Application of Dessler’s 5 step
training process
I’m
working for one of the leading banks in Sri Lanka which is also improving so
many processes which aligns with digitalization. There are 251 branches along
with 4348 Staff working for the bank. An induction ceremony is held in the bank
as the preliminary step towards introducing the staff to the bank during the
recruitment process. This also becomes the initial procedure of absorbing the
new employees to the bank and providing insights about the culture.
Training
programs enhances skills to work with new technology, product awareness,
knowledge about the foreign competitors and markets and ensure that the
employees have the basic skills to work in a branch with the new procedures and
technological innovations.
An
abstract of different training programmes and developments provided by the bank
are given below.
- The recruitment process ensures that the
selected workers are with accurate and expected competencies and also suits the
culture of the bank so that they are motivated to achieve the goals and
objectives of the bank.
- The bank conducts training sessions for
the employees time to time in the area of work that they are performing. (A
minimum of 6 training programmes a year). For an example an employee who is
assigned to a branch may have to go through the work area which is related to operations. Therefore training
sessions such as clearing, operational guidelines, retaining customer
satisfaction, and cash operations will be conducted time to time to make sure
that the employees have gained the expected level of knowledge to perform
within the branch.
- Moreover competency exams which are
aligned with the training programmes are conducted time to time to make sure
that the employees are updated with the new regulations of the bank. Also this
ensues that the current procedures adhered by the employees are acceptable.
- The bank also conducts so many outbound
training programmes for the betterment of the employees.
- Training sessions are not merely based
on the internal procedures and regulations of the bank, but also training
sessions are carries out by the doctors and other professors with regard to
‘Managing mental stress’ and ‘How to balance the work life and the personal
life’ etc. Also so many leadership programmes are conducted time to time in
batches of not more than 50 to enhance the personality and leadership qualities
of the employees.
- To ensure that the employees has gained
knowledge from the training sessions, Human Resource department conducts
informal training sessions as well. These are mostly face to face interactions
with peers, knowledge sharing through emails and web technologies such as
wikis, social networks etc. This make sure that the knowledge sharing and
employees working with collaboration with each other delivering the desired
service to the customers.
- The bank has also created an intranet
within the employees which consists of so many advance features for them to
learn. Some of the features include:
Knowledge
hub-
All the information with related to the products of the bank, and the
guidelines are posted
FAQ
session- All the questions relevant to products and operations
are posted along with the answers by the employees.
Online
quizzers- Which is a mandatory thing for the employees to
take up quizzes time to time, where they will be rated according to the marks
earned
E
learning model- Also known as the talent space which
is accessible by the employees on the go. Apart from the bank’s operations,
general knowledge and all the recent advancements in the world with all the
important facts to expand the knowledge are freely available.
(Source : Annual Report
2017)
Suggestions
on improving the training and development procedures on selected
organization
By
analyzing the above facts, the bank’s staff should be equally updated with
technology to support the banks overall vision and that requires the correct
individuals with the appropriate skill set to serve the customers by communicating
the technological brand. Further, training sessions or awareness programmes
which are inline with the career progressions are limited within the bank. Therefore,
characteristics like being futuristic and succession planning have a negative
impact which is not good for the employees as well as the bank. There are two
main objectives that are met when moulding the employees in these training
sessions. They are keep the employees connected and aligned with the future of
the organization and guaranteeing that the organization has a set of skilled
employees who will provide the entity with a robust succession planning.
(Olenski,2015).
Following
are few strategies that will develop the employees of the bank.
- Conducting performance appraisals time
to time – Not only carrying out training and. development sessions the bank has
to monitor whether the employees have gained the necessary skills to perform
the task effectively. So that appraisals should be carried out by the immediate
supervisors.
- Assigning tasks for the employees
outside the job function – This will definitely help the supervisors to
understand how well the obstacles, challenges and other activities will be
managed by the employees. This provides a great exposure for them to learn in
handling work in the competitive world.
- Trainings to eliminate/reduce the
employees for resistance to change – While giving on the job training and other
planned training sessions, the employees can be assigned with new tasks which
they have not done before or an alternative procedure to do the tasks in an
effective manner. This will help them to step out from the paradigm culture of
traditional banking.
- Create more interactive sessions and
workshops – Since banks are based on service industry working efficiently, effectively
as teams are more important to maintain the level of customer satisfaction. The
financial industry is always competing for the best rates for deposits and
lending which is called “the interest rate war” which all banks fight for. But
currently banks mainly focus on the service and the value additions that they
provide for the customer at their convenience.
- Give the recognition to the ‘stars’ at
work – This fact will definitely motivate the employees and will help to strive
towards the goals of the bank. Without providing only the training sessions and
developing employees, it is a must to recognize the ‘stars’ at work by
providing them with the necessary rewards.
Benefits and the significance of Training and Development.
The main
purpose of Training and development is to achieve long term and short term goals
in which you can build up a happy workforce throughout the generations of an
organization Cole, G.A., (2002). Most
successful company’s in the world mainly concentrates of Training and
development of their own staff which in return will have motivational,
confident, competent, knowledgeable and happy work force (Khan, Khan and Khan,
2011). The success
of the organization through the continuous development and improving technical
aspects is highly depends on the skills of the employees, which in turn
requires continuous process of training and development (Beardwell, Holden and
Claydon, 2004). Better quality of work is a continuous
and sustainability growth of an organization which results in high performance
of the organization and creates more demands in the market (Alipour &
Shahnavaz, 2009).
Courtney (2015)
conducted a study and found out that minimum supervision and low retention rate
contributes towards the success of an organization as when retention rate is
low, the organization can considerably reduce its cost. A study conducted by
Siddika (2017), it was observed that trained employees will become more
efficient and productive and handle the resources very carefully. It would help
the organization to develop and enhance the quality of the employees by
providing sufficient training and development. The effective training provides, employees to adapt quickly in to new ways
and technologies or to new situations (Kumar and Siddika, 2017). The
effective training sessions to employees indirectly benefits the head of
departments as when the employees are happy and motivated they work towards the
targets and goal of the organization
which benefits the head of departments to achieve their overall department
targets on time (Bashir &Jehanzeb, 2016).
Conclusion
Each
function of the bank plays a vital role in maintaining the effectiveness and
efficiency. It is a true fact that the bank has to invest heavily in the
technological innovations and high tech processes in order to compete in the
market. But also it is important for banks to keep the employees motivated and
updated in order to achieve the intended goals.
In conclusion, in any organization to thrive training and
development is very significant (Nischithaa & Narasimha Rao, 2014). Through
Training and development new information is gathered every day which in turn
will help the organization to adopt for specific change which occurs in the environment
(Jelena,2007).Worker performances and accomplishes are always directly
proportional to successful Training and development (Hlatywayo & Mpofu,
2015). For a sustainability Training and development programme to be adopted in
an organization the certain factors should be taken into account such as Cost,
Nature of Training, Strategies to be adopted, Should have a positive impact on
worker performance to increase efficiency and effectiveness (Long et al. 2016).
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